The most tech for your buck

How to get the most tech for your dollar? Step one: visit TechRight.net!

Sorry for the shameless plug, but in all seriousness, the best way to save money is by not overspending on features you don’t need. This rule is followed closely by not underspending to lose out on features that you will need, resulting in having to repeat the purchasing process sooner.

The key here is knowing what you needed yesterday, what you need today, and what you might need 6 months down the road. That’s the tricky part, knowing the future.

Let’s take a walk with Sarah and see how these rules can apply to her.

Sarah is in the market for a new television, she has noticed that her current TV doesn’t seem to want to power on at times. She has had it for about 8 years and determines it’s about time for an upgrade anyway.

Her old TV was a name brand 32” 720P flat screen. She bought it for her bedroom when she lived with her roommates from college. It has a built-in DVD player and 2 HDMI connections.

Now, we need to understand Sarah’s uses for this TV. After several moves, she now has this as her primary (and only) TV in her house. The living room is much larger than the bedroom she was in when it was purchased. Also, she has eliminated her DVD collection and now uses streaming services for all of her movie needs, and connects her TV to her laptop to use the bigger screen.

You can already begin to see how her priorities and the specs she needs have changed quite a bit from what her old TV could provide.

Here is a quick rundown:

  • Larger screen for the larger room size
  • Higher resolution for enhanced picture quality
  • No need for a DVD player
  • Necessary connections depend on connected components

As Sarah browses through the sea of options for televisions, she narrows it down using the options she needs, and those she doesn’t, as stated above. However, this still leaves her with a great deal of choices.

  • Should she get 4K?
  • What about curved screens?
  • Does she really need that many inputs?
  • What refresh rate should she get?
  • Is 3D necessary?
  • Will she add surround sound to the package?

Despite the fact that we already outlined the additions and subtractions for Sarah, she is left with many questions that still need to be answered.

If Sarah decides to just get the most she can within her budget, she could eny up paying a lot of money for features she won’t use, or even worse, may purchase a lower quality product just to get those features within her budget, thinking that she will need them in the future.

On the opposite side of that argument, Sarah could opt to get the bare minimum that she needs today, and as technology moves forward and new use cases apply to her, she might not be able to take advantage of those without purchasing a new TV with those features, ultimately costing her more money in the long run.

In this particular case, a good middle ground for Sarah might be to look for something that is 1080P capable, has at least 3 HDMI inputs, 1 digital audio out, non-smart TV with no 3D, no curved screen, and with a digital tuner built in. This will give Sarah a good balance of meeting her needs now, but having the expandability and option to grow with her through the next several years, meaning she won’t need to replace the TV prematurely.

“But why?”

At the time of this posting, 4K is far from standard. A majority of HD sources are still only capable of 720P (I’m looking at you, cable providers!). While most local sources (Blu-Ray, game consoles, streaming boxes) can to 1080P, few of them will do native 4K resolutions. Many will upscale, but that can distort the picture. The same issue goes for refresh rate – is it extremely dependent on the video source. Many of the TV’s available with 120-240Hz refresh rates will artificially inject frames into 60Hz sources, leaving the video to appear fake and overly animated, even for live action. While higher refresh rates can be good for minimizing motion blur in fast motion scenes, like sporting events or action films, watching everything with this artificial injection may not appeal to everyone for the small benefit it gives in limited situations.

Though most TV’s will meet the input requirements, be mindful to check that there are enough to suit existing needs and have room for growth. While there are options for expanding inputs through the use of HDMI switches and using other inputs that are non-digital or non-HD, those often come with picture quality sacrifices. It still is very dependent on the source of the video and it’s capabilities. HDMI is currently the most standard HD video interface for televisions, and it is used on a majority of products to be used as video sources, so be sure to get enough to connect all your goodies.

“No smart TV? But you said all she does is stream her videos!”, said everyone.

Yes, it’s true. A smart TV would have great benefits and ease of use and an all-in-one package, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But if we are truly looking for a product with longevity, the direction that would make the most sense would be to save the money of not getting a smart TV and use it instead to purchase a standalone streaming device to use for the smart functions. In a few years when new streaming platforms emerge or better technologies are applied to streaming services, you will want to take advantage of them. This will mean one of three things will have to happen.

You will need to perform a software upgrade on your TV, assuming the hardware can handle it, which is unlikely.
You will need to purchase a whole new TV with the features you want, spending a large amount to replace a fully functional device just for that new feature
You can simply replace the inexpensive streaming device with another, newer inexpensive streaming device.
This more modular approach gives you the capability to upgrade on your terms, within your budget, and doesn’t lock you into forced brand loyalty and doesn’t limit the available streaming services you can used, based on the partnerships and exclusive deals with particular brands.

Features like 3D and curved displays are in a category of “nice-to-haves” but mostly, they’re just kitschy gimmicks. Right now, there just is not enough content to warrant the premium for these types of features when on a budget. You would be better suited foregoing these options and instead spending that on a higher quality product, or use it for more add-ons to create a better overall experience, such as surround sound or a wall mount. You will get much more enjoyment per dollar out of a professionally wall-mounted television than out of a 3D feature that you may only use once or twice a year.

It’s easy to see how a little product knowledge and knowing some of the trends in a particular field can drastically change the qualifications that a product has to meet to be effective in providing you with the experience you expect. It can also have significant impact on both the upfront and ongoing costs of the product, be it due to a premature need to upgrade, or the upfront expense for features that are unnecessary.

Of course, many manufacturers and big box store salesmen are counting on the flood of information to be overwhelming. Some of them literally bet their paychecks on it. It’s not outright impossible to keep up with everything that happens in the technology ecosystem, but it is a full-time job in many cases.

That’s where TechRight comes in. Many of our techs are already working full-time in-industry occupations. We already have a need and a desire to keep abreast of the current trends and new innovations. And now, through our service, anyone has the opportunity to tap into our information stores and cherry pick the information that they need to be able to make the best use of their time, and their money.