Advice on budget 49'' LCD Options £400

Yucca

Yucca

Yucca

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Hi all

Im after the best budget 49'' (or similar) LCD TV I can get for circa £400.

I know nothing about the latest tech or which manufacturers are better than others so advice welcome!

Dad thinks LG are great: https://www.costco.co.uk/Electronic...ctors/LG-49-4K-Ultra-HD-HDR-Smart-TV/p/275178

Its 'ultra thin', has HDR and all the usual smart tv apps. So seems good to me?!

Another option: https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/tv-an...HotUKDeals~Communities & UGC~47868&awid=47868

Its £50 more and has ambilight (novelty?!).

Which of the two is a better tv with better image?! What should I be looking out for in the specs?
 
Ambilight is a nice feature, but personally, I would trust LG's reliability more than Philips.

The 49UK6300 (this year's model?) is available at Richers for £379. 6 yr warranty included.
 
LG tvs of the last 2 years have in my experience have suffered from poor brightness levels. I'd definitely check out the LG to make sure they get bright enough. I returned my 49 LG early last year as I couldn't believe how dull it was.
 
Two conflicting comments! Oh dear lol.

Could someone who knows more than me please compare the specifications of the two TV's and let me know which is better as per spec please? :)
 
Not really conflicting; just different aspects.

There's anecdotal evidence that Philips isn't that reliable. I'm pretty sure there have been posts in here, but a quick Google of user reviews should give you some idea.

I've had two Philips TVs myself. Both failed prematurely. Admittedly this is before Philips sold its TV business to TPV who now own the rights to the brand.

LG is reliable IME; it's just that they cut a lot of corners on their budget models to maintain a competitive position for price and features With the 6200 and 6300 budget 4K UHD models they can't get the extra brightness out of the panel for High Dynamic Range use. What they've done then is throttle the standard dynamic range performance so that they can still claim that there's a big step in brightness when switching to HDR. The result is - by peer standards at least - a dull looking image when playing non-HDR content. Whether you'll notice this though depends on the TV you've upgraded from. Where it's a much older set, possibly looking a bit tired itself, then the LG might well look brighter. But where the LG is perhaps a second or third 4K TV in a home, then there's an opportunity to compare it against other TVs in the house, so yes, it can look dull. Some people won't notice. Some people will.

The TV market is viciously cut-throat. This is all very much a case of you get what you pay for.
 
Pulled the trigger on the Philips 50PUS6703/12 earlier in the week. Very happy, especially like the Ambilight feature as looks great when on the wall, have tried linking up to the hue bulb in the room too and whilst effective turned it off for now. Also, for the first time (had an cheap old 2014 tv previously) it passes the audio signal from hdmi to our sound bar via the optical out so the soundbar does the decoding rather then the TV. Appreciate it isn't unique to this TV but works very well and seamlessly when not using the sound bar too.

We took over the LG as didn't like the LG Bezel as was quite reflective vs the matt Philips, also couldn't see much difference screen wise and liked the ambilight feature. Have been streaming some 4k content via Youtube and pretty impressive :)

Couple of slight niggles for us but definitely not show stoppers;
  • Connected via WiFi, when starting television up if you press the smart tv stuff straight away it will take you straight to the WiFi setup process as it hasn't established a WiFi connection yet, give it a couple of moments and once connected to WiFi work as normal. Thought it hadn't stored the WiFi settings the first time i saw it so ran through settings again!
  • We have BT TV with not a great signal so have previously not used the RF Out -> TV RFIN on the box as caused issues with signals on the BT TV box. a lot of the tv's come with a satellite tuner so thought i would give it a go as have an unused Satellite feed. Interface for the in built Satellite is woeful (appreciate it doesn't advertise Freesat) but cant see a way to sort channels, and only gives now and next on the EPG (guess this is standard as not "Freesat"). Looks like some countries have the option of a sorted channel package at least but Freesat wasn't listed with this option at the 28.2e Satellite.
 
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