3 Features to Look For in Smart TVs During 2024

Throughout 2023 and 2024, smart TVs have become more popular and accessible than ever before. While some households pursue sophisticated smart home setups, others just want a TV capable of more than the standard set. If you’re getting a smart TV in 2024, you should judge it by these three features indicating quality and futureproofing.

Basic Specs & Features

Let’s start with a few smaller, more typical concerns you should have when looking for a new smart TV. That means basic specs like size, screen type and other functionalities that it must have for you to be satisfied.

For example, if you want access to certain content, that should influence your decision. Fortunately, in 2024 most commercial smart TV models already come preloaded with content from many streaming services, so they’ll come packed with entertainment. Of course, a subscription or cable membership may be required to watch most of what they offer. They can also run online browsers and find other kinds of entertainment, like iGaming. That means it’s possible to play roulette online through a streamed table game, where the action is managed by human hosts and happens in real-time, with viewer interaction. As even more entertainment floods the internet, you shouldn’t have a problem finding things to do with a new smart TV.

As for the other basic specs, size depends entirely on who you are, where it’s going, and why you want the TV. You’ll have to choose between LCD, LED, QLED, and OLED for screen type. That’s to say nothing about QDEL, which is being hailed as the next display standard for TV. Put simply, LCDs are the cheapest but have less colour fidelity and may not be viewable from certain angles. LEDs solve that, so they’re a better mid-range option. QLEDs are brighter LED TVs, with better color but poor-quality viewing angles unless you’re right in front of it. OLEDs are the most popular market in 2024, offering better colours and more seamless movement of pixels on-screen.

Ports

Before you get too excited about the screen, you should also pay attention to the case of a smart TV. Specifically, whether you want it to have a lot of ports or not. Every TV has necessary ports but this time you should consider additional ones like Ethernet or USB ports.

If you’re unsure, getting a TV with at least three is a good idea. While a lot of tech is going wireless nowadays, you can still get endless utility from having USB ports on your TV. A lot of streaming devices connect to the TV through USB. If your chosen smart TV cannot access certain services or is a lower-quality model, a streaming device can enable fast streaming with other nifty features like voice control, all in a portable format that you can take and plug into other USB ports on TVs.

You can also use USBs to connect portable drives, charge your phone, and perform other menial tasks. The USB platform is designed to be an all-in-one cable, so there’s no telling what future technology may depend on you having a free USB port or two.

Soundbar

While this isn’t a TV feature, many smart TVs come bundled with a soundbar or a different smart speaker. There’s a reason for this—smart TVs try to stay as thin as possible. This is mainly an aesthetic choice, making the TV look sleek and high-tech when it sits flush against a wall. However, this also means the in-built speakers aren’t as big as possible.

This can cause reduced sound quality, so many opt for external speakers instead. Barring a surround sound setup, soundbars can be small and share a sleek, unintrusive product design just like the TV itself.

In the future, better speakers or speaker-friendly frame design will likely solve this and make native smart TV sound even better. In the meantime, a soundbar is a great solution. By covering these features, you shouldn’t have any nasty surprises when buying a smart TV in 2024.