Last minute purchase of49 inch tv - Sony or Samsung?

[prand]

I have a quick distress purchase to make before the Rugby World Cup final tomorrow morning. So I could do with some advice on selecting one of two TVs.

I'm upgrading from a 40" TV but 49" is the max as I can't fit a larger one in the space in the living room.


Currys (which is the closest big store near me that I can get to today) have a Sony KD-49XG9005 and a Samsung QE49Q7ORAT ready for click and collect. Both seem highly regarded, both are £999 in store.

Any good reasons to choose either? Both seem like they are very good TVs. Perhaps the Samsung shades it as it is actually a QLED screen. Or am I being completely daft spending a grand on a TV and I should settle for something a few hundred cheaper that does the job?

[Bussolini]

You sure you can't stretch to 55"? At that price an OLED would be your best bet, but at the moment 55" is as small as they go (though think there might be smaller ones out in the near future).

[prand]

Bussolini said:

You sure you can't stretch to 55"? At that price an OLED would be your best bet, but at the moment 55" is as small as they go (though think there might be smaller ones out in the near future).

nope sadly - we'd have to rebuild the wall and tv alcove sadly. so best "small" tv is all we can do in the time.

[Phooey]

You can get the Sony for £875 (with £125 voucher) and 0% Interest Free Credit from John Lewis.

Edited by Phooey on Friday 1st November 16:29

[prand]

Phooey said:

You can get the Sony for £875 (with £125 voucher) and 0% Interest Free Credit from John Lewis.

Edited by Phooey on Friday 1st November 16:29

Well to close this thread off, I ended up getting the cheaper Sony 49XG8396BU (£699 which was further reduced with a £30 voucher).

They were all there on display in Currys and however much I tried I couldn't see the difference between any of them (including the QLED Samsung), so chose on price, and the fact the feet on the Sony looked like they'd fit better on the tv cabinet at home. Not too keen on the widely splayed feet of the others. Designed to fit a soundbar I guess.

Despite not being the absolute best TV I could get at 49", it was still night and day compared to our 10 yr old 40" tv I had before, with a great picture, good sound, really good integration with netflix, iplayer, amazon prime etc. iplayer especially looks great playing the recent David Attenborough series and Simon Reeve's America.

Plus the rugby looked great on ITV HD. Shame about the result though, but still got a nice new telly out of it!

Edited by prand on Thursday 7th November 16:14

[JackReacher]

How are you finding the Sony? Is the android operating system amd smart TV functions smooth and quick? I'm looking at the same TVs you originally considered.

[rscott]

JackReacher said:

How are you finding the Sony? Is the android operating system amd smart TV functions smooth and quick? I'm looking at the same TVs you originally considered.

You can pick up refurbished TVs in Sony's official store with quite considerable savings (down from £629 to £499).

[Belle427]

I’d avoid the Sony at all costs, the operating systems are utter dog s h i t e.
The wi if Connection is unstable and drops out all the time, I’ve had to hard wire ours back to the router.

[JackReacher]

Belle427 said:

I’d avoid the Sony at all costs, the operating systems are utter dog s h i t e.
The wi if Connection is unstable and drops out all the time, I’ve had to hard wire ours back to the router.

I have a hard wire point next to it, so that wouldn't be an issue. Does hard wire fix the issues?

[Sheepshanks]

prand said:

I ended up getting the cheaper Sony 49XG8396BU (£699 which was further reduced with a £30 voucher).

I've got the model down from that, 49XG8196BU - was in Costco today and it's now £480 inc VAT. We mainly watch broadcast TV and the odd Disney channel film.

Normally it's wired to the router but it's been on wifi over Christmas and has worked fine.

I'm not sure whether it's an Android thing, or it's due to using YouView as its guide, but we had a more basic smart TV for a few months and the thing we miss is not being able to pause live TV - the previous one ( a cheapy Toshiba, made by Vestel) could do this with a small USB flash drive, and could record onto that too. The Sony won't do it at all, and to record anything is needs a hard drive attaching of at least 256GB.

Another YouView thing is you you look at what's on next, but then can't select it - you have to go back to the current time. Previous TV popped up a menu to ask what you wanted to do - the Sony just does nothing.

It's quite slow to respond to anything after power up too - it comes back on whatever you wer last doing, then you have to wait a few seconds before you can switch channel.

Picture seems pretty good for our purposes. I find the sound odd; it's like lip sync is slightly out but it looks spot on - speech is somehow 'disconnected' from the person speaking. Have it on stand but it sounds better with the sound set to wall mount.

[prand]

JackReacher said:

How are you finding the Sony? Is the android operating system amd smart TV functions smooth and quick? I'm looking at the same TVs you originally considered.

I have to say compared to comments above, in my experience it's pretty good.
Wi-Fi has been good, 100% connected, and the OS is much better laid out and much quicker to respond to than the 8yr old Sony it replaces.

Sound is loud and clear enough too.

I like the integration with Netflix, iPlayer and Prime, and watching shows and films in 4k is excellent (in my view). It also connects to my Humax PVR and I can use the TV guide and remote for basic functions which was an unexpected bonus.

[MiniMan64]

Was going to start a new thread but this seems about right! I’m in the market for a 49 smart telly, I’m limited by a 113cm alcove!

Are Sony really better than the Korean alternatives? We bought a 32” LG for the kitchen last year that was pretty good and the wife is quite keen on having the same brand in the living room (no idea why!)

What about these options?

https://www.richersounds.com/tv-projectors/all-tvs...

https://www.richersounds.com/tv-projectors/all-tvs...

What’s the £200 difference for? Nanocell?

Anyone recommend better at this size?

While we’re at it, any experience of pausing/recording on SMART tellys without an extra box? (we’re trying to downsize!!)

[Belle427]

JackReacher said:

Belle427 said:

I’d avoid the Sony at all costs, the operating systems are utter dog s h i t e.
The wi if Connection is unstable and drops out all the time, I’ve had to hard wire ours back to the router.

I have a hard wire point next to it, so that wouldn't be an issue. Does hard wire fix the issues?

Yes it has fixed the Internet dropping issue, connection seems fine hard wired.
I still find them a bit slow and unresponsive compared to our LG.