Smart TVs: How to choose the best flatscreen set for you
CHRISTMAS time is the ultimate goggle box time and the sales are coming on fast. With all that crystalline, mesmerising choice, we often end up square-eyed and gibbering by the time we’ve lapped the showroom. Here’s our primer on the basic need to know when choosing a flat-screen super-star for AW 2020/21.
No matter what the advice to the contrary, 55”/140cm and some would argue the 65”/165cm panels are becoming the new standards for a typical living-room television. Without a bezel (frame) that’s enormous. You should be in the area of 1.5 times the screen size (diagonally) away from the set to avoid searing the eyeballs directly out of your head – for many of us in even UHD, that’s still a headache, and just too close.
Plan ahead for the space you have available for the TV at home. Having decided on proportion, and a wall or floor position, don’t forget to include a surface for an additional soundbar on the TV stand —hard to resist. Examine your available viewing angles, so that every seat for watching is a good seat with even a curved OLED screen.
Resolution in bald terms is the number of points of light making up the whole picture across the screen: 1920 x 1080 vertical/horizontal pixels is high definition (HD), 3840 x 2160 pixels is Ultra HD (UHD), 4,096 x 2,160 pixels is 4k and 7,680 x 4,320 pixels is the potential for the holy of holies - 8k. 8k where it will be available requires 100Mbps internet service to stream (A greedy 44GB per hour).
Generally, you’ll be enjoying HD and Ultra HD and if you’re lucky 4k as a regular treat. Large screens with high resolutions are highly immersive — wrapping us up in the action and replicating what we enjoy in the cinema. Your eye is highly sophisticated, but not everyone will notice quality of HD to UHD or 4k unless physically embracing the set. It’s very easy to get lost in the tech-speak of pixel boosters.
A really smart TV is part of a home network, it can even be the network hub —dimming the lights or lowering the room temperature at a voice command. It will get virtually "smarter" through its online operating system - increasing the variety and reactivity of your interaction with broadband through apps, catch up services and more.
Integrated smart TV platforms like WebOS (LG) stream in that fabulous HD content with a potential of up to 8k processing from your broadband (in theory — it’s not here yet). Matching your available broadband service to the right platform and set technology is key. The TV alone (whatever its spec) cannot conjure up 4k hyper-realistic live-streaming from Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, Disney+, Google Play Movies, Apple TV and SkyQ – it’s a conduit to connectivity.
Brands including Samsung offer sets that kick 4k and even HD up to the 8k visual experience. Some sets include Amazon Alexa and/or Google Assist built-in and ready to go. So, what panel type is best for you and your streaming service?
Most of us are familiar with LCD tablets and panels through our phones, laptops and other devices. Light-emitting diodes are backlit across the screen by a white light, with the image blended through a liquid crystal display (LCD).
Today’s top-flight LEDs screens (also termed LCD screens) are still contenders in terms of audio/visual performance but in cheaper sets, may have patchy blacks. Demand crisp, sharp picture edge to edge, with inky darks, 4k-ready status, and ensure you are happy with the slightly deeper panel size required for the back-light.
Look out for the moniker HDR for a high dynamic range to punch up those colours and tailor contrasts. Prices for gigantic, quality LCDs come in well under €1,000 and smaller models even from brands like LG skirt €350 with 4k.
Panasonic and Sony (Bravia) are famed for their mid-range 4k HDR-enabled LEDs screens – so take a look before bruising the credit card with a four-figure buy.
Standard LED TVs have been joined by a new family of QLEDs which offer brighter screens, better whites and it is claimed more sumptuous colour. Using what is termed quantum-dots, the QLEDs are really LED layered up with a new blue filter — improving colour quality in a seamless, liquid-like picture. QLED is set in the middle bracket between LEDs and our next step up — the OLED television — but the prices are increasingly comparable.
For many TV anoraks, what QLEDs doesn’t quite manage is the coal deep, edge-to-edge blacks and response times (where the picture refreshes super fast).
QLED is a Samsung technology and LG is generally regarded as the measure of OLED quality. Samsung boasts its 2020 QLED as having four times the resolution of 4k. Both are genuinely spectacular. An 8k/QLED flagship Samsung Q95OTS 85” whopper is a €14,400 in Ireland — yes, so don’t tick QLED off as the cheap alternate to OLED every time.
Dial down to its Q80T QLED, released this year. It has excellent credential and reviews for around €1,800.
The speed of the processor in any decent branded TV will handle catch-up TV and keep the picture moving stutter-free. Still, the better the processor the more expensive the set. Gamers using the TV panel will notice any perceptible lag, will expect the contrast standard of HDR10 and may well bleat on about next-gen HDMI features. Don’t get too caught up in hysterical tech’ reviews online. Settle on a budget and use your eyes.
OLED stands for Organic Light Emitting Diode. OLED images are the result of light coming directly from each, individual tiny phosphorescent pixel. They are said to be easier to control and finesse with very precise colour transmission and fantastic contrasts. At one time significantly more expensive that its equivalent LED (teased as — OLED "only lawyers, executives, and doctors"), OLED delivers a velvety picture from a screen as slender as a birthday card, with no perceptible ‘dots’ and no blur in fast motion like an action movie or football for example. They are feted for a perfect black.
OLED is said to be more environmentally friendly than LED or QLED as it does not require nitrogen trifluoride in its manufacture. Still, the whole life cost is less certain, as we don’t know how long these new TVs will last off the bench and out in the real world.
Ensure you know if you are getting a QLED or an OLED. LGs nano-cell is a backlit QLED, not a self-lit OLED — yes, confusing. Above all, as with size, don’t buy more than you need. Future-proof for your broadband service, but don’t be talked into a €4,000 8k OLED if you can barely see the difference from a cheaper 4k LED or QLED in terms of colour, contrast and fast action, while at a proper sitting distance from the screen.
Prices have improved for OLED and Philips offers a good range with their patented Ambilight technology which can put on a light show on the wall behind the TV. Expect a good choice in the €1,350 to €3,200 range.
The Sony KD-48A9 is proving popular for an oddly rare 48-inch compact size, and is an elegant buy at €1,999, an RRP that may fall sharply in the blood-bath of the 2020 Christmas post-lockdown sales events.
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