Best Budget TVs of 2014

Five value TVs for the Sales

by hodg100
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Best Budget TVs of 2014
There is no better time to get a value TV than in the seasonal sales.
Not only are retailers and manufacturers desperate to sell but many products are reaching end of line status with resultantly deflated price-tags. We’ve seen an awful lot of TVs in 2014, here are what we think represent the best value at Xmas 2014 pricing.

Samsung UE48H5500

We think the H5500 is tremendous value. In sheer picture quality terms, it’s more than a match for many TVs costing considerably more with great blacks, fantastic colours and excellent screen uniformity. What it lacks is a fancy design, any 3D capability and a smart remote but there will be plenty of people willing to sacrifice those to grab themselves what amounts to a Best Buy. You do get a great range of Smart TV apps regardless of the low entry price and we can think of very few entry-level smart televisions that come anywhere near matching the H5500.

Best Budget TVs of 2014

Finlux 65FTE242S-T

We have to admit that when we see such a big TV carrying such an affordable price-tag, our suspicions become aroused but, whilst it’s certainly not perfect, the 65TE242S-T did exceed our expectations. It has great blacks and contrast levels; the out of box colour accuracy will be more than sufficient for most and there’s a decent set of Smart TV apps, including Netflix, iPlayer and YouTube. The design is also pleasant and the build quality better than one would expect so it all combines in to a package well worthy of shortlisting in this category. We can’t stress enough that high quality sources are a must and standard definition is a complete no-no but if you’re a major Blu-ray buff on the look-out for bargain big-screen entertainment we would have no hesitation in recommending it to you

Best Budget TVs of 2014

Panasonic TX-48AS640B

The TX-48AS640B is a TV with a very attractive price-point this Christmas. You can actually pick one up for under £500, which is unbelievable value for a TV that performs so well. As well as the 48-inch model, there are also 42- and 55-inch models available, with prices beginning below £400. Unlike most of Panasonic’s LED TV range, this one provides deep native blacks so it’s not embarrassed when the lights go down and the True Cinema viewing mode is as faithful - in colour terms - to the source as you are likely to need. The AS640 also boasts an excellent Smart TV service, with plenty of video streaming services and handles film content at its native frame rate perfectly well. It’s also a pretty good 3D TV, too, so if that’s your thing, you’ll be well catered for there are free 3D glasses in the box. All in all, this is great all-round TV for a very keen price!

Best Budget TVs of 2014

Samsung UE55H6200

The UE55H6200 is currently available at around £650, which is tremendous value for a 55-inch TV of this quality. It displays all the Samsung’s familiar picture traits of strong video processing, satisfying contrast levels and lifelike colour accuracy. There is also Samsung’s superbly expansive suite of Smart TV apps to play with, including virtually all the video streaming services you could wish for, allied to a web browser, media player, PVR features and more. You also get designer looks, tremendous connectivity options and a helpful and easy to use control interface. The H6200 also comes in 32-, 40-, 58- and 60-inch versions, with prices beginning at just north of £300 for the smallest and a very reasonable sounding £949 for the 60-inch monster.

Best Budget TVs of 2014

Panasonic TX-48AX630

As an entry-level 4K TV, you would struggle to do better than the AX630. It boasts a winning combination of great blacks, accurate colours, excellent screen uniformity and generally superb video processing, on the picture front, and a host of well implemented Smart TV features as icing on the cake. Yes, there’s no 4K Netflix but there will be a raft of affordable Ultra HD media players along at CES 2015 and the price of the AX630 is such that you can factor in that outlay as part of your budget. The other thing to consider is the screen size in relation to UHD content and there’s no doubt you will get more benefit by going bigger but that’s something for your own eyes to decide. In short we were very, very impressed by this TV – more than we expected to be, in all honesty!

So there we have a handful of excellent value TVs for you to consider in the Christmas sales. Please let us know of any bargains you see while you're out and about in the comments section below.

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