Apartment Therapy Unplugged | Good Question: Best LCD on a Budget

Good Question: Best LCD on a Budget

2007_03_26 lcd tv.jpg Dear AT: Home Tech,

I have had a regular old Sony television for the last 10 years and want to join the modern, teched out, yuppiefied flat screen revolution, but need some super simple basic advice.

I've got a budget of around $600 and I want a good, not too big flat screen television - you know, the skinny kind, not the flat screen with the big behind kind - and I don't want to be confused.

Can you give me three tips and three choices (please include any links you think helpful, as I am into doing a little research).

Best,
Flat Sally

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Hi Flat Sally,

For about $600 you will probably get the best bang for your buck with some of the lesser known manufacturers. You won't be able to get a 1920 x 1080 resolution tv at this price but 1366 x 768 should be within your grasp and still give you very good picture quality. Also look for the highest contrast ratio and fastest refresh rate (measured in ms on the spec sheet) you can find. These have a big impact on your viewing experience.

Three sets worth looking at are:
• Olevia - best specs for the price
• Westinghouse - a little over $600 but you should be able to pick it up on sale
• Insignia

Anyone out there have some other alternatives for Sally to look at?

Comments (6)

I just purchased an Olevia 432V from supergoodeals.com at a stupid low price- $585 when Amazon had the same model listed for $799. Olevia is top notch-and I believe they arte the #2 producer of lcd tv's in China. They have fantastic customer service and the TV's can be upgraded so to never be obsolete. They are easily comparable with Sony's at double the price. I cannot reccomend them enough.

Be aware though, the 3xx series do not come with tuners- they are monitors only

posted by Julian on March 26th 2007 at 7:43am
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Ryan, this is a great question and a great answer. What if you had up to $1000? would the extra $$ make a difference?

posted by Maxwell on March 26th 2007 at 2:44pm
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Any time I want to shop for electronics, I always check the deals at techbargains.com... saved a lot of money finding some good user-posted deals with them.

By the way, got my Philips 30" LCD on a tip from them... through the Philips Outlet - it was a refurbished model. Works great and it was quite inexpensive for the quality and features.

Good luck!

posted by MattPDX on March 27th 2007 at 2:53pm
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I was at Fry's to get an oleiva that I'd seen there before when I saw a Toshiba for $50 more at the same resolution so we got that. I love the picture quality.

posted by JulieR on March 27th 2007 at 7:55pm
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Maxwell - Good question. I think for the extra $400 you are either moving into the name brand manufacturers (Sony, Panasonic) at the same size or a bigger set for the smaller manufacturers. It's a tricky call because you are still in the same resolution range (not 1920 x 1080 yet) so it really comes down to what looks better to you both aesthetically and picture quality wise.

posted by Ryan on March 28th 2007 at 10:06am
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I have a 27" Olevia and the Infrared reader failed twice. The first time it was under warranty and they had to fix it; the second time they wanted to charge me $250 to have someone come to my house to fix it. With no guarantee that it won't fail again, my best option is to replace it with a grown up LCD.

posted by Andrea on August 16th 2007 at 9:08am
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