50"-60" TVs

50" to 60" TVs

This is the standard size for a main living room television and the largest collection in the range, covering 50, 55 and 60 inch. 55 inch is the size most people land on, and for good reason: it is large enough for a proper film at a normal three metre viewing distance, it is the size every manufacturer builds their full line-up in, so the choice is widest here, and the price gap up from 50 inch is usually smaller than the gap from 55 to 65. Choose 50 inch for a smaller sitting room or where the wall is tight, and 60 inch where you want a noticeably bigger picture without moving the sofa. Because every manufacturer competes hardest at this size, nearly every panel technology appears in this one collection, which makes it worth understanding what you are paying for. Crystal UHD and standard 4K LED sit at the value end and are a good picture in a normally lit room. QLED, Nanocell and QNED add colour depth and, on the QNED sets, local dimming. Mini LED splits the backlight into thousands of independently controlled zones, which is what gives deep blacks in a dark room while still going very bright for daytime viewing, and Micro RGB is the newest step above that. OLED sits at the top, lighting each pixel on its own for true black rather than dark grey, and both LG and Samsung run their full OLED lines at 55 inch. If the room gets a lot of daylight, prioritise brightness and a glare-free finish over the panel name. For gaming, look for 120Hz or 144Hz with HDMI 2.1, which is standard on the OLED and Mini LED sets here. Every set carries a DVB-T2 tuner for Saorview off an ordinary aerial, with RTE Player and Virgin Media Player on the smart platforms.

LG is the deepest range at this size, running OLED through the B6, C6 and G6 Evo AI series, Mini LED and QNED through the QNED7E, QNED72 and QNED86, Nanocell through the NU85 and NANO81, and standard 4K through the UA75, at both 50 and 55 inch. Samsung matches it with OLED in the S85H, S90H, S95F, S95H and the S99H with art mode, Neo QLED and Mini LED in the QN70H and M70H, Crystal UHD in the U7000H and U8000H, the R85H Micro RGB, and The Frame Pro for a screen that displays artwork when it is off. Hisense is the value alternative across the A6Q, E7Q, E7N Pro, U6N and the U71Q Mini LED. Walker and Telefunken cover the budget end at 50 and 55 inch with 4K Tivo and DLED Google TV models. The full size ladder is in TVs.

This is the size band where a sale changes what you can afford rather than just what you pay, because a 55 inch set from last year's range will frequently undercut a new 50 inch, and stepping back one model year costs you nothing in picture quality. Black Friday and Cyber Monday bring the deepest television reductions of the Irish year and this is where most of the volume goes. Prices are live all year, so see what is reduced now on TVs on sale.