My friend bought a ₹1 Lakh TV. He regretted it almost immediately after installing it

My friend bought an expensive TV recently. On paper, it was exactly the kind of television most people would be happy to own. He had researched it, compared brands and spent enough money to convince himself he couldn't go wrong. Then the TV was installed and within minutes, he regretted the purchase.

The TV wasn't defective. The picture was actually very good. The problem was that he had bought the wrong TV for his room and the way he watched television.

That is why I have a small rule when someone tells me they are buying a new TV: don't show me the TV first. Show me the room.

Where is the sofa? How far away is it? Is there a window opposite the screen? Do you watch cricket at 2pm with the curtains open, or movies at midnight with the lights off? These things sound trivial. They aren't.

The TV market is full of impressive numbers, hertz, nits, dimming zones, AI, but none of them tell you whether that TV is actually right for you. Here are seven mistakes I'd avoid.

Why is buying the wrong screen size still the number 1 regret?

I think people make this mistake because they shop with their eyes instead of a tape measure.

A 65-inch TV sitting two feet away from you in a brightly lit showroom can look enormous. Put that same TV several feet away on your living-room wall and suddenly you're wondering if you should have bought the 75-inch.

Your viewing distance matters more than simply asking how big your room is. RTINGS currently uses field of view as a more useful way of thinking about TV size; around 30 degrees is a reasonable target for mixed viewing.

So measure the distance from your eyes to where the screen will sit before you start comparing models.

And don't be afraid of going bigger just because your old TV was smaller. With 4K, you can sit closer to a large screen without seeing the pixel structure you might have noticed on older, lower-resolution sets.

What I'd check: viewing distance first, screen size second. Not the other way around.

OLED vs. QLED vs. Mini-LED: Are you picking the wrong panel type for your room?

OLED, QLED and Mini-LED are not interchangeable labels, and I wouldn't choose between them until I've looked at the room.

If you have sunlight hitting the screen for much of the day, brightness and reflection handling move way up my list. A good Mini-LED can be a very sensible choice here. RTINGS' testing considers around 500 nits of SDR real-scene brightness a good value for bright-room viewing, while its HDR testing uses multiple brightness measurements rather than relying on one headline number.

In a darker room, OLED becomes much more compelling. Its pixels can switch off individually, giving you exceptionally deep blacks and excellent contrast.

But here's the bit I wouldn't forget: Mini-LED is not a performance guarantee, and OLED is not automatically the right answer for every room. Look at the actual TV, not just the technology printed on the box.

What I'd check: room brightness, reflections, local dimming performance and viewing angle before deciding on OLED versus Mini-LED.

Best QLED TVs for your room

Why does your brand-new TV sound terrible?

Because we've spent years making televisions thinner and then apparently expected the laws of physics to apologise. There is only so much speaker hardware you can squeeze into a panel that is barely thicker than a smartphone.

This is why I tell people not to treat the TV's speaker wattage as a shortcut to good sound. Twenty watts versus forty watts doesn't tell you whether dialogue will be clear or whether the TV can produce convincing bass.

Some manufacturers have found clever ways around the problem. Sony's Acoustic Surface Audio+ system, for example, uses actuators to make the screen itself produce sound on supported BRAVIA models.

But if you're spending serious money on a premium TV, I'd still budget for a soundbar or proper audio system if sound matters to you.

What I'd check: dialogue clarity first. Speaker wattage comes much further down my list.

What refresh rate do you actually need for gaming and aports?

This is where I would stop paying attention to phrases such as "Motion Rate 240" and look for the words native 120Hz.

A higher refresh rate can make a real difference with fast-moving sports and gaming. For a PS5, Xbox Series X or gaming PC, I'd look for a genuine 120Hz panel and then check for HDMI 2.1, VRR and 4K high-refresh-rate support.

This is also why a TV advertising some giant motion number isn't necessarily a better gaming TV. If the panel is actually 60Hz, no amount of clever branding changes that.

What I'd check: native 120Hz, HDMI 2.1 and VRR. Those are much more meaningful than a manufacturer's proprietary "Motion Rate" figure.

Best mini-LED TVs

Are you overpaying for smart TV platforms you won't use?

I wouldn't spend extra money on a TV because its home screen has prettier icons.The software matters, of course. It should be responsive, easy to navigate and support the apps you actually use. But software is also the easiest part of a television to replace while the panel isn't.

If the TV has excellent picture quality but you don't love its operating system, you can always add a streaming device later. You can't attach a streaming stick and magically turn a mediocre panel into a great one.

So when two TVs are close in price, I'd rather spend the difference on better brightness, contrast, processing or local dimming than on a fancier smart-TV interface.

What I'd check: buy the display first. Treat the operating system as a bonus.

Why are factory settings ruining your picture quality?

This is one of the first things I check on a new TV because manufacturers have a perfectly understandable reason for making Vivid mode look ridiculous.

It has to win the showroom fight.Your television is sitting beside 20 other televisions under bright lights, so it gets turned up, sharpened and made as colourful as possible. At home, that can be a completely different story.

For movies, I would start with Filmmaker Mode, Movie, Cinema or the manufacturer's most accurate preset.

And if motion smoothing is making your films look like a daytime soap, turn it down or off. Filmmaker Mode is designed specifically to preserve filmmaking choices such as the original frame rate and avoid unnecessary motion processing.

What I'd check: picture mode before judging the TV. A bad preset can make a good TV look surprisingly bad.

Are you falling for "Fake HDR" marketing?

This is the one specification I wish people would question more often. An HDR10 logo tells you the TV can accept an HDR10 signal. It doesn't tell you whether the television has the hardware to make that HDR picture genuinely impressive.

For that, brightness and contrast matter. So does local dimming on an LCD-based TV. And don't reduce the whole discussion to "anything above 1,000 nits is good HDR." That's too simplistic. RTINGS measures HDR brightness at 2%, 10%, 25%, 50% and 100% screen coverage, along with real HDR scenes, because a TV can produce an impressive tiny highlight and still behave very differently when a large part of the screen needs to be bright. Its current testing lists 1,000 nits as a good value for a 2% HDR peak window and 650 nits for sustained 2% brightness.

That is the kind of distinction I want buyers to understand. Don't buy the HDR logo. Look at the hardware behind it.

What I'd check: HDR peak brightness, sustained brightness, local dimming and real-world HDR performance, not just whether the box says "HDR10."

The best TV isn't necessarily the one with the most impressive specifications. It's the one whose specifications solve the problems you actually have. OLED TVs are among the most preferred, but you need to understand whether they are actually the right fit for your room.

Best OLED TVs on Amazon

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The Research and Expertise

For this story, I drew on my experience testing and comparing TVs across OLED, QLED and Mini-LED technologies, along with manufacturer specifications and independent display testing. I looked closely at the factors that actually affect everyday viewing, screen size, viewing distance, brightness, reflections, contrast, refresh rate, HDR performance and built-in audio. I also cross-checked technical claims against independent testing data and official specifications, rather than relying on marketing figures alone.

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