Upgrading living room with a larger sized TV. My learnings.

Upgrading living room with a larger sized TV. My learnings.

Just AFTER the COVID lockdown started in 2020, my 50 inch Samsung TV broke down. It’s not a smart TV but I have turned it into a smart TV with the Mi TV Stick. Sigh… No TV and everyone has to be at home the whole day? Plus a 5 year old and a 7 year old? Yea, it was such a crazy time NOT to have a working TV, right. As soon as it was allowed, I went and bought a new 50 inch Philips LED Smart TV (not my favourite brand but beggars cannot be choosers). The shop was just 1.5km away from my home. That’s as close as possible already. If I remember correctly, I paid around RM2600 for that TV.

Today, let me do research and you get to quickly come up to speed on buying a new smart TV.

Price wise, how? Japanese vs Chinese vs Malaysian brand?

I am about to move to a new home and I think I need three TVs. Two 50 inch ones, one each for the small living room upstairs and the master room and one 70 inch for the main living hall. The price range is pretty big, depending on the brand (Japanese more expensive and China brands cheaper). Megra is a Malaysian brand as per their intro. It’s also cheaper than the Japanese brands too. Another brand which has been really making waves would be TCL. Earlier than TCL was Skyworth. I have added both into the below for comparison.

QLED is better than UHD, right?

What’s the difference? So, whenever you see this QLED sign on the TV, it will usually be more expensive than any TV which merely stated UHD. Before UHD of course we used to have “Full HD”… remember? Description for UHD and QLED?

“UHD is not a “new” type of TV technology like OLED or QLED, but rather an improvement on the “full HD” 1080p LCD (liquid-crystal display) TVs that are now standard. A UHD TV operates like a QLED TV in that it has an LED backlight and LCD screen, but it lacks the QLED TV’s quantum dots used to improve color and brightness.” Source: rentacenter.com

The explanation tells us that that if we really want to watch BETTER, then QLED is better. Just to let you know that for the most of us, no one can see the difference unless both are side by side one another yeah. So, below shows the difference in price for UHD TV versus QLED. Same brand for easy comparison lah. Skyworth UHD 50 inch TV is while Skyworth QLED TV is RM2,249. It’s also more expensive because the QLED TV usually is a Google TV and this is more expensive than just an Android TV.

Google TV is more advanced than Android TV. Why do people say so?

Google TV is an up-to-date version of Android TV. Google TV offers more features, greater compatibility, and a better user experience. Android TV provides a cheaper alternative (due to its aging software). Android TV was released in June 2014 and was a game changer for home entertainment tech. Google TV reached TV screens in 2020 when it launched alongside a new version of Google’s streaming dongle, the Chromecast with Google TV. Info Source: https://www.androidpolice.com/whats-the-difference-between-google-tv-and-android-tv/

How to increase the enjoyability of a smart TV?

Generally, we will need to buy a sound bar to complement the TV because the TV speakers may not be loud and immersive enough when we want to watch our favourite movies. Or even just to listen to nice music… So, there are many considerations and it’s not just simply buying a tv. Here are some choices which I have considered. I think the few choices include Panasonic, Samsung and Sony. Somehow I did not see any Chinese branded ones. Or I missed all of them?

The higher the number for the Watt, the louder the speaker. Panasonic is just 120W. Samsung is 150W but Sony is by far higher at 330W. This also explains the reason why the price is different and thus, we would need to choose based on the size of our living hall or perhaps just a small room etc. By the way, the below are all the most basic system yeah. Go and look at the sound bar above RM1,000 in order to get something of a higher level.

Hope you now understand the difference of prices between the different brands. Also look at the different types of screen, whether UHD or QLED. Actually if it’s just 50 inch, I do not think we can even see the difference. Last but not least, the smart TV would have to be completed by a sound bar in order for the TV to provide a higher enjoyment level to us.

Cheers.

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