Select Target Stores: 43" TCL 43S45 4K UHD HDR Smart Roku TV Expired

I got this in the October sale (plus 10% off coupon via circle and red card. Total was $115) and have been using it as my primary monitor on my PC since. Some things I learned:

0. If you choose shipping it will almost certainly come broken and you'll have to exchange in store. It might not be easy to do an in store exchange. Check the old thread.

1. This is a TCL 4-Series, according to TCL support.

It is probably rebadged and numbered for promotional pricing and to avoid price matches with the much more available models

2. This is a BGR pixel order. If using it on a PC you will need to set up Cleartype settings or a registry hack to ensure windows is rendering BGR instead of RGB

3. The software on the TV forces some nasty sharpness settings on all inputs other than Movie, so coupled with the above you'll get terrible text artifacts unless you use the movie input. You can configure it fully to your liking.

4. To get 4k 60Hz "HDR" on my PC (30-series gpu) I had to set the TV's hdmi mode to 2.0 explicitly in the menus. All the color calibration changes when you switch to HDR so don't bother to calibrate any input other than Movie when in HDMI 1.4 (non HDR) or use Dark* for PC (the * is HDR) --confirm sharpness is at 20/100 in picture settings. Turn on game mode in that screen, too.

5. I have my backlight waaaay down on every monitor I use, but if the point of HDR is some crazy peak brightness, there's no way this TV is meeting the HDR rating.

6. The TV has a 200mm by 200mm vesa mounting pattern. It's very light at 18lbs or so, but it puts a lot of strain on cheaper desk arm with the required adapter plate so it may droop depending on your arm and if you intend to move it a lot. I upgraded to an AmazonBasics lift engine (rebadged Ergotron) and it holds it perfectly and moves around without sagging.

7. The reflection/glare on this set is pretty bad. If you work in a dark room it's fine. In a well lit room with light behind the monitor, it's fine. With light in front of the TV it's more like a mirror.

8. The 43" at 4k size is amazing for code and for gaming. I feel more productive at both

9. 43" monitors are rough for Zoom/Teams/Meet: your camera is way up high and your eyeline will be down away from the camera. I make my meeting window small and place it up near the camera so I'm at least "looking at" co-workers

10. The picture "quality" could obviously be better. But I'm really happy with it especially for the price.

I think the angles are actually quite good for a VA panel. Contrast is really amazing compared to IPS. Some backlight effects on the edges. I'm not a competitive gamer, so I can't really speak to high refresh or latency.

I bought this as an experiment: I wanted to experiment with the feasibility of a 43" 4k monitor in terms of size on my desk, and I really expected I would return it. I went in to this expecting the quality and experience of using a super cheap TV to be unacceptable, and instead I have been very happy with it. I managed to get used to the annoying parts and haven't switched back to my ultra-wide. I also haven't been motivated to jump on a better TV deal to replace it yet, but I will some day.

I would personally recommend it for PC use if you set your expectations appropriately, but it's very subjective. The settings alone should hopefully make this post useful to someone.

For the first time ever I didn't buy anything on Black Friday, I saw no deal that was a must have, anyone else think Black Friday was a bust?

This was $130 a few weeks ago as reference but still not bad of a price I've been enjoying it in the kitchen.

$40 off $40 target coupon made it $89 which was what I bought it for