We knew the new Nokia 2.1 (2018) was coming soon, but now we know exactly when and how much it will cost you - at least in the UAE, where the phone is confirmed to be landing on August 8.
Sold across major retailers in the UAE, the Nokia 2 is powered by Android Oreo Go edition that has optimized for low spec phones with lower prices. The phone will cost you just 389 Dirhams in the UAE
Besides Android Go, the other highlight of the Nokia 2 (2018) is the large battery life. Equipped with a 4,000mAh battery, the new Nokia 2 is expected to last for two full days on a single charge.
The Nokia 2.1 is powered by the quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 processor with 1GB of RAM, 5.5-inch 720p screen, 8MP rear camera and 5MP front-facing snapper.
Like other Nokia handsets released in this year, expect premium craftsmanship and design. There’s only 8GB of built in storage but you do have a microSD card for additional space.
You’ll be able to grab the phone in three colors when it arrives August 8- Blue/Copper, Blue/Silver and Grey/Silver.
Canon has today announced the launch of the latest travel compact in its range, the PowerShot SX740 HS, replacing PowerShot SX730 HS that was released last year.
Like it predecessor, the SX740 HS comes packing a 40x optic zoom (equivalent to 24-960mm in 35mm terms) and a 20.3MP 1/2.3-type (6.17 x 4.55 mm) back-illuminated CMOS sensor.
However, Canon has finally let go of its penchant for including just Full HD video capture in its cameras, adding 4K Ultra HD video capabilities to the SX740 HS, which includes a 4K time lapse mode, with both allowing frame grabs of about 8MP in size.
The new travel compact also features Canon’s powerful Digic 8 image processor for speedy autofocus and a continuous burst speed of up to 10fps.
ISO sensitivity ranges from 80 to 3200, with a maximum of ISO 1600 in auto mode, and shutter speeds range from 1/3200 second to 15 seconds.
If you think a 40x zoom isn’t enough to take you closer to the action, then Canon’s ZoomPlus feature gives you 80x of digital zoom, but you’ll need to be prepared to sacrifice some image quality if you go beyond the reach of the optical zoom.
To keep things steady, however, Canon has added 5-axis image stabilization, which provides up to 3-stops of camera shake compensation.
The SX740 HS also shares the 3.0-inch tilting LCD display with its predecessor, which turns all the way around to face forward, making good use of the Self Portrait mode on the camera.
To make taking pictures quick and easy, the SX740 HS comes with a range of automatic settings, which include a Smart Auto shooting mode that has 29 scenes pre-programmed for auto detection.
An Hybrid Auto mode automatically creates a short movie with the day’s photos, while the Zoom Framing Assist adjusts the zoom or the focus to achieve the best composition.
There’s also Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity for easy transfer of images from camera to handheld device and a built-in flash that has a range from 50cm to between 2m and 4m, depending on the zoom position.
However, it does not support raw file capture.
The Canon PowerShot SX740 HS will be available from August in the US and the UK for $399.99 and £349.99, respectively.
In Australia, though, the SX740 HS will go on sale in early September and the price will be “set at dealer discretion”. If the price of the SX730 HS is anything to go buy, we can expect the Australian price to be at over the AU$500 mark.
The best hot tub in 2018 can be enjoyed year-round and should seamlessly slip into your life like you plan to slip into a warm, jet-filled jacuzzi. From inflatable hot tubs ideal for small spaces to acrylic tubs meant for the great outdoors (your backyard), we have outlined our picks for most soothing at-home spa solutions based on value and the best price.
You know what's not soothing? Figuring out which are the top hot tub brands and finding the best deals. There's no Apple, Samsung, or other household names to make recommendations easy. Instead, it's niche hot tub companies like Canadian Spa, Bestway, Coleman and Essential that offer a variety of great pop-up and full-sized tub choices.
Pause your neck and back pain for just a minute, and get yourself ready for our full-treatment hydrotherapy research with this up-to-date hot tubs list for 2018. It's based on our aquatic expertise, diligent research, and soaking wet wrinkled skin.
Don't be fooled by the black-and-white color scheme of this hot tub – it's the gold standard of acrylic hot tubs from the experts at Canadian Spa. It has a six-person capacity, 44 adjustable stainless steel jets and, just to show off, multi-colored LED mood lighting along the perimeter of the tub.
This over-the-top hot tub gets better with luxury features like LED pop-up speakers for the built-in digital audio system, an aromatherapy canister for soothing scents and even a cascading waterfall. This hot tub includes a hardtop cover, filters, and curbside delivery from most stores.
They call Paris 'the city of lights', so this aptly named inflatable hot tub from Bestway of course lights up with underwater LEDs. You'll fall in love. There are seven different colors for relaxing and soothing effects, according to the manufacturer, and it comes with an RF remote for control. There are 87 bubble jets inside this jacuzzi, and while it may not be the easiest to set up, it's one of the best pop-up hot tubs you can buy for under $500 / £600 today.
Intex makes one of the most affordable pop-up jacuzzis you can buy in 2018, with a sturdy puncture-resistant three-ply laminated material that holds up better than the low price suggests. It includes 120 bubble jets and holds 210 gallons of water. There are built-in handles on the side, making it easy to carry and move around (when it's empty, of course). You can relax in two ways: by sitting in this spa and knowing you didn't spend a lot of money to buy it.
The new Coleman SaluSpa Inflatable AirJet Hot Tub bucks the trend of circular hot tubs in favor of a more square-shaped design, but it's able to provide 114 air jets to pamper you in relaxing heated water, up the the 104 degree maximum temperature. This four-seater Coleman hot tub is rather new, so reviews are scarce on it. However, you may also find it under the Bestway brand and an older version in circular form. However, the 2018 has more jets and is easy to set up. Buy this one instead.
This spa from Essential Hot Tubs is very different from the rest because it's molded from premium-quality granite resin. That means it's the most durable option in our buying guide and a good pick if you're willing to spend a lot of money on an above-ground jacuzzi. It has 20 powerful stainless steel jets, contoured seating for up to five people (although five is a more reasonable max), has a heat pump that plugs into a normal outlet, and holds 241 gallons of water. Reviews indicate that the hard resin base gives it better insulation than inflatable hot tubs, but the cover is harder to keep snapped in place. It's the best hot tub if you're willing to spend and have the extra space.
Intex makes it onto our best hot tub list with a larger, though more expensive entry. It's an inflatable jacuzzi so you can still get a good deal on it, and it holds up to six people and more water than most: up to 290Gal (1097L). That's why you're paying a slight premium. The setup is easy enough on this one, but heating the tub is slow going. Despite that, it remains one of the better hot tub buys in 2018.
Having proven itself an invaluable tool for the scheduling of group meetings, Google Calendar has now made itself even more useful by introducing a new feature that promises to make appointment organizing more convenient for everyone involved.
Starting today for web users and available for mobile from August 13, Google has announced that invited meeting guests will now be able to propose an alternate meeting time along with an optional message, which the organizer can then review and approve at their leisure.
Users who've been invited to a Calendar event will now be presented with the option to 'Propose a new time' instead of choosing 'Yes', 'No' or 'Maybe'.
Depending on the organizer's chosen Calendar permissions, guests will be able to see the availability of other attendees, allowing them to pick a time that's right for all parties.
According to the search giant's blog post, the new feature “allows for richer communication between attendees, reduces time spent on meeting practicalities, and makes meetings more productive with key stakeholders in attendance.”
Available to all G Suite editions, the new feature is said to work across domains and will also allow Microsoft Exchange users to send and receive proposals.
Whether it’s going to keep the MacBook Air moniker or amalgamate into the MacBook 12-inch line, rumors are mounting for a 2018 refresh of an affordable, lightweight notebook from Apple.
The MacBook Air’s current model is sports a relatively archaic 5th-generation Intel processor, but reports from Taiwanese publication Economic Daily News, suggest that a new model is due later in 2018 and will use 8th-generation Kaby Lake Refresh processors.
These i5 and i7 quad-core CPUs were released late in 2017 and have base clock speeds ranging from 1.6GHz to 1.9GHz, with Turbo Boost speeds between 3.4GHz and 4.2GHz. This is obviously faster than the chipsets from 2015, but is it enough of an upgrade?
According to Economic Daily News, Apple isn’t keen on waiting until 2019 for Intel’s Cannon Lake chips (which use a 10nm process rather 14nm, greatly improving power, performance, and heat efficiency).
Apparently, Apple isn’t even willing to wait for Intel’s Whiskey Lake processors either, which should be replacing the Kaby Lake Refresh line in the coming months, pointing to an impending release date for the MacBook Air successor.
If this rumor is true, then the news is bittersweet – we will be seeing a MacBook Air launch sooner rather than later, but it’ll sport the previous generation of CPU.
The MacBook Air was one of the Apple’s most popular releases, but the most recent model is three years old at this point, and it hasn’t had a design refresh since 2010, so the growing rumors for a 2018 model would certainly be timely if true.
Instead, the 12-inch notebook that Apple just calls the MacBook started to take over this space from 2015 onwards, sharing many of the same design principles by offering a more affordable and lightweight alternative to the powerful MacBook Pro, albeit with weaker specs to start with.
As such, there’s still discussion as to whether or not the MacBook will well-and-truly replace the MacBook Air line, but no matter what form Apple’s latest affordable entry will take, we’re likely to hear more about it soon.
Right now, you'll find a pretty sizable amount of Disney-owned content on Netflix: From Moana and Coco to Star Wars: The Last Jedi, several original Marvel shows, various cartoon series, and more, there's no shortage of Bob Iger-condoned content.
But that probably won't be the case once 2020 roles around.
Disney will launch its own streaming service in 2019, and it's primed to be the destination for all things Disney, Marvel, and Star Wars—and maybe Fox too, as Disney's acquisition of its entertainment properties will conclude early next year. Netflix's deal for recent Disney movies concludes at the end of 2019, so the shift should be fully complete come 2020.
The new service will undoubtedly pack loads of existing content, but its biggest strength may be a heap of brand new, totally exclusive TV shows and movies that leverage Disney's many popular franchises. Two different Star Wars shows are coming, for example, and that's just the tip of the mouse-eared iceberg.
Wondering if you'll need to add another streaming video service to your monthly haul? Here's an early look at what to expect from Disney's streaming service, and why even Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video subscribers might be tempted to jump on in 2019.
Disney's streaming service will be an all-in-one Disney, Pixar, Marvel, and Star Wars video destination, packing plenty of existing movies and TV shows along with a stack of brand-new content.
Disney has been working on the plan for some time now, acquiring a controlling stake in streaming technology provider BAMTech in 2017 following a first investment the previous year. BAMTech spun out from Major League Baseball's streaming efforts and now powers platforms like HBO Now and ESPN+, so it knows a little something about on-demand video traffic.
Obviously, Disney has a massive heap of content in its archives: loads of movies, TV series, and cartoons spread across the Disney, Pixar, Star Wars, and Marvel brands. Fox's entertainment brands may well be folded into that, as well, given the pending deal.
Disney makes serious money (an estimated $300 million) putting its films and properties on Netflix and other services, but if the company can make an attractive-enough service to pull in millions of paying subscribers, then it could yield potentially much more income. And it gives Disney a new, exclusive platform for developing new content, whether it's with existing brands or original properties.
The service is expected to launch in late 2019, giving Disney plenty of time to court creators and then develop and produce new shows.
So just who will be able to tune into the House of Mouse's streaming service? A report from Deadline suggests that the service will first debut in North America before expanding internationally.
Disney plans to have four to five exclusive TV shows and four to five original movies ready for the late 2019 launch, which means there will be a large amount of fresh content available on day one.
Surely the most exciting original announcement so far is that of a brand new live-action Star Wars TV series—something that has been in the works in one form or another for ages. Jon Favreau (Iron Man, The Jungle Book) will both write and executive produce the show, with a storyline set three years following the events of Return of the Jedi.
It's not the only new Star Wars episodic content that'll be on the service early on, either. At San Diego Comic-Con 2018, Disney announced that a new, concluding season of animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars will also be on the service. We have to imagine that the existing episodes, currently on Netflix, will also join the fray.
We'll also get an original Marvel series, separate from the myriad shows already on Netflix and other platforms/channels, as well as a new Monsters Inc. project and a fresh take on the once-popular High School Musical franchise.
Many additional new shows and TV series have been rumored or reported on, but not officially announced as of this writing. Deadline suggests that projects based on Lady and the Tramp, Don Quixote, Sword and the Stone, and 3 Men and a Baby are in the works, along with other projects titled The Paper Magician, Stargirl, Togo, and Timmy Failure.
Deadline suggests that two films for the service were already in post-production as of February 2018: Magic Camp from director Mark Waters (starring Adam DeVine and Jeffrey Tambor), and Christmas-themed comedy Noelle from Marc Lawrence (featuring Anna Kendrick and Bill Hader).
All told, you can expect "thousands of hours" of Disney TV shows and films on the service, including existing content, and that new Disney, Marvel, and Star Wars films will be available to stream at some point following their theatrical releases.
No official details have been released yet, but Disney is clearly positioning the service as a lower-cost alternative to Netflix.
"I can say that our plan on the Disney side is to price this substantially below where Netflix is. That is in part reflective of the fact that it will have substantially less volume," said Robert Iger, The Walt Disney Company's chairman and CEO. "It'll have a lot of high quality [content], because of the brands and the franchises that will be on it that we've talked about. But it'll simply launch with less volume, and the price will reflect that."
In short: less content for less money, but there should be plenty of compelling stuff on offer. Iger also suggested that the price could rise gradually over time as the service expands, which is hardly surprising—Netflix's prices have risen alongside its pivot towards original content.
The Disney streaming service won't have content from outside of the Disney ecosystem, as far as we know. That might seem obvious enough, but services like Netflix and Hulu have such diverse offerings because of their wide partnerships and licensing deals.
Disney has plenty of content to draw from, especially if Fox content comes onboard as well, but this will still be a very Disney-centric offering. On top of that, there won't be any R-rated or adult-oriented content on the service. That stuff will go to Hulu instead, according to a report from Deadline.
Also, the Marvel original series on Netflix will stay where they are for the foreseeable future. "As long as they keep making those shows, they continue on Netflix," said Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos in early 2018. "Our Marvel series that Disney produces for us – we own those shows. They run until we cancel them." He added, "We get to use them for a very long time."
It's far too early to know exactly how the service will take shape, since we don't have a sense of the branding, availability of platforms, or final pricing—but the early signs are all promising.
Disney plans to tap into its estimable vault of franchises to create exclusive and potentially compelling new content, along with creating a single streaming service for watching all of the latest and greatest movies and TV shows from across the Disney creative ecosystem.
It'll have less content than Netflix, but a lower price is planned – and the Disney streaming service might be more appealing as an add-on to your current subscriptions, rather than a full-on replacement for Netflix or Hulu.
The Disney streaming service won't be as comprehensive or wide-ranging as some rivals, but Disney, Star Wars, and Marvel fans might have trouble resisting some of the original shows and movies coming down the pipeline. We're certainly excited to see what Disney has in mind for the live-action Star Wars series, above all, but other projects sound compelling as well.
Best TV Buying Guide: Feast your eyes on TechRadar's round-up of the best TVs money can buy in 2018.
There's no worse feeling than staring down an aisle of TVs at Best Buy and thinking, "Huh, these all look good."
We know the feeling – it seems like every TV that has looks great with its brightness cranked up and colors beyond oversaturation. In places like this it can be really hard to tell which TV is really good and which ones ... well, aren't.
We understand money's tight, and you'd rather just have someone who's really tested TVs give you the insider knowledge you need to make the perfect pick.
The good news? You've come to the right place.
Some screens really do outperform others, offering better contrast, higher clarity and new technologies like Wide Color Gamut (WCG) and High Dynamic Range (HDR) that will dramatically improve your TV watching experience.
We've tested them for ourselves and can now say with utter certainty which screens you should buy and which ones you should avoid. Our picks are listed below from the best-of-the-best to the still-fantastic – and unlike perusing the TV aisle at Best Buy, you can't go wrong with any of them.
This is a question we get a lot. Like most technology (cough, iPhones) TVs are getting incrementally better all the time – which means, yes, if you wait a year there will probably be a bigger, flashier TV out there for less money.
But while doing so will certainly net you a larger screen at a better price, some of the best panels are already being manufactured today. While tomorrow's screens might be a bit larger, a bit brighter and a bit cheaper, today's screens are just as competent in their own right.
We can say that with confidence knowing that most manufacturers have finally embraced the three most important standards in TVs: Ultra HD , Wide Color Gamut and HDR (HDR10 and, if you're lucky, Dolby Vision). If a TV you're looking at doesn't support at least one of these, you should probably look somewhere else.
Not sure where to start? Here are the best TVs we tested this year.
After an underwhelming debut, Samsung’s QLED technology really needed to bounce back in style in 2018. It didn't surprise us in the least, then, to discover Samsung threw the kitchen sink in with its new Q9FN QLED Series of TVs.
As well as being even brighter and more colorful than last year’s equivalent model, Samsung's 2018 flagship screens use a completely different lighting system to combat its predecessor’s contrast problems: Full Array Local Dimming rather than edge-lit LED lighting. The FALD panel works in tandem with Samsung QLED Quantum Dots to produce a picture that's brighter and more colorful than near any we've seen come from the South Korean manufacturer.
Do those features alone make Samsung Q9FN the best TV on the market? No, but throw in technology like HDR10+ and Q HDR EliteMax – what Samsung bills as its maximum High Dynamic Range experience that’s exclusive to the Q9FN – and there's very little doubt in our mind that this is Samsung's best TV ever.
Read the full review: Samsung Q9FN QLED TV (65Q9FN)
At the top of our list for 2018 is the LG C8 OLED – available in both 55 and 65-inch iterations. It's here because it combines an impressive picture, an extensive set of features, an attractive design and its unrivaled smart platform, to deliver one of the best TVs we have seen to date. It’s not as bright as an LCD TV but those deep blacks make a huge difference to the dynamic range of the image. It’s also capable of vibrant and gorgeous colors, not to mention an astounding level of detail with native 4K content.
There are other OLEDs worth considering this year (see: Sony's A1E and A8F OLED or LG's own E8 and W8 OLED models) but we think the OLED C7 offers the best price-to-performance ratio of any TV under the sun in the year 2018.
Read the full review: LG OLED C8 (OLED55C8, OLED65C8)
From the moment we laid eyes on the the XBR-65Z9D we’ve been desperate to get our hands on one. It is, hands down, the holy grail of television for 2018: a TV able to combine the extreme, high dynamic range-friendly brightness of LCD technology with a backlight arrangement capable of getting LCD closer than ever before to the stunning light control you get with OLED technology.
This backlight arrangement comprises more than 600 LEDs that sit behind the 65Z9D’s screen that are capable of outputting their own light levels independently of their neighbors. This should enable the TV to produce more of the extremes of light and shade associated with new high dynamic range (HDR) technology while suffering less than other LCD TVs with distracting clouds, stripes or halos of unwanted, extraneous light.
As if this wasn’t already attraction enough, the 65Z9D also sports Sony’s new ‘X1 Extreme’ video processing system and the latest version of Sony’s reliable Triluminos wide color technology for unlocking the extended color spectrums associated with HDR sources.
The LG W7 OLED is truly something special. Not only is it one of the thinnest TVs to ever grace our vision (it’s 2.75mm thin), but it’s also one of the most gorgeous. When fed the right kind of content – in this case, 4K HDR10 or Dolby Vision video – it truly shines. A super-slim design alone wouldn’t have been enough to warrant the extra cost to upgrade to LG’s latest panel. But the thin frame on top of a Dolby Atmos soundbar on top of four types of HDR support on top of the magnetic mounting system on top of the new webOS 3.5 operating system surely did the trick. This incredibly gorgeous TV isn’t without its faults (see: motion handling, its sticker price and soundbar issues), but in terms of sheer picture performance there’s nothing else like it right now.
If LG's OLED isn't your thing, spend some time checking out Sony's new OLED.
The 55A1 – and the A1 OLED series overall – are crowd pleasers in just about every way. Their ‘picture only’ design has been beautifully realized, managing to be simultaneously subtle and dramatic. Their vibrating screen delivers a far more powerful and effective sound performance than I’d thought possible, too. The real stars of the show here, though, are the A1’s exquisitely detailed, contrast-rich and colorful pictures. These prove emphatically what we’ve long suspected: More brands using OLED technology can only lead to good things.
OK, so you don't want (or can't afford) Sony's new A1E OLED or the fantastic-but-pricey ZD9. So what should you buy? Check out the X900E series. With superb 4K image clarity, powerful SDR-to-HDR remastering, and a smooth direct LED backlight, Sony is offering something very different with the X900F. We loved the consistency of its images, the eye-popping vibrancy of its wide color gamut panel and its easy-to-watch HDR – you get spectral highlights without accompanying eye fatigue.
Given this set’s high-but-fair price point, any niggles we have are negligible. The X900F is highly recommended and deserved our Recomendded award.
Read the full review: Sony Bravia X900F (XBR-65X900F) review
Having potentially pushed the hardware capabilities of its current OLED screen technology as far as they can go, LG has for 2018 turned its attention to the software that drives these screens - and this shift in focus has yielded surprisingly impressive results, improving and even removing many of the residual niggles associated with 2017’s already in truth outstanding OLED sets.
The OLED65E8 loses a bit of ground sonically from its predecessor, and there’s some stiff competition this year from Samsung’s new Q9FN flagship LCD TV, but all the growing legions of OLED fans will probably need to hear is that the OLED65E8 is comfortably the best OLED TV LG has ever made.
We've already recommended a couple of different OLED sets on this list, and the B7 is the most affordable of the bunch.
But rather than compromising on that glorious panel to hit a more wallet-friendly price point, LG has instead compromised on sound.
This puts the LG B7 in a slightly weird situation audio-wise. It technically supports Dolby Atmos, but played through its mediocre downward-firing speakers the technology lacks most of what makes it impressive.
Thankfully you're of course able to plug in an external sound system, and we'd advise you to do.
If that's something you're prepared to do then you'll find the B7 has every bit the talent of its more expensive siblings at a fraction of the cost.
Read the full review: LG OLED B7
If you had deep pockets and checkbook filled with blank checks, we’d tell you to reach deep and shell out for only the best TVs on the market - LG’s crazy-thin OLED W8 or Samsung’s ultra-bright Q9FN QLED (both featured on this list). But that’s not realistic. For the vast, vast majority of us, our budget to spend on a TV is limited to somewhere under $1,000 - and often less than that.
To that end, it’s absolutely fair to say that the TCL 6-Series is the best TV you can possibly get in this price range. Its performance per dollar is unmatched and its picture quality - despite a few minor flaws - will truly impress you.
Read the full review: TCL 6-Series (R615, R617)
The B&O BeoVision Eclipse is the full package. It’s smart, its picture looks awesome, and the sound-quality is stunning. But then there’s the price - $9,995, and that’s for the 55-inch model and doesn’t include the floor mount. If you go for the larger, 65-inch model, and want the floor mount, you’re looking at $15,595.
So should you buy it? Well, if you’re absolutely loaded, and want a TV that looks and sounds great, plus it fits in your ultra-modern home setup, then it’s not a bad option. If you’re willing to put a little more time into your setup, however, you may be better served simply buying an LG OLED TV and a dedicated surround sound system.
Read the full review: Bang & Olufsen BeoVision Eclipse
Continue on to page two to read about what to look for when buying a TV!
What TV technology is best? Which is the best LCD TV? Which screen size is best for your living room? What's the difference between LCD and LED TVs?
The answers aren't always obvious. In fact, buying a new TV can be stressful even for the tech-savvy - there are so many brands, so many features, so many screen sizes, colors, technologies and flavors to choose from.
So which one is right for you, your family and your living space? In this guide, we'll walk you through everything you need to know about buying a new TV.
There are a lot of different screen types out there, all working in different ways to produce the same results. Each technology has its own unique strengths and weaknesses so here are some basics to consider:
LCD TV: CCFL
Until recently, all LCD TVs were backlit by always-on, CCFL (cold cathode fluorescent) lamps. This ageing technology has been superseded by the superior LED method on more expensive sets, but is still standard on some cheaper models.
LED TV: Direct LED
These displays are backlit by an array of LEDs (light emitting diodes) directly behind the screen. This enables localised dimming – meaning immediately adjacent areas of brightness and darkness can be displayed more effectively – and greatly improves contrast. LED TVs are also more power efficient and capable of a wider colour gamut than CCFL sets. Because of the extreme cost of mounting these arrays of LEDs, Direct LED TVs have largely been out muscled by Edge LED...
LED TV: Edge LED
With these TVs, LEDs of the backlight are mounted along the edges of the panel. This arrangement enables radically slender displays and offers superior contrast levels to CCFL, but can't achieve the same picture quality as directly lit LED sets. However, they do come in far cheaper which is why most LED TVs out there now use this technology.
OLED TV
The backlighting on OLED (organic light emitting diode) sets is achieved by passing an electric current through an emissive, electroluminescent film. This technique produces far better colours and higher contrast and also enables screens to be extremely thin and flexible. This is the holy grail display technology and only in 2014 did a bigscreen OLED TV go on sale. So it's new, it's expensive and the top brands are still struggling to get their heads around it. To date, only LG has been able to release full sized OLED TVs.
Quantum Dot
As yet we're not quite at the stage where we're going to get self-emitting quantum dot LEDs, but they're a-coming. What we do have though is Samsung producing its Nanocrystal filter based on quantum dot technology to produce a seriously improved colour palette and contrast levels that get mighty close to the pinnacle of OLED.
Plasma TV
PDP (plasma display panel) TVs use glass panels containing millions of tiny cells filled with a mixture of inert gases. Electricity excites the gases, causing them to illuminate the pixels across the screen. Plasma, while arguably superior to LCD in terms of contrast and colour accuracy, is only viable on large (42in+) screens and has been dropped by all but a handful of manufacturers. You'll be lucky to find one on the shelves these days.
Curved TV
Some manufacturers are now making TVs that have slightly curved screens. But unlike old CRT TVs, the curve is inwards rather than outwards. The idea is that this makes every pixel equidistant from your eyes, delivering a more satisfying picture. However, there are drawbacks for this type of screen - the main one being that if you sit far enough to one side – more than 40 degrees or so – the curve clearly starts to affect the image's geometry, foreshortening content near to you and compressing the image's centre.
HD
HD TVs come in two resolutions. Sets with the HD ready are required to be able to display a minimum 720p picture, and generally has a screen resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels. Meanwhile, Full HD TVs have a higher resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. It's highly advisable that you don't go for anything less than full HD in this day and age.
Ultra HD and 4K
The resolution of Ultra HD is exactly four times higher than full HD - 3840 x 2160. It means a far more detailed picture, with content requiring a lot more bandwidth and storage space. 4K TVs tend to be good at upscaling HD video to Ultra HD but there are currently very few options for watching native 4K content. Read more about 4K.
HDR
Potentially the next big thing in TVs, HDR produces astounding levels of visual fidelity and can be found in some of the latest Ultra HD TVs. Arguably the shift to HDR video could make a more dramatic difference to your viewing experience than moving from HD to 4K. Like still HDR images, the moving version expands the range of both the light and dark ends of spectrum, providing more detail for both. HDR needs new filming methods though - at the moment there is no way to backfill HDR into existing video. It also needs new TV tech too, with Samsung the only ones to create specific screens, though LG and Sony are going be able to update some of their existing stock to be compatible.
Buying a flatscreen television is a major investment and one that you can't afford to take lightly. Just popping into the closest store and grabbing the first plasma or LCD you see won't get you the best deal, the screen that suits your needs, or the gear you require to make the most of your new purchase.
Size matters
People tend to pick the size of their flat TV based on the amount of space they have for it, this isn't necessarily wise. Flat TVs take up much less space than you might think, so your new TV may end up a foot or two further away from your viewing position, making the picture appear smaller.
Also, with hi-def, you can have a bigger screen and the same viewing distance without worrying about seeing blemishes inherent to the source. HDTV's lack of noise means that the ideal distance to sit from the screen is three to four times the height of the TV.
The trick here is to ensure that your TV is big enough to fill your line of vision, but small enough to be sharp and clear. Remember, if you intend to only watch standard-definition sources, the bigger the screen gets, the worse the image will look.
The ideal screen size can be calculated by multiplying the distance that you intend to sit away from it by 0.535 and then rounding this up to the nearest size.
So, if you sit 80in away from your TV, the ideal size is 42-inch (80 x 0.535= 42.8).
Features are too numerous to go into here, but here are some things you should consider.
Photo viewing: If you have a digital camera, a TV that has a slot for memory cards or a USB socket for a card reader will let you view your photos onscreen.
Here are some of the things we look for when we review a screen, so you should, too...
Contrast: Bright whites shouldn't have any signs of green, pink or blue in them, while blacks should look solid and not washed out, grey, green or blue.
Colours: Look at how bright and solid they are; how noiseless their edges are; how 'dotty' richly saturated areas are and how natural skin looks, especially in dim scenes.
Fine detail: How much texture does the screen give? Does a tree look like a green lump, or can you see the individual leaves
Edges: Check for ghosting, bright halos and jaggedness, especially around curves.
Motion: Check moving objects and quick camera pans for smearing or blurring, trailing, jerkiness and fizzing dotty noise.
Image artefacts: Look for blockiness, colour bands, grain, smearing, dot crawl: anything that looks like it's added by the TV picture processing or a weak TV tuner. Tinker with a TV's picture settings before making a final decision. Factory settings are rarely good for everyday viewing.
To provide the best audio to complement the pictures, your TV should be hooked up to a surround sound system, but this isn't always an option. So, here's what we listen for when testing a TV's speakers:
Bass: Deep, rounded rumbles that don't cause the set to rattle or speakers to distort, cramp or overwhelm the rest of the sound; but that expand when needed.
Vocals: Voices should sound open, rich and clear, not boxed in, nasal or thin.
Trebles: Treble effects should sound clean, rounded and smooth in loud scenes and shouldn't dominate the soundstage.
Soundstage width/depth: A good TV should throw the sound away from the TV, to the sides, forward and back, to give an extra dimension to what's on screen, without losing any coherence.
Taking the time to consider these questions will make choosing the best TV easier...
4K TVs are stunning and even though there is currently little native 4K content to enjoy, the good ones are able to upscale HD to 4K very well. That being said, unless you're buying a very large TV - we're talking 65-inches plus - full HD should be adequate.
This is dictated by the dimensions of the room where the TV is going and the amount of cash you're prepared to spend. As a general rule of thumb, work out how far from the set you'll be sitting (in inches), multiply that distance by 0.535 and then round up the result to the nearest screen size. Bear in mind that a decent smaller telly is often a more sensible investment than a larger, less accomplished one. And if you're going to buy a 4K TV, you can sit much closer because of the higher resolution.
For a living room TV you should be looking for a minimum of 3 HDMI inputs. If you want to attach a set-top box as well as games consoles etc, those HDMI ports will fill up fast.
Most new sets carry no more than two composite connections, while S-video is fast approaching obsolescence. Check that your new TV can hook up to older digiboxes, VCRs or DVD decks that you might want to plug into it.
First off, you'll need to consult a construction expert to check that the wall in question is strong enough to support a flatscreen. Then find out if the set you want is designed to be wall-mounted and, if so, ask if the relevant bracket is included in the basic package or as an optional extra.
If the answer is no, you might want to think more carefully about your set's audio performance. Look for a screen that can go as loud as you'll need without distortion or cabinet rattle. Consider how dialogue sounds and how much low-end rumble the bass is capable of.
Conversely, it's pointless paying out more cash for exceptional built-in speakers if you already have a decent home cinema system.
Happy shopping!
