TCL has unveiled a new range of TVs aimed at people looking for content-rich smart TVs that go easy on both the wallet and the amount of real estate they occupy in your home.
The TCL SF560K Series will be available in three compact screen sizes: The 32-inch 32SF560-UK, the 40-inch 40SF560-UK, and the 43-inch 43SF560-UK. As their names suggest, these sets are designed specifically for the U.K. market – a status they back up by supporting not just Amazon’s Fire TV smart system, but also the relatively new Freely streaming platform through which viewers can live stream most of the channels (certainly any channels that are part of the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 or Channel 5 family) previously only available via terrestrial broadcasts.
The Fire TV smart system provides the same expansive suite of streaming services that we’ve become familiar with over the years from other Fire TV devices such as Amazon Fire Sticks and set top boxes, including Netflix, Apple TV, Disney+, YouTube, Paramount+, and Prime Video. Plus their striking affordability hasn’t stopped them from also supporting Voice Remote With Alexa functionality, where you can control the TV and input content search terms simply by talking into the mic built into the provided remote control handset.
Costing just £219 for the 32SF560-UK, £249 for the 40SF560-UK and £299 for the 43SF560-UK, it’s clear that something must have had to give on the specifications front to make such affordable prices possible. That ‘something’ turns out to be resolution, with all three screens, even the biggest 43-inch model, providing a full HD resolution rather than the native 4K pixel count we’ve become accustomed to finding on most modern TVs.
High Dynamic Range is a go
While the resolution might not be cutting edge, though, the SF560 range does offer support for high dynamic range video in the HDR10 format – the light range and color-expanding nature of which is arguably more important than resolution at the 43-inch and smaller screen size end of the market.
In fact, all three sets are claimed by TCL to be capable of dynamically optimising incoming HDR images to take the fullest advantage of their specific screen capabilities. TCL even suggests in its information on the SF560-UK range that they’re capable of making non-HDR sources look like HDR – though it’s not entirely clear if this is a genuine SDR to HDR conversion, or just the result of the amount of brightness and color vibrancy the sets can retain while showing SDR images.
Backing up the claims of a relatively expansive color performance is the SF560-UK’s use of Quantum Dot Pro technology, which typically delivers brighter, more dynamic and more natural color results than the basic LED color filters we might have expected to be getting at the SF560K’s price level.
Backing up the SF560K models’ HDR pictures and Fire TV/Freely smarts, finally, is an integrated sound system that’s capable of playing the Dolby Audio, DTS-HD and even DTS Virtual:X sound formats.
All three sizes of the TCL SF560K are available now from a range of major U.K. retailers.
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