To get the price down so low, non-Smart features on the TCL Roku TV are as basic as it gets. No other smart-TV system has as robust, useful, and simple a link to a companion website you can search for, add, and delete apps there as well as on the TV itself. After the link succeeds, the TV updates with the apps you've chosen on the website. There, on your PC, tablet, or phone browser screen, you're presented with a list of apps (Roku calls them 'channels') installed by default, and you have the option to immediately remove them or add more. After signing on to Wi-Fi, it asks you to link the TV to your Roku account at.

Thoughtful touches are everywhere, starting with initial setup. It uses plain language and thorough explanations to make using the TV a piece of cake. The Roku TV has the best menu system of any TV I've ever used. Normally I'd bemoan the loss (I'm a direct-access kinda guy), but Roku TV's user interface was so superb, I barely missed those extra buttons. The tiny remote loses many of the keys found on other TV controllers, including the numeric keypad, RGBY keys, and direct-access keys for most functions, including Channel +/-, Guide, Menu, Info, Input/Source, Wide/Aspect, MTS, CC, and so on.

And we're looking forward to Roku's interface appearing in even better TVs. Yes, TCL's Roku TV is excellent as a secondary set, or if you simply don't care enough about picture quality differences to spend the extra on a Vizio or a better-performing TV (to which you could always connect a Roku box). As of press time, the next-cheapest smart TV we know about, Vizio's E series, is more expensive than TCL's Roku TV, and doesn't come anywhere near its app and interface prowess.īut the Vizio has a superior picture, and that's what matters most. Second, and almost as important, however, is the price. It's the one TV to which you won't want to connect a Roku box. The whole experience is well thought out, simple, and tightly integrated, a marked contrast to the often half-baked, sprawling messes that have passed for 'smart TV' all these years. So now that Roku has also built its smarts into an actual TV, what makes it any different? First and foremost, it's every bit as good as an actual Roku box, with the same unparalleled selection of apps, an interface that puts most other smart TVs to shame, and even the same simple remote.

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