Retailer Best Buy has reportedly pulled a pair of TCL smart TVs running the Google TV platform after reports of poor performance. The Verge reported on the move last week, which involves the TCL 6-Series with Google TV (model R646) and the 5-Series with Google TV (model S546).
Both models were introduced back in August and joined the company’s existing 6-Series and 5-Series options with the Roku TV software platform onboard. The 5-Series sets start at $599.99 for a 50-inch QLED display, while the higher-end 6-Series options start at $949.99 for a 55-inch QLED model. However, users have noted sluggish and buggy performance with these new sets, including in this Reddit thread focused on the 5-Series Google TV.
We reached out to TCL regarding the issues and they confirmed that users have been experiencing issues with the company’s Google TV sets.
“TCL is committed to delivering premium products with world-class experiences and the new product featuring Google TV is certainly no different,” a TCL spokesperson told us. “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.”
For now, the affected models aren’t listed on Best Buy’s site and TCL’s own product pages have been updated to indicate they’re currently not available to purchase.
The company did say it’s continuing to make software updates to improve performance and existing users should see improvements soon. Those models should update automatically, however, TCL also has a support page up with instructions on how owners can check for updates themselves. There’s currently also a banner atop the company’s support pages alerting visitors to the issues and TCL’s efforts to remedy the situation.
“Our customers will see marked improvements in the weeks to come and their patience is appreciated,” the TCL spokesperson added.
As for when the 5-Series and 6-Series with Google TV will go back on sale, TCL said it expects both models to be available to order again “in the coming weeks.”