Television advice please :)

OverDrive

OverDrive

OverDrive

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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.
 
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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).
 
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Gray2233 said:
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).
Click to expand...

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!
 
OverDrive said:
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!
Click to expand...

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.

www.rtings.com

Hisense U6/U6N Review (55U6N, 65U6N, 75U6N, 85U6N)

The Hisense U6/U6N is a budget-friendly TV released in 2024 and replaces the Hisense U6/U6K. It's the entry-level model in Hisense's 2024 ULED lineup, sitting be...
www.rtings.com www.rtings.com
 
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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.
 
Thank you both for the replies. I will go to the shop next week and have a look. While I can picture a 55in size, I can’t quite visualise a 65in. I am sure both will feel very big in comparison to my current 40in though!

I can see that moving to the U6 from the U7 yields quite a saving and allows for an increase in screen size within my budget. Thank you for this suggestion.

I have had a couple of QD-OLED gaming monitors now and really appreciate how much of a difference OLED makes. So, perhaps going for a smaller 55in OLED over a 65in QLED mini-LED may be a better option for my budget.

While I mainly stream movies and shows using the Fire TV stick, I do like the idea of Freely as my aerial is sometimes not all that great, and I do have FTTP broadband now.

I have just spotted the following 55in Panasonic OLED for £999: TV-55Z80AEY (2024). This has Freely and Amazon Fire TV. There is also the TV-55Z85AEB for £100 more. The only difference seems to be that it has ‘HCX Pro AI’ as opposed to ‘HCX’ in the former. I don’t really know what this means or what the real difference is, I am guessing it’s image processing? Are these good sets?

I may be able to stretch up to £1000, I don’t really want to go much over that budget though.

Thank you.
 
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I would suggest, have a try of the TV operating system as well as the visuals. An LG with webOS, Hisense with their own OS, and Fire TV (Android) based Panasonic will all function and feel quite different. It can even impact basic stuff like start up time, how many button presses needed to get into TV/HDMI/apps, etc. It can be a matter of personal preference, I'm very accustomed to LG right now but horses for courses.

I suppose down the line you can always go back to a streaming stick or box if you don't enjoy the OS or it slows down.
 
I went into the shop yesterday to see some TVs. You really can tell the difference between OLED and other technologies! When I first saw a 55, I thought it was big, then I saw the 65 and it blew me away! However, after a few mins of looking at 65s, the 55 started to feel small/normal and the 65 while still noticeably large, became much more comfortable.

I only went in to browse, so didn’t try any models. I will try and do this at the weekend.
 
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OverDrive said:
I went into the shop yesterday to see some TVs. You really can tell the difference between OLED and other technologies! When I first saw a 55, I thought it was big, then I saw the 65 and it blew me away! However, after a few mins of looking at 65s, the 55 started to feel small/normal and the 65 while still noticeably large, became much more comfortable.
Click to expand...

I remember when my other half said no to 55. Then when I got a 65 she was like “yeah the 55 is quite small but no bigger than 65”

Now I’m waiting for the chance to pounce on a 77 :P
 
I saw the 77s. They were incredible. Proper home cinema experience!

I was thinking that wherever I end up buying from, I will arrange for them to unpack and set it up for me. I don’t want to risk doing it myself and damaging the screen in the process as I’ve never handled a TV of this size before and some were so thin and fragile looking.
 
OverDrive said:
I saw the 77s. They were incredible. Proper home cinema experience!

I was thinking that wherever I end up buying from, I will arrange for them to unpack and set it up for me. I don’t want to risk doing it myself and damaging the screen in the process as I’ve never handled a TV of this size before and some were so thin and fragile looking.
Click to expand...

With how thin modern TV's are I'd not be comfortable setting up anything larger than a 65" without help.

I couldn't go back to smaller than 65" now either, it's the sweet spot for price/size/quality at the moment in my mind. I've actually been considering jumping up to 80-100" with a laser projector sometime this year as I really wouldn't want a full TV in that size range.
 
We have a large living room, but anything bigger than 65" would dominate too much for a multi function room. OLED all the way for us, although some of the latest LED tech is pretty amazing.

It was proper scary unboxing the wafer thin yet surprisingly heavy OLED screen and trying to pull the polystyrene bits off. But that was nothing compared to the soilage involved when trying to fit the stand and not bend the screen in the process. The final lift required Imodium.

I can't even imagine trying to deal with a larger OLED screen.
 
pepp77 said:
You really shouldn't need to also get the fire stick, most TVs nowadays have the apps you would want and work without issues. My HiSense and my LG apps are all I use.
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I ditched my Firestick not long after getting the new TV. Delay waiting for it to open, it would often stutter or crash, used up an HDMI port and a power socket and it was just another remote (the TV Smart remote would sometimes not work with it).
 
pepp77 said:
You really shouldn't need to also get the fire stick, most TVs nowadays have the apps you would want and work without issues. My HiSense and my LG apps are all I use.
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That’s a good point. I guess I’ve just got very used to the Fire stick. It’s been very easy to use and the voice control with Alexa is very good. I also had no choice as my current 2012 Samsung is now very limited in terms of what it can do.

Are the 2024 LGs still due to get a further 4 Web OS updates, or have they already had one since launch?
 
ninjag said:
We have a large living room, but anything bigger than 65" would dominate too much for a multi function room. OLED all the way for us, although some of the latest LED tech is pretty amazing.
Click to expand...

That’s true actually, some of the mini-LED screens looked pretty close to OLED, at least from what I could see in the shop.
 
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OverDrive said:
That’s a good point. I guess I’ve just got very used to the Fire stick. It’s been very easy to use and the voice control with Alexa is very good. I also had no choice as my current 2012 Samsung is now very limited in terms of what it can do.

Are the 2024 LGs still due to get a further 4 Web OS updates, or have they already had one since launch?
Click to expand...
So far they usually get it towards the end of the year i.e. I'd expect webOS 25 to be available around December. In fact I don't think the 2025 LGs are on sale yet!
 
OverDrive said:
That’s a good point. I guess I’ve just got very used to the Fire stick. It’s been very easy to use and the voice control with Alexa is very good. I also had no choice as my current 2012 Samsung is now very limited in terms of what it can do.

Are the 2024 LGs still due to get a further 4 Web OS updates, or have they already had one since launch?
Click to expand...

What sort of stuff can't it do? I've got a 2023 Samsung and it has all the main apps and some other stuff as well, including internet browser etc.
 
ninjag said:
What sort of stuff can't it do? I've got a 2023 Samsung and it has all the main apps and some other stuff as well, including internet browser etc.
Click to expand...

At over a decade old I doubt he can view most streaming content, some platforms launched after the TV did and the O/S's back then were fairly primitive. I'd be shocked if any of the mainstream apps were still being updated on a TV that old, although it certainly speaks to build quality and is a reason I recommend buying from places like Richer Sounds (6 year warranty via the store) as more modern TV's have a shelf life problem.
 
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