For most, researching a new television is nothing short of a nightmare. You’re immediately bombarded with terms like 4K Ultra HD and Full HD, but what do they mean? Well, these two are resolutions, and they’re used to indicate the number of pixels on a screen — the more, the better. To understand why, though, we have to look at each of them in a bit more detail. It’s only then you can start considering what size screen is best and finally start taking a look at our list of the best 4K TVs to meet the television of your dreams.

Pixels

Pixels are the building block for every display you’ve ever seen. They’re tiny little dots that, together, make up the picture you see on a screen. You can only see these pixels if you’re fairly close to the screen, of course; from a distance, thousands of them blend together to make the image on your screen.

Resolutions

720p

A 720p television has 1,280 columns and 720 rows of pixels, hence “720p.” Multiply the two numbers for a total of 921,600 pixels. This is the minimum resolution that can be called “high definition,” or HD.

1080p

Often, 1080p is referred to as “Full HD.” In a 1080p television, there are 1,920 columns multiplied by 1,080 rows for a total of 2,073,600 pixels — more than twice as many pixels as you’ll find in a 720p screen. For a while now, 1080p has been the industry standard for high-definition displays, and most content (that is, television broadcasts, shows, and movies) is produced and distributed in 1080p.

4K Ultra HD

The next level of HD is 4K — often called “Ultra HD” or UHD. Technically, the name is a bit of a misnomer, because there are 3,840 columns and 2,160 rows of pixels, which is why you’ll occasionally see this resolution referred to as 2160p. That’s a total of 8,294,400 pixels, which is four times as many pixels as a Full HD 1080p display and nine times as many pixels as a 720p display.

For a long time, 4K televisions hovered on the edge of the market, too expensive for most viewers to buy (which in turn meant that creating 4K content wasn’t a worthwhile investment for studios). That has changed in the last few years, as UHD TVs have become affordable for even cost-conscious consumers, resulting in studios caving in and churning out 4K material left, right, and center.

Why upgrade?

So what does all this mean? What’s the point of upgrading from your beloved CRT TV to a sparkling 65-inch UHD display? Well, first of all, it just looks better — a lot better. Lines will be sharper, curves will be smoother, and the level of detail will be far greater. With a higher-resolution screen, you can sit closer without seeing the pixels (context: you don’t want to see the pixels).

There is also the size to keep in mind. If you’re buying a 24-inch TV for your kitchen, for example, you’re barely going to notice the difference between 720p and 1080p. Similarly, if you’re buying a 32-inch TV for your bedroom, you’re not going to notice many benefits from 4K resolution. That said, with prices being so comparatively low, if you’re looking at a TV over 40 inches, you might as well opt for 4K.

Plus, manufacturers these days are fully focused on creating high-quality 4K TVs, which means they often boast improved tech, like support for high dynamic range (HDR) color.

The future

Worried that pricey 4K television you’ve been eying will be outdated in a year or two? Don’t be — at least, not yet. They say 8K is on the way, but it’s insanely expensive for now, and the human eye can only perceive so much detail, which means the difference between 4K and 8K won’t be as visually drastic as the difference between 1080p and 4K, so you’ll be safe for the foreseeable future.

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