The best flat screen TVs are simple to use, offer great image quality and have a variety of streaming services. This list is a good place to start when shopping for a new TV.
This Samsung QN95B features a Neo QLED panel combining quantum dot LEDs with Mini LED technology, giving it an excellent balance of motion handling and brightness. This makes it a great choice for watching sports at all light levels.
LG C2 OLED
If you’re in the market for a 4K OLED that can handle next-gen gaming, then the LG C2 OLED is a great choice. The best part about this model is that it’s available at an unbeatable price.
Its screen is packed with advanced features that can help you take your TV experience to the next level, and it comes equipped with a variety of inputs for plugging in different devices. It also has variable refresh rate technology, which means that you won’t get any screen tearing while gaming.
Besides being one of the brightest OLEDs on the market, the LG C2 also produces very accurate colors and excellent gray uniformity. Its contrast ratio is also very high, so you won’t have to worry about blooming or haloing in dark scenes.
The screen also has a fantastic viewing angle, which means that it won’t fade or washout as you watch it from different angles. This is a huge improvement over LCD and LED models, which can wash out the image as you move around.
This makes the LG C2 a great choice for watching sports, playing PC games and other activities where you want to watch the action from different angles. It also has a very low input lag, which is useful when gaming.
While it has a relatively low resolution, the LG C2 still looks sharp and vibrant, even at a lower framerate. That’s thanks to the company’s Alpha9 Gen5 processor, which uses AI-enhanced deep learning and genre detection to deinterlace and upscaling, as well as object and background enhancements for enhancing SDR and HDR content.
Another important feature is LG’s AI Sound Pro, which turns your speakers into virtual 7.1.2 surround sound channels. That’s not a substitute for an external soundbar or true surround sound system, but it does offer an immersive listening experience with a wide range of audio and video sources.
The LG C2 OLED has four HDMI 2.1 inputs, which are good for streaming content or plugging in a game console or AV receiver. The C2 also has ARC and eARC support for enhanced audio.
Sony A95K
The Sony A95K is a stunning TV that offers an incredible range of benefits, including exceptional black levels that don’t bloom around bright objects. It also has amazing HDR color gamut coverage and excellent tone mapping, which makes it a great choice for HDR lovers.
The A95K also has an impressive gaming performance thanks to a near-instantaneous response time and variable refresh rate support. It has HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, so it can upscale 4k content to 120fps and supports VRR formats to reduce tearing.
Its motion handling is very good, with less judder than most rivals, and it handles light well too, allowing explosions to jump off the screen as they would in the real world. It also doesn’t have the same pixel-binning or processing side effects that can be associated with many premium TVs.
On the downside, the A95K’s Google TV smart interface can be a bit overbearing, especially if you’re new to it and don’t have a lot of experience using it. It also tries to cull too much of your content and can make it harder to find what you want.
In contrast, the Sony A95K has one of the best viewing angles we’ve seen on any TV. Its 3 degree lean-back means it works best on low AV furniture, and it can be placed in the front or rear, making it more visible to the user.
With a unique stand that hides the stand behind the display, it sits flush against the table and is easy to set up in a variety of places. It also comes with a detachable camera that sits on top of the TV, which you can use to take pictures of yourself and others or to record events in your home.
The A95K also has a bespoke sound system that uses two actuators, which vibrate the screen to generate sound. This is similar to the Acoustic Surface Audio+ technology that features on all Sony OLEDs, but with larger actuators specifically optimised for the QD-OLED panel. This ensures the best possible audio performance from this screen.
TCL U8H
The TCL U8H is a great choice if you’re looking for a flat screen TV that offers high brightness and a wide range of smart features. It’s also an excellent value at this price point.
The 65-inch model we reviewed uses a 120Hz LED panel and mini LED backlighting to provide a very bright picture. That’s backed up by decent motion smoothing and some of the best color I’ve seen on a non-OLED TV, thanks to Quantum Dot filters.
It also features wide-ranging support for next-generation gaming consoles, including HDMI 2.1. That means you’ll be able to take advantage of both 4K and HDR games without having to worry about input lag, which can sometimes make it difficult to avoid motion blur in competitive titles like Call of Duty.
In addition, it has a very low input lag and variable refresh rates to help combat stutter and tears in games. It also has Dolby Vision support, which is great if you’re planning on streaming movies and TV shows that use the format.
When it comes to gaming, the TCL doesn’t have as much to offer as a lot of the competition in this category, but it does a decent job. It has a low input lag that’s perfect for reducing stutter and tear when playing online multiplayer, and it supports both FreeSync Premium Pro and AMD’s Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM).
This TV also has an impressive set of smart features. It runs Google TV and has numerous ports, which makes it easy to connect a soundbar or AV receiver. It also has a voice search feature that allows you to search for content with your voice.
The TCL’s picture quality is very good, especially in dark rooms. There’s not as much blooming as you might expect from a Mini-LED TV, and the black levels are very deep and very detailed.
The U8H’s peak brightness is very strong, with brighter HDR highlights than the TCL 6-Series we reviewed last year. That helps it stand out in well-lit rooms, too. That’s thanks to the same mini LED backlighting, but it also offers 528 local dimming zones.
LG G2
When it comes to OLED TVs, LG is the king of the hill. And the latest G2 OLED is no exception.
The new LG G2 OLED is a step up from the LG G1 OLED, with a larger ‘Evo’ panel that can push brightness levels to record-breaking heights. It also sports a new heat sink element to help the panel reach those peak brightness levels without risking the exceptional black levels and contrast that OLEDs are famous for.
This new ‘Evo’ OLED panel is also more sensitive to adjusting its color temperature than the C1’s panel, which means it can deliver better colors than its predecessor in a wide range of settings, including ‘Game Mode’ and ‘Cinema’ HDR picture modes. It also offers improved Dynamic Tone Mapping, which maps the light range of HDR sources to its screen’s capabilities.
Overall, the G2’s color looks incredible, with great saturation and natural detail, especially in dark scenes. In ‘Cinema’ HDR Picture Mode, the G2 has very good contrast and a smooth roll-off in brightness as you move from darker to lighter scenes.
The LG G2’s color gradation is also quite good, although there is some banding in dark greens and reds. This is easily reduced with the ‘Smooth Gradation’ feature, though this can sometimes reduce fine details in high-quality content.
With the ‘High’ setting, the G2’s color temperature is very close to the calibration target of 6500K, with excellent accuracy, and very little banding. In ‘Game Mode’, however, the color temperature is slightly dimmer than in ‘Cinema’, but still very accurate.
As for HDR performance, the G2’s HDR10 Pro support is very strong and it produces a clear, vibrant image with very few artifacts or noise when watching high-end sources like 4K Blu-ray discs. The OLED’s processing is also very strong and it resolves HDR pictures very accurately.
The G2’s AI Sound Pro processor also does a much better job of delivering dynamic, room-filling Dolby Atmos soundtracks than its predecessor did. It also prevents the sound from slipping down in density and power as it did on previous LG OLEDs, which was a big problem for many movie fans.