Why buy a smart tv

Apply market research to generate audience insights. Measure content performance. Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. Robert Silva. Robert Silva has extensive experience in consumer electronics and home theater product sales and sales supervision; he has written about audio, video, and home theater topics since Robert has articles published on HBO. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn. Updated on August 29, Ryan Perian. Lifewire Technology Review Board Member.

Article reviewed on Apr 05, Tweet Share Email. Introduction TV Basics. What is a Smart TV? What Are Pixels? TV Buying Guide. What Is 4K? Best TVs by Brand. Best TVs by Size. Best TV Accessories. In This Article. What Is a Smart TV? Here are the pros and cons of each. And Fire TV tends to promotes Amazon Prime content over selections from other services, and shows ads for Amazon content and products.

What we like: Lots of apps, access to Google Play store, universal search, and top-notch voice recognition. Built-in Google Assistant for voice control over TV content and compatible smart home products.

Built-in Chromecast for beaming content from your phone to the TV. What we like: Easy-to-use interface , vast choice of apps, unbiased universal search across numerous apps. Works with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant voice-powered digital assistants. My Feed section lets you know when shows and movies become available for streaming. What we like: A two-tier menu of customizable tiles across the bottom of the screen; one row for apps, another showing content from whichever app is highlighted.

What we like: Best interface of the bunch, with customizable cards along the bottom of the screen for apps and settings; a second row with content appears when an app is highlighted.

A home dashboard shows all connected smart devices. Each smart TV operating system will also have a different user interface, and these can vary widely.

Many use a scrolling ribbon of app icons along the bottom of the screen, while others offer a full screen menu that lets you see several options at once. Navigating these menus will also vary by brand as each TV manufacturer uses its own unique remote control design. For specifics on the apps, services and distinct features of each smart TV platform, check out our latest reviews of the best TVs.

The upshot: Spend a little time at the store flipping through the set's smart offerings to make sure you and your family will be comfortable with that model, and read our detailed comparison of the major smart TV platforms to help you make a decision. The general answer is yes. All of the major TV manufacturers routinely put out updates for their smart TV software, adding new features, refining old ones and patching bugs and security issues, just like any other operating system.

Some of these updates add entirely new features, such as expanded support for high dynamic range HDR formats like Dolby Vision, or merely making refinements to the TV's internal firmware often downloaded automatically late at night. But it also depends on some other factors.

Smaller TV brands and older models may not be as quick to push out updates as larger companies, like LG, Samsung and Sony. TCL does quite well in its partnership with Roku, but many other value-priced brands will be slower to issue updates or add new apps. Nevertheless, most major manufacturers perform software updates periodically. And don't worry about getting left behind; if one company adds a popular service, such as Netflix, the rest of the manufacturers generally follow suit.

Even when there is a delay, it usually works itself out, as seen in the recent announcement that HBO Max was finally coming to Roku TVs. The simple answer is yes. As smart TVs take on more of the roles once exclusive to computers and smartphones, there is a risk of hanging or even crashing. Just as phones have become computers, so, too, have smart TVs.

We now expect our TVs to pull in content from the web, run sophisticated apps, manage other connected devices and even include voice interaction. Despite this, smart TV problems often catch us off guard because we aren't used to thinking of them as anything other than basic displays. The good news is that, while crashes and laggy performance have been a problem in years past, these sorts of hiccups are much less common now. That said, problems may still occur, especially in low-end smart TVs that may not have the latest hardware and polished software.

If you do run into a frozen screen or hanging process, powering the TV off and on will usually resolve the problem. Smart TVs do offer other potential advantages. The newest sets have added popular voice assistants to the mix. Voice search now lets you find content from live TV as well as streaming services, and adds search for everything from weather and stock prices to looking up the latest celebrity gossip. The voice integration lets you access other services from your couch, letting you order a pizza or summon an Uber in comfort.

And if you don't like the TV's built-in voice assistant, you can usually pair it with the smart speaker of your choice. These new features also let you control smart home devices like connected lights and thermostats, view feeds from your Nest camera or Ring doorbell , or control your robot vacuum. As voice assistants continue to evolve, you can expect to see the same improvements come to current smart TVs via software and firmware updates. Because these TVs tend to have beefier processors than regular sets, as well as online connections, manufacturers can add other features, such as casual games, which are now quite common on smart sets.

The games are nowhere near as sophisticated or as compelling as those available on a PlayStation or Xbox console, but they can be addictive. Many sets also let you mirror or share pictures and video from a connected smartphone on their big screens.

Most manufacturers rely on proprietary apps to offer a more curated experience when sharing media, while others rely on third-party solutions like Google Chromecast. In either case, sharing the videos and photos from your phone or tablet has never been easier.

A new trend in smart TVs is vastly improved built-in sound systems. LG and Sony are making particular advances in this area, offering Dolby Atmos sound on several models and hoping that the smart TV will also do duty as the home stereo system to stream music and online radio stations.

The biggest trend in smart home technology is the smart speaker , a speaker with built in microphone and hardware to run a voice-enabled assistant.

Amazon made the first big splash here with the Amazon Echo and other Alexa-enabled devices , but Google's own Google Assistant has made strides in products like the Google Home. And Apple's HomePod puts Siri into a similar form factor. The great news is that these devices will usually work with most smart TVs, and compatibility is improving all the time as new software updates add capability to existing smart TVs.

As it stands, all of the major TV manufacturers have smart speaker compatibility with at least one of the three main smart assistant platforms Amazon, Apple and Google. These options often require using an additional device , such as a smart speaker or mobile device, but it will give you a way to control your TV and smart devices with the convenience of simple speech.

Many of the smart TVs on the market now have these voice assistants built in. Open in app. You must login to keep earning daily check-in points.

Lifetime 0 Expired 0 Redeemed 0. Total redeemable TimesPoints 0. Notification Center. There are numerous types of televisions available in the market.