TCL’s 5- and 6-Series Google TVs are no longer available at Best Buy. The retailer has pulled these models from their stores and from their website. Clicking links that previously worked for the product pages in question now result in a “We’re sorry, something went wrong” message. The reason for the removal of these TVs is ongoing software problems that have led to degraded performance, according to 9to5Google. Digital Trends has reached out to both TCL and Best Buy for comments and we’ll update this post as soon as we hear back.
The removal of TCL TVs does not affect the company’s other smart TVs, like its line of Roku TVs or its Android TV-based models. A TCL spokesperson told 9to5Google that the TVs would return to Best Buy in “the coming weeks.” Here’s what TCL provided as a statement:
TCL is committed to delivering premium products with world-class experiences and the new product featuring Google TV is certainly no different. However, it has come to our attention that some are facing challenges with the stability of the user interface featured on TCL sets with Google TV. Our high-performance TVs are constantly evolving and recent software updates have allowed us to make significant progress, but we are continuing to refine our products featuring Google TV. Our customers will see marked improvements in the weeks to come and their patience is appreciated.
The root cause of the 5- and 6-Series problems could be the onboard processors, which might simply not be powerful enough to run the Google TV interface smoothly. We recently had an opportunity to spend some hands-on time with the 5-Series Google TV and our reviewer, Caleb Denison, found the experience sluggish and buggy, which seems to mirror what buyers have been saying about these TVs.
“Given this is TCL’s first go with a new smart TV platform,” Denison told me, “I expected a few bumps on the road, but my experience using the TV was a bit buggier than I expected. I found myself annoyed at times with its sluggishness and odd behavior.”
Given that the Google TV software, which debuted on the Chromecast with Google TV, seems to run well on that device, it’s unlikely that it’s a Google TV problem per se. Our reviewer found no performance issues on that streaming media device, though he noted the startup sequence seemed to be a bit laggy. Likewise, Sony uses Google TV software on several of its televisions, and we found no problems with the user experience on those sets, either.
It’s not clear yet whether the decision to pull TCL’s TVs was a joint one between TCL and Best Buy, or taken unilaterally by one of the companies, but it’s clear this is bad timing for both entities. “I imagine this was a tough call for all parties involved,” Denison said. “No one wants to pull product off shelves approaching the holiday season. Then again, no one wants to face a bunch of potential returns after the holiday season, either. My hope is TCL comes through with updates that solve the issues and puts the TVs back on shelves soon because these TVs look amazing for the price.”
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