Best Buy's Insignia TVs will soon get more vibrant picture thanks to 'quantum dot' filters

The new Insignia F50 Series TV with quantum dots
(Image credit: Best Buy / Amazon)

Best Buy’s Insignia brand of TVs are about to get a significant boost in color vibrancy thanks to the addition of a quantum dot filter in its latest series of Amazon Fire TV Edition screens. 

Quantum dots, in case you haven’t heard of them before now, are nano-crystals that, when introduced to a current, expand or contract to enhance the vibrancy of RGB sub-pixels. They’ve been used in Samsung QLED TVs, Vizio Quantum Series, TCL QLED and LG NanoCell TVs for the past few years and are now making their way into Insignia's wares. 

In addition to its quantum dot technology, the new F50 Series will feature Dolby Vision HDR and DTS Virtual:X speaker technology to deliver upscaled 3D audio and because it’s running Amazon’s Fire TV smart platform, expect the TVs to come with Alexa built-in and have access to Amazon’s entire video storefront and Amazon Prime Video streaming service for anyone who’s a Prime subscriber.

According to Best Buy and Amazon, the Insignia F50 Amazon Fire TV Series will be available later this summer (August through September at the latest) in 50- to 70-inch screen sizes and will start at just $599. 


Analysis: Cheap quantum dot TVs? Yes, please!  

Like every other major category of technology, TVs have a trickle-down effect wherein the best, cutting-edge performance features start in the priciest products each year and then eventually make their way down to less expensive products sometime down the line.

That’s exactly what we’re seeing with quantum dot technology. 

By and large this is the technology that’s helped many TVs deliver Wide Color Gamut video that transcends the old Rec. 709 standard – which is a really big milestone for TVs. 

The fact that it’s taken Insignia this long to catch up to players like Samsung, LG, TCL and Vizio is somewhat unsurprising given Insignia’s penchant for producing ultra low-cost TVs, but this upgrade should bring a visible boost in performance to even the lowest-cost TVs out there.

Long story short? Next time you're in the market for a new TV and don't want to drop thousands of dollars, you might not want to skip past Insignia. 

  • Looking for a better big-screen? Check out our guide to the best 4K TVs
Nick Pino

Nick Pino is Managing Editor, TV and AV for TechRadar's sister site, Tom's Guide. Previously, he was the Senior Editor of Home Entertainment at TechRadar, covering TVs, headphones, speakers, video games, VR and streaming devices. He's also written for GamesRadar+, Official Xbox Magazine, PC Gamer and other outlets over the last decade, and he has a degree in computer science he's not using if anyone wants it.

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