Television advice please :)

[OverDrive]

Hi all,

I would like to upgrade my living room TV. It’s a Samsung (40in I think) 1080p/3D TV that we have had since 2012. It also has some smart features, however I use an Amazon Fire TV stick now. This is also getting on a bit, I think it’s the 2018-2019 version and can be a little slow at times, although it still works fine.

I would like to upgrade to a 55in/4K TV and also upgrade to the latest Amazon Fire TV stick (4K Max). My budget for the TV would be £750-800.

I have been looking at the following 55in mini-LED sets:
1. Amazon Fire TV Omni mini-LED.
2. Hisense U7N

With the Amazon set, I would not need a Fire TV stick of course, and I like the idea of the Alexia voice control etc. However, the Hisense looks good too and also has the Freely IPTV system which is appealing. I have read that the Amazon TV may get this in a future update though. However, I mainly stream via the Fire TV stick.

Which of these two sets should I go for? Is there anything else I should consider?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Gray2233]

Are you looking at 55" due to size constraints or budget?

What's your primary usage for the TV? Sports, movies, tv shows etc? Do you mostly game? Some TV's handle different tasks better than others, also will you be watching in a bright or dark room, will glare from windows be an issue?

In general, the best deal for a 55" I'm aware of at the moment is for the LG OLED55B42LA, which can be had for £780 from Richer Sounds (£70 discount is applied in the checkout).

 

[OverDrive]

Are you looking at 55" due to size constraints or budget?

What's your primary usage for the TV? Sports, movies, tv shows etc? Do you mostly game? Some TV's handle different tasks better than others, also will you be watching in a bright or dark room, will glare from windows be an issue?

In general, the best deal for a 55" I'm aware of at the moment is for the LG OLED55B42LA, which can be had for £780 from Richer Sounds (£70 discount is applied in the checkout).

Thank you for the reply. I thought 55” was a large size? Is it not considered such now? I do have a large room, so could potentially go bigger, however I imagine that would push the price up a fair bit?

I won’t be gaming on it and don’t watch sports. It will mainly be for movies and tv series. The room has a southerly facing window, so can get quite bright at certain times of day, however it will mainly be used in the evening for movies.

I had not realised that an LG OLED was available in this price range!

 

[Gray2233]

Thank you for the reply. I thought 55” was a large size? Is it not considered such now? I do have a large room, so could potentially go bigger, however I imagine that would push the price up a fair bit?

I won’t be gaming on it and don’t watch sports. It will mainly be for movies and tv series. The room has a southerly facing window, so can get quite bright at certain times of day, however it will mainly be used in the evening for movies.

I had not realised that an LG OLED was available in this price range!

It depends on what you're looking for, I find that people adjust to TV sizes pretty quickly when going up, but not when going down. I'm running a 65" and would find a 55" a postage stamp at this point, but you're also correct in the assumption that it will increase costs a fair bit.

The U6 is a good shout in that regard, it's a FALD mini-led with decent HDR support just like the U7 but limited to 60hz etc (which doesn't matter if not gaming), not quite on par but not a million miles behind, and you get the size advantage. The OLED will offer a superior overall picture and noticeably improved HDR while also being a chunk smaller, some people prefer size over quality within reason. I'd recommend popping into a local Curry's or Richer Sounds etc and taking a look at the TV's and sizes in person to see which you prefer. Richer Sounds might even set up a display room where you can demo properly if you give them a ring, it's a fair chunk of money and it's worth taking a little time to see what your preference is.

OLED panels aren't always great in very bright conditions, but given your use case you should be fine.

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[LuckyBenski]

I would not bank on the Fire TV getting a Freely upgrade unless it's a very new model where it's already in the pipeline.

However if not watching sport, that really pushes the benefits of OLED to the forefront - getting an OLED made me want to watch more movies, it was that transformative.

I do like the Hisenses, but I probably couldn't argue with an OLED panel for the same price. They have become a lot brighter in recent years too.

Plus, LG have committed to 5 years of OS upgrades on new TVs now. So far they're keeping to their word and I've seen 2022 and 2023 models upgraded to webOS 24 recently.

Well worth a look in stores with real eyeballs.