Which Are Cheaper: LED LCD Or Plasma TVs?

If you’re looking for a new television, you’re probably searching for the best price and the best quality you can get. But do you really know what sets TVs apart? What’s the difference between LED LCD or Plasma TVs, and why is that one you just found smaller than another one but ten times the price? Well I’m here to give you a quick guide on how to get the best TV for your money and to explain what features you need to look out for. It won’t be as boring as it sounds I swear.

What’s Cheaper: LED LCD Or Plasma?

Plasma TVs are falling in price now that so many manufacturers are discontinuing them, so you might be able to grab a deal in the next few months. But if you’re debating between getting an LED LCD or Plasma TV based on price, then an LCD television is usually the cheapest available. So if that’s all you wanted to find out, there you go.

LCD TVs are the cheapest you can get & awesome if you’re on a budget.

But if you want to find out whether they’re good value for their cheap price tag, then you need to keep reading. Although Sensible Reviewer is a money saving blog, I still want you to get the best value for your money, not just the cheapest thing around!

Plasma vs LED vs LCD

Plasma TVs

There’s a huge plasma vs LED television debate going on based on price and screen quality. Plasmas are completely different to LCD and LED televisions in the way they work – but I’m not going to get you all confused with the technical reasons why (though I completely understand them, honest, stop looking at me like that). Instead, I’m rushing straight into the pros and cons of owning a Plasma TV:

PROS:

• The cheapest out of all 3 types of TV
• Some movie buffs insist Plasma TVs have the best colour quality – deeper blacks and more natural colours.
• It gives the best viewing angles compared to LCD and LED TVs.
• Has the least motion blur between all 3 types.

CONS:

• They’re dying a death. Samsung, Panasonic and now LG have stopped making them. So getting one is a bit like getting an iPhone 6 now that the iPhone X is out. You’d be really behind the times.
• They’re not that energy efficient. It might be super cheap to buy one, but keeping it running is going to have you spending more in the long-run.
• Although the picture quality isn’t bad, it’s terrible in direct light. So forget putting it in any room with windows. Which discounts pretty much any room in your home…
• They don’t come small.
• Often they’re more expensive than LCD TVs, but cheaper than LEDs.

When You Should Buy A Plasma TV:

• When you need to spend a large chunk of time sitting at an angle to your TV watching things running really fast.
• If you’re a movie buff who’s still convinced that nothing could rival a Plasma television on it’s picture quality.

LCD TVs

Nope, I don’t know why the original price of the TV above was so much either, but I’m appreciating the saving! LCD televisions came after Plasma TVs and for a while they were King. Now that LED’s come waltzing onto the TV scene though, LCD’s are old news. They’re still the best mid-range TV though, and here’s why…

PROS:

• Much more energy efficient than Plasma TVs.
• A great picture quality for their price.
• Generally you can buy a bigger model than an LED for a much lower price.

CONS:

• LCD TVs are lit up by horizontal strips. Unfortunately when it comes to LCD vs LED, these horizontal strips make LCD televisions a lot more bulky.
• Although their picture quality is great, it’s nothing compared to LED television screen quality (they’re really losing this LCD vs LED thing).
• They’re on the decline and heading to the same grave that the Plasma’s are digging.

When You Should Buy An LCD TV:

• When you’re on a budget, but you still want a TV you’ll be happy with in the next few years.
• When you need a television for side rooms, not the main family area.
• If you want to show off the size of your TV to friends (over-compensating for something maybe?) and you really don’t care about the picture quality itself.
• If you want a small TV at a good price, this is the best you can go for. Plasmas aren’t made smaller than 40″ normally, and LED’s are expensive at any size.
• Basically LCD’s are still pretty great, but in an LED LCD or Plasma price comparison, the LCD comes up cheapest.

LED TVs

LED TVs are the big boys on the block. If you can afford one for the size you want, they’re well worth the investment. They have incredible picture quality, are sold by all major brands, and with the introduction of OLED’s their price is hopefully going to start dropping in the near future.

PROS:

• These are the most energy efficient of all the TV types – so even though they cost more, they’ll be cheaper to run.
• They’re lit by a bunch of tiny LEDs (didn’t guess from the name?) which means they’re normally slimmer than the other two television types.
• They have a fantastic picture quality. Sorry film-buffs, I’m not sure you’re right about Plasma TVs being the best anymore. Compared to LCDs, LED TVs have a brighter picture with blacks so deep you could dive right into them.

CONS:

• Expensive of course – but you get what you pay for in terms of looks and quality.
• LED TVs aren’t really known for their fantastic sound, thanks in part to how slim they are. But since you’re forking out for the best out of the 3 TV types on this list, you might as well throw in a sound system too.

When You Should Buy An LED TV:

• If you’re debating between an LED or LCD TV, and you have a little bit more money to invest. Seriously, these aren’t usually cheap.
• If you’re considering the pros and cons of a plasma vs LED television but you need a TV that you won’t feel like replacing in the next 5 years as newer models are released – you won’t want to replace your LED TV when newer models are released, but Plasma TVs are already being discontinued!
• If you need the best energy efficient TV.
• If you need a TV for the main family room which will get a lot of use everyday.
• If you really love watching movies in amazing clarity, or spend a lot of time gaming. If your TV is pretty much the centre-point of your life, you really should invest in it!

The final TV type is an OLED TV, but I’m not going to explain them to you in detail. They’re the newest, most advanced version with the ability to show 4k TV shows. That’s all well and good, but they’re mega expensive and a lot of brands aren’t even making them just yet. Not only that, but most TV services don’t even have programmes you can watch in 4k. Check this space in a year or so and maybe Plasma won’t be on our list anymore and OLEDs will be the new big thing.

HD Ready vs Full HD

Ohoho, this is one of the most misleading things you’ll come across when you want to buy a TV.  HD ready means your TV is totally prepared to give you full HD channels if you pay for them, right? Wrong. As the MoneySavingExpert has elegantly written, this is common mistake.

HD Ready means you will see a minimum picture quality of 720p (to give that some context, a non-HD TV normally shows a minimum of 576p). A Full HD TV has a picture quality of 1080p. and is the best of the bunch. If you’re confused about what kind of a difference this will make, go onto Youtube and search for a video. Pop the quality (you’ll find it in the little cog wheel icon by the play and pause bar) to each of the different settings and watch the picture change. Remember that if the screen you’re watching it on isn’t Full HD then you won’t be able to see the full effect!

Of course, this all means absolutely nothing if you’re not going to have channels that show in HD, so make sure you’re going to be watching blu-rays or have access the channels in HD. Netflix is a great option – it’s cheaper to subscribe to than a normal TV service and it streams in HD!

So What TV Type Should YOU Get?

If you’ve managed to read through this whole thing to here (hey, there are so many abbreviations in this post I’m not even sure it’s humanely possible..) then you’ve probably already guessed my answer to this. It all depends on your budget and what you’re using it for. If you’ve got all the money in the world, go for a huge LED, Full HD TV and only ever watch shows in incredible quality. But if you’re like the rest of us, and you’ve got a budget to stick to, an LCD TV that’s HD Ready might be more your thing.

In the great LED or Plasma TV debate though, I’m all for LED. Go for something that will last the years, rather than a discontinued TV type that you’ll want to replace!

Let me know in the comments below, or on Twitter or Facebook, what TV you’ve got and if you agree with the points above, or whether yours is any different.

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Pictures From: LG전자