Best home entertainment tech of 2013: Sony and Pansonic 4K TVs, the Xbox One and PS4

Our round up of the best technology of 2013 continues with TVs and boxes to put under them...

David Phelan
Wednesday 18 December 2013 17:17 GMT

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It’s been a good year for Sony: along with the cameras above it produced its best TV yet, a 4K beast confusingly dubbed the KD-55X9005A (see above).

As you know, 4K or Ultra HD has a display with four times the resolution of HD. Regular broadcasts are upscaled to look their best on this screen which, though pricey at £3,299, is way cheaper than most 4K TVs.

Meanwhile, the Panasonic TX-P42GT60GB showed just how spectacular plasma screen TVs can look, in a TV that has plenty of extra features to boot. Samsung, meanwhile, continues to make gorgeous, impressive TVs like the UE40F8000 at low prices with super-slim frames.

Samsung's UE40f8000
Samsung's UE40f8000

But 2013 has been dominated by the release, in the last few weeks, of the games systems which double as home entertainment hubs.

The Xbox One is the more proficient, allowing you to control TV, Sky box and more through the games machine, including by gesture and voice. The Sony PlayStation 4 is the better games console but has some way to go to catch up Microsoft’s machine for versatility.

Both are in short supply, mind, but if you're trying to decide which might be best for your living room you can read our arguments for both machines: 5 reasons to buy the Xbox One instead of the PS4 or 5 reasons to buy the PS4 instead of the Xbox One

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