BUDGET BEAUTIES

Yes, you can get a decent telly without selling your car

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TCL 55C645

It’s a fine line between ‘bargain’ and ‘false economy’ sometimes. So it’s nice to be able to say that the TCL 55C645 is much more the former than the latter.

If you want to get a big 4K television with some smart TV functionality, extensive HDR compatibility and the ability to exploit some (but not all) of your current-gen games console’s clever features, and don’t want to pay a fortune, this could be just the ticket. In fact, it’s hard to know how you might better spend this modest amount of money.

Specs like this – including an Android smart TV interface, QLED panel tech with full-array backlighting, three HDMI inputs with one at 2.1 specification, Dolby Vision and HDR10+, and the ability to deal with Dolby Atmos and DTS-HD – usually cost a fair bit more than TCL is asking here. Add in voice control and the value on offer is obvious.

Give it some 4K content to deal with and the 55C645 continues to look like a bit of a bargain. Its pictures are colourful and detailed, and it has excellent control over on-screen motion. Black toness are deep and varied by the standards of LCD screens at any price, and the backlighting is smooth. Edge definition is good, picture noise is minimal, and skin-tones are convincing and naturalistic.

It’s even a pretty decent upscaler of sub-4K stuff. The less said about the sound of its 20W audio system the better, to be fair – but you buy a TV much more to look at than to listen to, and even a very modest spend on a soundbar will bring the audio into line with the picture quality. And that quality is, if it wasn’t obvious by now, way more accomplished than it really ought to be.