43 TV for streaming and freeview

[anonymous-user]

I'm after a TV about 43" or close with Freeview for general TV and to watch streaming movies/football

My budget is between £3-400

What do you all recommend and where to buy from?

Cheers all

[anonymous-user]

43 inch is the no mans land of TVs, manufacturers only seem to produce the really decent TVs in 55 inch and above. I had to buy one last year and I ended up with a Samsung 43 8000, which whilst good is not a patch on the 55 7000 I bought a few years ago.

It seems the latest version of the Samsung 43 8000 doesn't have the logo in the middle but to the right hand side which would drive my OCD mental and mean I could not buy it.

[emperorburger]

TCL make some very agreeable TV's inside your budget, such as this 43" QLED with Android TV

https://ao.com/product/43c725k-tcl-tv-silver-87365...

[Whataguy]

Hisense have some good budget 43 inch TVs around £300 but you can usually get them on special offer:

https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/tv-and-home-entertai...

Apparently a huge brand in China, I’ve been very impressed with mine for the price.

The only niggle I’ve had is to turn off automatic brightness adjustment as it doesn’t work very well with rapidly changing video.

One other quirk is that the built in Amazon app has a flicker when the scene changes on some HDR shows, but if you are using the Amazon app through a roku/etc stick it’s fine.

[RedWhiteMonkey]

Amazon (I know they're evil but their prices and no nonsense returns make things easy).

Samsung, Hisense or Panasonic - https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?i=electronics&bbn=5...

[colin79666]

Richer Sounds - usually very competitive on price and a 5 year warranty. They also know their stuff (unlike the pfy in Currys). On a 43” set check it has the connections you want (e.g. to connect a Xbox), they sometimes have fewer ports. I would get too hung up on streaming, prioritise the panel quality as you can always stream with a roku, Apple TV etc.

[skilly1]

I have just bought the Phillips 43PUS7906

£400 from richer sounds. Really happy with the quality of the TV and the Ambi light system really adds to the overall viewing experience.

[emperorburger]

One thing to be aware of is that some of the more familiar manufacturers license their brand names to third parties such as Vestel and UMC. This is most commonly seen with JVC, Hitachi, Sharp and Toshiba. Philips are a little different, as much of the IP also went with the licensing of the brand to TP Vision.

One of the reasons I recommended the TCL above, is that it uses a quantum dot panel, which is incredibly rare on a 43" display, certainly at £360. A QLED will typically provide far superior picture quality vs a traditional LED backlit LCD panel.

[camel_landy]

FWIW - I find the 'Smart' bit of TVs very noisy on the network and a PITA for software updates, application support, etc... I now use AppleTVs instead. and simply use the TV as a monitor or for Freeview.

M

[anonymous-user]

emperorburger said:

One thing to be aware of is that some of the more familiar manufacturers license their brand names to third parties such as Vestel and UMC. This is most commonly seen with JVC, Hitachi, Sharp and Toshiba. Philips are a little different, as much of the IP also went with the licensing of the brand to TP Vision.

One of the reasons I recommended the TCL above, is that it uses a quantum dot panel, which is incredibly rare on a 43" display, certainly at £360. A QLED will typically provide far superior picture quality vs a traditional LED backlit LCD panel.

Thanks for your 2 posts, interesting reading.

To explain a touch further my situation, I have knocked 2 rooms into one and rather than having 2 TV's I have a 32" Samsung on a swivel bracket but really need a bigger TV so that's why I asked you guys about a 43" as it's not tooooooo big, I could be swayed into buying something else but at the moment emperorburger idea of the above TLC from ao.com seems to be the winner? Cheers all

[emperorburger]

mgsontour said:

Thanks for your 2 posts, interesting reading.

To explain a touch further my situation, I have knocked 2 rooms into one and rather than having 2 TV's I have a 32" Samsung on a swivel bracket but really need a bigger TV so that's why I asked you guys about a 43" as it's not tooooooo big, I could be swayed into buying something else but at the moment emperorburger idea of the above TLC from ao.com seems to be the winner? Cheers all

I'm sure you will be very pleased if you decide to go for it and whilst you may not have heard of TCL before, they are the third largest manufacturer of televisions worldwide by sales volume, so they know what they are doing.

[TEKNOPUG]

I'd look second hand. I bought a 38" Sony for £30 the other week.

£300 should get you a good model that only is a couple of years old rather than buying a new lesser model.

Edited by TEKNOPUG on Friday 24th December 16:01