Is Upgrading to 4K Worth It?

What is 4K?

In case you’ve been living under a rock, 4K is a resolution that refers to the horizontal display resolution of approximately 4,000 pixels. The dominant 4K standard is 3840 x 2160 in television and consumer media. For example if you have a 4K monitor or TV, you may find in the resolution settings that 3840 x 2160 is native. However the movie projection industry uses a whopping 4096 x 2160, making your cinematic experience just a little bit better.

Why make the switch over to 4K?

Your 1080p HD TV might be fantastic, but 4K is excellent in quality and new features alike. Not to mention that 4K is four times the quality of 1080p. The High Dynamic Range (HDR) will help colors pop, making bright colors brighter, and the dark colors darker, which helps define your viewing experience with refined quality. Plus, HDR is improving each year, with frequent software updates, and with the recurrent drop in prices, it makes the upgrade all the more worth it.

Switching to 4K is a pretty safe bet to feast your eyes. It’s sort of like making the change from 60Hz to 144Hz – such an increase in quality that you simply cannot go back once you upgrade. In terms of pixels per frame, 4K is already a huge advantage; and if you factor in the quality of two HD screens on top of that, then you’ve got a true very high definition quality escapade.

Another great feature that is almost exclusive to 4K screens is an Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED) – also known as organic electroluminescent – is a special Light-Emitting Diode (LED) in which the emissive electroluminescent layer is a film of organic compound that emits light in response to an electric current. In layman’s terms, each pixel can turn on and off individually, presenting true dark black colors.

For the solid future, 4K technology is still in, and still being developed. Companies are stocking 4K TVs and monitors like crazy as they are high in demand. Although 8K and 16K exist, the most support is for 4K right now so you don’t have to worry about upgrading beyond that for a while. Additionally, streaming services, cable services and video games are providing 4K support and content as the future unfolds, and without a 4K resolution, the quality of your pictures are being severely downgraded.

If you’ve gotten this far, and you’re interested in upgrading, QVC has a fantastic range of 4K televisions with free shipping, and a sale on right now. Furthermore, you can use the code ‘OFFER’ for $10 off your first order!

Limitations of 4K

Though 4K televisions sound great, they’re missing a few things that a classic 1080p TV has had for ages. For example, you may often find yourself lacking a few HDMI, USB or even SCART ports that you may have needed.

For those who aren’t so tech-savvy, many of the smart features that come with newer TVs aren’t that worth it and you may not notice the difference if you don’t need to connect a bunch more accounts to your TV, alongside yet another device connected to your router.

Lastly, despite the great quality of 4K, the vast majority of content you may consume is probably still 1080p, which means it needs to be upscaled to fit the quality of your screen. Upscaling is the process of taking a lower resolution and stretching it to fit a higher resolution display. If you’re not spending a good amount of money on a quality 4K TV, your image may become soft and grainy, with a loss of detail.

So, is it worth the upgrade?

Overall, the positives outweigh the negatives of upgrading to 4K – whether you’re a casual television consumer, or an avid PC gamer – it’s definitely worth it if you have the money. Ranging between $400 and $4,000, QVC has some great choices.