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The best Smart TV platforms in the world 2017

Best Smart TV Buying Guide: Welcome to TechRadar's round-up of the best smart TVs and smart TV platforms you can buy in 2017.

What’s the the best Smart TV I can buy?

It’s a familiar question, especially if you’re looking to replace your TV. A new flatscreen isn’t exclusively about sharper pictures or better sound. The user experience is important too.  

These days, connected sets have become ubiquitous. An internet-connected smart platform is the norm, not a luxury; indeed it’s central to how the set works. And the various platforms on offer have matured dramatically over the past few years.  TV makers no longer try and emulate the tablet experience on a bigger screen, although you will still see holdovers from that early smart phase on cheaper models - no, you really don’t need Facebook and Twitter on your TV.

Today, the best smart TV platforms enhance the viewing experience. They help you access streaming content services and curate your viewing. If you want viewing recommendations, your smart TV should provide them. 

Similarly, if you need to simplify streaming from your mobile device, or want to share images quickly and conveniently, your connected set should facilitate that too. And when so many of us have content elsewhere on our home network, be it video files, music or JPEGs, offering seamless access to that through DLNA should be a given.

Most smart TVs give access to leading streaming services like Netflix, BBC iPlayer and YouTube (although some are inexplicably absent on some sets - we’re looking at you Amazon Video). Beyond that, there can be a bewildering array of second (or third) tier streaming apps available to download from the resident portal. These might serve particular interests, such as the subscription-based UFC Fight Pass app, or offer VoD pay movies, such as Wuaki.tv.

Today’s Smart TV ecosystem is split between proprietary platforms tied to a specific manufacturer, like LG’s webOS and Samsung’s Tizen, or a generic alternative such as Android TV, as found on Sony and European Philips TVs.

All are usable, functional and most of the time downright enjoyable to use. But while they may look similar on the surface, under the hood there are a plethora of differences between them.

So, what's the best smart TV platform you can buy? We've ranked the the world's major connected TV platforms, putting equal emphasis on ease of use, functionality, stability and content support. 

Plus, once you've decided on a smart TV platform, we've included five of our favourite TVs that use it – that way you'll have a good starting point when it comes time to finding the perfect TV for you.

Just want to know to know the Best Smart TV on every platform? Here you go!

The Bravia A1 OLED (known as the XBR-65A1E in the US or KD65A1 in the UK) combines innovative engineering with stunning design. The ‘one-slate’ design looks minimalist in the extreme.  

The set sounds great, but there’s no soundbar. Instead it uses a pair of sonic actuators, positioned on the rear of the panel, which vibrate, creating stereo sound. Bass comes from an 8cm subwoofer in the stand.

The set’s Android smart platform has Chromecast built-in, making it easy to cast content from a compatible mobile phone. Apps include Netflix and YouTube in 4K.

Picture quality is drop dead gorgeous. A Triluminos wide colour gamut display, colour vibrancy is high, while a 4K Reality Pro picture processor maximizes image detail. Integral to the set’s image success is Sony’s new 4K HDR X1 Extreme image engine. Object-based HDR remastering does a great job making regular SDR TV look like HDR.

If you’re looking for a top flight Android telly, then the A1 is the model to beat.

Read our full review: Sony Bravia A1 OLED

The 65EZ1002’s smart TV system is pretty to look at, easy to use, and effortless to customise - everything, in other words, that a smart TV interface ought to be.

It’s not the most content rich system in town, perhaps, but I don’t actually think that’s a bad thing. Most of the key TV-centric apps are there (Netflix in 4K HDR, Amazon in 4K HDR, the catch up TV services for the main terrestrial broadcasters via an integrated Freeview Play app), and it’s actually kind of nice not to wade through mountains of dross just to find all the good stuff. 

It’s worth adding that since the 65EZ1002 uses Freeview Play to provide its broadcaster catch-up TV services, you can search for shows you’ve missed via an intuitive electronic programme guide that scrolls back as far as seven days.

Read the full review: Panasonic TX-65EZ1002 OLED TV

It’s taken awhile to get there, but Samsung can now claim a really strong smart TV engine with its latest ‘Eden’ interface. For starters, it manages to deliver swift and logical access to a healthy amount of content from a home screen that takes over impressively little of your screen real estate. 

As well as letting you customize the row of icons on the home screen at will, the addition last year of a second tier of ‘contextual’ links that changes depending on what app you’ve got chosen in the main tier has transformed the system’s speed and simplicity. It’s good to see, too, that Samsung has tried harder this year to add live TV features to its Eden interface.

As for the TV itself, compared with rival OLED technology there are still occasional backlight distractions, and effective viewing angles remain limited. However, the Q9F also sets new HDR-friendly standards for brightness and color response, while its new panel structure and state of the art screen filters enable it to combat ambient light better than any other TV, making it uniquely watchable in a typical day to day living room environment. 

While it might not make the ‘OLED or QLED’ argument redundant, it certainly does a hell of a job of showcasing the latter’s strengths. 

Read the full review: Samsung Q9F QLED TV

LG’s webOS smart TV interface was the first one that really felt like it had been developed from the ground up for TV rather than smartphone or PC users: It’s graphically rich, incredibly straightforward and logical in its layout, easily customizable, slick to navigate and sensibly focussed on the sort of TV-centric apps most users actually want a TV to deliver.

These apps include (4K/HDR-capable) versions of Amazon and Netflix, Youtube, NowTV, plus all of the catch up services for the main terrestrial UK broadcasters courtesy of the Freeview Play service, which lets you search for shows you might have missed via an electronic program guide that scrolls back through time as well as forwards.

The latest version of webOS built into the OLED55C7 only really delivers a couple of relatively minor enhancements over previous versions: support for ‘360’ VR clips navigated by waving LG’s magic remote control around; and the option to use the number buttons on the remote control to directly access favorite apps. But there’s no need to fix something that isn’t broken.

Read the full review: LG OLED C7

The smart TV version of Roku both looks and acts like the platform used on streaming video devices like the Roku Ultra and Roku Premiere+: The Home section contains all the apps in your library, while My Feed tracks movies and TV shows you’re interested in and shows you where they can be found. We're also pretty big fans of Roku's universal search feature that rifles through 300+ apps to find movies and TV shows and displays them with the cheapest option first.

Overall, Roku TV is simple, efficient and straightforward enough for most people to pick up and use without a problem.

New for platform in 2017 is the ability to label inputs (labeling one input as Xbox or DVD Player instead of Input 1, etc…), some additional smartphone features and, for the first time, Dolby Vision support. Dolby Vision allows you to get the absolute most from the TV in terms of performance and while tracking down Dolby Vision content is a bit of a hassle, Roku does a good job highlighting all the available content in a new row in the 4K UHD Spotlight app.   

Read the full review: TCL P-Series 55P607

Sony Android TV

1. LG: WebOS

LG rewrote the rulebook for Smart TV platforms, with its webOS. The brand started the trend for minimal, simplified user interfaces back in 2014, and has gradually refined its offering.

We’re now up to the 3.5 iteration of webOS, but LG has shown remarkable restraint with all revisions. 

The UI, which is still built around a Launch Bar for apps, inputs and features, remains tidy and customisable. You can change the running order to best suit how you use the set. If you like to Miracast images from your smartphone, grab the Screen Share app with LG's cursor-based Magic Remote and move up further up the pecking order.

App support is excellent. Netflix streams 4K with both HDR and Dolby Vision, as well as Dolby Atmos audio when available. There's also Amazon with UHD HDR and YouTube in 4K. Other options include Now TV, Sky Store, Wuaki.TV plus all the main channel catch-up services.

As we’ve seen on earlier webOS builds, these streaming apps remain open and live, even when you navigate away from them. This means you can pause Star Trek Discovery, browse the TV listings for The Walking Dead, and then return to the action.

Other cool  new features include 360 degree video playback (from 360 degree videos on YouTube) and an OLED still image gallery. LG screens also have Freeview Play in the UK, which means a full larder of catch-Up TV. 

For US viewers, there's Netflix, Amazon, YouTube and Google Play TV and Movies, as well as Hulu, VUDU, MLB.TV, and FandangoNow.

Five LG TVs with webOS:

Panasonic Firefox OS

2. Panasonic: My Home Screen 2.0

If you live in the UK, Panasonic's My Home Screen 2.0 is one of the most customisable smart TV platforms around. Built on the open-source code of Mozilla’s Firefox TV OS, Panasonic's My Home Screen 2.0 smart TV interface combines an intuitive minimalism with extensive customisation.

The platform looks simple but has some inspired functionality. The home screen launches with three buttons (Live TV, Apps and Devices), but you can pin more as required, perhaps for a favourite streaming service, or a specific input. There are now also folders for multiple users, while a My App button on the remote can be customised for faster access to favourite content. A revamped Media Player supports 4K HDR10 and HLG HDR.

App provision is good. Netflix streams in 4K with HDR, Amazon Video and YouTube, also offer 4K support.

Catch-up TV service support is integrated through the provision of Freeview Play. This include iPlayer, ITVHub, Demand 5 and All4. Usability is great. The OS is extremely convenient to live with, yet powerful enough to cater for a variety of different users, be they family members who just want their favourite channels pinned to the home screen, to TV enthusiasts keen to dive quickly between sources. 

Five Panasonic TVs with Firefox OS:

Best Smart TV

3. Sony: Android TV

Android TV is the nearest the smart TV universe has to a standardised operating system, but there are still variations between brand executions.

Sony has the most comprehensive Google solution. For UK viewers, it has rather cleverly layered a YouView programme guide platform on top, deftly addressing one of Android TV’s big weaknesses - catch-up TV provision. This You View app ensures that all the main catch-up services are provided, accessible via a roll-back 7 day epg.

Other supporters of Android TV are Philips (via maker TP Vision) and in the US, Sharp. It’s also available on the Nvidia Shield TV streamer and Razer Forge TV.   

While other TV platforms make a virtue of their minimalism, Android stacks the screen with various layers of content. Press the Home button on the remote and up pops a full-screen page that's dominated by a carousel of videos from YouTube and from Google Video.

There’s also a row of specific Sony selected content, followed by apps for Netflix, Amazon video, links to the Google Play Store, Google Play Music, Google Play Movies and TV, YouTube and so on.

Owners of Android phones/tablets can use their device to control Android TVs via Sony’s TV SideView app. We also expect to see growing interaction with Google Assistant.

Android screens also have Chromecast built in, which simplifies streaming from mobile Android devices (iOS users can download the AirBuddy app to Google Cast). Controllers from Logitech and Razer also promise gaming without needing a console.

There is a caveat though. In our experience, Android is the least stable of the various Smart Platforms, with Sony TVs exhibiting more than their fair share of failures. It’s not unusual to be notified that various aspects of the Android platform have stopped working. Some of these messages are completely inscrutable. Usually the best option is to simply restart the TV. Google is known to have a major upgrade to the Android platform in the works. Let’s hope it address these concerns.

Five Sony TVs with Android TV:

Three Philips TVs with Android TV: 

LG webOS

4. Samsung: Smart Hub and Tizen OS

Samsung is another brand keen to keep things simple. Its Tizen OS clearly owes much to LG's webOS interface, in so much as it consists of  icons, apps and shortcuts all accessible via icons held a horizontal strip across the bottom of the screen. A dynamically changing ‘Recent’ box in the far-left corner cycles between recently used apps and TV channels.

But it’s not overly intelligent. A featured section in the centre promotes apps you haven't used lately, which can feel like irrelevant adverts, and they keep returning. This isn't based on your activity or habits, which is a shame.

We like the fact that on-screen icons can be changed; a sense of identity is welcome when it comes to some AV inputs and key apps you use everyday.

The OS cuts down on clutter, although this sometimes works against navigation; there are plenty of occasions when it's necessary to go hunting for a specific app. Thankfully that's made easier by a Smart Hub multimedia page that divvies-up content from apps and from your own USB sticks/home network.

For reasons best known to itself, Samsung has not signed up to Freeview Play, which means it misses out on the elegance of a roll-back programme guide, however it does offer access to all UK catch-up TV apps; BBC iPlayer, ITVhub, All4, Demand 5 are all here, as is Netflix, Amazon Video and YouTube.

In the US, there's Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, Hulu, HBO Go / HBO Now, YouTube, Spotify and Vudu. (Want even more apps? Check out our 10 best Samsung Smart TV apps gallery.)

There are a few nice extras in the Tizen Smart Hub, too, such as a split-screen option for watching live TV while browsing an app, but Samsung's effort doesn’t quite match LG’s webOS or Panasonic’s My Home Screen OS.

Five Samsung TVs with Tizen OS:

Best Smart TV platforms

5. TCL, Sharp, Hisense, Haier: Roku TV

Despite Android TV and all the proprietary portals available, there's still room for other connected smart offerings. In Europe, Vestel has its own stripped back smart platform, which is used for TV companies it manufactures for, including Toshiba and JVC. It’s unfancy but does the basics.

In the US, TV maker Element now offers a screen with Amazon’s Fire TV OS built in.

Perhaps the most interesting second division smart OS is Roku TV. Announced back in 2014 for TCL TVs, Roku TV has found support with low-cost US TV suppliers. In 2017, you can find Roku TV on some Haier, Hisense, Insignia, Sharp and TCL TV models.

As a platform, Roku TV borrows the interface and feature set from the company's popular media streamers, the Roku 2, Roku 3, Roku 4 and Roku Streaming Stick.

What that means is that you'll find a universal search function able to scan over 30 different apps like Netflix, Google Play TV and Movies, Amazon, VUDU and more to find you the lowest price on the TV show or movie you want to watch, as well as around 4,500 channels of content to watch.

Add to that some neat features like a dedicated app that helps you keep track of upcoming movies and TV shows via the My Feed section and a private listening mode when you want to watch TV without disturbing the whole house.

Two TVs with Roku TV:



Contributer : Techradar - All the latest technology news http://ift.tt/UKCt3N

The best Smart TV platforms in the world 2017 The best Smart TV platforms in the world 2017 Reviewed by mimisabreena on Tuesday, November 14, 2017 Rating: 5

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