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These days, one of the best options for purchasing a television, is a 4K TV. Amazing picture quality, affordability, and a slim design make it easy to find the best 4K TV for you. Gone are the days when you could get by with a small television on the counter. These days, you need a widescreen, flat and slim television, with vivid picture quality.
Simply put – you need a 4K TV. The best part? You no longer need to be wealthy to afford an excellent model. If you’re short on time, our top pick for 4K TV is the TCL 55P607 55-Inch 4K Ultra HD Roku Smart LED TV. This TV is just as good as models that are more than double the price, and it offers all the features that the average consumer needs.
1. TCL 55P607 55-Inch 4K Ultra HD Roku Smart LED TV (2017 Model)
If you’re looking for great picture quality – this is your guy. The TCL 55P607 has the picture quality of televisions that fall into much higher price ranges. This means you get a fantastic viewing experience – for only a fraction of the price.
The TCL 55P607 has a boatload of features, but the fact that Dolby Vision and HDR10 are both supported, means that you get the ability to have the most critical high dynamic range formats. For those that like to stream their content (which is becoming more and more common), the TCL 55P607 also has Roku integration built in.
What makes this 4K TV so great, is that it has most of the features of the more popular, expensive 4K TVs. The big difference? It comes in at a price which almost every consumer can afford.
This model may come as a surprise pick to some, as TCL is not as well known, compared to bigger television manufactures, like Sony or Samsung.
2. LG Electronics OLED55C7P 55-Inch 4K Ultra HD Smart OLED TV (2017 Model)
This LG model is a little bit pricier than our top pick, but it truly provides a beautiful picture and viewing experience. The OLED55C7P has excellent colors, perfect blacks, and is optimized for streaming.
3. Samsung Electronics UN65MU8000 65-Inch 4K Ultra HD Smart LED TV (2017 Model)
When it comes to color, this Samsung has a billion more colors than a typical 4K TV. At 65 inches, it also provides a huge viewing experience, and crisp quality picture.
While it is a little pricier than our top pick, the UN65MU8000 is an unbeatable choice, and provides plenty of value for the cost. The UN65MU8000 also provides an extreme range of contrast, and amazingly smooth motion.
4. Sony KD55X720E 55-Inch 4k Ultra HD Smart LED TV (2017 Model)
This 55 inch 4K TV from Sony has stellar reviews, and provides very smooth motion (via Motionflow XR). It comes complete with apps for Netflix and Youtube, as well as a quick refresh speed.
The unique voice zoom feature frequently comes in handy, allowing you to boost dialogue while keeping other audio quieter. Many reviews have also noted how excellent the audio from this TV is, without even needing to add a soundbar.
What To Look For In A 4K TV
There are a wide variety of features to look for in an ideal television, from sound quality, to picture quality, to motion smoothness. We’ve made an in-depth guide to the most key features to look for in a 4K TV, and how to differentiate the winners from the losers.
HDR
In terms of televisions, HDR stands for ‘high dynamic range’, and allows you to see a greater range of bright colors, while still having the darkest of dark colors. This means that HDR allows for brighter images that will really ‘pop’, like scenes of solar eclipses, or images of fire.
Previously, top brightness levels were around 100 cd/m². With a 4K TV, the brightness levels can go above 1,500 cd/m². This is a 15x increase, and the difference is very noticeable. While you might not understand the technicalities, this provides for far better contrast ratios, which means you get a much better image.
Soundbar
While thinner TVs are typically far better, they can sometimes be lacking in one key aspect – sound. This sometimes means that a soundbar is a good investment, and it will only enhance your viewing experience.
Of course, not all 4K TVs are soundbar compatible, and some may even provide very good sound without the use of a soundbar at all. The need for a soundbar will depend on which particular model of TV you purchase, and also on how much you value high quality sound.
WCG
Did you know that movie theaters can show more colors than most TVs that we have in our homes? This little known fact brings us to WCG, which stands for ‘wide color gamut‘.
TVs with WCG capability will display more colors on our at-home screens than we are used to seeing. The only catch is, very little content has been released so far with WCG.
There are reports of content with WCG coming soon, and since technology only moves forward, it is likely on a matter of time before we are all enjoying WCG movies and shows in our homes.
Judder
This slightly awkward sounding word refers to motion. More specifically, judder refers to films that were shot at 24 frames per second, and the odd motion that can sometimes occur on TVs with 60 Hz refresh rates.
In layman’s terms, this means that smooth motion can sometimes appear shaky, since frames have to be repeated, in order to make the film match the 60 Hz refresh rate. Interestingly, there are workarounds employed in some TVs, by showing frames all twice, or if you have a 120 Hz refresh rate, showing the frames five times.
FALD
This quirky term stands for ‘full-array local dimming‘. This technical term refers to LCD picture quality, and how the backlight is behind the LCD panel itself. This gets more complicated, as the content determines when certain areas of the light are turned on and off.
All of this essentially just means that the more in-depth the FALD, the better picture quality you will end up seeing. This is especially true for any contrast and shadows found in the image.
Color Volume
This is a unique term that tells you the range of colors that can be displayed. This is one of those cases where a larger volume is better. The more colors present, the better and more in-depth, an image will be.
Different Variations Of 4K
We do not jest when we say there are more than 3 different terms which all mean the same thing: UHD TV, Ultra HD TV, Ultra High-Definition TV, 4k Ultra HD TV, 4k TV.
Just remember – they are essentially all the same thing.
‘4K‘ as a term itself essentially just means that the images is composed of over 4,000 pixels (we are referring to width here).
Image Quality
A 4K TV is amazing because the image quality is unparalleled – and for good reason.
2160p is the standard for a 4K TV (this means 3,840 pixels wide, by 2,160 pixels tall), and this ultimately translates into nearly 10 million pixels in each image.
Not only that, but the color and sharpness of a 4K TV is exceptional. There is yet to be a TV that feels so realistic, and makes you imagine you are actually part of the scenes unfolding right in front of you.
OLED
This term stands for ‘organic light-emitting diode’ and provides a next level of color, contrast, and smooth motion. OLED provides a better picture, for a variety of different technical reasons, than LED.
LED
Most models of 4K TV are LED, and they provide wonderful picture quality. Technically, LED models are part of the LCD family, as if that doesn’t make things more confusing for you.
4K TV Size
Did you know that TVs are measured diagonally? That’s right, 55 inches refers to the diagonal measurement, not the height or the width.
TVs have gotten much larger over recent years, while at the same time, the prices have dropped dramatically. We once we happy to have smaller TVs, now it’s commonplace to have a 50 inch or bigger model.
We personally recommend as big a TV as you can safely afford, as it provides for a movie-like atmosphere, and immersive experience. When you turn all the lights off, and have high quality sound, very little beats this experience.
One of the other more recent developments, has been the increasingly thin nature of televisions. We once had giant, bulky TVs. Now most are almost as thin as our smartphones.
4K TV Resolution
1080p used to be the highest resolution out there, but now the standard is 4 times that – which is the essence of what the term ‘4K’ actually means.
With 4K comes: better images, better details, and no real issues that older, lower resolution TVs had. We are only a few short steps away from TVs being completely lifelike.
Mounting A 4K TV
This size change means that mounting a TV is an increasingly popular option for many, and is often the preferred way to watch.
There are many different wall mounts out there, and some TVs also come with stands. However, it should be noted that in many customer reviews, the stands typically are described as ‘weak’ and ‘unstable’.
This is not always the case, certainly, but it should be noted nonetheless. A wall mount seems to be the best option, when it comes to buying a 4K TV.
Best 4K TV
We highly recommend any of these choices, but you can also check out some of our other great picks, right here.