4 Reasons Why You Shouldn't Buy a Smart TV

Smart TVs, once a luxury option, are now the standard offering. When you walk into an electronics store or buy a new TV online, almost every model you find will be smart TVs, and they come at an affordable price.

And while they have plenty of benefits, you shouldn't buy a smart TV without thinking about it first. Let's look at several reasons why you shouldn't buy a smart TV.

What is a Smart TV?

Smart TVs are televisions that have the built-in ability to connect to the Internet. This means your TV itself connects, instead of having to use a connected device like a Roku box or game console to access online services.

Since smart TVs are connected to the internet, they usually allow you to download apps just like you would on your phone. Most smart TV platforms have apps for major streaming services like Netflix and YouTube, as well as offers for major TV networks and more niche services. You can also use them to browse the web and access other resources on your home network.

Having your TV online is certainly useful, and their affordability means you don't have to shell out extra for these. features. But we still believe that non-smart TVs or alternative devices have a place in your home. Here's why.

1. The security and privacy risks of smart TVs are real

When considering buying a “smart” product, i.e. any device capable of connecting to the internet, security should always be a primary concern. Every Internet-ready device contributes to the Internet of Things, which is arguably one of today's worst security nightmares.

Common Internet of Things Security Issues and Fixes p>

It turns out that smart TVs are one of the worst offenders. They put your privacy and security at risk in several ways; even the

FBI

has issued warnings about the risks of smart TVs.

Almost all smart TVs use automatic content recognition (ACR) to track what you're watching. They use this information to show you more relevant advertisements. Although you can often limit the collection of this data, it can be difficult to find or reverse it. Do you really want to share everything you watch with your TV manufacturer?

Another major security issue with smart TVs is the lack of updates. Each individual platform relies on its vendor for app and operating system updates. If you have a TV that no longer receives updates or takes a long time to receive software patches, your TV could be a vulnerable point on your network.

Finally, some smart TVs have built-in cameras, and most have a microphone. Malicious actors could take advantage of the above security vulnerabilities to spy on you through your webcam. And it's not just pirates who abuse it: in 2015,

CNN

reported that Samsung's privacy policy mentions forwarding your conversations to a third party.

Whether it's from a hacker or your TV manufacturer, that's a lot of data to collect when you just want to watch something on your TV.

2. Other TVs are superior

The main appeal of smart TVs is that you can access Netflix, Hulu, Spotify, and similar services right from your TV. While that's a great idea, these services aren't exclusive to smart TVs. And in fact, you can get a lot more alternative devices.

Options like Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, and Chromecast are much better platforms. They offer less convoluted and easier to navigate interfaces than your smart TV. The app selection is probably smoother than what your smart TV's app store offers. And depending on the ecosystems you already use, these platforms offer greater convenience and integration with your phone and other devices.

For example, the Amazon Fire TV Stick has an Alexa-enabled remote, letting you launch your favorite shows without digging through menus. If you have lots of Apple devices, Apple TV makes it easy to share media from your iPhone or iPad. For most people, these benefits are much better than suffering from what's included on your smart TV.

In short, set-top boxes like the AppleTV and streaming sticks like the Chromecast do everything your smart TV can do, but better. They are cheap and much more flexible. As you can add them to any TV, your TV itself remains just a screen while the device handles what you watch.

And while a smart TV can become obsolete after a few years, you can easily replace your streaming device or take it with you on a new TV. To help you decide, see our

comparison of chromecast and roku

3. Smart TVs have inefficient interfaces

Smart functionality requires an appropriate interface. Smartphones and computers are great because they both support two important input methods: typing and pointing. Smart TVs are terrible either way, and that can lead to a lot of frustration.

When you want to sit down and watch something on a smart TV, it's actually a lot more work than expected. It's not overwhelming, but makes what should be a fun experience feel inconvenient at best.

A prime example is when you want to search for a particular TV show or movie on a streaming service. With an ordinary TV remote, typing is a tedious affair that can require up to a dozen button presses per letter typed. While most smart TVs support microphones, the basic solution is often spotty.

On the other hand, most streaming boxes come with remotes that have superior voice assistants. Some of them also have

remote applications for mobile television

, which support entering your searches on a smartphone or tablet.

And that's just one problem. Many smart TVs are plagued with generally poor interfaces that require lots of button presses to get anywhere and hide important settings where you might miss them. Even the remote control can be confusing, hiding certain functions behind colors or letters that aren't at all clear.

If you have an older smart TV that no longer receives updates, you might be stuck with these poor interfaces for a long time.

4. Smart TV performance is often unreliable

4 Reasons Why You Shouldn't Buy a Smart TV

Using Smart TV apps to watch content is convenient, but the apps are almost always inferior to those available on your phone or computer. In addition to the interface issues discussed earlier, another issue is that smart TVs don't have as much processing power as other devices.

Poor performance and negligence by app developers are common. Most of the smart TV users have experienced input lag when pressing buttons, freezes and freezes when apps try to do something intensive and other performance related issues. It forces you to kill apps and restart them, which is never fun.

Smart TVs are also having issues. For example, we saw an issue where the YouTube app on a Samsung smart TV was overlapping video titles with the item below, making them nearly impossible to play. I have to reconnect my Bluetooth headphones with my smart TV almost every time I use it. And when I disconnect an HDMI cable and reconnect it, the TV forgets the name I set for that input and makes me replace its shortcut icon.

Even the apps themselves can be limited in functionality. For example, the YouTube app for TVs doesn't let you change the playback speed, which is available on both desktop and mobile.

These problems are not really a surprise. Content providers have to juggle compatibility with many outlets these days, including web players, smartphone apps, tablet apps, third-party devices like Roku and Chromecast, and smart TVs. Smart TVs, being less widely used than smartphones and computers, are therefore given lower priority.

This brings up another potential problem: the usefulness of your smart TV is limited by the apps that are available for it. If content providers stop updating their smart TV apps for whatever reason, your smart TV loses a lot of what makes it "smart".

In just a few years, your smart TV could end up becoming a dumb TV through no fault of your own. If that happens, you'll have to rely on set-top boxes and other streaming methods anyway.

Should You Buy a Smart TV?

Smart TVs certainly have many advantages, so we're not necessarily trying to dissuade you from buying one. However, it's important for you to know why smart TVs aren't always everything they're made out to be.

Security and privacy issues are one of the biggest downsides, but clunky interfaces and glitches are hindrances too. You could argue that the price of smart TVs has come down because they are a ripe platform for data collection.

If after reading all this you still want to buy a smart TV, go for it. It's pretty hard to find a quality TV that isn't smart, so if you want, you can skip connecting your smart TV to the internet to keep it 'muted'. You can always supplement the TV with a streaming box if you decide to go online later.

Luckily, there are plenty of smart TVs on the market if you decide to choose one.

< p>Image credit: Andrey_Popov/

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