The TCL 4K 6-Series with Google TV offers more features and better performance than the Roku-based 6-Series, and all you're giving up is Apple AirPlay.

The TCL 6-Series with Google TV is a home run from TCL. It’s not perfect — it’s a little thick, and the speakers leave a little to be desired. But it excels where it really counts — with an excellent image quality, a good amount of up-to-date ports, and a good software experience. Frankly, this TV is the best you can buy for under $1,000 and competes with more expensive TVs too.

It's impressive for watching movies because it displays deep blacks, and it has a decent Mini LED local dimming feature, but it doesn't improve the picture quality that much. It's great for watching TV shows or sports because it has fantastic peak brightness and excellent reflection handling, but it has narrow viewing angles. Gamers should appreciate the VRR support, HDMI 2.1 inputs, and low input lag. Lastly, it's impressive for watching HDR content because it displays a wide color gamut and gets bright enough to make highlights pop.

At the end of the day, TCL’s 6-Series Google TV is among the very best 4K TVs you’ll find in its price range and the sort of set that will keep owners satisfied for years to come. The company made an unfortunate mistake in shipping the R646 with half-baked software, but has managed to correct course in a respectable amount of time. The Google TV 6-Series is technically superior to its older Roku sibling in a number of ways — most importantly with that proper support for 4K 120Hz gaming — and it’s an impressive showcase of TCL’s Mini LED advancements. If you want a bright, bold TV and can find a deal, there’s little reason to hesitate. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to say that back when the software was laggy and bug-prone, but I’ve got no reservations now

The TCL R646 Google TV offers tremendous picture quality at a very attractive price, but its value proposition is hurt somewhat by an inconsistent user experience.