Posted 21 December 2023

Help me pick a budget TV

Hi, our TV of 12 years finally stopped working last night! It was an LG 40" from a while ago. We're looking to get a replacement either now or Christmas online sales. We have a Roku soundbar that we use to watch Netflix, YouTube etc. A Sony BDP-S6700 blu ray player that we don't use often (as we're streaming mainly). We only pay £7.99 for Netflix (one screen etc) and don't have any 4K content. I'm happy with 1080 gaming (still have a PS3 and a 6th gen i7 laptop with a 1070) so don't really need to have all the bells and whistles. I've got access to edenred so discounts for Currys, Argos and Selfridges. I was looking at a Toshiba 55UF3D53DB as John Lewis has 5 year guarantee and it seems like a great deal at £329. Considering my use case and current items is this a good fit? Ideally looking to spend less than £400 with a decent guarantee but could pay more if it's a significant step up in performance to price. Thanks for reading, any suggestions are welcome.
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  1. 001Cisco's avatar
    No expert on TV.
    But TV from Costco, JL, Richersounds, euronics with long warranty.
  2. JHD007's avatar
    I would personally avoid Toshiba and look at Hisense’ LG’ Philips Costco have got a Hisense 55” online that’s not badly priced costco.co.uk/TVs…876 you could ask JL or RS to price match anything you see that appeals to you
  3. C0mm0d0re_K1d's avatar
    Only a few companies actually make their own TV's now Hisense, LG, Panasonic, Samsung, Sony and TCL.

    Avoid Alba, Bush, Fidelity, Grundig, Hitachi, isis, JVC, Lexar, Toshiba, These are all made under license mostly by Vestel in Turkey or another 3rd party oem company.

    Certain brands are exclusive to certain retailers. Argos have Alba, Bush, Fidelity and Hitachi. JVC is exclusive to Curry's (Dixon's Carphone warehouse group).

    Philips TV's are manufactured by TP Vision who also make the Sky glass TV's.

    Panasonic only make their OLED sets. All their LCD TV's were made by Vestel. They have now switched to Chinese brand TCL starting with the mx950.

    TV technology has advanced a lot since you bought your last TV 12 years ago. We have led backlit LCD and OLED now, with a few different options. If your a gamer and are thinking of getting a newer console at some point in the future. Whether that be a PS5/Xbox Series X or the next ones after that. You might want to consider getting a TV that has gaming features as a lot of sets have them now and prices have fallen considerably. Especially since you've had your last TV so long. I suspect you won't want to buy another one in a few years time.

    If your looking above the standard sizes of 43" to about 50 or 55" you should avoid edge lit screens and look for direct lit minimum or full array. You tend to get more features on the two Chinese challenger brands of Hisense and TCL, than the three main brands of LG, Samsung and Sony.

    Have a read of this for more info about the different screen types and back light types. cybershack.com.au/gui…nt/
    ill_mariachi's avatar
    Author
    Thanks for the response. Lots to think about. My previous TV was an LG so I might give them more consideration. Do all the LG TVs have LG panels or only specific models?
  4. ApolloCreedXXX's avatar
    Check out my TCL 55" deal in Argos under £300
  5. ill_mariachi's avatar
    Author
    That's a lot of TV for the money!
  6. PS5's avatar
    As you found out, your TV can last a long time. I'd much prefer a quality TV that is second hand for £300 over a cheap nasty new TV for the same price. Personal preference of course.
  7. freakstyler's avatar
    I would avoid the Tosh as its not a Toshiba, it's made in Turkey by a company called Vestel, they make most of the off brand Supermarket/Argos TV's such as Polaroid, Techwood etc and even some of the low-end Panasonic models. If you get them for a decent price backed by a long warranty then okay but performance wise, if you heavily use them they tend to go wrong rather quickly and they're usually quite dim.

    I would have a look at TCL's offerings, you can get a 65" for under £400, example:

    hotukdeals.com/dea…725

    though you're only getting a two year warranty.

    We recently (October) had our main Livingroom TV go faulty and due to a weeks wait for a new TV being delivered and installed we bought a 32" TCL from Currys to keep us going and I was rather impressed with it. Being Samsung snobs, usually going for mid-high end models we found the little TCL was excellent, no screen issues, sounded decent, vibrant colours etc. The remote was nice too.
    ill_mariachi's avatar
    Author
    Thanks for the information, very useful. Would you say a 50" Samsung UE50CU7100 (2023) for £379 from JL would be worth the extra £50? It's 5 inches smaller but we have a small living room and made do with a 40" for so long anyway!
  8. Nikita_Percival's avatar
    We have two Toshibas and never had any issues and for what we need which is mainly tv/streaming/internet there absolutely spot on. Just need to manual adjust the colour settings
  9. ill_mariachi's avatar
    Author
    Thanks everyone. I paid a little more over budget and got an LG nanocell from John Lewis as had vouchers I could use.
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