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?