TCL 55DP628 Review, A Budget-Friendly 4K TV with Solid Performance

With the dizzying variety of television technology choices, settling on a TV that balances affordability with performance is challenging. For budget-minded 4K enthusiasts, the TCL 55DP628 is a leading contender for your home viewing pleasure. The 55DP628 is covered in this review. We’ll cover the pros and cons, strengths and weaknesses of TV utilising this feature.

A Closer Look at the TCL 55DP628: A Budget-Friendly 4K TV

The TCL 55DP628 is an affordable 55-inch 4K Ultra HD television with a thin bezel and a generous ass experience while minimising distractions. It’s a wallet-friendly 4K television. But what does that mean, exactly? Here’s an overview of its major features.

• Display: 55-inch 4K Ultra HD (3840 x 2160) LED display
• HDR Support: HDR10
• Audio: Dolby Audio
• Smart TV Platform: Roku TV
• Connectivity: 3 HDMI ports, 2 USB ports, 1 Ethernet port, Wi-Fi
• Other Features: Voice remote, screen mirroring, mobile app control

In aiming to persuasively sell us a 4K experience at an affordable price, the TCL 55DP628 delivers decent picture quality without any major glitches or flaws. What does emerge from its calculations appears to be a reasonably good overall value proposition predicated on three key selling points: a reasonable price point for a 4K TV; support for the increasingly popular (if not nearly universal) HDR10 format; and the Roku TV platform, a user-friendly, no-frills smart TV platform that offers a broad selection of streaming apps behind a clean, attractive, and easy-to-navigate interface.

Picture Quality: A Solid 4K Experience

Thanks to a 4K resolution, the picture on the TCL 55DP628 is sharp and detailed and it also does true justice to 4K content. The set’s support for the HDR10 standard helps to improve dynamic range, with deeper blacks, whiter whites, and the vivid colours that HDR10 is known for. Unless you’re viewing the TV in a very bright space or looking at especially bright objects on screen, its peak brightness probably isn’t enough to provide HDR10’s full benefits.

But that’s not a deal-breaker here since it’s more than enough for most home theatre environments. Colour accuracy is generally pretty good and, where it is on, the picture tends towards natural hues, with a decent color gamut. If you’re sensitive to this, though, you’ll probably notice there is a slight tendency towards oversaturation in ‘showy’ scenes with highly saturated colours. Black levels are pretty good, too, giving you decent contrast in your viewing experience.

In very dark scenes, we also saw just a touch of blooming around bright objects, which can be a distracting artifact, depending on the scene. In conclusion, the TCL 55DP628 creates a pretty darn good picture that should far exceed most people’s expectations for its modest price: For most, it strikes a good balance in its nice degree of detail texture, accurate color, and decent film-like sharpness, making it ideal for watching movies, TV shows, and playing video games. If you’s opiniated about picture quality and whose mot now or pay me later,’ you might want

Sound Performance: A Balanced Audio Experience

Aided by the presence of Dolby Audio, it’s a perfectly fine setup for when you want to settle in for a casual bit of viewing. Dialogue is generally very clear and easily understandable. The sound is also passable at the default settings, but again falls far short of being suitably generous with drama and dynamics compared even to higher-end TVs selling for twice this price. If you’re a serious movie buff or gamer looking for a real-world movie theatre experience, you should absolutely invest in an external soundbar or home theatre system. But if you’re happy to have the TCL 55DP628 sound for casual viewing, the performance is fine.

Smart TV Features: A User-Friendly Roku TV Experience

The Roku TV operating system built into the TCL 55DP628 is one of the best smart-TV ecosystems for ease of use and general navigation. With the Roku TV, you can quickly jump to your favorite streaming apps, like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Hulu and dozens more. The Roku TV is also easy to get around, with a straightforward remote and a great app store.

The Roku TV platform offers a multitude of features, including:

• Voice Search: Use your voice to search for content across various streaming apps.
• Screen Mirroring: Share content from your smartphone or tablet directly on the TV screen.
• Mobile App Control: Control the TV and browse content using the Roku mobile app.
• Free Live TV Channels: Access free live TV channels, including news, sports, and entertainment.
• Personalised recommendations: Roku TV platforms offer personalised content recommendations based on your viewing history.
• Roku Channel StoreIf you are scrolling up and down, my guess is that you are choosing an app from the list provided. In this case, the list is a long reference to a streaming apps catalogue commonly known as Roku Channel Store that offers multiple apps, such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Disney+ and more, which can be connected to your TV.
• Easy setup and search: Roku TV makes it easy to set up with its intuitive interface 2.

The Roku TV operating system is fast and fluid, and menus are a breeze to navigate. Apps load quickly, and once you’ve launched your app of choice, you’ll have access to most of the video streaming content ever created. Roku TV is chockful of streaming apps.

Design and Aesthetics: A Modern and Sleek Design

Or is it a thing of beauty? The set on the right – the 55DP628 – is the latest mid-range model from TCL. TCL sent over both sets to show off the 55DP628, which of course is the one I reviewed, but in so doing, it gave me something to compare it with.

That older set is a sleek, modern design with few distractions from the screen. It’s wonderfully inscrutable; the bezel is so small that it complements any décor. (In a totally unsolicited PSA: that’s called the ‘frame’ around the screen.) Viewing is emphasised, minimalism is embraced, and the overall aesthetic is sky-cool and open, assuming that you don’t look too closely at the rest of the back of the set, the feet, or its vertebrae.

Its stand is similarly sleek, and provides a steady base for the TV while also looking great. The stand is appropriately modern in design, and nicely complements the TV’s slim profile. At 26 lb, it’s not exactly heavy. This TV should have no problem looking good on a wall, and, should the need ever arise, it’s easier to move from room-to-room than most TVs. Overall, the curvy, slim design make it look great in a living room.

Connectivity: A Comprehensive Suite of Options

Connectivity is another area in which the TCL 55DP628 shines. This model comes equipped with three HDMI ports, two USB ports, one Ethernet port, and built-in Wi-Fi, giving the user freedom to connect almost any device they may need. This includes external content sources such as Blu-ray players, game consoles, and streaming sticks, among countless other possibilities. And, because the USB ports support media playback too, you can still play those media files from an external storage device right from the TV.

The second thing that the USB ports allow for is smart TV functionality. Like other internet-ready TVs, the 55DP628 can provide you with access to various online services – for instance, you could catch up on TV shows and movies through services such as Netflix or BBC iPlayer. The 55DP628 also features Wi-Fi and Ethernet connectivity, meaning that you can stream all this content without a problem. 55DP628’s selection of connectivity options provides several ways to keep yourself entertained.

TCL 55DP628: Pros and Cons

Here's a summary of the key advantages and disadvantages of the TCL 55DP628:

Pros

• Affordable price for a 4K TV, offering compelling value for its price point.
• 4K resolution at 60 frames per second with HDR; very good picture quality.
• Intuitive and user-friendly Roku TV operating system, providing a seamless smart TV experience.
• a proliferation of streaming apps and content; virtually all conceivable forms of entertainment are now available in a galactic expansion of media options.
• Sleek and modern design, complementing any home décor.
• Comprehensive connectivity options, ensuring compatibility with various devices.
• Lightweight, and easy to mount, the device is easy to interface with any home entertainment appliance.

Cons

• Sound clarity doesn’t always hold up, either, especially for more immersive audio experiences, where an external sound system will be your best option to get the full effect.
• Starker razor brightness levels can be washed out in extremely well-lit rooms, and interfere with how the picture is seen with certain light sources.
• Other users, for instance, might occasionally think they are looking at an image that is somewhat oversaturated when viewing content with highly saturated colours.
• The TV's speakers might lack the punch and richness found in higher-end models.

Final Verdict: A Solid Choice for Budget-Conscious Consumers

Courtesy TCL, Amazon As a low-budget 4K Television, TCL 55DP628 continues to be a stand out. Picture quality, for its price point, is excellent. The user experience, via its Roku-based smart TV interface, is one of the simplest and friendliest you’ll find. At under a grand (USD$949.99 or around £580 or AU$1,000 at Amazon) it’s a shockingly good powerhouse of a TV – essentially a mirror image of what Hisense was doing last year with its H10E, another budget 4K beauty. TCL 55DP628 is perhaps the best example on the market of sub-grand excellence in picture quality and low-cost smart TV fun.

Yes, the sound quality is not fantastic, and this is not the frontrunner for anyone looking to squeeze the life out of their music collection (and it is a music player, with USB-input support for media player, but that is secondary to having an attractive dot-interpolated ‘frame’. That said, it is a ‘smart’ TV, and has an intuitive interface, loaded with bells, whistles, apps, and internet access, in addition to its strong suit, picture quality, all for a price that only money trees can support. For people who are looking for something more reliable, and who use their TVs more for watching shows and movies, the TCL 55DP628 is a budget-priced set that looks good in a showroom – and at home.

Alternatives to the TCL 55DP628: Exploring Other Options

If you’re after the lowest-priced TVs with 4K capability, these are some worth considering besides the TV we’ve reviewed:

• Hisense 55H8G: This TV is very close in price, offers a Quantum Dot display for even more accurate colour, and may provide a much more accurate and colourful picture.
• Samsung UN55AU8000F: The flagship entry-level smart 4K TV from Samsung combines good picture quality with full smart TV features – usually a decent user interface and a busy app selection.
• Vizio M55Q7-H1: Vizio’s M-Series TVs are wallet-friendly sets that deliver incredible picture for the price, often striking a nice balance of features and value.

When comparing these alternatives, compare them to your needs and priorities. Some TVs offer a better picture quality, some have a better smart TV system or connectivity options or the audio might be better in one. Researching reviews, comparing specs, and putting it all in the perspective of your wallet will help you make an informed decision.

Ultimately, the best television for you will be the TV that matches the features you want, at a price you can afford. The TCL 55DP628 is a good TV at a good price, which is why I awarded it the Editors’ Choice prize. If you want great sound quality, extreme brightness, or the very finest picture processing, you’ll want to look somewhere else. Either way, congratulations on purchasing your next TV.