So I have been doing a lot of research on my impending purchase of a 4K 55" TV since I broke my Panasonic Plasma VT20D but all of that have been theoretical with no physical inspection of the TVs at my end. Today I got a chance to visit Ambience Mall in Gurgaon to have a look at the TVs I have had shortlisted in the past month or so but I had no demo content so relied on playing the showroom content across the shortlisted TVs. I still havent made up my mind on what to buy hence in the below shortlisted TVs you will see a lot of different range of TVs. So my first visit was to Croma but :
1) iFalcon 55" - Cheap and supposedly reliable TV (Didnt see any option to demo this TV)
2) Panasonic 730D - (650D was available but not this one, 650D in comparison to all the other available TVs was, simply put lackluster)
3) LG C8 - In comparison to Sony 9000F which is a simple LED 4K TV, this TV fell flat in a couple of categories of picture quality. Price : 170K for now at Croma. Diwali offers might bring it down to 150K)
4) Samsung Q6 - A QLED TV available for 145K. Again not available for Demo
So out of my shortlisted products, none were available for demo. But a new one joined the league and it was the Sony 9000F.
5) Sony 9000F - Good brightness with good picture clarity. Blacks might not have been fully black but there were details which were very prominent around the dark areas. Clarity was better than LG C8. Color reproduction seemed better as well. This one seemed a clear winner even when pitched against LG OLED. Which was quite surprising since its just a normal LED.
So after moving out of Croma all confused, visited another multi brand showroom which was Reliance Digital. Again it has a nice setup but each brand has its own location, so it was a bit difficult to compare but this turned into a boon since I was more critical in my viewing and was able to notice more details as mentioned below.
1) Sony 9000F - Same result as above. By now it seemed like I should go for a Full Array LED rather than OLED but this LED TV was adjacent to Sony OLED which made me realise a new thing, my above thoughts of LGC8 lined up exactly with the Sony OLED as well, which is blacks on OLED might give great black level but due to that it loses clarity around the black area which is not supposed to lose clarity, eg. like a face which is lit from one side so the other side should be blackish but not so black that nothing is visible. With both LG and Sony OLED, blacks were losing details. another eg. a racoon's eyes is covered with black skin, with both the OLEDs racoon's eyes and surrounding area were just a full black patch.
2) Sony OLED - Because of their prices I am not interested in Sony as such hence didnt take interest in getting to know the model no. Great Vividity in colors is the only positive thing I can say about OLEDs. Blues looked unnaturally too blue, same with Red and yellow. It all looks good when some demo with various colors is going on, but something like a location with architectural details, makes this vividity look unnatural to me.
3) LG C8 - Same as above Sony OLEDs
4) Samsung Q6 - Out of all the TVs Samsung QLEDs to me looked to have the best balance of black details as well as color vividity.
So that was it for me in todays session, I will be taking my own content for my next visit which will be in first week of October when Diwali offers should be rolling out. Btw my budget is at best below 150K. Not a videophile at all hence my observations might be completely incorrect and terms used might be all wrong. I connect my PC to my receiver which in turn to the TV, hence didnt test sound or smart features of any of the TVs.
Do let me know any TVs that you guyz might have tested, or if any observations seem to be incorrect as per your experience, my goal is to use my budget wisely and get a TV which I can be satisfied with for a long time to come. So the more people share the better it will be.
1) iFalcon 55" - Cheap and supposedly reliable TV (Didnt see any option to demo this TV)
2) Panasonic 730D - (650D was available but not this one, 650D in comparison to all the other available TVs was, simply put lackluster)
3) LG C8 - In comparison to Sony 9000F which is a simple LED 4K TV, this TV fell flat in a couple of categories of picture quality. Price : 170K for now at Croma. Diwali offers might bring it down to 150K)
4) Samsung Q6 - A QLED TV available for 145K. Again not available for Demo
So out of my shortlisted products, none were available for demo. But a new one joined the league and it was the Sony 9000F.
5) Sony 9000F - Good brightness with good picture clarity. Blacks might not have been fully black but there were details which were very prominent around the dark areas. Clarity was better than LG C8. Color reproduction seemed better as well. This one seemed a clear winner even when pitched against LG OLED. Which was quite surprising since its just a normal LED.
So after moving out of Croma all confused, visited another multi brand showroom which was Reliance Digital. Again it has a nice setup but each brand has its own location, so it was a bit difficult to compare but this turned into a boon since I was more critical in my viewing and was able to notice more details as mentioned below.
1) Sony 9000F - Same result as above. By now it seemed like I should go for a Full Array LED rather than OLED but this LED TV was adjacent to Sony OLED which made me realise a new thing, my above thoughts of LGC8 lined up exactly with the Sony OLED as well, which is blacks on OLED might give great black level but due to that it loses clarity around the black area which is not supposed to lose clarity, eg. like a face which is lit from one side so the other side should be blackish but not so black that nothing is visible. With both LG and Sony OLED, blacks were losing details. another eg. a racoon's eyes is covered with black skin, with both the OLEDs racoon's eyes and surrounding area were just a full black patch.
2) Sony OLED - Because of their prices I am not interested in Sony as such hence didnt take interest in getting to know the model no. Great Vividity in colors is the only positive thing I can say about OLEDs. Blues looked unnaturally too blue, same with Red and yellow. It all looks good when some demo with various colors is going on, but something like a location with architectural details, makes this vividity look unnatural to me.
3) LG C8 - Same as above Sony OLEDs
4) Samsung Q6 - Out of all the TVs Samsung QLEDs to me looked to have the best balance of black details as well as color vividity.
So that was it for me in todays session, I will be taking my own content for my next visit which will be in first week of October when Diwali offers should be rolling out. Btw my budget is at best below 150K. Not a videophile at all hence my observations might be completely incorrect and terms used might be all wrong. I connect my PC to my receiver which in turn to the TV, hence didnt test sound or smart features of any of the TVs.
Do let me know any TVs that you guyz might have tested, or if any observations seem to be incorrect as per your experience, my goal is to use my budget wisely and get a TV which I can be satisfied with for a long time to come. So the more people share the better it will be.
