10 Years and still watching: When is it time to upgrade your TV?

As I watched the brutal hallway fight scene from Daredevil S01E02 unfold on the glorious 83-inch Samsung S95F this week, a had a surprising thought: it's been over a decade since I last upgraded my own TV.

Thinking back to when I first experienced that iconic moment in 2015 on the very 65-inch 4K Sony that still sits on my wall, the sheer passage of time felt significant.

In a world where I'm constantly surrounded by the latest gadgets, it's easy to forget just how long ten years is in the consumer electronics landscape.

The truth is that while I would love a shiny new TV on my wall, the 65-inch 4K Sony TV on my wall is still going strong.

Sure, it feels a little small on the wall now, in a world where 75-inch models (and larger) are commonplace. It doesn't feature HDR support and it's hard to watch during the day because it reflects light terribly.

There's no Dolby Vision or HDR support. Blacks aren't black like an OLED panel, more a dull grey, when they are shown. There's no AI upscaling to make each scene look as good as it can. That DareDevil scene I use for testing TVs just doesn't hit the same way on my TV.

It doesn't give me the best gaming experience either, as it doesn't support HDMI 2.1. And it's not really a Smart TV either. I think it does support a couple of streaming services, but I honestly haven't used it for anything other than the panel since I got it. I don't think it's currently connected to the Wi-Fi.

But despite all these flaws, the image still looks good most of the time. It has four HDMI ports so I can connect it to my soundbar, my Switch, my PS5 and my Apple TV. Thanks to the HDMI ARC support, I don't even need to use the TV's remote control to control it.

And because it's effectively just a dumb panel, I don't need to worry about software updates or missing streaming platforms. I can happily continue to use this TV until it actually stops working through a hardware fault.

As much as Samsung and LG deserve kudos for offering seven years of software updates to their new Smart TVs, I have to wonder what happens after that? Is the expectation that you need to upgrade? Will apps stop working?

If you're preparing to spend $11,500 on a new 83-inch OLED TV, do you need to plan for the TV's obsolescence in 2032?

Having spent some time with new Sony and Samsung TVs this week, I've never been more tempted to upgrade my 10 year old TV.

But I think I'm going to hold off for a while longer.

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