OLED, QLED, LCD, LED and blah blah blah. Lots of acronyms that most consumers just skip right over.

But for those of us who are looking for quality, a good price, ease of use, and longevity when picking their next TV set, I look at the entire picture—no pun intended.

That’s why when my wife asked for a new TV for our bedroom I thought immediately it was TCL 8 series time! Yes, I finally get to try out all of those new tech goodies from China. I have a TCL 6 series from 2019 and love it—more than my OLED.

And then she saw the price. And then she found out that those TVs have some interesting connections to the Chinese government.

She also did not want a massive TV. We have a 65-inch 8 Series Samsung from 2017 as our main theatre TV. When I argued that we could oh so easily just move that into the bedroom and upgrade the big screen, she laughed at me.

But there is a more important reason she gets the pick on this TV. She suffers from stage four kidney failure and many days needs to rest in bed with our two dogs. She wanted a TV with a great picture, ease of use, something that will last a long time and that was easy to connect with a soundbar with a great selection of apps.

So, with all of that said, in early December, we headed to the local Best Buy in Gaithersburg, just north of Washington, D.C., to make the big purchase. We looked at TCL once again, Sony OLEDs, cheap brands like Insignia and others. But the only one that made the cut was the 43-inch QLED Q60 by Samsung. For her, five big reasons stood out:

1. A Really Good Picture: Ok, so not OLED good, but in both of our views, better than the TCL 6 series we own. It has nice blacks, great colors and tweaking them is easy with TV’s operating system being straightforward and easy to use. Speaking of that OS…

2. The OS Is Easy To Use: Let’s be honest, it’s not as easy as a Roku to use, but it gets the job done. Making changes to audio, inputs, downloading apps and any modification you want is easy. Setting up an antenna was straightforward and she can move easily between our Comcast/Xfinity setup to anything she wants to watch in a few clicks of the remote. Speaking of the remote…

3. The Remote Rocks: Very few buttons, small and fitting nicely in your hand is always a good thing. There is nothing to get confused about and, best of all, it also works our Bose solo 5 soundbar with no additional setup. Very cool.

4. Mounting Is Easy: In the future, we have no issues mounting this as it uses standard brackets that we can get anywhere. It also does not have any weird additional connection boxes like other Samsung QLED TVs that make mounting very hard to do.

5. Value: The TV is normally priced at Best Buy for $699, a little pricey for such a small TV. My advice is to hold out for a sale, as I scooped this up for $399.99 the price I see as of this posting.

BONUS: No OneConnect box. On many high-end Samsung TVs, all connections and power flow into a specialized hub NOT connected to the TV. What? Why? 

Wanna mount a Samsung TV that has OneConnect, then you need to hide this or figure in your setup what to do with it. Not fun. I won't buy any TV that has this, as I have two Samsung models that are blessed with this piece of unneeded tech. 

So, to recap: The 43-inch Samsung QLED is a great TV at a solid price point. However, I always like to say that, as with any TV, preferences can vary. What is important to me and my wife might not match up to your own tastes, wants and needs.

Harry J. Kazianis is a Senior Director at the Center for the National Interest. His work has appeared in Fox News, USA Today, The Week, the American Conservative and many other outlets across the political spectrum. The National Interest, nor Harry, received any compensation or commissions related to the authoring of this piece.

Image: Reuters