How to buy the best smart TV

Stands for high dynamic range, which is a new technology built into most new panels. Means you see deeper blacks and brighter whites. Not available on all broadcasts, but you will see on 4K Blu-Rays.

You will often hear about black levels in TV reviews. This describes the brightness of a TV picture. Generally, the darker the black level, the better the quality of the visuals. Sets with better black levels are usually superior.

A subscription-free digital TV service, providing television through an aerial. Nearly all new TVs come with this built in, so you can watch programmes in SD and HD straight away.

4K TVs are also known as Ultra-HD or UHD to save even more time. They have four times as many pixels as normal HD 1080p sets. That is 3840 x 2160 pixels to be precise. Four times HD, which has 1920 x 1080 pixels. In reality, 4K means an astonishing level of detail.

The future never waits for technology. While 4K is the best you can watch now, 8K will be the “next level”. As you might have guessed, 8K panels will have four times as many pixels as 4K. Some 8K sets are already on the market now, with the level of detail. However, there is precious little 8K content to actually watch, so stay tuned for the next decade – and look for faster broadband to cope with it!

4K TVs have four times the number of pixels of regular HD or 1080p TVs. Most new TVs have 4K as standard, especially those screens 40 inches or over, as the larger display allows you to appreciate the lovely extra detail in the picture. To watch 4K content, you can either stream it on Netflix, Amazon Video or YouTube, or buy a 4K Blu-Ray player and some movies.

Liquid crystal displays on TVs use lamps to shine light using liquid crystal cells in the TVs panel – this allows varying amounts of colour to permeate through creating lovely pictures. Cheaper than they used to be and very popular.

Somewhat similar to LCD sets, although the back-light lamps are substituted with tiny light emitting diodes (hence LED). These illuminate the screen creating a sharp picture. LED TVs are often both slimmer and more energy efficient than their LCD equivalents, so better for the environment and nicer for watching The Blue Planet.

Relatively new and shiny now, OLED stands for Organic Light Emitting Diode. These TVs don’t need any backlight, so can be even thinner than LED TVs.

Nowadays everyone has boxes to attach to the telly, from games consoles to DVD players and any Virgin TV box you might have. HDMI is the standard cable for high-definition video and audio. When you are shopping for a new smart TV, look for the set to have three or four HDMI ports to offer a bit of future proofing, otherwise you might need an HDMI switching box in the future.

Roku is a brand of device, sometimes called a dongle that plugs directly into a TV set to provide access to streaming services. If you have a smart TV, you probably wouldn’t need one but some might chose them to access music apps, like Deezer or VEVO or anything else they don’t find already on their TV.

One of the best-known electronics manufactures in the world, Samsung don’t just make TVs, it also puts its name to smart phones, soundbars, fridges and computer monitors. Samsung’s TVs are known for being the main LED competitors to LG’s OLED range, as they don’t have the risk of permanent burn-in on their panels. The most high-end QLED line-up uses quantum dot technology and has a wide range of models to cater for all budgets and tastes.
• Type: LED
• Resolution: 4K
• Sizes: 55”, 65”, 75”, 85”
• Look out for: HDMI 2.1 ports handy for PS5 and Xbox Series X consoles. Sets have great build quality and Samsung TVs produce deep blacks.

A well-known and trusted brand that has been around for decades and is iconic in the world of electronics. Sony makes headphones, gaming consoles (see our parental controls guide for PS5), TVs and much more besides. Like LG, Sony makes TVs with different types of tech inside them, with OLED being its top tier of smart TV. Some of Sony’s top TVs, like the A8H and the A9S OLED, have been said to deliver stunning picture quality, with perfect black levels and great motion handling – for your motor racing and action movie enjoyment.
• Type: OLED
• Resolution: 4K
• Sizes: 55” – 65”
• Look out for: A top of the range model is the Sony X950H. This set produces deep blacks and an outstanding HDR experience. Most Sony TVs run on Android TV, a user-friendly platform that has plenty of handy apps thanks to the Google Play Store.

A South Korean electronics powerhouse, LG is one of the biggest producers of electronics around. As well as tip top TVs, they make phones, tablets, home appliances and watches. They’ve been in the TV game since the start of the century and actually revitalised the market with their OLED TVs back in 2013.

OLED are different from typical LED displays, in that they can turn off individual pixels, which gives the viewer perfect blacks and they handle bright objects really well (sometimes an issue with LED panels). LG OLEDs also have very wide viewing angles, so the image still looks great when viewing from the side of the room; a great choice if you have a wide seating arrangement.

• Sizes: 48”, 55”, 65”, 77”
• Look out for: LG has a range of models in their OLED line-up, the picture quality will be similar, so pay attention to the feature lists and the physical designs to choose your preferred TV. The entry level LG BX OLED offers similar quality to the higher end CX model and the LG GX OLED. Match up with your TV budget.

This Chinese company started making radios in 1969 and soon branched out to TVs. These days it makes a variety of electronics, including home appliances and air purifiers. It offers affordable options for smart TVs that are often well reviewed, so well worth considering if you are putting your household budget elsewhere and want to save a bit on your purchase.

Hisense has been known, since 2015, as a company that has brought out some really strong 4K TVs, especially for the price tag. When you shop at the top end, the premium model Hisense TVs, such as the H8G and H9G, compete pretty well with other more known brands – and generally don’t cost as much.

• Type: LED
• Resolution: 4K
• Sizes: 55”, 65”
• Look out for: Hisense TVs do well in both bright and dark environments. Most of their panels use Android TV as their smart operating system and some models also come with built-in Roku to compete with other similar budget brands, such as TCL.