Are unbranded cheap TVs are a false economy?



Purchasing a TV or any consumer electronic item is similar to purchasing a car. You have to be concerned about not only the purchase cost but in addition the ongoing repair costs and its life expectancy.

Unbranded cheap Plasma TVs and unbranded Cheap LCD TVs can be bought for less than the similar specification, identical size TVs from well known manufacturers like Hitachi, Pioneer, Panasonic, LG, Philips, Samsung, Sony, Toshiba, Sharp and JVC. The secondary brand cheap TVs may well seem to be good value for money even though they are produced by unknown manufacturers. On first examination the features offered can appear to be similar to those of the known brands. Some cheap brand televisions are also sometimes aesthetically well styled.

How do the main brands of TVs justify the premium?

It is easy to think that you are paying a premium for the badge on the branded models of TVs, whilst this is to some extent true there are additional differences that justify the extra cost of the branded TVs.

Another reason for cheap unbranded Television brands being cheaper is that they dont operate from high-priced offices in the UK backed up with warehouses, and staff. They often ship the products directly from the factory in Eastern Europe, China, etc to the retailers warehouse with no or scarcely any personnel and premises in the UK. This may well appear to be good thing and would help explain the price differential.

The manufacturers of unbranded cheap TVs dont have the same incentive to safeguard their televisions from being unreliable or poor quality. It doesnt matter to them if the televisions are unreliable or if they last for 4 years or 7years. Ultimately you wont be able to find out which factory manufactured the television, as a result you wont be able to avoid it in the future if you buy an unreliable TV.

Moreover the quality control isnt as stringent which once more means that the probability of the cheaper televisions going faulty is increased. Hence the out of box failure rate when new will be higher on cheap TVs than for branded televisions. Cheaper TVs will be more likely to fail within the first 12 months, and beyond, than the more expensive branded TV models.

The circuit design and internal components on unfamiliar cheap Television brands are not of the same quality as the main brands of televisions, again increasing the likelihood of the TV going faulty. Reliability surveys carried out by the consumer magazine Which have continually found that TV brands such as Sony and Panasonic regularly out perform the cheaper unknown cheap Television brands.

Unknown cheap Television brands are less likely to be repaired.

Replacement parts are not as readily available on cheap TV brands as they are for the main Television brands. This is often for the reason that there arent any parts kept in the UK by the manufacturer for the unbranded cheap TVs unlike the main brand TVs so it takes longer to obtain the parts.

If an repair engineer is struggling to come across the source of a fault on a main brand TV 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 unheard of cheaper television brands dont have this sort of back up. As a result not only is it more probable that the unbranded cheap TV will go faulty but when it does it will be more difficult, if not impossible to acquire technical assistance. Furthermore it will probably take longer to get a hold the parts. If the problem cant be repaired, due to no technical support, it follows that the unbranded cheap TV is more likely to become unrepairable sooner than the major brand TVs and will need replacing at an earlier time.

It is not unknown when a branded TV has had very poor service history, for the manufacturer to replace, repair or subsidise the price of the repair outside of beyond the 12 month warranty as a good will gesture. It is unlikely that this would happen for a cheap Televisions from an unheard of brand, which means that you would have to buy a replacement one earlier than if you had purchased a recognized brand of Television.

Better performance on known brand televisions

The main brand TV manufacturers invest in research and development to improve the performance of the TVs. So the features, sound and picture quality will be superior to the unknown cheaper TV brands. Typically the cheaper unbranded televisions have poorer out of date components that stop them from performing as well as the branded TVs. This is obvious if you compare them side by side and can be seen in the reviews in magazines such as What Video and What Hi-fi.

Conclusion

The main brand televisions are better supported, better designed and they boast more features and they perform better than the unbranded cheap Television brands. Once all of this is taken into consideration the main Television brands represent a cheaper alternative in the long run delivering more value and longer service than the unbranded cheap TV brands. So make sure that when you purchase a television that is from a manufacturer such as Sony, Philips, Pioneer, Toshiba, Panasonic, JVC or LGand you will get better value in the long run.