There are almost no upper price limits when buying a television. The trend is towards ever larger devices with ever sharper resolutions.
On Amazon Prime Day you have the opportunity to purchase TV sets at discounted prices. However, the offer is huge. Here you can find out the most important things about the current models – and what you should know about the Amazon Prime Day offers in general.
Can you save money on Amazon Prime Day? At least that’s not true for all product categories. Data from previous years shows that many products are only minimally discounted. “Mega super bargains are the exception rather than the rule,” says the comparison portal Idealo. However, if you look closely, you can find these exceptional deals.
Buying a TV in particular can be very lucrative. No other product category has been so heavily reduced in recent years. On Prime Day 2018, the average saving when buying a television was 140 euros. Sometimes there are also offers where the price is reduced by several hundred euros.
Many nice discounts can also be found from the Samsung TVs. These models are reduced by up to 50%. So it’s worth hitting.
Samsung Crystal UHD 4K television: 85-inch screen, Crystal processor 4K and HDR* for 1,249 instead of 2,099 euros – you save 850 euros (-40%)
Samsung QLED 4K Q70A television: 55-inch screen, Quantum HDR, 4K and Quantum processor 4K* for 749 instead of 1,299 euros – you save 556 euros (-42%)
Samsung Neo QLED 8K QN800B television: 75-inch QLED screen, Quantum HDR 2000, Neural Quantum processor and Dolby Atmos* for 4,166 instead of 5,699 euros – you save 1530 euros (27%)
You should choose the size of your TV based on the picture resolution you prefer, how close you are to the TV and, of course, how much space is available to you. The best-selling TV size is currently 55 inches, as you can expect the best picture quality for the price here. The devices are large, but not huge yet, so well-suited to the regular living room.
Size also plays an important role in image quality. If you choose a small or medium-sized TV, it should be sufficient to use a Full HD device. From a size of 48 inches, however, it is advisable to choose a 4K resolution, otherwise the image can become very grainy. Incidentally, if you want to save energy, you should opt for a small model – the larger the screen, the more power is consumed.
When it comes to smart TVs, there are big differences in quality and functionality. A smart TV should have all the apps that the user needs to stream online content, such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Youtube and the media libraries of the public broadcasters.
However, one should be careful with the term “smart TV”, because there is no uniform definition of what exactly makes a television “smart”. For example, some manufacturers sell devices under the name that only have a WLAN connection, but are otherwise by no means smart. There are also providers who enter into partnerships with streaming services such as Netflix or Amazon in order to be able to use their offer, but otherwise have no other apps.
A smart TV also needs a CI slot and HDMI connections in order to be able to connect game consoles and Blu-ray players. Connections that allow the TV to be connected to your own network via USB are also useful. Many devices also have a Bluetooth function.
A clear argument for buying an LED television is the price. Compared to QLED and OLED sets, these TVs are relatively affordable, yet they deliver images with rich colors and strong contrasts.
The QLED technology developed by Samsung is particularly popular at the moment. Compared to LED technology, it offers the advantage that the image can be seen equally well from all angles. The brightness is also improved with QLED devices, so that dark film scenes can be displayed in great detail.
With OLED televisions, each individual pixel is a light-emitting diode. This creates an intensive image with rich contrasts and lively colors. However, caution should be exercised with these devices – if a still image is displayed for several hours, it may burn into the screen.
Users of 4K televisions get an extremely high resolution. 4K stands for an image resolution of 4096 x 2160 pixels and is a term that comes from the cinema sector. However, since most televisions have an aspect ratio of 16:9, manufacturers also use the term “4K” for devices with a resolution of 3840 × 2160 pixels.
Such televisions are often referred to as “UHD” as a synonym. The abbreviation stands for “Ultra High Definition” and describes the resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels. 4K and UHD sets the current standard on the market.
If you want to use your TV for gaming, you should get a particularly powerful device: For a good gaming experience, the input via the controller must be transferred to the screen extremely quickly.
This places high demands on the TV set. When buying, you should also make sure that the device has an HDR function (high dynamic range), and a high refresh rate is also important for a good gaming experience.
Prime Day lasts a full 48 hours this year. Strictly speaking, one should rather speak of “Prime Days”. Originally, the discount campaign only took place on one day, which is why the term Prime Day has become established.
However, the online mail order company already increased the promotional period to 48 hours in 2019. Amazon has been running the online discount campaign since 2015 and has presented more than a million special offers every year since then.
This year Prime Day takes place on July 12th and 13th.
However, Amazon Prime Day is not entirely undisputed. There are actually many little tricks that online retailers use to convince their customers to buy. Potential buyers are put under pressure with the countdowns running and the perceived shortage of products. Consumer advocates therefore advise finding out about the sales methods of dealers and not striking immediately if an offer seems particularly cheap.
*If you make a purchase using the links marked with an asterisk, WELT will receive a small commission. You can find our standards of transparency and journalistic independence at axelspringer.de/independence.
