Despite some very serious concerns about who makes them—and the illegal financial support they receive to build TVs at too good to be true prices—U.S. consumers love TCL TVs. In fact, they also love their other consumer products like soundbars and what appears to be some amazingly foldable smartphones.

And it’s not hard to see why. The Chinese manufacturer makes some of the best TV sets on the planet. They are built with quality materials, well-constructed, deliver an amazing picture at now 8K resolutions that rival—and many times top—various models made by Samsung, LG, Sony or anyone else. New TCL QLEDs even get compared to OLEDs—that says a lot.

The pros love these TVs as well. In review after review, TCLs 5, 6 and new 8 series TVs win award after award—and most of the time, such praise is well deserved.

But all is not well in TCL land. One particular TV product, the 4 series, is by far and away, the worst TV I have ever used in my entire life. Hands down. I could give you 10,000 words on why I hate just about everything this TV offers, let me offer a few basic reasons you should stay away from this set:

Picture Quality is AWFUL: I came in contact with this TV when a good friend asked me to set it up for him after he purchased it. He needed some basic help connecting HDMI cables to his Blu-Ray player, setting up his Fios Cable and connecting a basic soundbar.

Powering up the set, I noticed pretty early on that the picture itself is very dim—even after turning up the brightness to maximum. While it did help to a certain extent, the brightness made the colors look very strange, making white look really pasty and harsh to look at. Blacks at a higher brightness looked very bad too—like a TV from 25 years ago. I honestly think my Sony Wega from 2000 has a better picture.

We tried different HDMI ports, Blu-Rays, Netflix and other devices and the picture quality did not change. It was just bad.

4K HDR was perhaps the biggest disappointment as it looked no different than standard 4K. I am not even sure how that is possible.

We, of course, tried different recommend calibration settings from various guides online and there was no impact. We also went back to the store where it was purchased and swapped the set out for a replacement, hoping it was just a bad set—and there was no difference in quality at all. A real shame.

Build Quality is Cheap: As soon as we unboxed the set, a 55-inch model for $379.95, I could tell the difference in build quality between this and the 6 or 8 series set—it looked and felt cheap.

Sound: You need a soundbar. If not, prepare for a really bad experience.

User Experience: Well, the set does have the Roku platform which is great for cord-cutters or anyone who wants to get streaming apps. While it does nothing to make up for the bad picture quality, at least you have an operating system that is easy to use and among the world’s best.

After a few days, my colleague ended up bringing back the TV and is considering his options for a few weeks before making another purchase. I tried to convince him to go with a more high-end QLED series 6 TCL TV, which delivers amazing quality for a good price. Sadly, he was pretty turned off by the 4 series and won’t consider TCL now. Honest, I can’t blame him. I wonder how many other consumers will come to the same conclusion?

Harry J. Kazianis is a Senior Director at the Center for the National Interest. His work and ideas have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, Fox News, CNBC, USA Today, The Week, The Hill, the American Conservative and many other outlets across the political spectrum. Harry enjoys writing about technology issues and products from a real-world perspective. You can follow him (or yell at him) on Twitter: @Grecianformula.

Image: YouTube Screenshot.