TCL S5K, S4K and C655: what they ship with and what comes off

This is the tier that sells the most and gets written about the least. The S4K, the S5K and the C655 are the floor of TCL's European catalogue: a 32-inch set that does not even reach Full HD, a 32-to-50 range that does, and a 4K family on Google TV running from 43 to 98 inches.

And a warning that comes straight from reading TCL's own pages on the same day in Spain, the UK and Germany: down here, TCL's site does not say which operating system the TV runs. It does not get it wrong. The field is empty.

First, what is sold where#

In Spain the C655 exists, from 43 to 98 inches, with a full spec table. The S5K and S4K addresses return 404.

In the UK exactly two models of this tier exist: the 50S5K-UK and the 32S4K-UK. The 43S5K-UK page returns 404, even though the identifiers 43S5K-UKX7 and 43S5K-UKXB are registered in the EU energy database. And tcl.com/uk/en/tvs/c655k, which is in the British sitemap, answers 200 and serves the P7K page: its title reads "TCL P7K QLED Direct LED Smart TV" and its spec table points at the 50P7K-UK files.

In Germany the S5K exists in 32, 40 and 43 and the S4K in 32. The 50-inch page returns 404, even though 50S5KX1 is registered for the EU. And the C655 and C655 Pro addresses, which the German sitemap publishes, answer 200 with the generic TV catalogue.

The system: the biggest gap#

In the German S5K spec table the Betriebssystem field exists and is empty. Same on the German S4K. On the British S4K, Operation System is empty. On the 50S5K-UK, the field is not there at all. And no bullet on those pages names a system: they say QLED, FHD, HDR 10, Dolby Audio.

All there is amounts to one hint and one contradiction. The hint is the · Google Cast bullet on the 50S5K-UK. The contradiction is the page title of the 32S4K-UK, which reads "QLED Fire TV - Smart Android TV", and its description, which adds Google Assistant. Fire TV and Android TV are incompatible systems: a Fire TV has neither Assistant nor Google's store. We saw the same mistake on the 50S5L. Here it repeats, and worsens.

With the C655 there is no doubt, and something odd happens: it is one of the few places where TCL publishes the Android version. Its Android OS field reads GoogleTV (ATV 12.0) across all eleven tables, from the 43-inch to the 98 and on the three Pro sizes. Google TV on Android 12, in a 2025 model.

For the S5K and the S4K, the set itself answers:

adb shell pm list packages | grep launcher

com.google.android.leanbacklauncher means Android TV, com.google.android.tvlauncher means Google TV, and com.amazon.tv.launcher would mean the British title was right.

The refresh rate: here it adds up#

On the Q7C three different figures turned up in three places from the same brand. Not here: the S5K and S4K tables say 60 Hz, and field 20 of the nine regulated fiches behind this article says 60 Hz.

Where the problem returns is the C655. Its header bullets promise "144Hz Motion Clarity PRO", "Game Master PRO 3.0", "2.1 ONKYO Dolby Atmos" and "HDMI 2.1". In the table, Panel refresh rate reads 50/60Hz+FRC on the 43 and the 50, 50/60Hz+FRC / 120Hz FHD from 55 to 85, and 100/120/144Hz / 240Hz FHD on the 98 alone. The game bar is Game bar 1 on all of them except the 98, which is 3. Audio quality by says ONKYO only on the 85 and the 98. And the HDMI count is 3 x 2.1 except on the 98, which has four.

In other words: the header bullets are the 98-inch set's, and they head the page for all seven.

What the panel field says#

Three names for the same screen. In the three German S5K tables the field reads LED. In the British one for the 50 it reads LCD. And the 25 European records say LED_LCD. None of them lies, it is an LCD with LED backlighting, but you cannot compare two televisions this way.

The S4K adds its own: its commercial type is HD QLED TV over a 1366×768 panel, and the description on its German page sells it as a UHD screen. It is nothing of the sort.

HDMI, eARC and one thing only the Pro says#

The S5K and the S4K carry HDMI Version: 1.4b and HDMI2.1 (eARC&ARC): No. With no eARC, a connected soundbar gets compressed audio. How many ports there are is not stated in any country.

The C655 has 3 x 2.1 with HDMI 2.1 features: ALLM, eARC, and does not say which port carries the eARC. The C655 Pro, on the same site and in the same table, does say it: eARC HDMI3. It also publishes the Wi-Fi (WiFi 5), the Ethernet, the USB, the HDCP and the brightness (600 nits). Not one of those six fields exists in the seven plain C655 tables.

RAM and storage: the field does not exist#

Every field name in the 22 tables for these series was listed, and there is no memory field. What was already documented still stands: the only memory figure in TCL's whole European catalogue is the QM8B's 3 GB of DRAM.

Here that matters more than anywhere else: when storage fills up, apps stop updating and eventually the set cannot apply its own update. Over ADB, df -h /data and cat /proc/meminfo tell you in a second.

What the regulated fiche says and the site does not#

The 31 European records for the S5K and the S4K declare eight years of guaranteed software and firmware updates, eight of spare parts, eight of support and two of warranty. Eight years on an entry-level set is among the best on the market, and TCL says it on no product page anywhere.

What the page does have is a link called "Product information sheet". It does not lead to the European database: it leads to tclo365.sharepoint.com and returns a page titled "Sign in to your account".

The C655 has a separate problem: it does not appear in EPREL at all. Querying C655, 43C655, 98C655 or any TCL identifier containing C65 returns zero results, while the same query with Q6C returns twenty-three.

How to tell whether this article is about your TV#

On Google TV, Settings → System → About gives the model and the Android version; over ADB, getprop ro.product.model does the same. Mind the suffixes: the site says 43S5K and the European fiche says 43S5KX1, 43S5KX7, 43S5KX9 or 43S5KXB depending on the batch.

What ships from the factory#

Google's part. The launcher (com.google.android.tvlauncher on the C655), the recommendation engine (com.google.android.tvrecommendations), voice search (com.google.android.katniss) and the services (com.google.android.gms).

TCL's part. Its channels, TCL Home and some setup assistant. And a note that changes how to look at this brand: in Google Play's official device list, TCL has twenty television platforms and all twenty are its own. Of the 439 TV brands in that file, 401 do not have a single one. Even at the cheap end, a C655's firmware is maintained by TCL, not by a board maker it buys the design from.

Third parties. Netflix, Prime Video and company, by commercial deal.

What comes off and what does not#

Off go the streaming apps you do not use: on a TV whose storage you cannot know until you measure it, each one is space you may need, and if you subscribe tomorrow it reinstalls from the store. The free content channels filling the home screen are the second clear case.

Leave Google Play services alone, because without them the set boots and little more. Leave the launcher alone while you have no other one working, and here its name depends on the system, which is exactly what TCL does not publish. And leave anything starting with com.android. alone unless you know what it is.

What you actually notice#

Quite a lot, because these are tight machines: every process that stops running in the background shows when you navigate and when you switch on. What does not change is the resolution, the 60 Hz or the S5K's HDMI 1.4b. And it all undoes: disabled packages come back with one command, and a factory reset returns the set to the state it left the box in.

If you have one#

Two things are still missing on all three: the output of df -h /data and cat /proc/meminfo, and above all which launcher shows up on an S5K and on an S4K. One command on a real set closes a gap TCL's own site has left open for a year.