Na Zdrav 87 said:
I have $500 in gift cards from BestBuy. I would like to replace an 8 year old tv in our study. What would be the best LED Smart tv brand for that kind of money? I can chip in a bit if need be but don't want to spend much more than that. Every review I have read has pros and cons for each brand. They guy at the store was trying to sell me a Hisense. Never heard of that brand. Thanks in advance.
I was in the same boat as you last May. I decided to go with a 50' Samsung 1080p for about $550. I couldn't be happier. I've always been impressed the most with Samsung's picture quality. We were upgrading from an 8-year old 32' Samsung, so it was a quality upgrade from where we were.
With 4K, HDR, LED quality, and OLED technology still being worked out...I didn't want to drop $1k-$2k on an LED panel. I was happy getting a quality 1080p tv to last a few years until the newer tech becomes more standard and affordable.
Like others have said, Vizio has come up in the world and I would put them above Hisense. However, their mid/lower end models have less than stellar reviews on upconverting lower res content. This was important for me because we still have a lot of regular dvd's, and broadcast cable is still not in 1080p.
Samsung might still have a 1080p available, but they're going fast. They also have a base 4K (the 6300 I think) that's not much more than the 1080p I bought last year, that works with HDR...it came out over the summer.
4K is nice and all...I just don't see the use for it yet. Broadcast tv isn't even in pure HD yet, 4K content is still fairly scarce, ultra HD bluray players are still very expensive, and streaming quality 4K requires an even stronger internet connection. I just don't think the overall technology has caught up to it yet, so I didn't think it was worth the hefty investment. But that's just me.
Best of luck in your search!