55" 4K TV under $1000

Lotlandon on 05/05/2021 - 12:07
Last edited 05/05/2021 - 13:10 by 1 other user

Hi all, hopefully can point me in the right direction here.

I'm looking for a 55" 4K TV to replace our non-smart 40" Samsung (6 years old).

The plan is to continue to use our current Amazon 4K Fire TV stick for all our streaming services and Plex etc, so the smartness of the TV does not really matter as the remote will go straight into the drawer and the TV will always just boot up to the Firestick. Not a gamer and watch mainly streaming TV series rather than movies.

I've been tempted by this LG as the reviews seem great and my local Harvey Norman have it for $895.

However, looking at it today, I'm tempted by this Akai at $595. It seems to have terrible reviews but most of that seems to around the old smart OS which is not really an issue to me.

So my question to the forum experts would be, taking the badge and the smart features away, is what you're left with essentially the same standard 4K TV or is there still a difference in quality? All the specs seem quite similar to a novice like me.

PS. Other smaller considerations, if I wanted to add a Dolby Atmos soundbar in the future, I know the LG supports this but the Akai seems vague. Plus, perhaps counter intuitively, the Akai comes with a 3 year warranty but the LG only 12 months.

Thanks in advance!

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  CrispyChrispy on 05/05/2021 - 12:11

  +1

  I got a 4K Aldi 65', surprising good for ~$600. I think they now have 75' for around that price range.

  • 

    trinkasharma on 05/05/2021 - 16:12

    I got one from Aldi 4 years ago. Non smart but very good.

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  Drakesy on 05/05/2021 - 12:18

  +3

  Don't go the Akai.
  TCL or Hisense at this price point imho.

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  Hithere on 05/05/2021 - 12:39

  +4

  I purchased a TCL 65" 4K Android TV for under $1000 recently, comes with 3 year warranty, a better brand than Akai.

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  HolyFosh on 05/05/2021 - 13:23

  Jb has a 65 inch Hisense for 995.

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  otlandon on 05/05/2021 - 13:59

  +1

  Thanks all for the comments so far, but 55" is the biggest I can go within the room.

  It does sound like both TCL and Hisense would be a better than the Akai but are they really a better option than the LG? (smart OS aside)

  Does anyone have any experience of this particular LG model?

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  freefall101 on 05/05/2021 - 15:42

  I recently went through the same thing (7 year old samsung) and went with the Hisense Q8. I was a bit over $1k ($1100 in an ebay sale) but it's a TV I definitely paid for quality of display, not gimmicks. Software is crap, sound is crap, but it's a full array local dimming which is impossible to get on any TV under $1000. Blacks are fantastic, image quality is amazing, does proper dolby vision stuff. This will be my TV for the next 5 years then I'll switch to 8k microled/oled or whatever is the go then.

  Only issue I've had is I use a PC and getting upscaling or any video cleanup to work with that is a pain, but that's the same for all PCs. I need to get a streaming box of some sort that automagically does it rather than direct from the PC, which is a bit of a pain. Also can't connect bluetooth headphones directly to the TV which is something I figured all TVs should be able to do.

  On a soundbar, anything should work, depends on the source of the audio. If the TV is doing any processing itself it might not be able to decode Dolby Atmos or something though and come out as 5.1 instead.