Best Smart TV Reviews 2017

The price of a smart television will depend upon several things such as the picture quality, the sound quality, the construction and the size. When comparing one brand with another, both in terms of features and price, it’s important to make sure that you are comparing the same size for an accurate comparison. For example, a larger size TV that is of lower quality could cost the same as a smaller sized one that offers more features. When determining the budget for how much you want to spend, you will need to determine which is more important - picture and sound or size.

For the purpose of this review in terms of price comparisons, we tried to keep the size consistent but this wasn’t always possible (simply because there wasn’t any one size that all the brands had). We’ve chosen just to give model numbers and prices for either 60” and 40” sized smart TV’s but you can always click one of our links to see prices for the other sizes the model comes in.

When it comes to the features that are important in a smart television, we have already covered the important ones – good picture, good sound and good capabilities for watching things beyond what you get from a cable/tv service provider. But sometimes a manufacture will offer something extra – like a REALLY great remote control, options for wall mounting (along with the necessary hardware) or maybe it’s a technology that makes that particular TV stand out from the rest.

Another feature that better quality TVs will offer is the ability to connect with other systems and will have the ports necessary – especially a few HDMI and USB ones, as well as ones for external audio.

As with all products, the actual physical construction of a television is important. One that is built from better materials will last longer and will have less chances of having parts like knobs and connections break. And yes, the size of a TV is also important to consider – just because you can afford the biggest TV on the market, doesn’t mean it will fit in your room – or even if you can manage to get it in there, that doesn’t mean that watching it will be pleasurable up close.

Beyond these two obvious considerations, there are three other things that you need to look at when you are picking out your new smart television – picture quality, sound quality and smart functionality. For the purpose of our review, we are going to discuss the smart features in the performance and ease of use section.

Before we go any further, we want to emphasize something that will impact your final decision about what smart TV to purchase, especially if you are on a budget. Part of this decision is the same thing that you need to think about when buying any television -- we already mentioned it, but it bears repeating. What’s more important to you, having great picture and great sound or the size of the TV? But when choosing a smart TV, there is another question to ask – what’s more important, the picture and sound that a TV provides, or how many smart functions it has and how easy they are to use. Some people want a really great TV and see the smart functions as a bonus. While others are primarily looking for the smart functions – perhaps because they are even considering saving money in the long run by dropping their cable or television provider.

The good news is that in this review we take a look at a mixture of TVs that offer some of each. We have televisions that offer ultra definition picture quality with Dolby sound and some decent functions, we have affordable smart TVs that have up to 3,000 streaming options and a good quality picture (but not necessarily hi def) and we have ones that offer all three (great picture, sound and smart functions).

For more information about what to look for in terms of image and sound quality, we recommend taking a look at our review of the best high definition TVs – all that information applies here too, but for this review we are focusing on the smart functions.

As we have already discussed, the better the picture and sound quality that a television offers, the happier you will be with it. Good quality high definition TVs are made so that the picture looks good whether you are watching it from across the room, or up close. It will also sound great at any volume. It might have built in surround sound, or maybe it will even have the audio ports to connect an external sound system. All this is a given – a good quality, traditional TV should provide you with an excellent home entertainment experience – but let’s cut to the chase. You came here for information about SMART TELEVISIONS!

Because they connect you to the internet, this type of a television is also called a connected TV (or even a hybrid TV) – older versions (or less expensive ones) integrated Web 2.0, but the latest models offer Web.3.0 features. Just about every one will let you stream shows and movies from services such a Netflix, Amazon Video, Hulu and Pandora (each with their own separate fees). Others will give you access to Roku and/or Google Play. In addition to these “classic” entertainment apps, depending upon the television you get, you will get other apps that give you access to things such as YouTube, social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, games, customizable home pages as well as full internet browsing capability.

When choosing which smart tv is right for you, especially if you are going to use it for more than streaming Netflix or Roku movies, you need to look at the user interface. Is it easy to navigate and intuitive? Can you move things around so that you have easy access to your favorites? What about “typing” – since the remote is going to be used for this, is it easy to use?