5 55-Inch HDTVs You Should Avoid At All Costs

March 31, 2020 Topic: Security Blog Brand: The Buzz Tags: TVHDTVTelevisionSamsungQLEDSharp

5 55-Inch HDTVs You Should Avoid At All Costs

Here are five television sets that have somehow eluded the average four-star rating on Amazon, resulting in unhappy customers and milk warm reviews.

Over the past two decades, television sets have grown cheaper and more packed with features while at the same time dropping in price. Fierce competition, spurred by easy online sales but difficult returns, has also produced TVs of historically unmatched quality. Most retailers have devised their own formula for a 55-inch class television in a notoriously tight market, but sometimes manufacturers drop the ball and release a big screen turkey. Here are five television sets that have somehow eluded the average four-star rating on Amazon, resulting in unhappy customers and milk warm reviews.

Samsung 55-inch Q60T QLED 4K. Samsung is one of the most prolific electronics companies in the world and sells an estimated twenty percent of all the television sets sold worldwide. The Q60T is this year’s version of their inexpensive 55-inch QLED 4K television, selling for just $679 on Amazon. Theoretically, the Q60T is a great TV to bring big-screen ultra high definition (UHD) to the masses.

Unfortunately, Samsung dropped the ball with this model. Reviews are rife with complaints. For starters, buyers complain that the Q60T has even fewer features than last year’s model, cutting the number of HDMI inputs, freesync, and black equalizer. The result is a TV where blacks are a dark shade of gray. Particularly annoying are reports that the TV requires a Samsung account to turn off consumer tracking. The problems are exacerbated by a buggy operating system software and apps.

Samsung 55-inch NU6900 Smart 4K UHD TV. Television technology has temporarily plateaued, and there’s currently nothing wrong with buying an older TV set. Samsung’s 55-inch NU6900 was released in 2018 as one of the company’s cheapest sets, and today is available for under $400 directly from the retailer. There’s a few things that should give you pause, however.

The NU6900 appears to suffer from plenty of quality control issues, if the company’s own review system is nothing to go by. Consumers report a variety of problems, including bands of LEDs going out, dropped sound, wifi connection issues, and other glitches. Ironically, were it not for the manufacturing defects the NU6900 series actually sounds like a decent bargain-basement TV.

VIZIO SmartCast E-Series E55u-D2. VIZIO is an American company that produces television sets in China, making it about the most American TV you can buy. Another older television often found on clearance, the E55u-D2 premiered in 2017 but is still available on Amazon and elsewhere. The set boasted 4K resolution, Dolby Theater Sound, and a host of features that made it an affordable, feature-packed choice.

The reality fell short of expectations. The E55u-D2 has disappointed consumers by failing within months of purchase. Consumers also report issues with customer service not honoring the warranty, either by claiming the customer damaged the TV during installation or the set somehow fell outside the terms of warranty.

Sharp 55" Class 4K (2160P) Smart LED TV, LC-55P6000U. Sharp is, or rather was, a Japanese electronics corporation with a reputation for quality. Sharp built televisions, radios, and other consumer electronics, but in 2016 was bought out by Taiwan’s Foxconn. Despite the reputation of both companies for quality goods Sharp’s TV sets--and the company as a whole--sputtered.

The LC-55P6000U, produced in 2017, is reportedly not a Sharp-manufactured TV at all but is made by a third manufacturer, Hisense of China. One consumer even reported Sharp customer service refused to provide assistance with the television, saying it was the responsibility of Hisenses. This purchasing of a Japanese brand name with a history of quality by a more obscure Chinese company is not uncommon, having also happened to Nakamichi and Sansui. In this case the resulting TV set reportedly suffered from quality control problems, including failing well before the warranty expired.

Hisense 55R8F 55-Inch 4K ULED Roku Smart TV. Hisense, produced in China, is well known for producing high featured budget televisions. The feature set is actually fairly good for television, but a common theme for the company’s TV is to fail before the warranty expires. This suggests a manufacturing strategy that banks on using cheaper, high feature components and expecting an above-average failure rate instead of building cheap but sturdy TVs.

One example of this strategy is the 55R8F. A 2020 television set, it promises a 4K ULED experience, Dolby Vision HDR, 240 MHz motion rate, wifi, Roku, and Alexa. It even lacks a black bezel bordering the screen, adding a touch of beauty and class to a low-cost television. Unfortunately, the reality is ghosting, poor image quality, wifi cutouts, and a sluggish Roku experience.

Kyle Mizokami is a writer based in San Francisco who has appeared in The Diplomat, Foreign Policy, War is Boring and The Daily Beast. In 2009 he cofounded the defense and security blog Japan Security Watch.