Decide what to buy | the Reevoo.com blog, featuring news on TVs, cameras, laptops, mp3 players & other gadgets, shopping tips and deals, reviews and more

After the post last week on the price of brand, where we looked at how much you can expect to pay for a particular brand name, I thought it would be helpful to take a look at how the cost of new TVs varies with screen size.

If you’re just starting to look into buying a new TV, getting a feel for how much screen you can get for your money is an essential first step in working out how much you want or need from a new flatscreen.

The prices come from purchases of televisions in 2008 from Reevoo’s retail partners, so all the data represents real costs from real people. If lots of people are buying a particular expensive TV, even if there are lots of cheap TVs available, the average will reflect what people are actually purchasing, not what retailers and manufacturers are pushing.

So, without further ado, here are are the numbers.

15 inches: £152
19 inches: £238
20 inches: £293
26 inches: £375
32 inches: £465
37 inches: £615
40 inches: £739
42 inches: £754
46 inches: £1,197
50 inches: £947
52 inches: £1,531
58 inches: £2,414

Lots of interesting things to pick out here. The most obvious jump in price is between 42″ and 46″. 4 extra inches of diagonal screen size will cost you over £400! In fact, 46″ TVs, most of which are made by Sony and Samsung, appear to be a pretty bad deal, when you see that the average cost of a 50″ screen is actually lower.

At the smaller sizes, 19″ televisions seem to offer better value than 20″ screens, but really the biggest bang for your buck comes at the most popular screen sizes of 32-42″, where you’ll pay just over £1 for every square inch of screen.

More details on that, for those so inclined, in the graph:

It’s amazing you can pay almost twice the price for each square inch at the smaller and larger sizes than you can in the most popular models.

So, are you nuts to buy a 46″+ screen or a tiny 19″, or do those sizes have enough value to certain people that it’s worth paying a premium for them?

I’ve been looking at the prices you can expect to pay if you buy a TV from the top brands. This will help if you’re shopping for a TV by brand - how much can you expect to pay for a Sony these days?

This data comes from thousands of purchases from Reevoo’s retail partners in 2008.

There’s no suprises at the top and bottom of the table - you can expect to get a Matsui TV for just over £200, while the average price forked out for a Pioneer set is over £1000!

Here’s the full list:

Matsui - £209
Goodmans - £250
Hitachi - £282
Philips - £522
LG - £547
Samsung - £578
Sony - £627
Toshiba - £639
Panasonic - £717
Sharp - £841
Pioneer - £1,258

This list tells us a lot about the screen sizes where manufacturers are selling the most products. For example, Matsui make televisons from 14-42″, with prices ranging from £60-550, but on average people are paying around £200, so I’d be cautious if I was looking at a £500 Matsui - not many people are buying them.

While that’s helpful, it’s also really valuable to look how the average cost for each brand varies within a particular screen size. Here’s how things pan out in 32″ TVs:

Toshiba - £414
Hitachi - £418
Philips - £445
Sharp - £455
LG - £456
Samsung - £458
Sony - £538
Panasonic - £600

Overall the average price paid for a 32″ TV was £465. Within a screen size, you’d expect to pay more for extra features, like 3 or 4 HDMI ports rather than just 2; higher picture or sound quality; or perhaps just to get a shiny logo on the front.

Of the top manufacturers, it’s interesting to see that only Sony and Panasonic sets are selling for above the average price. Although both manufacters produce models available for around £400, they stand out as the premium brands at this screen size.

On the budget end, few manufactuers are selling 32″ for much less than £400, but Hitachi and Toshiba’s low end models are very popular, making them the value-for-money pick of the 32 inchers.

Which brand do you think offers the best value-for-money? Who do you think is just charging for their logo? Share your thoughts with other shoppers.