Buying a television is usually an increasingly complicated task. With so many technologies, names and acronyms, the usual thing is to end up with a head full of doubts. If you are looking for information for buy a new smart tv but you are not very sure which model you should buy, let us give you a hand with this shopping guide.
How to know the ideal screen size?
Before going into technologies, resolution and all kinds of stories, the main thing is to determine the tv size What are we going to buy. Basically, the size will depend on the distance at which you usually sit in front of the screen.
With current technologies, screens between 55 and 65 inches they are the most interesting. They can be seen comfortably at a normal distance and offer a good quality, performance and price ratio. Typically, the engineers behind the design of these products recommend that we sit at a distance that is three times the height of the TV.
In general, you are going to have a very good experience above 43 inches. In that range there are already very good televisions with 4K resolution at quite affordable prices.
If you are looking for a small TV -because you have space problems, for example-, you should consider an extra factor. If you previously had a 32-inch TV, don't go looking directly for a replacement of the same dimensions. Measure the entire TV (length, width, height with stand, and diagonal with frames). Because? Because today's televisions barely have frames. This will allow you to buy a television a few more inches, optimizing the space you have.
What resolution is appropriate?
Currently, all kinds of televisions with different resolutions coexist: from HD to 8K. If you are interested in a television to watch movies and series, such as a main television for the living room, it is advisable to look for a screen with 4K resolution (Ultra HD).
Screens above this resolution exist, but you'll be getting your money's worth. There is hardly any content in this resolution, so we can use the budget to get a very good quality 4K television.
Regarding the resolutions that are below 4K, we can enter into a debate. The resolution Full HD (1080p) still looks good, and displays with these panels will be around for years to come. If you're not too keen, you can still get your hands on a screen of this resolution. It's not ideal, but you'll save a lot of money.
Finally, what about televisions that have a resolution below 1080p? In general terms, you should only get a screen with these characteristics if you are going to use it less actively, such as in a kitchen.
Don't forget the refresh rate
The refresh rate is expressed in hertz (Hz), and describes how many times per second an image is refreshed on the screen. The standard refresh rate is 60 times per second (60 Hz).
However, there are televisions with a refresh rate above 60Hz. What is achieved by increasing this value is that the scenes of movement are seen more fluidly. In addition, a higher refresh rate helps reduce eyestrain.
The refresh rate is very useful if you are going to use your television to play next-generation consoles such as the PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X, which support up to 120 Hz.
Fine-tuning color with HDR and Dolby Vision
HDR stands for "high dynamic range" and refers to the panel's ability to deliver greater variety of colors, more levels of contrast and higher brightness.
The basic standard for high dynamic range content is called HDR10, as established by the UHD Alliance, an industry trade group. Dozens of companies support this basic minimum specification for HDR support, which is why you'll see 'HDR10' or 'Ultra HD Premium' on compatible TVs.
Dolby Vision is a more demanding version of HDR. It was created and licensed by the folks at Dolby, so far experts in surround sound and noise reduction.
This system includes dynamic metadata that adjusts the HDR effect frame by frame, so the results are much more precise and impressive. So far, Dolby Vision has led the industry when it comes to proprietary HDR formats, and can be found on premium models from most brands.
Let's talk about panel technology
Once we have the panel size and resolution more or less in mind, the question of which panel technology to buy may arise.
OLED
Currently, OLED technology is one of the more advanced for televisions. It is only available for high-end televisions, and is worked on by brands like LG, Philips, and Vizio.
OLED screens offer levels of contrast very tall, with totally dark and deep blacks. They also guarantee brilliant color levels, outstanding image quality and very good viewing angles. As a negative point, they do not usually have a very high brightness, they are sold at quite high prices and they can burn if we keep static images for a long time.
QLED
QLED technology is the alternative with which Samsung faces LG. Its main feature is that it offers higher brightness levels than OLED technology. Furthermore, they are cheaper to manufacture and have a higher durability. However, they are unable to achieve pure black, do not have such good viewing angles or the response times of OLED technology.
LED
LED screens have been with us for many years. They do not have the best contrast in the world, because it is impossible for them to represent the color black. Most of these screens usually run at 60 Hz. There are many LED technology specifications, but the most interesting is IPS LED.
IPS LED
TVs with IPS LED screens have accurate colors, the brightness is usually high and the viewing angles are usually quite good and they are not usually very expensive devices. Of course, they have their limitations in terms of contrast and also with respect to the refresh rate.
Other LED displays
However, there are other LED displays that have far inferior features. The cheapest ones do not have good color accuracy and their viewing angles are not great either.
How important is the Operating System?
There are several operating systems for Smart TV. Samsung TVs come with Tizen OS. The ones from LG work with webOS and many others do it with Android TV.
Android TV is the system that will give you the most freedom, but it is also the most chaotic and messy. On the other hand, Tizen and webOS have greater limitations when it comes to installing applications.
Our recommendation at this point is that you do not choose between one television or another solely because of the operating system. Manufacturers support these systems for a limited time, so sooner or later you will have to connect a dongle or a tv-box to your television to be up to date.
Connectivity and number of ports
If you don't want to spend all day connecting and disconnecting cables, you have to make sure that the television you want to buy has enough HDMI ports on the back or on the sides. four is recommended, since if you connect a console, a soundbar and a Chromecast, you will still have an extra connector for some device that you use from time to time.
If you are going to get a TV with an Ultra HD screen, the HDMI should be of the specification 2.0 or higher. However, the ideal would be to get a model that has HDMI 2.1.
and the audio?
We do not forget the sound. If we get exquisite, even the best televisions on the market have a pending issue with sound. For this reason, the most correct thing to do is to get a sound bar independently.
The sound bars are installed in just a few minutes, they are quite thin, so they are not usually a nuisance -or interfere with the image- and the difference is very noticeable compared to the standard speakers of televisions.
Almost all of today's televisions come with at least one HDMI port with Audio Return Channel (ARC) capability. This function of HDMI allows you to use it as entrance and , the audio output, also very useful for sending sound from external multimedia devices to the sound bar without the need to use a special receiver.