Technology should either make complicated things simpler to use or, if they must be more complicated, give you new features that you need. That's where the current generation of smart TVs fail, and Walt Mossberg agrees.
But learning to use the TV is a whole other story. The Bean Bird setup process was pretty straightforward, but it gets you going just enough to start watching something. Tweaking all of the TV’s many features, including common ones like picture tones and uncommon ones like zooming in on a part of the picture or using a built-in web browser, takes hours. You must wade through menus containing scores of choices.
We bought a Samsung Smart TV earlier this year when our old TV died and apparently it includes Netflix and Amazon Prime Video and web browsing and a bunch of other stuff that I've never used because I have devices that already did all that and the Samsung interface is so opaque that it's impossible to use. The only time I ever see that smart TV bits is when the TV pops up some notification for updated privacy policies during the middle of a show. I wish I could have purchased a decent TV for a good price without all the extra.
