Consumer Alert: Getting the best deals on a new TV

The time around the Super Bowl is the second-best time to buy a new TV, according to Consumer Reports.

News 12 Staff

Feb 2, 2019, 12:37 AM

Updated 2,135 days ago

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When it comes to the Super Bowl, part of the fun is watching it on a brand new television.
The time around the Super Bowl is the second-best time to buy a new TV, according to Consumer Reports. The price of televisions is down an average of 22 percent.
So how do you know if you’re getting the best deal? James Wilcox with Consumer Reports says it’s not a good idea to buy the cheapest TV available.
“You see them advertised at super low prices, but they're not going to be that much less and typically they're not a great deal,” he says.
Wilcox says that consumers should first decide what type of features they want in their TV. Ultra HD TVs or 4K models offer four times the resolution as high definition, and 4K programming is becoming more common. Experts say that these TVs could be worth the extra money.
But they say that consumers should skip the more expensive 8K sets because there is almost no programming available yet in that definition. Prices are expected to drop over time.
OLED televisions or TVs with high dynamic range tend to feature better colors and contrast. Consumers who watch a lot of sports or play video games may want a TV with a refresh rate of 120 or higher due to the amount of movement on the screen.
Consumer experts say that the reason TVs are cheaper in February does not actually have anything to do with the Super Bowl, but because they are essentially last year’s models. New models tend to hit the stores in March.