Guide to buying a Smart TV

Smart TVs have arrived on the market ready to completely revolutionize it and they have succeeded! So much so that there are few homes that don’t have a Smart TV. The fact that you can access a huge amount of online content without having to connect your smartphone or computer is their main advantage, but they have so much more!

In this buying guide we’ll introduce you to all these TVs and, more importantly, show you how to find the best Smart TV for you.

Features to watch

Like any electronic device, a Smart TV has certain specifications that will mark the user experience and that you should consider. Always remember to ask yourself, before you buy, what exactly you need. There are certain questions that can be vital in this regard:

How much money are you willing to invest?

What room do you want to put the TV in? In addition, you should also ask yourself which TV will best suit the size of the room in question. Because a TV for a 20 square metre living room is not the same as one for a room of only 9 square metres.

What will you use the TV for, what will you use it for most? If you’re going to play video games, you’ll probably end up with specific priorities, such as a high refresh rate or low latency. But if you’re going to watch movies, you may prefer very high resolution and good sound quality.

Ideal size for Smart TV

When choosing the size, you need to consider how far away the TV will be from the area where you will be sitting. If this distance is too far, you may prefer a slightly larger TV and vice versa.

The size of a TV is always expressed in inches, which refers to the diagonal of the screen. Conversion to centimetres is as simple as multiplication, always bearing in mind that an inch is 2.54 cm. Given this, we could see that a 32-inch TV measures approximately 81.3 cm diagonally.

If the distance is less than two feet, the TV should be about 32 inches.

From two feet up, you can opt for TVs up to 42 inches.

If your living room is a little larger and the distance is about three feet, you can go up to 50 inches.

Resolution

Another fundamental aspect is resolution, which goes hand in hand with size. The bigger that smart TV you want to buy, the better its resolution should be.

There are different types of resolution, including the following:

• HD or High Definition: 1,280 x 720 pixels. It is the first resolution to be considered high resolution as such.
• Full HD: 1,920 x 1,080 pixels. In this case, we are dealing with a resolution capable of displaying a higher quality image.
• Ultra High Definition or 4K: 3,840 x 2,160 pixels. Today, it’s one of the easiest standards to find in TVs, especially when they reach 50 inches.
• Ultra High Definition 8K: 7,680 x 4,320 pixels. It’s the top of the range at the moment in terms of resolution, but it has one big drawback: it’s very expensive.

Sound

While it’s true that TVs have come a long way in terms of picture quality, sound is still one of their weakest points. The reason is simple: the trend is to offer increasingly slimmer models, which leaves little room for speakers.

Panel types

Let’s move on to the type of panel you can find in a TV, as this is another relevant factor when it comes to choice.

First, you can find LCD panels, which were the most common a few years ago. The truth is that nowadays, these are very outdated and not recommended.

The most common today are LED panels. With LED backlighting, good image quality is achieved. They are not expensive, so they are an excellent alternative.

On the other hand, there are OLED panels. In this case, we are talking about high-end panels of very good quality. Each pixel is paired with a diode that emits light, thus enhancing both quality and colour. These are highly recommended, especially if you want to play video games, as they have very low latency,

Samsung has released QLED panels, designed to compete with OLED panels. While it’s true that these Samsung QLED TVs offer great performance, they’re also quite expensive.

It’s not just Samsung that has launched its own panels, as LG has done the same with its NanoCell panels. In this case, it’s a much improved and exceptionally high quality version of LCD panels.