Your Samsung 4K QLED TV might not have the features you thought if you bought it from Best Buy
Own one of the best Samsung TVs? It could be missing some key features. That's what a new US class action lawsuit alleges. The suit, Rodriguez v. Samsung Electronics America, Inc. et al, accuses Samsung and Best Buy of advertising some 4K QLED TVs made the manufacturer with features they don't actually have.
The news comes via a Korean news agency called Yonhap News Agency, and it's unclear which specific TVs are being described here or how many people are involved in the class action suit. But the features promised but not delivered, according to the suit, are Motion Xcelerator Turbo+, which reduces blur without increasing lag; FreeSync, which uses variable refresh rates to reduce screen tearing; and HDMI 2.1 ports.
These are all features that make Samsung TVs some of the best gaming TVs, and you'd be pretty miffed if you thought your new TV had them and later discovered otherwise.
Is Samsung misleading TV buyers?
That's highly unlikely. Samsung's a highly polished operation, and its marketing and retail information is extremely trustworthy too. A more likely explanation is that either the Best Buy listings detailed in the suit accidentally had the wrong information on them, or that we're talking about model ranges where some features were only available in certain models and that wasn't set out clearly, or perhaps at all.
Specification differences are quite common in modern TVs, especially with smaller sizes. If you look at the specs for lots of different manufacturers' ranges, you'll often see that some features are only available in TVs of certain sizes. A good example of that is the current LG C2 OLED TV range. The 42-inch LG C2 has a slightly less impressive sound system than the 48-inch, and both those sizes lack the brightness booster of the larger C2 models.
The suit does demonstrate an important bit of buying advice, though. Always check the specs carefully for the features that matter to you. So, if you're browsing our guide to the best TVs and think you've found a winner, go to the manufacturer's site rather than a retailer's one to check the specs – and make sure you're looking at the specs for the specific size of TV you're considering, not the specs for the entire range.
