TV's

Choosing a TV for the living room, hotel room, office or restaurant

The TV is the centre of most living rooms and a common feature in offices, restaurants, hospital wards and hotel rooms. Choosing one is a balance of size, panel technology, smart platform and price; choosing the right one for the room and the use depends mostly on getting size and panel right, with everything else as second-tier decisions.

What this category covers

Consumer 4K TVs from major brands; commercial-class TVs with longer manufacturer warranty and management features; OLED, QLED and Mini-LED panels; standard LED LCD as the budget option; gaming-focused TVs with high refresh rate and low input lag; and smaller bedroom and kitchen TVs in 32 to 43-inch sizes.

How to choose a TV

Pick the size for the seating distance

For 4K content, comfortable viewing distance is around 1.5 times the screen diagonal. A 55-inch TV works at about 2 metres seating distance; a 65-inch at 2.5 metres; a 75-inch at 3 metres. Going larger than that range turns the TV into a wall, which suits home cinema but not casual viewing.

Match the panel type to the room and content

OLED is unbeatable in a dimly lit room: perfect blacks, infinite contrast, fast pixel response. Mini-LED has the brightest highlights and excellent HDR for daylight rooms. QLED is the bright, vivid option for typical living rooms. Standard LED LCD is the budget tier, fine for casual viewing.

Confirm the smart platform

Google TV, Samsung Tizen, LG webOS and Roku TV are the major platforms. Each has different app coverage and update lifespans; check that the apps the user relies on (Netflix, Disney+, local broadcasters, Plex) are supported. For long-term flexibility, treating the TV's built-in smart platform as optional and adding a streaming box later is the safer plan.

Plan the audio

Built-in TV speakers are competent at low volume and limited under it. A soundbar or full surround system improves the experience dramatically. Specify the soundbar alongside the TV; trying to add good audio later usually means living with mediocre TV speakers in the meantime.

Key features to compare

HDR support

HDR10 is the baseline, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision are dynamic-metadata variants that look better on supporting content. The visible difference is most striking in well-mastered streaming and Blu-ray content; broadcast TV is mostly still SDR.

Refresh rate and input lag

60 Hz is fine for most viewing. 120 Hz matters for sports, gaming and very fast content. Low input lag matters for gaming with fast-twitch titles; for casual gaming it does not.

Connectivity

Modern TVs include 3 to 4 HDMI inputs, 1 to 2 USB ports, an Ethernet port, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. HDMI 2.1 on at least one input is the modern minimum for 4K at 120 Hz from a games console or PC.

What to check before buying

• Screen size matched to typical seating distance?
• Panel type appropriate to the lighting (OLED for dim, QLED/Mini-LED for bright)?
• Smart platform supports the apps the household actually uses?
• Soundbar or surround system planned alongside?
• HDMI 2.1 inputs sufficient for the source devices?

Frequently asked questions

Is OLED still the best TV technology?

For perfect blacks and contrast, yes. For peak brightness in a daylit living room, Mini-LED has caught up and exceeded OLED in some areas. For most viewers in typical lighting, the difference is smaller than the price suggests; QLED and Mini-LED are excellent and avoid OLED's burn-in concerns for static logo or signage use.

Will a TV from a few years ago still be supported?

Hardware support continues for a long time; software support varies by brand. Premium TVs typically receive 4 to 6 years of major firmware updates. After that, apps may stop receiving updates and new streaming features may not arrive. The TV continues to play video; it just stops getting new platform features.

Do I need 4K if I mostly watch broadcast TV?

For broadcast and over-the-air content, 1080p is what you actually receive in most countries. 4K still helps because the TV upscales the broadcast signal to fill the screen, with results varying by the TV's processing quality. For a TV that will also play 4K streaming and Blu-ray, 4K is the right choice.

What is HDR and is it really visible?

HDR (High Dynamic Range) widens the brightness range a TV can show, with deeper shadows and brighter highlights, and a wider colour gamut. On well-mastered HDR content (Netflix premium, Apple TV+, 4K Blu-ray), the difference is clear. On standard content, HDR mode adds little. Modern TVs handle the switch automatically.

Can I use a regular TV in a meeting room?

Mechanically yes; in practice for occasional use it is fine, but a meeting-room TV running 8 hours a day for years pushes a consumer TV past its rated daily duty. Commercial-grade TVs and signage displays are rated for that schedule and ship with longer manufacturer warranty. For meeting rooms used continuously, choose commercial.