What TV tech is best? Which is the best LCD TV? Which is best out of LCD and plasma? Which screen size is best for my living room? What's the difference between LCD and LED TVs?
These are the kind of questions that thousands of us have to ask every year.
Buying a new TV can be a stressful experience even for the tech-savvy, see - there are so many brands, so many features, so many screen sizes, colours, technologies and flavours to choose from.
So which one is right for you, your family and your living space?
Technology is moving on at a rapid pace and we're constantly being treated to new tech which comes hand in hand with new jargon.
- So here you'll find all the buying advice you'll need for snapping up the top rated TV for you and your space, as well as all the best LCD TVs and best plasma TVs by size.
- Because there is no 'best tv'. There is only the best TV for you...
- Use the article index to find quick links on the right hand side to the info you're looking for or browse at your leisure!
- The perfect size for bedroom TVs or sets for smaller rooms
- Most living rooms can't physically take a TV much bigger than 32-inch, making this size by far the best for a lot of people in the UK.
- But within this size division, there's plenty of choice. A basic HD-ready set can be found for less than £300 is you search hard, though it's just as easy to spend over £2k on the best ones.
- There's only one certainty at this size – your new TV will be a LCD TV. If you're lucky it could have LED backlighting, but it won't be a plasma; LG used to make plasmas at this size, but there's not one on sale currently...
- The first step towards a truly large screen TV
- Making the decision to upgrade from a bulky old 28-inch CRT TV is almost too easy, but heading straight for a 42-inch plasma can seem a little daunting.
- And thus the 37-inch size has become one of the UK's most popular shapes; a lot more impressive than a 32-incher, yet not big enough to entirely dominate a living room. It's also often the maximum size for those of us who are forced, simply by the shape of our living room, to shove a TV in the corner.
- It's a size division that's as competitive as any, with the big brands weighing in with both LCD and plasma TV models. Despite its direct forerunners being some of the best-reviewed (and best-selling) TVs around, Panasonic's TX-P37X20 is the only plasma left in this category...
- The sweet spot for plasma TVs offers lots of bang for your buck
- Once known simply as 'plasma screens' in the collective consciousness, the 40-42-inch size is where the flatscreen dream started in the late 1990s - and where it's still at its most innovative and best.
- Now a lot more varied, with plasmas rubbing shoulders with (and quickly being outnumbered by) LCD TVs and their ultra-modern LED TV makeover, 40-42 inches is still the sweetspot for anyone not overly concerned with ruining the interior design of their living room.
- As well as being the fastest growing sector of the market, this size also offers possibly the best value TVs around. Serious home cinema addicts have moved on to 50-inch and bigger screens, leaving this category a swarm of slashed prices...
- Future-proof your new TV by going three-dimensional
- Slip on a pair of £100 3D glasses, nestle in front of a brand new £2,000 TV and switch on a £350 3D Blu-ray player and you'll likely warm to the notion that 3D is more than just an illusion.
- It's created by your brain processing two separate images coming to it via your eyes, and while this stereoscopic approach can be done relatively cheaply, the big manufacturers have plumped for a rather expensive format that relies on rather clumsy, heavy glasses.
- It's called Full HD 3D, and, to be fair, it's the best form of 3D TV currently available...
- For anyone looking specifically for a TV that's great for gaming
- Decide to buy the biggest flatscreen possible on which to play Call of Duty and you might end-up with low-fuzzy foregrounds and blurry battlefields.
- You'll get no cheat codes from us, but this handy guide to buying the best TV for gamers might help you skip forward a few levels in finding the ideal TV for you.
- Read more... Best TV for gaming: what you need to know
- With the Blu-ray 3D specification finalised and Sky's 3D TV channel due, the UK faces another telly revolution.
- Forget the digital switchover, 1080p 'Full HD' and web-connected TV widgetry. Jump-out-of-the-screen 'stereoscopic 3D' is the best TV tech around!
- Trying to describe it is like trying to paint a symphony. So what will you need to watch 3D TV? Who's doing it? When? What's the best 3D TV? And will your existing HDTV work? Carry on reading to find out the answers to these and many more 3D TV questions.
Choosing between the likes of Sony BRAVIA and Panasonic VIERA is tricky, there are crowd pleasers and flops alike within each manufacturer's ranges, too. So here we pick out the most impressive LCD, LED and plasma TV ranges for 2012.
Panasonic Smart VIERA WT50 Series
Dual Core processor makes these multi-tasking LED TVs very smart candidates
For long one of the biggest brands in telly, Panasonic was until recently all about plasma. We still love plasma as a tech – it's unbeatable for home cinema and 3D – but it's great to see Panasonic now pouring its efforts into top class LED-backlit LCD TVs, too. The WT50 range is the Japanese giant's smartest TV yet in more ways than one; a gorgeous glass and metal design and a bezel so slender it wouldn't look out of place on one of the LG or Samsung's high-fashion models is paired with a Dual Core processor. The latter enables multi-tasking of the many apps on VIERA Connect, with Wi-Fi, Freeview HD and Freesat HD tuners, too.
Panasonic's WT50 Series comprises the 42-inch TX-L42WT50, 47-inch TX-L47WT50 and 55-inch TX-L55WT50.
Sony Bravia HX853 Series
A stunning picture performance and an aggressive price put Sony back in the game
Whether or not its Bravias make Sony any money is none of our business, but the HX853 definitely puts Sony back on the flap telly map. Its flagship range is built around Edge LED panels, combining a stomach-able price with a slimmer, sleeker variation of its dull Monolithic designs from 2011. Although it does offer active shutter 3D, there are no 3D specs included and, besides, it's the 2D picture quality that wowed us most anyway, particularly where contrast and motion handling are concerned. If its X-Reality PRO processing works well, equally as welcome is its Sony Entertainment Network smart TV dimension, which thankfully is propelled by built-in Wi-Fi. A classy collection indeed.
Sony's HX853 Series comprises the 40-inch KDL-40HX853, 46-inch KDL-46HX853 and 55-inch KDL-55HX853.
Toshiba ZL2 Series
Glasses-free 3D and a native 4K resolution for the first time on a domestic TV
There is only one TV in this Series – the 55-inch 55ZL2 – but it's impossible to ignore in any round-up of the greatest flatscreen TVs around. A one-of-a-kind TV that not only enables you to watch 3D without any glasses on, but also sports a native Quad HD or 4k resolution, the ZL2 boasts truly amazing pictures.
It's oh so expensive, but the £6,999 is designed to get any tech obsessive's pulse racing; its extremely powerful CEVO Engine processor produces stunning 4k images and awesome HD, and though specs-free 3D isn't perfect and Toshiba Places is an under-nourished smart TV system, we're already convinced. The 55ZL2 is a remarkable achievement for Toshiba, and a genuine landmark in TV technology.
Samsung ES8000 Series
An ultra-thin bezel and silvery finish hides 2012's most innovative TVs
An improved Smart Hub interface, comprehensive smart TV online service, a touchpad remote that's joined by voice and gesture controls, and a gorgeous space-saving design – what more do you want? How about some of the best picture quality the LCD TV world has to offer, including active shutter 3D support? Dual Core processing helps boost the Smart Hub online platform, while digital media streaming over a home network and USB playback also impress, though it's those all-new control features we like most.
The Samsung ES8000 Series comprises the 40-inch UE40ES8000, 46-inch UE46ES8000 and 55-inchUE55ES8000.
Philips 9000 Series
Direct LED meets a brushed metallic finish and a Moth Eye filter
The years roll by and our TV wants and needs change with the weather, but Philips' annually refreshed 9000 Series is always a collection to watch out for. The key technology is Ambilight, an array of coloured LED lights on the rear rim of the TV that projects dynamic coloured light on to walls, which change with each movement of colours on the TV screen itself. If that's sublime, so is the 46-incher's Moth Eye filter, a panel nanostructure that eliminates reflections (to increase contrast by a power of ten!), and it chums-up with something that's increasingly rare in the LED TV world; direct (not edge) LED backlighting. The latter also adorns the 52-incher, as does what Philips calls 3D Max – active shutter 3D. And did we mention the luscious, unique brushed metallic finish? As high-end as its gets this side of a Bang & Olufsen telly.
Philips' 9000 Series comprises the 46-inch 46PFL9706H and 52-inch 52PFL9706.
LG LM960V
Direct LED lighting makes this flagship NANO LED set one to watch
We love a good flagship TV range, and though it slightly disappoints on ultimate home cinema standard black levels, LG's LM960V is an absolute joy to live with.
A brilliantly invisible bezel is what catches our eyes first – it's truly wonderful – though the LM960V still somehow matches its outstanding colour and brightness with decent audio. Its uses a Wii-style Magic Remote that puts a cursor on the home screen, which itself is a thing of wonder; we're talking a spectacular combination of online Smart TV features, full integrated into the core user interface, and with multimedia playback from USB sticks or PCs/Macs. Smart TV redefined, it makes the Apple TV interface seem shamefully basic.
The LG LM960V Series comprises the 47-inch 47LM960V and 55-inch 55LM960V.
Panasonic Smart VIERA ST50 Series
Thoroughly affordable 3D plasma with VIERA Connect and an enticing smart TV service
Plasmas: fat, old-fashioned and expensive, right? Err … wrong. So wrong. Slimmer and more glamorous than you'd usually expect a Panasonic plasma TV to be, and aggressively priced to boot, the ST50 Series offers contrast and clarity to die for. A radical reboot of last year's debut NeoPlasma panels, each ST50 plasma offers a mind-boggling 5,500,000:1 native contrast ratio and a response time of just 0.001ms – go looking for that on a LED TV.
Featuring active shutter 3D, digital media streaming and a thoroughly impressive VIERA Connect smart TV dimensions and the ST50 is pretty much unbeatable for its price. An unmitigated success.
Panasonic's ST50 Series comprises the 42-inch TX-P42ST50, 50-inch TX-P50ST50, 55-inch TX-P55ST50 and 65-inch TX-P65ST50 sizes.
Philips Cinema 21:9 Series
Banish those black bars with these two-of-a-kind CinemaScope screens
The strange, stretched shape of Philips' Cinema 21:9 Series will instantly make sense to committed movie buffs, many of whom yearn to watch 2.39:1 (rounded-up to a 21:9 shape by Philips) CinemaScope Blu-ray films without those pesky black bars above and below the print. However, can you stomach the flipside; black bars on the sides of normal widescreen TV programmes? Of course not, which is why Philips has fitted its two monster Cinema 21:9 screens with clever processing that stretches regular TV fare to fit the enormous real estate. If that particular feature just about works, the rest is a total success; super-wide Edge LED panels boast awesome pictures and even a choice of 3D flavours.
The Philips Cinema 21:9 Series comprises the ever-so-slightly gold-tinged metallic silver cased 50-inch 50PFL7956T Cinema 21:9 Gold, which sports the Easy 3D 'passive' system, and the 58-inch 58PFL9956 Cinema 21:9 Platinum, which includes the pricier, more detailed active shutter 3D system, called 3D Max by Philips.
LG LM670T Series
Cinema 3D joins-up passive 3D with some polished networking in a striking design
Five pairs of 3D glasses, Dual Play specs for full-screen 2D gaming on two-player mode, and Smart TV for a gateway to a world of web-based apps. There's a lot to play with on LG's Wi-Fi fuelled LM670T Series, not least of which is Smart Share 2.0, a scintillating approach to disparate forms of digital media – we're talking instant cover art for random video files stored in far-off places in what is a well thought-out, integrated approach. You'll also find an ultra narrow bezel and a Magic Remote that allows gesture control and cursor operation alongside oh-so comfortable Passive 3D images and some decent upscaling of SD sources.
The LG LM670T Series comprises the 42-inch 42LM670T, 47-inch 47LM670T and 55-inch 55LM670T.
Panasonic Smart VIERA E5 Series
Eschewing the third dimension this good value Smart VIERA is all about apps
Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Acetrax, Twitter and Facebook all take a starring role is what is probably the most polished smart TV interface around – and it comes with a low price. If you're not interested in 3D but do insist on Edge LED backlighting and a Full HD resolution, the E5 Series is a quality, good value choice; a good value panel that can stream digital files across a home network and even manages above average audio. Performing best with HD sources, its integrated Freeview HD tuner plays a starring role.
Panasonic's E5 Series comprises the 32-inch TX-L32E5B, the 37-inch TX-L37E5B, 42-inch TX-L42E5B and 47-inch TX-L47E5B
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