Smart TV is one of the easiest devices in our home. But choosing a suitable TV for our home is the trickiest one. You have to look deeper into the basic features, screen sizes, price range, type of display, and more. Here, we picked webOS (LG Smart TV) and Android TV OS. Let’s see what these TVs have to offer and which one wins the race.
What is Android TV
Android TVs are Smart TVs running on Android-based TV OS. The OS was developed by Google and is available on many TV brands, like Sony, Philips, Hisense, Panasonic, TCL, and more. Apart from TV brands, Android TV OS is available on TV Boxes like H96 TV Box, AT&T TV Box, Ematic TV Box, and more. Similar to Android smartphones, you will find Play Store and other Google-made apps by default.
What is webOS
webOS is a Linux-based operating system and is only available on LG Smart TVs. It has a dedicated LG Content Store to install apps and access popular media content. On October 6, 2022, LG introduced webOS Hub. In the webOS Hub, you will have different brands of TVs from the webOS platform. TV brands like Seike, Konka, Aiwa, and Hyundai are some of the TV brands that are going to integrate webOS and launch them as webOS TVs. You can check the full press release here.
Android TV vs webOS: Interface
The interface on both Android TV and webOS are different from each other. The Android TV has a home screen that focuses on your installed apps. It has a row of apps followed by the content you would like to watch on your device. In addition to that, you can customize the Android TV home screen to your preference. You can add & remove rows, change suggestions & recommendations, add shortcuts, and more.
The webOS interface looks more rigid and easy to use. All the needed options will be on the home screen. In the LG TV home screen, you can easily navigate to the Settings menu, Apps list, Available Inputs, and more. The only drawback in the webOS is that you won’t get a tile of apps. All the installed apps will appear in a single row. With this, navigating to a specific app is a difficult task. To eliminate that issues, you can edit the position of apps based on your preference.
Verdict: In the interface aspect, LG Smart TV’s webOS has the edge over the Android TV OS.
Android TV vs webOS: Remote Controls
Both Android TV as well as webOS devices come with remote controls. The Android TV has a simple-user friendly remote to control the TV. Almost all the brands of Android TV remotes are the same. You will have the basic remote control buttons with streaming app buttons like Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu. If you want, you can edit the Hulu button and Netflix buttons on the Android TV remote to your preference.
On the other hand, LG Smart TVs come with a Magic Remote. This remote has point-and-click features, which feel like a mouse on your PC. The major advantage of the LG Magic remote is the Point-and-click feature, where you can use the remote as a mouse pointer. With that, the navigation becomes so easier, especially when you are using the on-screen keyboard.
In addition to that, other control options like voice assistants like Google Assistant and Alexa are available on both Android TV and LG Smart TV. You can also use your smartphone to control the TVs.
Verdict: With the PC-like mouse feature, LG Magic Remote stands tall in the control aspect.
Android TV vs webOS: Available apps
For both TVs, you have the dedicated apps store called Google Play Store (for Android TVs) and LG Content Store (for LG Smart TVs) to install apps and games.
In the Play Store for Android TV, you can find more than 300 apps. If an Android-based app is unavailable for Android TV, you can easily sideload it using Downloader. You can sideload any app on your Android TV if it is available as an APK file.
On the other hand, LG Content Store has only 200+ apps. And, it is impossible to sideload apps on LG Smart TVs. You have to stick with those 200+ apps. But, a ray of hope is that LG Content Store is added new apps every now and then. But, it is impossible to meet the app count for Android TVs.
Verdict: In the Apps section, the clear winner is the Android TV.
Android TV vs webOS: Features
The above-mentioned criteria are the most important aspects when deciding the TV. But, there are some intricate features to look after for hard-core TV fans.
As Android TV comprises different brands, you can’t pinpoint a specific set of features. But some of the common features like built-in Chromecast, the ability to control home devices, AirPlay Settings on Android TV, HDR Settings, and Closed Caption feature are available on the Android TV. The rest of the features, like no. of USB ports, HDMI ports, Aux Ports, Storage, RAM, Picture Processing Settings, Video Rendering Settings, and Acoustic Settings, will vary based on the brands. The latest version of Android TV is 12.
In LG Smart TV, most of the features are common to all the TVs. In the high-end TVs, you will have features like Eye Comfort Display, HLG, OLED Motion, and 8K Upscaler available. As of now (October 10, 2022), the latest version available for webOS is 6.1.
Verdict: On the Features front, LG Smart TV is a winner due to its standalone OS and best performance.
Android TV vs webOS: Pricing
You can get an Android TV as cheap as $100 and go as high as $2,999. For LG Smart TV, you can get the cheapest TV at $150 and the costliest one is the LG SIGNATURE Rollable OLED TV which costs $100,000.
Android TV vs webOS – Which is the Best One?
As with the above aspects, LG TV (webOS) wins in three aspects and Android TV in one. But, these may fool you. If your primary concern is apps, webOS can’t satisfy you ever with $100,000. You can both install & sideload apps on Android TV with ease. If you are concerned about audio and video, you may go for LG Smart TVs.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. Google TV is an upgraded version of Android TV that will soon replace Android TV on many existing models. A lot of TV brands are integrating with the Google TV OS and halting the Android TV OS models.
For general use, LG TVs will last for 8-10 years. For Android TV, the average lifetime is 6-7 years.
