The Roku TV platform has enabled manufacturers to make TVs with a comprehensive set of streaming apps and features without developing it themselves, and it's been a boon to the budget market.
We've seen some surprisingly excellent inexpensive TVs come with Roku TV, like the TCL 6-Series.
Still, you usually get what you pay for, and that's the case with the RCA Roku TV.
It's a very affordable 4K TV (the 50-inch RTRU5027 we tested has a list price of $599.99, but it can easily be found for under $400) and its colors are accurate out of the box, but lackluster contrast holds us back from recommending it more highly.
Plain Design
The screen is framed by a plain, flat, glossy black plastic bezel that measures half an inch on the sides and top and an inch on the bottom.
An RCA logo sits in the middle of the bottom bezel, and an infrared sensor rests on the lower right corner, under a Roku TV logo.
The TV sits on two C-shaped glossy black plastic legs.
Two USB ports and a reset button sit on the left side of the back of the TV.
Three HDMI ports, a composite video input, an optical audio output, a 3.5mm headphone jack/aux output, an Ethernet port, and an antenna/cable connector face downward.
A small cluster of buttons on the lower right corner of the back provide basic controls, but as with all TVs they're mostly intended as a backup control method, and the remote is almost always the better option.
The remote is a standard infrared, non-Enhanced Roku TV remote.
It's a small, thin black wand with a prominent purple direction pad flanked by menu and playback buttons.
Dedicated service buttons for Fandango Now, Hulu, Netflix, and Pandora sit below the playback buttons.
Since it's IR-only, the remote requires line of sight with the infrared receiver on the TV, and doesn't have a Bluetooth connection to enable voice search or private listening features.
You can use those features with the Roku App for Android and iOS, which also provides basic TV controls and media streaming from your smartphone.
Roku TV Features
The RCA Roku TV uses Roku's smart TV platform for its interface and connected features.
This means it will provide a consistent and accessible experience nearly identically to other Roku TVs from other manufacturers, like the TCL 6-Series and the Element Roku TV.
Roku offers thousands of different streaming video services and apps, including nearly all major names like Amazon, Google Play Movies & TV, Hulu, Netflix, Sling TV, and YouTube.
For music streaming, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, Pandora, and SiriusXM stand out, and Spotify will soon be returning to the platform after a long-awaited app upgrade.
Most major TV networks and channels have their own dedicated Roku apps, and the Featured Free section of the Roku TV menu offers suggestions for cord-cutters who haven't committed to a particular subscription service.
For non-cord-cutters, some TV providers like Spectrum and Xfinity offer their own Roku apps for streaming live TV.
Performance
The RCA Roku TV supports high dynamic range (HDR) content in HDR10.
It doesn't support Dolby Vision.
While the TV supports HDR, its contrast performance (described below) indicates that HDR content won't be particularly improved over standard dynamic range content.
We test TVs with a Klein K-10A colorimeter, a Murideo SIX-G signal generator, and SpectraCal's CalMAN software using methodology based on Imaging Science Foundation's calibration procedures.
The RCA Roku TV doesn't get particularly bright or dark, with a peak brightness of 206.76cd/m2 and a black level of 0.13cd/m2 for a rather low 1,590:1 contrast ratio.
This is among the worst contrast we've tested on a TV; the Toshiba Fire TV Edition boasts a much brighter panel (352.79cd/m2) for a slightly higher contrast ratio (1,764:1) despite even worse black levels (0.02cd/m2), while the Element Roku TV features nearly double the contrast (3,363:1) thanks to its superior blacks (0.06cd/m2).
And our budget favorite, the TCL 6-Series, destroys all three with a 49,719:1 contrast ratio thanks to triple the brightness (497.15cd/m2) and less than a tenth the black level (0.01cd/m2).
Fortunately, the TV handles colors better than it handles extreme light and dark.
The above chart shows Rec.709 broadcast standard color levels as boxes and measured color levels as dots.
The RCA Roku TV shows nearly perfectly accurate color out of the box up to Rec.709.
It doesn't reach the wider P3 color space, but for a budget TV this is still very strong color performance.
The Element Roku TV reaches a bit further in color gamut, while the TCL 6-Series' color range extends impressively far past Rec.709 without significant tinting.
The BBC's Planet Earth II looks colorful and crisp on the RCA Roku TV.
Fine textures like fur and leaves appear sharp and clean, and the greens and blues of the "Islands" episode look vivid and natural.
It isn't the brightest or richest picture, but it looks balanced and is pleasant to watch.
However, we noticed some odd backlight flickering for certain horizontal panning shots across the trees.
The flickering was very rare, but strange.
The burning lab fight in Deadpool shows where the RCA Roku TV struggles with contrast.
The yellows and oranges of the flames look natural and fairly bright, but details like shadows almost completely disappear.
In other parts of the film, Deadpool's red costume looks accurate but not particularly vivid, and skin tones appear natural.
The Great Gatsby tends to err in the other direction with its high-contrast party scenes.
Textures like dark hair and black suits usually appear clearly, if slightly washed out against the whites of the scene.
Very dark objects in shadows still disappear in muddiness, however.
On the bright side, skin tones look very natural against the harsh, white indoor lighting.
Input Lag and Power Consumption
Input lag is the measure of time between when a TV receives a signal and the screen updates.
The RCA Roku TV shows a mediocre input lag of 38.2 milliseconds under most conditions, but turning on the Game mode to improve performance at the slight expense of picture quality cuts that down to an excellent 15.4ms.
This makes the TV one of the most affordable models we've seen that reach under the approximate 20ms threshold we use to consider it a good TV for gaming.
Under normal viewing conditions, the RCA Roku TV consumes 95 watts at the brightest setting.
While there is no specific power-saving mode, setting the brightness level to Normal cuts that down to 69 watts while keeping the screen very watchable.
Darker settings are unacceptably dim.
You Get What You Pay For
The RCA Roku TV offers accurate colors, plenty of streaming media options, and a very low price.
However, its contrast is poor, even among budget TVs.
The Element Roku TV offers almost double the contrast, while the admittedly pricier TCL 6-Series blows them all out of the water.
This is a solid TV for a guest room or garage, but even in the budget realm you can get better performance by spending a little more.
RCA 4K Roku Smart LED TV (RTRU5027)
The Bottom Line
The RCA Roku TV falls short on contrast, but otherwise offers accurate colors and plenty of streaming services for a very affordable price.
