Good entry level TV (non-OLED)

[MrMitty]

I'm trying to decide between the following TVs:

$300 LED https://www.samsung.com/us/televisions-home-theater/tvs/crystal-uhd-tvs/43-class-tu7000-4k-uhd-hdr-smart-tv-2020-un43tu7000fxza/?redir=UN43TU7000FXZA

$380 LED https://www.samsung.com/us/televisions-home-theater/tvs/crystal-uhd-tvs/43-au8000-crystal-uhd-smart-tv-2021-un43au8000fxza/ 

$550 QLED https://www.samsung.com/us/televisions-home-theater/tvs/qled-4k-tvs/43-class-q60b-qled-4k-smart-tv-2022-qn43q60bafxza/

 

I'm not exactly a movie buff; I just want a TV to watch while riding my exercise bike. When the TV gets old and I upgrade to OLED, eventually, I would like to use this as a computer monitor (hence the 43"). Based on this, which of the above would be a good option. Is there another TV that you recommend (besides Chinese brands)? I recently signed up for a credit card and I get $200 off a $500 purchase so based on this, I'm leaning on the QLED, even though I won't need it. Is the picture quality of the QLED really worth the $250 premium over the cheapest one that I linked? 

[xg32]

rting rates the TCL same as the samsung oled

 

https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/best/budget

[MrMitty]

8 minutes ago, xg32 said:

rting rates the TCL same as the samsung oled

 

https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/best/budget

I strongly prefer either Samsung, LG or Sony. 

[cmndr]

Samsung and LG have absolutely awful TVs under $1000. Trash tier and trash quality. They're riding off their reputation. I don't know if Sony has anything in the price range. Samsung is admittedly the most guilty of these. With that said Samsung arguably has the best high end TVs (QN90A/QN90B, the QD-OLEDs, etc. - Sony will use the same panels and try to make it better but ramps the price up to stupid levels). 

Don't buy Samsung, LG or Sony unless you're in the $1000+ range. Part of me wonders if I'd have been better off cheaping out and going TCL or Hisense over my Samsung QN90a at 2x the price (you can upgrade twice as often). 

https://www.reddit.com/r/HTBuyingGuides/comments/ukrs2i/home_theater_101_2022_us_television_buying_guide/

https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/best/budget

I'd probably go for a TCL 555 (only 60Hz refresh rate), otherwise the U6H

Quote

• TCL 5 Series/S555 2022 QLED: The TCL 5 Series/S555 2022 QLED is better than the Hisense U6H and is often available for less, but it's also very difficult to find at the moment. If you can find it, it's worth getting over the Hisense. See our review

 

[Andrewtst]

20 hours ago, MrMitty said:

I strongly prefer either Samsung, LG or Sony. 

Your preferred brand of Samsung, LG, or Sony does not produce a good value entry TV, you should look elsewhere, such as people's recommended brand like TCL.

 

If you prefer these 3 brands, you need to get their high-end series.

[xg32]

10 hours ago, MrMitty said:

I strongly prefer either Samsung, LG or Sony. 

u could pay 100dollars for exactly the same tv with a samsung name slapped on it, and in my experience, samsung and LG has very bad QC on their entry level TVs anyway

[MrMitty]

5 hours ago, xg32 said:

u could pay 100dollars for exactly the same tv with a samsung name slapped on it, and in my experience, samsung and LG has very bad QC on their entry level TVs anyway

Do you mean exact same panel or same quality? 

[xg32]

it's the same panel according to rtings, can't be sure about quality of the other parts, but samsung and LG's entry level TVs aren't known for quality anyway

[seanondemand]

If you're buying on a budget, buy a brand that makes the best budget tvs - Hisense or TCL. Sony doesn't make a cheap tv, and Samsung and LG's cheap tvs are deeply flawed and frustrating. 
 

Hisense’s U6 fire tv version is on sale for 389 on Amazon. 

[MrMitty]

18 hours ago, xg32 said:

it's the same panel according to rtings, can't be sure about quality of the other parts, but samsung and LG's entry level TVs aren't known for quality anyway

So, who is making the panels? Samsung or the Chinese brands? It's my understanding that for OLEDS, for example, Samsung makes the panel and Sony implements their processor / software. Is it the same for the lower end panels too? 

[xg32]

7 hours ago, MrMitty said:

So, who is making the panels? Samsung or the Chinese brands? It's my understanding that for OLEDS, for example, Samsung makes the panel and Sony implements their processor / software. Is it the same for the lower end panels too? 

for the 2022 samsung and the tcl models samsung makes them, for the lowest end models from 2020, i couldnt find the info, sony does not make those panels.

 

As said before, it's very likely the TCL is the exact same tv with a different name slapped on to it, for 20% less money.

[e22big]

On 1/7/2023 at 10:26 AM, MrMitty said:

I'm trying to decide between the following TVs:

$300 LED https://www.samsung.com/us/televisions-home-theater/tvs/crystal-uhd-tvs/43-class-tu7000-4k-uhd-hdr-smart-tv-2020-un43tu7000fxza/?redir=UN43TU7000FXZA

$380 LED https://www.samsung.com/us/televisions-home-theater/tvs/crystal-uhd-tvs/43-au8000-crystal-uhd-smart-tv-2021-un43au8000fxza/ 

$550 QLED https://www.samsung.com/us/televisions-home-theater/tvs/qled-4k-tvs/43-class-q60b-qled-4k-smart-tv-2022-qn43q60bafxza/

 

I'm not exactly a movie buff; I just want a TV to watch while riding my exercise bike. When the TV gets old and I upgrade to OLED, eventually, I would like to use this as a computer monitor (hence the 43"). Based on this, which of the above would be a good option. Is there another TV that you recommend (besides Chinese brands)? I recently signed up for a credit card and I get $200 off a $500 purchase so based on this, I'm leaning on the QLED, even though I won't need it. Is the picture quality of the QLED really worth the $250 premium over the cheapest one that I linked? 

Low-end TV, especially at 43 inches are terrible in general, especially if you want to use them as PC monitor. You typically want it for something like watching news, bedroom TV, drama etc. 

 

43 inches TV tends to be 1080p which has a pixel density that's absolutely terrible from a PC viewing distance (even 1440p is way too low at this size if you don't sit at least a couple of meter away), they are all 60hz and tend to have high input lag on top of all of that. 

 

If you want to save a buck, get the absolute cheapest and spend the rest on a 24 inch monitor (although I personally wouldn't settle for anything less than AU8000 on that chart)

 

QLED mean the monitor as Quantum Dot layer that typically give  it wide colour gamut, although a TV may or already have that capability anyway, with or without. It's not important unless you're planning to watch something in HDR, but you also get the extra brightness by going with the higer tier model (Q60B especially) which might be worth it depending on your use case or preference. 

 

Although if you're to go that route and based from the US, I would personally just get the FV43U and buy an extra Chromecast for TV. it's sold for just 600 bucks according to rting right now and a magnitude better display than any of these options. 

 

rting has a review on all of these models, you can take a look at their result for details.