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

J

john_dikeman

Enthusiast
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

BMXTRIX

Audioholic Warlord
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...

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...

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

j_garcia

Audioholic Jedi
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.
 

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