Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

See updates at the end! The only low ratings so far are from people that don't understand the purpose of a product review and decided to give 1 star because they had an issue with the seller they bought it from. Those people should not be allowed to internet. Now, ranting aside, I bought this TV after many price and feature comparisons and I could not be any happier. A few reasons I chose this TV: 3 HDMI inputs. Most of the other 50 inch TVs were not only higher priced, but had only 2 HDMI inputs. I needed 3 so I could connected DISH, Chromecast, and PS3. Decent built-in speakers. I don't remember the exact wattage, but I think this has 2- 8 watt speakers. Which, of course can't compare to a sound system, but isn't bad for built-in speakers. The other TVs I researched had 6 or 7 watts. Manufacture date. This might seem kind of trivial, but it's important. This TV model was released this year, which means they had time to improve any bugs, issues, or complaints from the model that was released last year. My specific set shows a manufactured on date of April 2014. 1080p and 120hz and 50 freakin' inches! Those 3 features, at a price below $500. Initial thoughts upon arrival: At first I thought they might have sent me a refurbished TV... I'm still not convinced that isn't the case, but I don't want to deal with the hassle of returning such a huge item, plus I bought the extra warranty from square trade which adds an additional 3 years to the already present 1 year manufacturer's warranty. I say it was refurbished (or returned) because of small clues like the glass base having fingerprints all over it and the batteries for the remote being lose in the ziplock bag that had the remote and instruction manual. The fingerprints are easily cleaned as they were on a plastic covering on the glass base. The batteries work. Used or not the TV works wonderfully. The TV itself looks really nice. It's extremely thin and the bezel on the bottom isn't annoying like it is on most TVs I've owned. The glass base is a nice touch of class as well. The picture looks great and I love the dynamic backlight feature that automatically raises and lowers the backlight of the TV, depending on what's on the screen, to conserve power. This TV has a VERY bright backlight. I actually turned mine all the way down to 0. I'll update if there are any issues that make me want to lower the rating, but for now I fully recommend this TV if you're in the market. 7/15 - I was watching Sherlock on Netflix and all of a sudden I noticed a black line running from top to bottom about 5 inches from the left of the TV... I thought maybe it was an issue with my Chromecast, so I switched to a different input and it was still there. It's a TV issues. I've contacted customer support. If they have a terrible response I will lower the rating as necessary, but as it stands this is still a good TV. 7/18 - TCL customer service emailed me back, but they weren't very helpful. I guess they didn't fully understand my issue. I replied to their reply and they wrote back a few hours later, which is awesome turnaround. They advised that since it had only been like two weeks since I got the TV, I should return it to Amazon. I was tempted to return it and just get a refund, but I opted for a replacement instead. The TV is beautifully designed and I don't want to get rid of it completely. I lowered my rating to 4 stars, because there is really no excuse for a two week old TV to have dead pixels. Hopefully it was just bad luck and not a sign of the durability of this TV. I'll update if more issues arise. 7/22/14 - I received my replacement from Amazon... now my suspicions about the 1st set being used have been confirmed! In this one, the batteries were not loose, they were packaged in plastic. Also, the big giveaway was that when I turned the TV on for the first time it had me go through a setup process where I chose my timezone and tv signal type. So far I haven't noticed any dead pixels with this one, and I've definitely been looking harder than I did with the 1st TV. 5/18/16 - Two years later and the power supply has gone out on the TV... a bit disappointing, but we think it might've been due to a lightning strike nearby, even though it's hooked to a surge protector and none of the other electronics were affected. Contacted TCL support via their website and got a response within a few hours with the number for their parts department. I haven't had a chance to call yet, but I'll update once I go through that process. 6/7/16 - I called their parts number and was very, very confused as the friendly lady that answered simply said "front desk". I thought I had dialed the wrong number and even asked her if it was the correct one for TCL parts. She was friendly and helpful enough, but it was just weird not knowing where or whom I had called. She said the power supply would cost me $65 shipped. I passed and decided to look for the part elsewhere. I found it for sale around $20. I installed it an the TV still doesn't work, I'm not sure if the people that tested the TV even bothered actually looking at it. Now I'm trying the actual physical buttons since they were only like $10. More updates once they arrive and are installed.