When comparing TCL P607 55" (55P607) vs Sony A1E 55" (XBR55A1E), the Slant community recommends TCL P607 55" (55P607) for most people. In the question“What are the best TVs?” TCL P607 55" (55P607) is ranked 3rd while Sony A1E 55" (XBR55A1E) is ranked 7th. The most important reason people chose TCL P607 55" (55P607) is:
At $650, it's hard to find a better deal for a 55-inch 4K TV that can also handle HDR content reasonably well. Compared to its direct competitors, its picture quality is more or less similar to them. Although the HDR performance is just a tad below them, it's still great, especially for the price. It's also more versatile because it has better features for gaming - the input lag of ~15ms is among the lowest in 4K TVs on the market, and it has a motion blur of ~12ms that stacks up to more expensive options. The screen size is large for the price when compared to TVs in this price bracket, such as the Sony X900E which costs ≥$250 more for the 49" model.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Excellent value for money
At $650, it's hard to find a better deal for a 55-inch 4K TV that can also handle HDR content reasonably well.
Compared to its direct competitors, its picture quality is more or less similar to them. Although the HDR performance is just a tad below them, it's still great, especially for the price.
It's also more versatile because it has better features for gaming - the input lag of ~15ms is among the lowest in 4K TVs on the market, and it has a motion blur of ~12ms that stacks up to more expensive options.
The screen size is large for the price when compared to TVs in this price bracket, such as the Sony X900E which costs ≥$250 more for the 49" model.
Pro Supports both HDR10 and Dolby Vision formats
The P607 can play both HDR10 and Dolby Vision content.
Pro Intuitive & smooth user interface
The P607 runs on the Roku TV smart platform, touted for its simple, straightforward, and lag-free UI.
It’s easy for anyone to grasp how navigation works, thanks to its two-column design with the menu on the left and options on the right.
There’s also no noticeable lag during navigation or menu selection.
Pro Decent at handling glare
In a decently-lit environment, the P607's colors won't look dull thanks to the panel's high peak brightness levels and decent handling of reflections.
It's bright enough to fight off glare with peak brightness levels of ~500 nits for both SDR & HDR, and the intensity of reflections are also reduced by panel's semi-gloss finish.
Pro Great for gaming
The P607 has low input lag and barely noticeable motion blur, making for a responsive and fluid gameplay experience.
The input lag is barely noticeable at ~15ms for both SDR & HDR inputs, and the panel only requires ~12ms to fully change the pixels color, resulting in fast-moving objects not leaving any trails on the screen, eliminating virtually all motion blur.
Pro Great color accuracy
The P607 is excellent at reproducing colors accurately out of the box.
Even without calibration, the colors are spot-on. They're very close to what the source signal demands, and any inaccuracies are generally considered imperceptible to most end users.
The overall average difference between the source signal and the panel's reproduction of the color is measured in Delta-E, where lower means better accuracy. The P607 has a Delta-E of below 2.0, and anything below 3.0 is generally considered accurate for most end users.
Pro Great for HDR content
On top of its excellent picture quality, the P607 has everything essential to a great HDR experience: local dimming, wide color gamut, and fairly high peak brightness level.
Highlights will really stand out as the deep black levels are further improved with local dimming. It can make parts of the screen darker when the image calls for it, resulting in a fairly huge boost in picture quality as the black levels become deeper.
The wide color gamut enables the panel to reproduce the full range of colors required for true HDR playback. The screen can get sufficiently bright at a peak level of ~500 nits to light those colors up and make HDR details really pop.
Pro Main interface has no ads
The P607 has no ads on its main interface, although there can be ads in third-party applications. Third-party ads can't be blocked, but the tracking and personalisation can be limited through the TV's settings.
Pro Excellent at upscaling low-res content
The P607 can upscale 480p, 720p, and 1080p content to 4K very well. The upscaled content has almost no artifacts, and the crisp details are preserved.
Pro Excellent picture quality
The P607 looks true-to-life with lots of details.
There’s a great depth to pictures and you’ll be able to see everything stand out. Dark scenes are great and you won't miss out on any details, even in shadows.
The panel has a contrast ratio of about 6500:1, which means it can produce blacks that are 6500 times darker than the brightest white. This can be pushed even further to over 7000 with local dimming.
The colors are lifelike and accurate even without any calibration by the user. They will look really vibrant even in bright scenes because of the panel’s high peak brightness levels of ~500 nits for SDR & ~550 nits for HDR.
Even in a decently-lit environment, the P607’s picture quality can still hold up - the panel is great at handling reflections and it can get bright enough to fight off glare.
Pro Excellent picture quality
The Sony A1E has exceptional picture quality because of its infinitely high native contrast ratio, decent luminosity, and near-perfect black uniformity.
The TV does a fantastic job when it comes to reproducing dark scenes, as the infinitely high native contrast ratio and the near-perfect black uniformity allow it to display thick, rich, and immersive dark scenes.
As for bright scenes, the luminosity of 389 nits allows this OLED TV to fight glare and reproduce crisp and vibrant colors in vivid scenes.
Pro Decent color accuracy
Out of the box, the Sony A1E has excellent color accuracy, so the majority of users will not require doing the color calibration procedure. The A1E has better color accuracy than its competitors, including the LG seven series OLED TVs.
Pro Compatible with current-gen consoles
This 4K120 TV works well with all of the current-generation 4K consoles, including the Xbox One X and PS4 Pro, because of the A1E’s adequate input lag (30.7 ms) at 4K resolution. Additionally, the TV is a good choice for HDR gaming, since its input lag does not increase when processing high-bandwidth 4K HDR signal.
Pro Decent viewing angle
The Sony A1E looks good even from an angle since its colors only start to degrade when the angle between the viewer and the panel is greater than 29 degrees.
Pro Good sound quality
The Sony A1E sounds noticeably better than all of its competitors, including the LG Seven series OLED TVs.
Pro Extensive app selection
The Sony A1E runs the Android TV which has the widest app selection among all the smart TV platforms currently available.
Pro Perfect for 24p content
The Sony A1E is an excellent option for those who have a collection of old DVDs or Blu-rays, a cable or satellite box, or an Apple TV since the A1E can detect and eliminate judder from those sources and make 24p content playback nice and smooth.
Pro Can handle reflections
The Sony A1E does an excellent job of managing reflections as its panel is coated with the anti-reflective material; therefore, the TV looks good even when situated right in front of a window.
Pro Ads-free interface
The main interface of this TV is free of advertisements and sponsored content.
Pro Makes low frame rate content look good
The Sony A1E can boost up the frame rate of low FPS content up to a stunning 120 Hz, making such content look more fluid and smooth. This feature is called motion interpolation, or in some sources, the 'soap opera' effect. Some people find the interpolated content very attractive.
Pro Excellent for watching sports
The Sony A1E manages to balance all the features required for a good sports TV. It has well-handled motion blur, excellent color uniformity, and superb picture quality.
Motion blur handling is the most critical aspect of a good sports TV. The A1E has almost negligible motion blur because of its fast full pixel response time of 0.7 ms, which ensures that the pixels of this TV need only 1/1400th of a second to go from one color to another. Therefore, even fast objects don't leave noticeable trails on the screen.
As for the color uniformity, the A1E is currently the best TV money can buy. The overall color uniformity of a TV is essential for sports fans, as it allows a TV to reproduce realistic and good-looking football fields, hockey arenas, golf fields, and other large sports fields.
Cons
Con Poor sound quality
The sound quality on the P607 is terrible. It sounds unclear, and there is noticeable distortion at higher volumes. A cheap soundbar is highly recommended to get the most out of this TV.
Con Not suitable for group watching
The P607 has poor viewing angles that makes it unsuitable for group watching.
Its picture quality gets progressively worse when viewed further away from the center of the screen. At just ~10° away from the center, the blacks start degrading into grays, and colors will start looking dull at beyond ≥20° from the center.
Con Local dimming can be quite aggressive
In very bright scenes, the local dimming can be too aggressive and make black spots really dark to the point where some details are lost.
Con Not suitable for sports
The color uniformity of the P607 is quite poor, and the viewing angle is narrow.
When displaying large same-color objects, such as football or hockey fields, certain areas of the screen will look darker than the others, resulting in uneven colors. This becomes worse when paired with the bad viewing angles that makes the picture quality deteriorate even further, and also makes it unsuitable for watching sports with a group because the picture quality won’t be consistent to all viewers.
Con Comes in only one size (55-inch)
Currently, the P607 only has a 55-inch model available on the market.
Con Has image retention problems
Just like many other OLED TVs, the Sony A1E does suffer from severe image retention which is caused by a static frame which is displayed for an extended period. However, the burn-in effect fades after 5 minutes.
Con Hard-to-access rare inputs
Once the TV is mounted on a wall, it is very difficult to reach its rear inputs as there is simply not enough space between the TV and a wall.
Con Lacks Dolby Vision
At the moment, the Sony A1E is not compatible with Dolby Vision content which severely limits its HDR capabilities.