TCL Google TVs are back at Best Buy, following software fix

By Simon Cohen December 22, 2021

After a brief hiatus, TCL’s Google TV models are back on the shelves at Best Buy — at some of their lowest prices of the year. They had been pulled from both physical stores and online earlier in December over performance issues that made the TVs feel laggy and unresponsive to many users. A software fix has since been issued by TCL, and it is beginning to roll out to all affected models. It apparently addresses these performance concerns.

In an email to 9to5Google, TCL described the software fix that it has developed for its Google TVs:

TCL is committed to delivering premium products with world-class experiences, and the new product featuring Google TV is certainly no different. Recent software updates have allowed us to make significant improvements on the stability and speed of the TCL televisions featuring Google TV. With these updates, this product now represents the powerful performance that TCL and Google believe is the future of TV. — TCL

Google TV models that can benefit from the software update should receive and install the new software automatically, but if you’d like to double-check your TV’s status, here are instructions from TCL:

Using the remote, press the Settings button. A panel will appear on the right side of the screen
Select the Settings options in the panel
Navigate to System > About > System update
Select the Network Update option in the dialogue box that appears
If an update is available, the TV will display a Software Update message box. Follow the onscreen instructions to download and install the latest updates
Once the latest software is successfully installed, your TCL TV will automatically restart.

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