32 inch smart tv, Samsung the Frame vs LG or TCL etc...

[john_dikeman]

We're looking to put a tv in our downstairs guest room. It's mostly for my girlfriend and her mother that may visit sometimes. My girlfriend initially said she doesn't care about picture quality until we bought an Edenwood 32 inch LCD smart tv for €140, literally the cheapest tv we could find. It not only looks horrible, but the smart features are terrible as well. The Netflix app is currently stuck in the eternal loading circle and turning it off and on didn't help. I have a feeling to get it out of it we'll need to unplug and reset the whole TV.
So, I'm planning to return it tomorrow.

I'm trying to find a better 32 inch smart tv and learning, they don't really exist.

Options near me include second hand LG, Phillips and Sonys from a reputable store for around 200. There's also a store in the Netherlands with a sale on the Samsung Frame for 330.

I'm just curious, will the Samsung look better than the LG? It is much closer to the wall so that'd be a plus.

Any suggestions are most welcome.

 

[BMXTRIX]

Not sure your location, but I often recommend that people get Roku televisions for guest rooms. The TV quality is only so-so, but the integrated Roku functionality is often excellent and fully meets the needs of the client. There are TVs in the USA made by Hisense and TCL which are both pretty solid performers. Not great, but decent.

To your actual question, there is very little in this small of a size which would be considered 'great'. The size is generally not super popular in the USA for sure. Would the Samsung Frame be 'better'? Likely a little bit. But, I wouldn't spend much on a 32" television. You could also consider that instead of using internal 'smart' apps, you could just buy a external streaming box like a Roku or AppleTV to feed the TV content from Netflix and other streaming services.

There are many articles about this, but generally internal 'smart' functionality is pretty lousy, and in a few years, when everything upgrades, the internal smart functions can become unsupported or obsolete, or just very slow to run. This is when an external streaming device, like a Roku Ultra can be very useful. I would get the Sony for around $200 if that was my only option.

But, I'd more likely buy one of these with Roku integrated...

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/searchpage.jsp?_dyncharset=UTF-8&browsedCategory=pcmcat1513872418342&id=pcat17071&iht=n&ks=960&list=y&qp=brand_facet%3DBrand~Roku%5Ebrand_facet%3DBrand~TCL%5Echild_tvscreensizeplus_facet%3DTV%20Screen%20Size~32%20inches%5Esmartplatform_facet%3DSmart%20Platform~Roku%20TV&sc=Global&st=pcmcat1513872418342_categoryid%24abcat0101001&type=page&usc=All%20Categories

Being really honest, I'd look long and hard at the 32" TV and figure out if it actually is large enough to see from across a bedroom. I know I had a 42" TV in my guest bedroom and it was not only too small to really see stuff from across the room, it was an older TV that wasn't that bright. I ended up replacing it with this 58" model which I got for under $200 when it was on sale...

Robot or human?

I've been using it for a year or two now, and it still is very solid. It's not as good as my main family room television, but for the money, it's great.

 

[j_garcia]

I would not go less than a ~46" as well. In fact, if you look at prices, 32" - 40" being less common these days are actually as much or more expensive than the larger models. Hisense, TCL and the Amazon branded Fire TVs can be had pretty inexpensively, and 55" is probably the sweet spot for cheap TVs right now.

 

[mixTape]

I would not go less than a ~46" as well. In fact, if you look at prices, 32" - 40" being less common these days are actually as much or more expensive than the larger models. Hisense, TCL and the Amazon branded Fire TVs can be had pretty inexpensively, and 55" is probably the sweet spot for cheap TVs right now.

My experience says, that almost all built-in smart tv sucks. If you add some android tv box or stick like Roku express, you get much faster interface with greater possibilities

 

[j_garcia]

My experience says, that almost all built-in smart tv sucks. If you add some android tv box or stick like Roku express, you get much faster interface with greater possibilities

We all know that, but this is what the OP asked for.

 

[mixTape]

What about something like SAMSUNG M5 Series 32 (This is a display with built-in smart-tv). The price is near 250 euro.

 

[sholling]

There is no reason to reject apps included in smart TVs out of hand, although you may want to supplement/replace them later with an external streaming device if they stop updating. What I have found is that most bargain priced Roku and Fire TVs have ok but unspectacular pictures and speakers - as expected from bargain TVs. Those are things that you will need to spend time comparing for yourself so you can decide for yourself what level of goodness your guests can live with. While it's easy to spec-out $1000 (I'm American) TVs and $1000 soundbars they often make little to no sense in niche applications. I would not spend over $300 on a TV for a guest/MIL room and would not want more than one remote control for them to learn/use/lose.

I recently purchased a 32-inch TV for a very niche application. After spending a happy couple of hours comparing TVs at a chain electronics store, I settled on a Vizio smart TV with a Vizio soundbar and came in under budget. I just preferred the picture over all of the Roku and Fire TVs in my price range. The built-in speakers sucked (they all did in sub-$200 TVs) and the 22" 2.1 soundbar was on sale. When Vizio stops updating their apps I'll plug in a Roku or Google TV box, but the included apps are fine for now. Good luck.

 

[Hobbit]

I bought a $100 32" Philips Roku TV from Walmart last year to put in front of my Wahoo Kickr exercise bike. Picture quality is pretty good. I expected it to be OK with such a small screen. The part that surprised me was how snappy the Roku functioned. A definite improvement from older smart TVs where the smart part was too slooooow to use.

I did start using the free Flex streaming box I got from comcast, however. The picture quality is definitely more vibrant than from the TV's built in Roku when streaming apps. But it wasn't bad at all from the Roku TV.

 

[Wardog555]

Computer monitor with a external media player and av receiver is the best option here for a good quality screen.