JVC LT-55CF890 Review: Fire TV Edition 55” Smart 4K Ultra HD HDR LED TV

Don’t let the odd negative review put you off! Costing a bargain £298 at the time of purchase, this 49 inch 4K HDR entertainment thriller took me under 15 minutes to have it out of the box, connected to the internet, and working as advertised. My tech-fussy eyes are thoroughly impressed with the higher than expected screen quality, even at wide IPS-like angles. Colours, including those very important black levels, look totally fabulous, so the (non-buying!) reviewer who wrote that the colours look washed out needs a prompt visit to Specsavers. He’s simply wrong! I am enjoying the gorgeous screen as it came, but you can tweak the picture to your personal liking. The Dolby sound quality and volume levels are surprisingly good too, and most people will probably be happy. If like me you prefer a cinema-like performance from your TV audio, then you may prefer to add something such as the cheap but crazy-powerful Logitech Z-906, which delivers a thunderous deep bass that can blow out your windows and provoke earthquakes. Rear connections on the JVC are plentiful, including four HDMI, two USB, composite, and the usual optical out, etc. There’s even a gaming mode. Entering my Amazon details was a breeze and I was soon connected to Alexa. Like its Fire TV capabilities, Alexa here is mostly fully functional but won’t yet set timers. Yet! Activated by her name and/or the mic button on the remote, she will change channels, play Amazon or Spotify music, answer questions, turn the set off, etc. Unlike the oddly restricted Echo Show, Alexa on this TV will find and begin playback of requested content, so for example you can say things like, “play Tina Turner Simply The Best on You Tube”, and that’s what then starts playing back. Also, if you have Blink or other Wi-Fi cameras on your network, you can say “Show me back garden” or other relevant cam-related commands and the live view and sound will appear on the screen. Very nice! Navigating live or app content from one home screen is truly innovative on this set, reinventing the task to make it simple, especially using the cute yet fully functional remote with its shortcuts to Netflix, Prime Video, etc. The TV build quality is pleasant with small bezels, slim (not thin!) profile, and discrete central stand. There is no TV recording via an attached hard drive or live pause, but I’m sincerely trying to find something seriously important to dislike about this bargain television. I will keep looking over the days ahead and update this review if necessary. For now, I can honestly say that it ticks all the essential home entertainment boxes and represents outstanding value for money. Oh, I’ve uploaded a related video overview on you tube.Feb 2020 UPDATE: After more than a month I’m still very much enjoying my JVC Fire Edition television, and I see that the price is now noticeably more than I paid in December 2019. With its voice-friendly features and gorgeous screen/picture, JVC has got a well deserved hit on its hands and is slowly edging up the price. A recent firmware update has made navigation from apps to live TV a little faster, thus improving what had been a noticeable delay. It’s great to know that JVC is still making such improvements to make happy customers even more so. However, unlike my no-delay LG in the bedroom, from cold, the JVC can take about 1 minute before apps like Netflix or Sky News become accessible, so some might find this too frustrating a wait. I will update this review further if anything else becomes worthy of reporting. Michael Jackson had a thriller hit, and so has JVC!