Why don’t TVs nowadays have power buttons and can’t be turned off?

Smart TVs have made our entertainment life more convenient, but they have also brought some new problems and troubles, and even changed our usage habits. In the past, many people were used to turning off the TV with the remote control, and then pressing the power button on the TV to ensure that the TV was completely powered off. But I wonder if you have noticed that many TVs on the market now have cancelled the physical buttons on the body, including the frequently used physical power button, which has also disappeared on many smart TVs.

Strictly speaking, today's smart TVs can only be turned off by remote control or voice, but this operation can only be called "standby", which will incur additional electricity costs; in theory, completely turning off the power of the TV can prevent both electricity waste and electrical accidents, so why is there still a phenomenon of "standby" replacing "shutdown" on TV products?

There are three main reasons.

First of all, turning off the TV means completely cutting off the power, that is, the TV cannot be turned on by the power button on the remote control when it is turned off, which is difficult for TV users to understand, and it is also a bit cumbersome to go to the TV and press the power button every time to turn on the TV; in addition, many smart TVs can now be used as smart speakers even in standby mode. If they are completely turned off, the smart speakers will not work, not to mention voice control to turn on the TV. Just like we will not easily turn off our mobile phones in daily use except in special circumstances, from this perspective, standby replaces shutdown to make the functions of smart TVs more complete.

Second, most smart TVs now use Android systems. Users who have used Android phones know that the restart speed of mobile phones is relatively slow, and the chip performance of TVs is much weaker than that of mobile phones, so the boot speed will be slower. If the power is completely turned off and then turned on, the TV may take nearly 30 seconds to boot up, while it only takes two or three seconds to light up the screen in standby mode. From this perspective, smart TVs also choose a better user experience.

Finally, regarding the standby power consumption that ordinary consumers are concerned about, there is actually no need to care too much about it, as the relevant national departments have already taken it into consideration for us. According to the latest national standard "Energy Efficiency Limit Values ​​and Energy Efficiency Grades for Flat-Panel Televisions and Set-Top Boxes" (GB24850-2020) implemented in August 2021, the passive standby power of all flat-panel televisions (including LCD TVs and OLED TVs) should be less than or equal to 0.5 watts. Because it involves equivalent grade certification, TVs that do not meet this standard cannot be put on the market.

What does 0.5 watt standby power mean? If the TV is on standby for 24 hours a day and the power is calculated at the maximum of 0.5 watt, the TV will only use 4.38 kWh of electricity for a whole year. According to the first-tier electricity rate in Beijing, the electricity bill is 2.14 yuan. Compared with the improvement in functions and experience brought by TV standby, the electricity bill of more than 2 yuan is almost negligible.

Some users are worried that long-term standby will affect the service life of the TV, but today's smart TVs are relatively mature. In standby mode, only the power management module keeps working, and other screens and chips are turned off.

In addition, when the smart TV is working, the chip is constantly exchanging data. When the remote control is pressed to enter standby mode, the TV will automatically save the data. If the user forcibly cuts off the power by unplugging the plug, it is easy to cause the loss of some information, which may lead to the loss of user data or damage to key software and the TV cannot work properly. If the TV is also connected to other storage devices, it is also easy to cause data loss or even hardware damage. Therefore, although it is difficult to truly "turn off" the TV now, standby mode is actually the shutdown of the TV in the new era.