TCL's Award-winning, affordable 50-inch set has just got even cheaper

(Image credit: What Hi-Fi?)

Finding a TV to suit your home cinema needs is already quite the task but, when you are working on a tight budget, it can feel almost impossible.

Luckily, there is a whole range of top-notch TVs that you can snag for under £500. What's more, you can get one of the best on the market for a tantalisingly low price right now.

Enter the 50-inch TCL C6KS, a five-star set that wowed us when we had it in our test room. And, to make it even more tempting, it is available for just £349 at Amazon, chopping £70 off its already low launch price.

Need more convincing? One of the main draws of TCL's model is its Mini LED backlighting with 160 dimming zones, which helps to provide arguably the best picture quality we've seen on a set at this price.

The panel features TCL's new HVA technology, which provides deep blacks, refined shadow details, and better halo control than cheaper TVs can normally manage.

We say in our review: "The brightness feels very organic to the 50C6KS’s picture [...] by which we mean that, as well as not generally straining the TV’s black levels and local dimming controls, it doesn’t cause the brightest colours to start looking faded or washed out."

It's not perfect, of course, as we find motion can look a little soft, while very bright HDR highlights sometimes suffer from clipping or colour banding.

Sonically, we were happy to find that it supports both Dolby Atmos and DTS Virtual-X playback, delivering these premium audio formats with more volume and power than expected.

It doesn't manage to beat the performance of even the most affordable soundbars, however, so we recommend that you head to our best budget soundbars page to find a suitable sonic partner.

In terms of connectivity, the TCL model offers three HDMI ports, which might be slightly limiting for some users, plus two media-capable USB ports. It also supports all four main HDR formats: HLG, HDR10, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision.

Despite some drawbacks, the C6KS manages to overdeliver in pretty much every area where you'd normally have to compromise with a budget TV.

All of that means that the C6KS earned itself a What Hi-Fi? Award last year, and currently holds the top spot as the best 50-inch model in our best TVs under £1000 guide. And, at a bargain price of £349 at Amazon, it's a deal well worth another look.

MORE:

Read our full TCL C6KS review

Check out the best Mini LED TVs on the market right now

And these are the best cheap TVs we recommend

Robyn Quick is a Staff Writer for What Hi Fi?. After graduating from Cardiff University with a postgraduate degree in magazine journalism, they have worked for a variety of film and culture publications. In their spare time, Robyn can be found playing board games too competitively, going on cinema trips and learning muay thai.

With contributions from