A couple of years ago I got a 55 inch Hisense UHD TV after my old TV died. I got a fairly cheap TV after realizing that the technology was still changing (HDR displays were still pretty new and a new version of the HDMI port had come out) so to get something future proof was going to be really expensive. The new TV was still no slouch. It had the new HDMI ports (well, 2 of the 4 HDMI ports) and a version of HDR that worked okay, getting very good ratings at rtings.com. The built in TV apps weren’t great and not that upgradeable, but the basics were there including Netflix and Vudu. Plus I was able to buy an Amazon Fire TV stick for $30 and this year a 4k Roku for about the same price that gave me all the apps I wanted and now in 4k.
Once I upgraded the sound system I knew the next step was a larger screen so I could actually make out the difference between HD and 4k content. 65 and 75 inch TVs have come down in price and were now affordable. To make an upgrade worth it I felt like I needed to go to a 75 inch screen instead of an incrementally larger 65 inch TV. A 75 inch screen has 85% more area than my current TV. Looking at reviews, most of the reasonably priced Samsung and LG TVs (less than $1500) seemed good but got terrible scores for HDR. Consumer Reports stated simply that HDR on these screens was “not effective.” So what was the point of that? I could wait.
But combing through rtings.com reviews I found a 75 inch TV by TCL that had very good ratings for picture quality and HDR for $500 less than LG and Samsung TVs with similar scores. Plus the TCL had Roku built in. Not that it mattered much, but I also had $45 in Best Buy credits burning a hole in my pocket (wouldn’t even cover the sales tax). I could also get 6% back in Best Buy rewards and get free delivery, which was key since I barely fit the 55 inch TV in my car and the 75 would be impossible. The TV was on sale for its best price ever, but had been on sale at that price before. I could wait until Black Friday, but TCL didn’t have great deals last year. Plus this model is from 2018 (actually the 55 and 65 inch versions came out last year but the 75 inch came out in February, which I found out later) and may not be available for long, so I figured I should just get it.
Really the 65 inch version of this TV is a much better deal at only $700 with the same picture quality ratings (in fact rtings.com doesn’t necessarily even test the different sizes, they just assume they are the same, however people who have both said they are happy with the 75). This one is $600 more for 10 inches more of screen. But, whatever. I felt like the jump from 55 to 65 wouldn’t be worth it even though the TCL also performs substantially better than the old HiSense. The HiSense scores (out of 10) for overall, movies, and HDR movies were 7.4, 7.0, and 7.2 (well above it’s price level at the time) while the TCL is 8.0, 8.0, and 8.1. So bigger and better, but a lot more expensive.
Anyway, it should be delivered on Wednesday. And already the 8k TVs are out, plus screens 85 and 105 inches.
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