Purchasing an unbranded cheap TV will cost you more.
Before you buy a Television or other consumer electronics item you must consider not only the purchase price of the product but also the probability of it going faulty, the life expectancy of the product, and the features and the performance.
Cheap unbranded LCD televisions and cheap unbranded plasma TVs that are manufactured by unknown factories may appear to be excellent value for money. As a rule they are sold at lower prices than the equal sized models from dependable known brands such as JVC, LG, Hitachi, Pioneer, Philips, Panasonic, Sony, Samsung, Sharp, Sharp and Toshiba. The specification that they offer may seem equivalent to the main brands of TVs and often the styling isnt dissimilar.
Why are the known brands of TVs more expensive?
Obviously when you buy a known brand of TV you are paying a premium for the brand, which you dont do on the unknown brand cheaper TVs. However is this the only difference?
Often the cheaper LCD televisions and the cheaper Plasma televisions are imported into the United Kingdom from factories in Eastern Europe and China and are distributed by unknown importers that dont have the infrastructure in the UK that the main Television brands have. This may possibly seem like a good thing since it keeps the costs down.
The manufacturers of unbranded cheap televisions dont have the same incentive to safeguard their TVs from being unreliable or poor quality. It isnt important to them if the televisions are unreliable or if they last for 4 years or 7years. Ultimately you wont know which factory manufactured the TV, so you wont be able to avoid it in the future if you purchase an unreliable TV.
Moreover the quality control isnt as stringent which once more means that the possibility of the cheaper televisions going faulty is increased. Therefore the out of box failure rate when new will be higher on cheap televisions than for branded televisions. Cheaper TVs will be more prone to fail within the first year, and beyond, than the more expensive branded Television models.
The circuit design and internal components on unfamiliar cheap TV brands are not of the same quality as the main brands of televisions, again increasing the probability of the TV going faulty. Reliability surveys carried out by the consumer magazine Which have again and again found that Television brands such as Sony and Panasonic consistently out perform the cheaper unknown cheap TV brands.
It is more difficult to repair cheap TVs from unknown brands
The major brand manufacturers of TVs stock spare parts to expedite repairs this doesnt happen for the unknown cheaper Television brands. Often it is very difficult to obtain replacement parts for the unbranded cheap televisions .
If an repair engineer is struggling to discover the cause of a fault on a main brand Television they can get technical help from the technical department of the UK subsiduary. In some cases if the repair engineer can’t resolve the fault then the TV manufacturer will even carry out the repair. The unfamiliar cheaper TV brands dont have this type of back up. Therefore not only is it more probable that the unbranded cheap Television will go faulty but when it does it will be more difficult, if not impossible to get hold of technical assistance. Furthermore it will in all probability take longer to get a hold the parts. If the problem cant be resolved, due to no technical support, it follows that the unbranded cheap Television is more likely to become unrepairable earlier than the major brand TVs and will need replacing at an earlier time.
I have seen instances on branded televisions where the product has failed 2 years after being purchased, and despite the fact that it came with a 12 month warranty, the manufacturer has replaced the product or subsidised the cost of the repair to protect their brand image. This doesnt happen on cheap unknown brands of TVs. On the unknown brand cheaper TV when the warranty has expired if it cant be repaired then it will mean additional expense replacing it.
How does the performance of cheaper unknown TV brands compare to known TV Brands?
The main brand TV manufacturers invest in research and development to improve the performance of the televisions. Consequently the features, picture and sound quality will be superior to the unknown cheaper TV brands. Typically the cheaper unbranded televisions have poorer out of date components that prevent them from performing as well as the branded TVs. This is apparent if you compare them side by side and can be seen in the reviews in magazines such as What Hi-fi and What Video.
Conclusion
The major brand TVs are better supported, better designed and they boast more features and they perform better than the unbranded cheap TV brands. As soon as all of this is taken into consideration the main Television brands represent a cheaper alternative in the long run delivering extra value and longer service than the unbranded cheap TV brands. So make sure that when you buy a television that is from a manufacturer such as Pioneer, Sony, Philips, Panasonic, LG Toshiba or JVCand you will get superior value in the long run.
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