Best TVs: 55 inches and over

Looking for a big screen experience in your own home? Here are our top-rated TVs over 55 inches.

(Credit: Sony)

As of this week, there are now two TVs available in Australia that are 84 inches in size — but they both have a price tag to match. The average punter looking for a big flat-panel TV that you don't need to sell a kidney for is going to be looking at 55 inches and above.

If you look at the stats, over a third of all TV sales are now in the 55-inches category, compared to just over 10 per cent two years ago. Panel costs are way down, and this has helped push the larger screen format, as well as keep retail prices still relatively low.

The average screen size in Australia is still 42 inches, so if you're thinking of upgrading from a smaller size, it's worth considering the extra 13 inches. You may need to re-arrange your lounge room (or usual viewing room) to accommodate the larger size screen. Commonly, people find that front speaker arrangements need to be changed. Also, if you're using a centre speaker with a 5.1 or 7.1 channel surround sound, the additional screen height may make dialogue sound like its coming from people's feet — although, in fairness, you have to be a bit of an audiophile to notice things like that.

One final note: we've included two archive models. The Samsungs are no longer being produced, but you will find that they are still for sale at some online stores (and at a bargain price, compared to their initial RRPs).