You will definitely not miss the TCL 43EP660 TV on the website or in a brick-and-mortar store. Minimal frames, metal legs and especially the screen sitting on a design tube make the whole really different.
Two new product lines of TVs, EP64 and EP66, were introduced by TCL in June, saying that they work with 4K resolution, use the company's new artificial intelligence platform and are equipped with the latest operating system Android TV 9.0. The EP660 is then available in 109cm (43ʺ), 127cm (50″), 140cm (55″), 152cm (60″), 165cm (65″) and 191cm (75ʺ) prices from 9990 CZK above. However, the equipment including only standard Wi-Fi "n" at 2,4 GHz, but also Bluetooth, which is often missing in significantly more expensive devices, is also noteworthy. And of course also the built-in Google Chromecast for connection with a mobile phone or tablet, which has been part of the platform for some time Android TV. However, HbbTV 2.0 is also undoubtedly worth paying attention to, even if there is not a single application in our country that uses it, in a few years it will be different. But this TV is ready for the future.
More manageable than before
For TCL TVs - and now we're talking in general - after installation, don't forget to check two things: firstly, whether the option to turn on the TV faster is disabled, and whether by chance the wake-up via network (LAN) option, whatever it's called, is also enabled. Both choices can add one, or rather two, watts to your consumption in standby mode, and that's not enough. Otherwise, the TCL 43EP660 is remarkable already in the commissioning phase in that you can select several stations in the list of tuned channels and move them to a new position at once. Sorting is thus significantly faster, which is useful today not only for satellite, but also for terrestrial broadcasting, where you can easily tune in to over a hundred stations.
The specialty of the Chinese company TCL is apparently also the remote control. It is unusually narrow, but it fits perfectly in the hand! The buttons around the arrow keys with OK in the middle are in two height levels and it is easy to get used to it. Below them you will find a large Guide calling up the EPG program menu, above them is the entry to the settings menu, and since we are at Androidu, there are two and a little different. You can find the latter in the Home menu, which is - just like u Android TV 8 – editable, so you can move and delete application icons, and even entire horizontal menus can be deleted. This significant improvement of the environment (you still can't scroll here in the same way as in the settings menu) was brought by version 8.0 and luckily it was preserved in the nine. Even here, however, there is a lack of help that would remind the owner of the possibility of modifications.
So far a little weaker in applications, the implementation of HbbTV 2.0 is excellent
The EPG program menu, here called Guide, is without a picture, but it starts without interrupting the sound, something we don't often see these days. What is unusual, however, is that swiping to a new station switches the tuner at the same time and, if necessary, also downloads the program menu itself, which, on the other hand, is excellent.
In the case of HbbTV, be prepared that it will most likely not be allowed after installation. However, it was not difficult to put it into operation and nothing needs to be installed. Just enter the settings menu and start it. Its thorough screening on the most watched TV channels showed no problems. Advertising on FTV Prima started even after the interruption in the middle of the program, the quality was changing at ČT and there were no problems even with the recently announced brand new iVysílní. Even Nova, which is gradually improving its content in HbbTV, had no problem with the TV and everything ran like clockwork. Backward application compatibility is understandably the most important thing for HbbTV 2.0.
Runnable and especially newly playable applications from the Google Store are probably the biggest draw of the operating system Android TV. Here, however, the compatibility is not yet what it could and should be. Among other things, it was not possible to find the Czech Television or Prima Play applications on the Google Store, which apparently have the so-called big screen, i.e. output to the large TV screen, prohibited. However, Voyo, which used to work in the vast majority of cases, was also strangely missing. From other and more well-known applications, HBO GO, Lepší.TV, Seznam.cz TV, Pohádky and also VLC Player. It also got along with the Synology server on the home network, including external subtitles in the video, which the built-in TCL player cannot handle. And they also worked in full Czech.
What is? With an excellent price/performance combination
But the picture is also worth paying attention to, which was simply excellent with solid surface backlighting and surprisingly good - considering the price - resampling from lower resolutions, not only from the USB interface, but also from the upcoming broadcast in DVB-T2. ČT stations broadcast on DVB-T2 in HD were presented really excellently, and the better quality input was understandably noticeable on the TV. Even here, however, it seemed to go above and beyond the class average price, and I wonder how the same or a similar device of the EP660 series in the case of a diagonal of 140 or perhaps 165 cm. Especially in the first case, it would show more clearly what is actually on the TV.
The sound is provided by the speakers radiating into the base and the amplifier, in this case with a rather high power of 2x 10 W. Subjectively speaking, the latter seemed even more powerful in terms of terrestrial reception, but the sound did not deviate too much from the average of the ten, fifteen thousand category.
During the test, the TV behaved reliably and there was a good alignment of the hardware with the firmware, so the operation was stable, without restarts or any outages. Now and then it turned out that the firmware was not yet fully updated, but it was nothing major. Sometimes, about a minute after turning on the TV, it was not possible to start the EPG, or the device did not respond to the instruction, and sometimes, for example, a gradual change of the newly set image mode was noticeable. But these are just little things that will surely settle down. What is far more important is the high-quality image presentation and, above all, the excellent ratio between the price and what you get for it. The TCL 43EP660 is not the cheapest in its category, but in my opinion it offers a lot and can withstand comparison with even more expensive devices.
Reviews
PRO: excellent price, price/performance ratio, solid HDR10, elegant design, Android TV 9, excellent remote control with great layout, HbbTV 2.0, stable operation and good compatibility of hardware with firmware
AGAINST: only one USB, sometimes slower operation, missing help for editing the Home menu
We thank our reader Jan Požár Jr. for writing the article.
