For many people who are shopping for an LCD TV, the key issue is price. Other people are looking for the best picture and perhaps sound quality, or a certain set of features (e.g Full HD, HDMI, 1080p, LED display etc).
On the issue of price, the good news is that the traditional big brands - Sony, Samsung, Philips, LG, Panasonic, Sharp etc - are becoming more price competitive. In fact, the big brands are becoming so price competitive, that the so-called cheap LCD TV brands are not necessarily cheaper than the major brands, especially in the current economy, where the big brands are competing hard.
For example in a recent review by Choice of 42 inch / 106 cm LCD and Plasma TVs the cheapest was from Sanyo followed by a Samsung model than Panasonic and Philips.
Some cheap LCD TV brands (which are sometimes also called "no name" or "value" brands) may be available in only one country, or just a few countries, whereas some others are available around the world. LCD TV brands in this category include Vizio, Kenmark, Viewsonic, Kogan, Syntax, TCL, Polaroid, UMC, Olevia, Daewoo, Westinghouse, iLO, Goodmans, TEAC, Norcent and Zenith?
Of these brands Vizio is the most successful by far. Based on US sales figures, Vizio sold 21.6 percent of total LCD TVs shipped in the first quarter of 2009. This is a 50% increase from the 13.8 percent market share Vizio achieved in the fourth quarter of 2008. As such Vizio has now become the top-selling LCD TV brand in the U.S
Anyway the question of interest to most people about cheap LCD TVs is are they any good? The answers to that question revolve around what are the buying criteria that are important to you. A low or at least competitive price is obviously important to most people, but what do you trade off to get a lower price?
If you check out reviews of cheap LCD TVs, you'll see that some people love them, others hate them. Some customers never have a problem with their TVs, but others have failures and then have problems with customer support trying to get their issues resolved.
In the July 2008 issue of Popular Mechanics they compared the Samsung LN40A650 LCD TV against the VU42LF Vizio LCD TV. At the time of the review, the Samsung was more than twice the price of the Vizio at ($2700 vs $1100).The reviewer concluded that although the Vizio looked good by itself, when compared side by side with the Samsung the (large) difference in price was justified.
So here is our LCD TV buying guide and tips:
1. Define your buying criteria - size, features, budget range etc. Write these down in priority order (so you know what you might be willing to give up first if price is an issue).
2. Use LCD TV reviews from the internet and elsewhere to create a shortlist of which LCD TVs meet your buying criteria. (Review sites such as epinions.com are good for this).
3. Go and see the shortlist in a store "in the flesh". Ideally see the LCD TVs on your shortlist side by side or at least within a short period of each other using the same source material. i.e take a favorite DVD with you and spend at least a few minutes watching it on each LCD TV.
4. It won't be unusual to find the TV that you like the best is not in your budget range. If this is the case, find a second best choice that is within your budget.
5. Once you have a shortlist of LCD TVs that you'd be happy to take home, you can now negotiate the best deal. Remember the internet is not necessarily the cheapest.
Also watch out for internet scam artists, because unfortunately, there are plenty of these around. Before you buy from an unknown internet retailer, research who they are and what their track record is like using sites such as resellerratings.com and ripoffreport.com.
Good shopping!
Chris runs http://www.lcdtvcenter.com which provides LCD TV reviews buying tips and market news. So next time you're in a shop looking at a wall of twenty, seemingly identical LCD TVs you'll know how to buy the best one for yourself.
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