TCL 55R617 55-Inch 4K Ultra HD Roku Smart LED TV (2018 Model) with 5 2.0 Channel Home Theater Sound Bar - Ts5000, 32", Black

This TV is beautiful, looks high end, and has a great picture. I bought it based on CNET's review that it is the best TV you can get for the money. CNET is right in their assessment. I bought it over an OLED because I watch a lot of CNBC and was worried about burn in. For 4k, looks and price this is the perfect purchase on paper.Unfortunately their QA department is ineffective and lots of poor quality panels are shipped. I lost the panel lottery and have a defective panel with what appears to be the banding issue many talk about in these reviews. Please see pics, it happens on solid whites, light blues, greys and I noticed it occasionally on reds and even on grass during football games. What is even more frustrating is during a movie, without a solid light background, the picture is just phenomenal. But I can't keep a defective panel as football is like most of my viewing time and these vertical rows of circles annoy the heck out of me.TO THE MANUFACTURER: STOP SHIPPING DEFECTIVE PANELS! GET YOUR QA HOUSE IN ORDER AND TEST EVERY PANEL BEFORE IT SHIPS!TO OTHERS considering this TV- I would wait for them to perfect manufacturing and QA. Luckily I kept the box based on other reviews, which is a hassle in a small city apartment. It is also a pain to take the stand off or detach from the wall bracket if you need to return it. It is 65 inches, cumbersome and too heavy for one so if you live alone, it makes preparing it to return a hassle. If you buy it now and get a good panel, you can't beat the value. But realize you are taking a big risk as it seems many are being shipped defectiveThis is all unfortunate since TCL did a great job with the design and the picture truly is great for the money. I feel bad for AMZN , as an AMZN shareholder, as I have no choice but to return this. I hope the manufacturer has to eat the shipping both ways for delivering poor quality product. I truly want to keep this but I just can't keep a defective product that cost $1000.As always, when I called AMZN they were great, and scheduled the return no problem. I will return, wait 6 months and try again. Hopefully by that time they figure out how to deliver consistently good quality product.

Update (June 8th)Received my 3rd one of these yesterday from Amazon. Honestly, this one was the best of the three. BUT - the vertical banding is still there. I tweaked the picture settings and adv picture settings the best I could to reduce it, but watching the hockey game last night, it was all I could see. Had to go watch the game on my 6 year old LG as the dirty screen effect was so bad. SO - boxed up and back to Amazon it goes. What a shame for a TV that has so much potential. TCL needs to get it's QC processes in check.I'm wondering if there is just a bad batch of them at my closest Amazon warehouse (they all came from the same one). I may go pick the Best Buy version up today and give it a shot. If I do - I'll post my results to this review. Good luck to all on this one!!_____________________________________________________________Update (June 5th)I received my replacement TV yesterday. This one had the same vertical banding issue. If anything - it was worse than the first TV. Put some hockey highlights on and it was so obvious whenever the camera panned across the ice. I had my wife look at it to see if I was out of my mind, and she confirmed she could clearly see the vertical bands also. What a shame - otherwise this TV looks like it should be a star.Now I need to decide - do I try for a 3rd time or do I spend more money and go to a brand with far less QC issues? Maybe I'll reach out to TCL support as they suggest in the comment below and get their take.Both TV's were dropped off at UPS yesterday on their way back to Amazon. Props to Amazon for having an excellent return policy/process._____________________________________________________________________Well - I got hit with the dreaded vertical banding issue on the white screen. As I watch a lot of hockey - this is a show stopper. BUT...I will give it another go as Amazon is processing a replacement. Gave two stars instead of one because otherwise it seems like a spectacular television if they could get their QC processes improved. Oh well - wish me luck on the next one!!I'll update this review with my findings on the replacement TV.

I REALLY wanted to like this television! I read the reviews and complaints about the screen banding issue but I figured those were rare. I unfortunately lost at the screen lottery and received one of the bad TVs with the screen banding issue. It infuriates me everytime I watch my TCL TV because I'm reminded that I'm out $649 for a poor quality image with dark bands across the screen that are impossible to look past, and now I'm stuck with it. I would have been better off purchasing a cheaper TV from a different manufacture.In the month after purchase, I went back and forth with TCL support over resolving the screen banding issue. TCL support convinced me to work with them rather than Amazon--this was a mistake. TCL requested photos to review the problem and went back and forth with me until they ultimately decided the banding issue was "normal" and refused to help. By the time they made this decision, I was just outside of the 30-day Amazon return window.I feel duped by TCL. I really wish I had purchased a different brand TV rather than taking the risk on this.

Vertical banding noted, like all the other reviews. Messaged TCL about it with no answer. Will return. Sucks because I was waiting for a while for this TV to come out. Sad day.