Now that pretty much every TV you can buy
boasts a native 4 K resolution, it makes more
sense than ever to buy as big a screen as
you can. The bigger the screen, after all, the
more you’ll benefit from all the extra pixels of
detail and image density 4K has to offer. With
large-screen HD TVs, for instance, you may
well be able to see the visible pixel structure
in the image, or notice jaggedness over curved
or diagonal edges. These issues should largely
disappear with a 4K TV, leaving the image
looking more like a window onto reality than a
mere TV screen.
Bigger screens fill more of your field of view
too, creating a more immersive experience in a
typical living room, kitchen, or bedroom setting.
In fact, as a general rule we’d recommend that
you actually try to push up one size from the
screen you think you want. We’d also treat
with some suspicion many of the screen size
‘calculators’ out there, as they tend to be more
conservative with their results than many
people would expect, especially if they’re
seeking a cinematic experience to match today’s
increasingly high-quality TV shows.
While bigger is usuallybetter, though,there
are a couple of scenarios where sticking with
a smaller screen can be the right choice.
Relatively small screens can work well for some
gamers, for instance, as it makes it easier for
their eyes to take in the entire image at once,
spotting all potential enemies in a single instant.
One other interesting aspect of resolution and
screen size is that 4 K TVs with smaller screens
boast a smaller pixel ‘pitch’ (the distance
between rows of pixels). This can increase the
sense of realism and sharpness you see in the
image for people who typically sit unusually
close to the screen.DOES
SCREEN SIZE
MATTER?
SAMSUNG UE55AU90 00
A good place to start understanding the UE55AU90 00 is to know that at launch it
cost £799. So right away you can slap yourself on the back for getting a TV that’s
now discounted by £300. There are also, though, plenty of laudable reasons why the
UE55AU90 00 started out costing so much more. For instance, while it isn’t one of
Samsung’s ‘QLED’ TVs with their Quantum Dot colour technology, it is the brand’s
premium non-QLED 55 -inch TV. It gets a wide colour gamut and manages to look
brighter than most sub-£500 TVs while still delivering impressively deep black colours,
beautifully boosting its HDR credentials. It also sounds crisp and powerful.
£499,samsung.com
TOSHIBA 50UK3163DB
Budget TVs usually struggle with high dynamic range. Toshiba’s 50UK 3163 DB, though,
has no such worries. Somehow this unassuming looking TV manages to inject more
punch and dynamism into its HDR pictures than some TVs costing twice as much. Its
HDR pictures look both generally brighter and more intense in ‘peak’ light areas than
any other TV in its class, while a combination of natural sharpness and surprisingly fine
contrast control contribute to spectacularly 4 K levels of detail and clarity. Add in an
intuitive home-grown smart system and more detailed and dynamic audio than you’ve
any right to expect, and you’ve got the budget world’s most aggressively value TV.
£329,toshiba.co.uk
JUNE 2022 T 3 31
TopTVs for everybudget