Reports of bugs and slowness may be contributing factors
Best Buy, the exclusive retailer of TCL’s new 5- and 6-Series Google TVs since their reveal this summer, has suddenly pulled the panels from sale online. The unexplained decision comes after complaints and reviews criticizing slow performance and frequent app crashes.
While TCL is still hosting product pages for the new 5- and 6-Series with Google TV and directing customers to Best Buy for purchase, none of those links are working (you can sample these links for the 50″ S546, 75″ S546, and 65″ R646). Neither Best Buy nor TCL have commented on the matter, so we don’t have a firm reason on the disappearances.
TCL’s hardware on the new models has been praised for providing remarkable panel quality and delivering on key enhancements. It’s in the software where reviewers have noted issues. Digital Trends found slowness reviewing an S546 model and The Verge got the same plus app crashes and even a complete lock-up or two with an R646. There was even an issue with Wi-Fi scanning as reported earlier on from Tech with KG. And that’s not to mention the various user reports of issues like controller input lag on Reddit as well. The manufacturer has seemingly been able to chase down some gremlins with software updates, but clearly not all of them.
Reviewers and the user community have floated suggestions to plug in other dongles including even the Chromecast with Google TV to use the sets for the time being, but it’s not ideal to take up port space when the native software should be able to take care of one’s browsing needs.
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