I'm Clearly Out of Touch - Roku Plus Series TV Review

during roku's rise I was using Windows Media Center Edition like some kind of modern caveman so I was shocked to find out just how popular their Smart TV operating system is then more recently I was shocked again to find out that their first party Roku TVs have moved out of the super budget segment and are now available at more premium prices how could Roku compete with giants like LG or Samsung how about like this the 55 r6a5r is 4K it supports every HDR format which is apparently illegal in Korea it hits 500 in its peak brightness with full array local dimming has a quantum dot layer for improved color performance and it runs the Linux based Roku OS which I've got to say has become pretty attractive given the Alternatives I mean even if there are some downsides here that ain't half bad especially at that kind of price it's not the cheapest that award still goes to single backlight conventional LCD TVs which can be had for as little as 250 to 300 bucks at this size and it's not going to have the best picture quality on the market especially if you compare to an OLED or even a mini LED backlit TV that could have upwards of thousands of local dimming zones but those options start at around six hundred dollars for this size and resolution and go well beyond that which leaves a nice little gap for qled one that Roku has absolutely nailed at 500 bucks or rather 400 since it's already on sale that's the Roku plus Series in a nutshell qled is basically a Juiced up LED backlit screen that gets super colorful but without sacrificing color accuracy it does this by putting a layer of quantum dots between the backlight and the LCD panel quantum dot layers aren't limited to just LED backlit displays but in fact we've seen the technology used in mini LED displays and more recently even in OLED displays but this is the most affordable way to access it if you want to learn more we've got a whole video explaining Quantum dots and touring the factory that makes them but suffice to say the results are really impressive now let's turn it on and hear this message from our sponsor the ridge are you looking for a stylish and practical wallet the ridge has got you covered its minimalist design allows you to carry your essential cards in cash without the bulk so check it out at the link below and use code Linus to save 10 off your purchase and get free shipping in movie mode with local dimming disabled more on that later we measured an average Delta e of just 1.5 wow that is way below the three to six that is generally accepted as being accurate to the average person like really wow guys it took some time but you officially no longer have to pay a ton of money to get a TV that is color accurate right out of the box and it's not just accurate the Roku covers 96 of the rec 709 color space that's the standard for high definition content and eighty percent of Rec 2020 which is the standard for HDR or high dynamic range again that is really good I know 80 sounds like a b but for context here are some of the high-end TVs that we've tested over the last couple of years can we add prices to the overlay here okay now you can see why my mind is so blown right now and it gets even better support for HDR is one thing but displaying color accurate HDR that is entirely another and not only does Roku support every relevant HDR standard HDR 10 10 plus Dolby vision and hlg it manages to hang with the big dogs in a way that I couldn't possibly have anticipated in dark mode the most color accurate mode we measured an average Delta e of 14 if you include luminance headers that number again doesn't sound all that great Until you realize that TVs that cost at least three times as much are again not that much better thanks to its VA panel the 55r6a5r also manages a pretty solid contrast ratio of nearly seven thousand to one don't get me wrong we're nowhere close to OLED territory but it was still a pleasing surprise during our testing considering that most VA panels reach anywhere from three to six thousand to one and especially considering how bright this TV gets if you've been buying TVs in this price range or lower for the past 10 even 20 years you've basically been stuck at around 300 nits that is not great for sunlit rooms where glare can completely ruin that day off that you planned to spend in Goblin mode 500 nits those days are over I mean don't get me wrong they can be more over if you want to blow even more money but this is over the threshold where we feel comfortable saying go ahead pull back those curtains let the sunlight in or don't at least you can say you have the option now but there is an elephant in the room full array local dimming or fald is an incredible technology that allows portions of your screen to dim or brighten to enhance contrast in the scene but not all full arrays are created equal with OLED every pixel is its own dimming Zone giving you effectively millions of them a high-end mini LED will typically have at least a thousand zones but regular LED even if it has Quantum dots caps out in the low hundreds with most doing even fewer and this is one of those most with a total of just 48 zones it isn't the end of the world and it's not too noticeable watching most kinds of content but the fewer the zones the more likely you are to see haloing or glowing around certain bright elements so white subtitles or a news logo can end up looking pretty distracting and fald also requires decent processing in order to make sure that those lights are dimming and brightening on time unfortunately we noticed a weird delay on this model where once it was enabled it seemed like it was lagging behind the actual image it does enhance contrast but we lean toward recommending that you just leave it off for a more color accurate less distracting experience you're not giving up that much though I can't say the same about the gaming experience keeping with kind of the theme today it's not bad for a 60hz display we're talking pixel response times under seven milliseconds on average an input lag at around 12 milliseconds with game mode enabled but with current gen consoles supporting 120 hertz you simply won't be experiencing the best that they have to offer even variable refresh rate which can help smooth out performance during choppy sections is not supported here in terms of i o it's all right though featuring four HDMI ports one with ERC and auto low latency mode and we opened up the back to see what's inside and found that one it was a lot of screws but hey no plastic Clips at least and two the fald board is also used in ONN devices which kind of makes sense considering that roku's lower end TVs are sold under that brand at Walmart and the local dimming performance of our TV was weak kind of like a lower end tv you know what's not sold at Walmart the LTD backpack from lttstore.com it won't fit your TV but hey it'll fit a whole lot of other stuff by the way Walmart if you do want to carry it my phone's right here now it's time to go back to strengths though and the interface is probably roku's greatest strength it's responsive enough easy to navigate with their simple remote and surprisingly it doesn't throw too many ads in your face I hate that that's something that is a standout feature these days but it is I mean one minor issue is that streaming apps or platforms are called channels but does that matter no is it weird yeah but if that's what I'm complaining about I think that says a lot about how good it is the only major issue we found is the requirement to make a Roku account we tried to see if we could just skip this and change the input to HDMI whatever and start using our devices but no dice the TV is a brick until you make an account and I can see that being a major turn off for some people and okay I guess I do have some stuff the basic processor can be felt when you're loading content but come on guys compared to the frustration of dealing with you know responsive navigation through a bad interface advertising um using the Roku was a breath of fresh air and I guess it makes sense considering that they've been working on it for over a decade at this point and it can be found in everything from their streaming boxes to even third-party TVs notably TCL we actually have a couple of Roku Ultras here at the office that we love just because of their ability to handle every HDR format now if you can afford to spend a little bit extra and snag a mini LED TV instead you are going to get improvements pretty much across the board brightness starts skyrocketing into the thousand plus nips and you'll get more dimming zones for a more pleasing HDR experience but depending on what you buy you might also need to spend more on a Roku box to fix the crap interface and at the time of filming that's looking like a pretty big price jump I can genuinely say then that I don't think you'll be disappointed here and I like roku's strategy if they succeed in this new higher price band maybe we'll see them participate in the premium segment as well where honestly they're No Nonsense approach to both hardware and software would be very much appreciated just like I appreciate this no-nonsense segue to our sponsor thanks to mine for sponsoring this video mine is the Smart data assistant that helps you discover where your data is and helps you keep it where you want it with mine you can exercise your data rights and reclaim your right to be forgotten by asking services that you no longer use to delete your information and with how many data breaches there are these days I can't think of any reason for a company that I don't use to be holding my data so sign up and mine will let you know how many companies are holding your information we ran our email and over 300 companies are holding our data including many services that are holding financial data that our team hasn't used in years mine helps you send an official data deletion request through your inbox so the company can then delete the personal data they've stored mine also helps companies with the ultimate goal of simplifying and improving consumers online privacy experience sign up at saymine.com using the link below and own your data if you guys enjoyed this video make sure to check out the nanosis factory tour where they make Quantum dots it is pretty technical but very cool

Channel: Linus Tech Tips

Views: 1,575,961

Keywords: Roku, Samsung, LG, TV, Roku Series Plus, 4K, 55, HDR, Color Accurate, 556A5R, TLC, Walmart, Onn

Id: VK6GYwPTcw4

Length: 10min 48sec (648 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 18 2023