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After completing new testing, we have new picks coming: The TCL QM8 will be our top pick, the Hisense U8K our runner-up, and the Samsung QN95C our upgrade pick. Stay tuned for the full writeup. Flexible Led Tv Screen
Higher-end LCD TVs offer better brightness, color, and contrast than their budget-oriented siblings do, and the best LCD TVs can almost match OLED TVs in quality—for a more tolerable price.
We prioritized TVs that have quantum dots, mini-LED backlights, and 120 Hz refresh rates for better color, contrast, and motion.
We looked for 4K TVs that support a variety of HDR formats and have the brightness and color capabilities to make HDR look great.
We measured each TV’s brightness, contrast, and color accuracy using Portrait Displays’s Calman software and light and color meters.
We performed side-by-side comparisons of different TVs to evaluate real-world performance with movies, sports, and games.
The Hisense U8H Series is a prime example. This TV offers picture quality that’s equal in brightness and color vividness to that of TVs twice the price, as well as an intuitive Google TV streaming experience.
The U8H is the best LCD/LED TV for buyers aiming to split the difference between entry-level and ultra-premium without sacrificing performance or functionality.
This TV matches the excellent brightness and color performance of much pricier LCD TVs, and its Google TV smart platform works well. But it’s available in only three screen sizes.
The Hisense U8H Series employs many advanced TV technologies—including quantum dots, a mini-LED backlight with local dimming, and a 120 Hz refresh rate—to produce a rich, colorful, detailed image. (Learn more about these technologies in our TV buying guide.) This LED TV comes equipped with Google TV for streaming and does a great job with HDR video thanks to its impressive peak brightness and color saturation, as well as its compatibility with all the major HDR formats. The U8H also has all the necessary features to excel as a gaming monitor.
Other than being limited to three screen sizes—55, 65, and 75 inches—the U8H’s only major drawback is its narrow horizontal viewing angle, which can cause the image to look washed out when you’re sitting too far off to the side. This is a common issue for many LCD TVs.
This TV offers a cleaner, more refined picture than our top pick, as well as wider viewing angles and a larger range of screen sizes. But it costs a lot more.
If you’re willing to pay more to get one of the best LCD performers, the Samsung QN90B Series offers excellent performance across a larger range of screen sizes than our top pick. Like the Hisense U8H, Samsung’s QN90B has the advanced LCD tech necessary to deliver excellent performance with TV shows, movies, and video games. But it comes in six screen sizes—from 43 to 85 inches—and it offers superior video processing and better off-angle viewing than our top pick does. Those advantages may justify its higher price tag to videophiles and enthusiasts.
Although the QN90B is not compatible with the Dolby Vision HDR format, it is compatible with the other major HDR formats, and its high peak brightness and rich color make it an excellent choice for viewing HDR video.
You also get Samsung’s redesigned Tizen smart-TV platform, as well as four high-bandwidth HDMI 2.1 inputs, which is great news for gamers who own more than one current-gen gaming console.
This TV keeps its price low by ditching the mini-LEDs that our top picks use, but it still delivers solid picture quality—especially for gamers. But it comes in only three screen sizes.
May be out of stock
If you’re looking to keep costs low, but you still want a bright LCD TV with a 120 Hz refresh rate, the Vizio M-Series Quantum X (MQX) has a lot of the same performance-enhancing features as our top pick. However, because this TV eschews mini-LED backlighting, it isn’t as bright and has less precise backlight control compared with our other recommendations.
The main downside is that it offers only one full-bandwidth HDMI 2.1 input. Also, Vizio’s SmartCast platform, while serviceable, isn’t our favorite smart-TV interface, but it includes most of the popular video services.
The M-Series Quantum X is available in a smaller, 50-inch screen size that sells at an especially budget-friendly price, as well as in 65- and 75-inch sizes (but not 55 inches). If you want to save even more money and you don’t need the 120 Hz refresh rate, you might consider one of our favorite budget LCD TVs instead.
This TV matches the excellent brightness and color performance of much pricier LCD TVs, and its Google TV smart platform works well. But it’s available in only three screen sizes.
This TV offers a cleaner, more refined picture than our top pick, as well as wider viewing angles and a larger range of screen sizes. But it costs a lot more.
This TV keeps its price low by ditching the mini-LEDs that our top picks use, but it still delivers solid picture quality—especially for gamers. But it comes in only three screen sizes.
May be out of stock
I’ve been reviewing TVs, computer monitors, and other displays and home-theater gear for more than a decade. I have ISF Level III training and calibration certification. And over the past decade, I’ve tested and calibrated hundreds of TVs—from premium, $8,000 flat panels to $100 doorbusters—using light and color meters, pattern generators, and input-lag testers.
This guide is aimed at anyone who wants better performance than the average budget TV delivers but doesn’t want to spend thousands of dollars for the absolute best.
In our tests, we’ve found that OLED TVs consistently deliver better-looking images than LCD TVs do. But for most people, OLED technology is prohibitively expensive, especially at screen sizes larger than 65 inches. The best LCD/LED TVs can deliver a picture that looks almost as good for less money and in a wider variety of screen sizes. They can also get brighter than OLED models, so they’re generally a better fit for an especially bright viewing environment.
If you’re not as concerned about picture quality, and you just want a TV that performs pretty well and is easy to use, check out our guide to the best budget 4K TVs.
For those who have no idea where to start in the TV buying process, we explain the tech terms and answer the big questions.
OLED TVs have long been considered the highest-quality displays by hardcore videophiles. New developments may make one a good choice for your home.
To be considered for this guide, an LCD/LED TV has to include the following elements (see our TV buying guide for explanations of these terms):
We prioritize LCD TVs equipped with mini-LED backlights, though this feature is not a strict requirement.
Although we don’t target a specific price range, we do keep an eye toward picture quality versus value. Sometimes barely perceptible picture improvements can cost significant amounts of money, an investment that may not be worth making for anyone other than hardcore videophiles.
We focus on the popular 55-inch and 65-inch screens in our testing because those sizes can fit into most living rooms, and they offer a large, cinematic experience without overwhelming the room. But many of our picks come in other screen sizes, as well.
Picture quality consists of many different components, including objective elements that we can measure using test equipment as well as subjective elements that we evaluate by doing side-by-side TV comparisons.
For the objective tests, we use Portrait Displays’s Calman software, a VideoForge Pro pattern generator, and a SpectraCal C6 HDR colorimeter. This setup allows us to measure crucial elements of performance, such as sustained and peak brightness for HDR video, the accuracy of the TV’s color temperature and color points, and the black-level and contrast numbers.
For subjective comparisons, we consider many performance traits. A set with darker black levels produces a better contrast ratio, which helps to create an image that seems to offer more pop than on other displays. Accurate colors are preferable to oversaturated colors that don’t look realistic. Wider viewing angles make it easier for groups of people to watch a TV while still enjoying a good picture. Motion clarity makes fast action look clearer, but we prefer to avoid motion interpolation, which produces overly smooth motion. HDR presents a whole new issue, as TVs can display bright highlights completely differently—some preserve highlight details while others preserve overall picture brightness.
We do almost all of our comparisons in the TVs’ most accurate picture modes, with the settings reset to factory defaults, since very few people pay to get a TV professionally calibrated. The only adjustments we make to the TVs are in the basic user-menu picture settings, with the help of test patterns from the Spears & Munsil UHD HDR Benchmark 4K Blu-ray Disc.
We aren’t too concerned about each TV’s sound quality because people interested in audio quality can easily upgrade that with the addition of a soundbar or other equipment. In a recent Wirecutter survey regarding TVs, 68% of respondents said they relied on an external sound system, and we encourage this approach.
The Polk MagniFi Mini AX is the all-around best soundbar because of its big, immersive sound, small footprint, affordable cost, and easy operation.
The Triangle Borea BR03 passive speakers and the Edifier S1000MKII powered speakers are the best we’ve tested under $600.
This TV matches the excellent brightness and color performance of much pricier LCD TVs, and its Google TV smart platform works well. But it’s available in only three screen sizes.
The Hisense U8H Series is the best LCD/LED TV for most people because it delivers the performance of a much pricier TV yet starts at less than $1,000 for the smallest screen size. This TV delivers a great-looking 4K HDR image, it’s compatible with every major HDR format, and it supports 4K 120 Hz gaming on the newest Xbox and PlayStation consoles. Add in the intuitive, full-featured Google TV smart-TV platform, and the U8H’s price-to-performance ratio is of inarguable value.
It features impressive peak brightness. When sending it HDR test patterns, I measured an average brightness of 1,500 nits, with peaks just north of 1,800 nits. To put that into perspective, consider that the 65-inch version of our budget 4K TV pick, the TCL 5-Series, typically costs around half as much as the 65-inch U8H but achieves only around 30% to 40% of this model’s brightness. On the other side of the coin, the 65-inch version of our upgrade pick, the Samsung QN90B, costs almost twice as much as the 65-inch U8H but achieves only nominally higher brightness.
Adequate light output is a necessity for any TV worth buying—especially if you watch HDR movies or play HDR games—and the U8H simply outpaces most TVs in its price range, not to mention some in the next price bracket up.
Its mini-LED backlighting with local dimming is key. Thanks to that feature, this Hisense TV can produce very bright light while still maintaining satisfyingly deep black levels that are typically free of blooming (or light bleed that’s visible around bright objects against a dark backdrop). This capability not only ensures impressive image contrast but also makes the U8H a viable choice for most rooms, whether they’re brighter than average or dimmed like a movie theater. That’s not to say the U8H has pixel-precise light control—it’s not an OLED TV, after all—but it does a terrific job most of the time.
The U8H’s mini-LEDs also help the screen look uniformly bright: Although the U8H is still not as good as an OLED TV in this respect, it shows very little indication of being a backlight-driven display, even during tricky scenes with large swaths of dim lighting.
It’s especially good for HDR video. While many TVs—even budget options—have quantum dots nowadays, brightness remains a critical factor, as it directly affects color saturation. For example, both the Hisense U8H and the 2022 TCL 6-Series are equipped with quantum dots, mini-LED backlights, and local dimming, but because the U8H is notably brighter than the 6-Series, it achieves a higher total color volume. During our color-volume testing, the U8H exhibited color ranges at more than 100% of the DCI-P3 color space (the range of color necessary to properly display HDR content).
What does this mean in real-world terms? The Hisense U8H truly excels as a modern 4K HDR TV, whether you’re watching the latest episode of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power or playing Overwatch 2. While watching HDR content side by side on the U8H and on our upgrade pick, the Samsung QN90B, I was truly surprised by how similar they looked at times, considering that our upgrade pick is much more expensive.
It’s accurate. Thanks to Hisense’s inclusion of Filmmaker Mode, you can easily rein in the U8H’s brightness abilities for a more-subdued and filmic experience in a darker room. According to our measurements, this mode produced a very accurate white balance, mostly accurate colors (green was a bit oversaturated, not egregiously so), and a perfect “dark room” gamma (which controls how quickly the video signal transitions from dark to light).
It has a 120 Hz refresh rate. This reduces motion blur in faster-moving sports content and allows for smoother, more stable motion in games. In our tests, the U8H produced low input lag while playing in 4K resolution, and Hisense’s helpful GameZone setting in the picture menu allowed me to confirm the presence of 120 Hz playback and variable refresh rate during games.
We like Google TV more than other smart-TV platforms. The experience of navigating this TV’s smart features was particularly satisfying in terms of its responsiveness and speed. Powering on the TV and launching an app took just seconds. The included Bluetooth remote is equipped with a handy “Hey Google” button, allowing you to use voice commands to search for content or to set a reminder. Overall I didn’t encounter any instances of slowdown that were egregiously worse than with any other smart-TV platform.
Google TV is more satisfying to use if you have a Google account and already take advantage of Google’s connected services, such as Photos. If you have multiple people with their own Google accounts, you can designate separate profiles (each attached to a Gmail account) so that each person can customize the TV experience to their liking, as well as access their own Google Drive or Photos.
The U8H is sturdy and doesn’t look or feel cheap. It’s not as svelte as our upgrade pick, though. Two narrow, metal feet jut out from beneath the panel and steadily hold the TV. You can attach them in two separate spots, either closer in toward the middle of the panel or out toward the edges, to account for different-size TV stands. The feet are also equipped with cable-organization clasps—a nice touch for keeping your TV stand free of cable clutter. Though the TV’s chassis is primarily plastic, its bezel is lined with metal strips, which are likely to provide a bit more durability in the long run. Our test unit survived shipment from California to Colorado for long-term testing, and so far our tester has no complaints about the TV’s durability.
The U8H has some difficulties with banding. In areas of gradation, transitions that should appear smooth instead look like “bands” of color. (The banding effect is sometimes also called posterization.) In our experience, this effect was apparent only with HDR video and games. When playing games on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, I saw a few instances where the content wasn’t rendered correctly and displayed ugly splotches of color. However, this almost always occurred during static screens (such as a pause menu or loading screen); I rarely spotted it during actual gameplay.
I also saw occasional instances of banding in TV shows and movies, though they were few and far between. The U8H isn’t the best at upscaling sub-4K content, so videos with a 1080p or lower resolution looked a little soft in our tests. You can get better overall video processing and upscaling by springing for our upgrade pick (this is one reason that Samsung TV is more expensive, after all).
In January 2023, Hisense issued a firmware update (M1103) to address some of these issues and add a slew of new features, including the ability to enable automatic picture-quality optimization. We’ll update this guide if we have relevant findings.
Only two of the HDMI inputs are fully HDMI 2.1 compatible. If you pair an external audio system with the U8H, you may have only one input remaining that can support HDMI 2.1 features such as 4K 120 Hz playback, variable refresh rate, and auto game mode. This could be a dealbreaker if you own more than one current-gen gaming console.
The U8H has a limited horizontal viewing angle. This restriction may be a bit annoying if you’re hoping to entertain a large crowd. Our upgrade pick, in contrast, uses a special wide-angle technology to address this issue.
If you’re watching the U8H in a darker room and want the most accurate picture you can get—preserving the director’s intent—select this TV’s Filmmaker Mode as your picture mode. In a brighter room, we recommend the Theater Day picture mode.
For gaming, use the U8H’s game picture mode (the TV should switch to this mode automatically when paired with the newer game consoles) and then go into the Gaming submenu to make sure the right settings (namely VRR) are enabled. We recommend leaving the HDMI setting at “auto,” unless you notice that your game console is incorrectly identified.
This TV offers a cleaner, more refined picture than our top pick, as well as wider viewing angles and a larger range of screen sizes. But it costs a lot more.
If you’re willing to pay more for a brighter, cleaner, more polished image and a wider viewing angle, the Samsung QN90B Series is one of the best LCD TVs you can buy. It’s available in a wide range of screen sizes and has every modern TV amenity you could ask for—except support for the Dolby Vision HDR format.
Like the Hisense U8H, the Samsung QN90B has all the advanced LCD tech necessary to deliver excellent picture quality. In fact, at a glance, the two TVs look awfully similar when playing 4K HDR content, and you might find yourself wondering why you’d pay more for the QN90B over the U8H.
The QN90B offers better off-angle performance. Though both TVs look bright and punchy when you’re sitting directly in front of them, the QN90B’s “ultra viewing angle” treatment (not available on the 43-inch model) allows it to do a better job of maintaining its contrast and color integrity for viewers farther to the left or right on the couch. This function has the advantage of upping the QN90B’s ability to mitigate ambient light, which might also make this TV a better choice than the U8H for brighter rooms.
It exhibits best-in-class HDR brightness. In our tests, the QN90B ooccasionally measured beyond 2,000 nits. It also produced well-saturated, accurate color and tightly controlled local dimming that was free of blooming in the vast majority of cases. Overall, I preferred the look of Samsung’s S95B QD-OLED TV, which you can get for roughly the same price as this model in a 65-inch size. The reason to buy the QN90B over the S95B is if you need really, really high brightness, such as in a room with lots of windows.
The Samsung QN90B doesn’t significantly differentiate itself from the Hisense U8H in terms of peak HDR brightness or color volume, which is more of a credit to the U8H’s value than a knock against the QN90B. But the QN90B is the better choice if you tend to notice the smaller, more nuanced aspects of color, detail, and video processing. In our tests of this TV, we saw fewer digital artifacts, such as color banding (uneven steps in color transitions) and background noise, and we saw better detail in images that the TV upscaled from SD or HD to its 4K resolution.
It’s one of the best LCD TVs for gaming. Not only does the QN90B come equipped with four HDMI 2.1–compliant inputs capable of displaying games at 4K 120 Hz, but it’s also compatible with all the latest gaming features, including variable refresh rate (VRR) and auto low-latency mode (ALLM). It offered excellent performance during our input lag testing, averaging around 10 ms or less.
And the QN90B has a couple of unique, gaming-related features that I’m a big fan of. One is Samsung’s Game Bar, which gives you a glance at helpful gaming statistics when you double-click the play button on the remote during game mode. The other is the entire gaming hub that Samsung has added to its Tizen-based smart-TV platform, with apps like Xbox Game Pass built right in, to enable cloud gaming.
Samsung’s on-screen interface is clunky. The Tizen interface is hampered by some odd design decisions. For example, even though I’ve used the platform before—in addition to flailing around TV interfaces for over a decade—I still took longer than I’d like to admit to remember how to change the HDMI inputs, which is an indicator of bad interface design. Samsung could easily solve this by putting an input button on the remote. However, once you’ve learned where particular apps and settings are located within the multi-level design structure, it’s not an awful experience to use day-to-day, and all of the major streaming services are represented.
The QN90B’s design is excellent. Thanks to its heavy, central foot, it will fit nicely onto just about any TV stand—and even some nightstands. The TV also features intelligently crafted rear cable management, and it generally feels very sturdy. The battery-less Eco Remote is a commendable nod to a more eco-friendly approach—it charges primarily by sunlight or room lighting, but also over USB-C—and it’s one that we wish more TV manufacturers would adopt.
It doesn’t support the Dolby Vision HDR format. This omission is the QN90B’s only real drawback, and one that affects all Samsung TVs. Samsung instead focuses on HDR10+, which is similar to Dolby Vision in the way it handles dynamic metadata in HDR video but is less commonly used.
If you prefer video content to look bright and punchy, leaning into expanded colors more than not, we recommend leaving the QN90B in its Intelligent Mode. If you’re aiming for accuracy—and especially if you find yourself distracted by unnatural amounts of film grain—turn Intelligent Mode off and change the picture mode to Filmmaker Mode.
This TV keeps its price low by ditching the mini-LEDs that our top picks use, but it still delivers solid picture quality—especially for gamers. But it comes in only three screen sizes.
May be out of stock
If you’re looking for a TV that falls between our budget 4K TV picks and our top pick from Hisense—both in performance and price—the Vizio M-Series Quantum X (MQX) is a solid option. You can usually find the 65-inch MQX for around $850, and it delivers a lot of the same advanced tech as our other picks in this guide.
It doesn’t use mini-LED backlighting. Because of this omission, its high brightness (over 1,000 nits) comes with some caveats. Mini-LEDs allow for more precise lighting than a standard LED backlight achieves, so compared with the Hisense U8H and the Samsung QN90B, this Vizio TV is more prone to blooming (when light is visible around bright objects against a dark backdrop) and is less impressive with HDR video.
In our tests, we saw occasional instances of black crush, in which areas of the screen were dimmed too much. But overall, the brightness uniformity was quite good for a TV in this price range. And even in the MQX’s Calibrated picture mode during SDR (standard dynamic range) viewing, you can expect a reference brightness of over 400 nits—a far cry from that of our other picks but still good enough for most viewing environments. This TV’s viewing-angle performance is similar to our top pick’s, too.
It can be accurate in both color and grayscale. During our objective testing, the MQX outperformed other, similarly priced models in both color and grayscale accuracy in its Calibrated Dark picture mode. However, that picture mode is intended for a darker viewing environment and likely isn’t bright enough for the average living room. The MQX’s other modes were a bit less accurate, especially with HDR test patterns, where its primary and secondary color accuracy could have been better. The Calibrated picture mode struck the best balance between brightness and accuracy for use in a brighter space. The good news is that the MQX is capable of reproducing richly saturated reds, greens, yellows, and oranges.
It’s good for movies but very good for gaming. All in all, the MQX gets the job done on TV shows and movies. Its results aren’t as breathtaking as what you can get from a more premium LCD TV, but it outperforms similarly priced competitors. That said, this TV’s real calling is gaming. Each size in this series delivers a 120 Hz refresh rate and crucial HDMI 2.1 gaming features (namely VRR and ALLM, as well as AMD FreeSync certification). Gaming on the 65-inch MQX felt crisp and smooth in our tests, and the TV’s 1,000-plus nits of brightness and quantum dots make it an apt choice for HDR games.
Like our other picks, this 2022 Vizio TV includes a handy Gaming menu, allowing you to toggle settings such as HDR for games, your HDMI format, VRR, and so on. The only gaming-related issue likely to arise with this TV is that it has only one full 4K 120 Hz HDMI input, so if you own both a PlayStation 5 and an Xbox Series X, you’ll have to swap them out.
It’s a bit on the chunky side (due to its full-size LED backlight). But the two feet provide good support and let you mount the MQX in two positions: one with the TV much lower to the tabletop, and one where it sits higher up to allow for the placement of a soundbar. Vizio’s newly redesigned remote control is easy enough to use but focuses mostly on app shortcuts—it has no fewer than seven hotkeys to directly launch streaming apps.
SmartCast has never been our favorite smart-TV platform. The latest version has been redesigned and feels more accessible. We like that this TV supports both AirPlay and Chromecast to cast content, respectively, from an Apple- or Android-based mobile device; many competitors support one or the other.
Without putting this TV through longer-term use, it’s hard for us to say whether Vizio’s menu interface is more reliable and less glitchy than in previous years. But on my second day of using the TV, it failed to respond to any commands from the remote and wouldn’t even turn off. I had to do a hard power reboot, which isn’t terribly inspiring. Using an external media streamer is probably your safest bet here.
The Vizio M-Series Quantum X doesn’t have Filmmaker Mode, but its Calibrated Dark picture mode is very accurate out of the box. In our tests, however, it averaged around 150 nits of reference brightness, so it likely isn’t a good pick for normally lit or brighter rooms. Fortunately, it also has a Calibrated mode that is still plenty accurate and is better suited for brighter rooms. In both modes, we recommend going into the Advanced picture settings menu to turn off the Edge Enhancement and Local Contrast settings. You should also go into the TV’s motion settings and make sure that Match Frame Rate is turned on.
If you want a Roku TV or a bigger screen size for less money: The 2022 TCL 6-Series—available in 55-, 65-, 75-, and 85-inch sizes—came close to being a runner-up to our top pick, but we concluded that this TV’s comparative lack of brightness hurt its value proposition (especially in a viewing area that’s on the brighter side). The Hisense U8H majorly outpaces the 6-Series in peak brightness yet costs roughly the same amount of money.
That said, the 6-Series is still an excellent TV. It hits 1,000-plus nits and has all of the advanced LCD technologies to warrant inclusion in this guide, including mini-LED backlighting with local dimming, quantum dots, and a 120 Hz refresh rate. The built-in Roku TV smart platform remains one of our favorites for its simple interface and content-agnostic presentation. And if you’re looking for an extra-big 4K HDR TV that won’t decimate your budget, you can find the 85-inch 6-Series for around the same price as the 65-inch version of our upgrade pick.
TV manufacturers are just beginning to roll out their 2023 LCD TVs, so we’ll be testing new models soon.
TCL has provided us with additional details about its Q7 and flagship QM8 lines for 2023. The Q7 is available in 55-inch (55Q750G, $750), 65-inch (65Q750G, $1,000), 75-inch (75Q750G, $1,400), and 85-inch (85Q750G, $2,200) screen sizes. The Q7 aims for 1,000-nit HDR brightness and comes equipped with a 120 Hz refresh rate (with ALLM, VRR, and AMD FreeSync Pro) and quantum dot color. It’s also TCL’s first IMAX Enhanced certified display, offering support for the full range of HDR formats, including Dolby Vision IQ. The Q7 uses the Google TV smart platform.
The QM8 is available in 65-inch (65QM850G, $1,700), 75-inch (75QM850G, $2,300), and 85-inch (85QM850G, $2,800) sizes, with a 98-inch variant (98QM850G, $10,000) coming later in the year. The QM8 boasts over 2,300 local dimming zones and utilizes mini-LED backlighting to achieve up to 2,000 nits of HDR brightness. The QM8 also adds Wi-Fi 6E support and will have a built-in subwoofer for improved audio performance.
Hisense’s upcoming U7K, U8K, and UX Series are the premium models in the company’s 2023 TV lineup. Both the U7K and U8K will be available in 55-, 65-, 75-, and 85-inch sizes (pricing has yet to be confirmed). These series are equipped with mini-LED backlighting and quantum dot color, and they also include ATSC 3.0 tuners, native 120 Hz refresh rates, and Wi-Fi 6E capabilities. The U7K aims for 1,000 nit HDR brightness and averages over 500 local dimming zones, while the U8K aims for 1,500-nit HDR brightness and averages over 1,000 local dimming zones. The UX Series is available only in an 85-inch size and aims high, with up to 2,500 nits of brightness and 5,000 local dimming zones.
Sony has introduced several new LCD TV series: the X93L, X95L, and X90L. The X93L series is available in 65-inch (XR-65X93L, $2,400), 75-inch (XR-75X93L, $3,300), and 85-inch (XR-85X93L, $5,000) sizes, and includes Sony’s Cognitive Processor XR technology, mini-LED backlighting, and the Google TV smart platform. The X95L series is available in a single 85-inch size (XR-85X95L) for $5,800, and adds Sony’s XR Backlight Master Drive technology. The X90L is Sony’s most affordable LCD TV series in 2023, starting at $1,300 for the 55-inch and comprising sizes up to 98 inches. The X90L series does not include mini-LED backlighting, opting for full-array LED backlighting to keep costs lower, but it otherwise offers many of the same features as the pricier lines.
Samsung's full 2023 TV lineup includes two 8K Neo QLED models (the QN800C and QN900C in 65-, 75-, and 85-inch sizes, starting at $3,500 and $5,000, respectively) and two 4K Neo QLED models with mini-LED backlighting, namely the QN90C (available in 43- to 85-inch screen sizes, starting at $1,200) and the QN85C (available in 55- to 85-inch screen sizes, starting at $1,500). The company also has several 4K QLED models without mini-LED backlighting: the Q80C, Q70C, and Q60C. We will be testing the QN90C—the successor to our current upgrade pick—and other 4K models that meet the requirements for this guide. But unless a source of 8K content becomes available soon, we’re unlikely to test the 8K models this year.
LG will introduce new versions of the QNED85, QNED80, and QNED75 LCD TVs. The QNED85 uses mini-LED backlighting and LG’s mix of quantum dots and NanoCell technology for improved color. The QNED80 uses a standard full-array LED backlight with local dimming and has an ultra-slim design.
Vizio has yet to confirm its 2023 TV lineup.
Our requirements for the best LCD/LED TV, including full-array local dimming and a true 120 Hz refresh rate, keep most LCD TVs out there from qualifying for testing and contention in this guide. Look for lower-priced TVs in our guide to the best 4K TV on a budget. Also, because 8K LCD TVs are still so expensive but very little 8K content is available, we are opting not to consider 8K TVs at the moment.
Most TV manufacturers replace their TV lines every year and phase out the previous versions. Below is a list of all the 2022 TVs we tested or considered, as well as a few older models that are still available:
The Sony X90K impressed us with its brightness and color saturation, but for the price it commands, it doesn’t offer the same value and local-dimming prowess as models equipped with mini-LED backlights. We measured a peak brightness upwards of 700 nits and a very impressive black level (as low as 0.006 nit) during ideal conditions, but because of the absence of mini-LEDs in this model, we saw more blooming than we prefer in this category. In addition, the X90K is incapable of producing the same color saturation as models using a quantum-dot substrate, a fact that became apparent during our HDR testing and viewing. If you’re specifically buying a TV to pair with a PlayStation 5, however, this model is a decent choice, as Sony has designed its 2022 TVs to exhibit a specific parity with current PlayStation consoles. But we think that most people are better served by mini-LED-equipped models that cost the same as (or less than) the X90K.
We did not consider the Sony X85K, which does not have local dimming, or the Sony X80K, which is limited to a 60 Hz refresh rate.
According to our contacts at Samsung, the Samsung QN95B is almost identical to the QN90B, save for its use of Samsung’s One Connect design, which puts all the AV connections in a separate box. Although this simplification effort might appeal to some buyers, we don’t plan to test the more expensive QN95B unless it’s revealed to offer markedly different performance. We also declined to test the QN85B and the Q80B because they use IPS (in-plane switching) LCD panels, so they can’t produce the superior contrast that our picks can. We did not consider the Q70B, which uses edge LED lighting, or the Q60B, which is limited to a 60 Hz refresh rate. Samsung’s BU range of 4K LCD TVs for 2022 also lacked the hardware upgrades to gain consideration for this guide.
Our previous top pick, the Hisense U7G Series, is still available at some retailers, but it can’t match the high brightness and mini-LED backlighting of the newer U8H Series, and it isn’t significantly more affordable than that model.
We dismissed the Vizio M-Series Quantum 6 because even though it has a full-array LED backlight, it doesn’t have local dimming.
Likewise, many of LG’s 2022 LCD TVs—including the QNED90, NANO80, and NANO75 (which have IPS panels), the QNED80 (which is edge-lit), and the UQ Series—had hardware limitations that led to their dismissal.
The TCL 6-Series (model R648) is an 8K TV with full HDMI 2.1 features, including 4K at 120 Hz, variable refresh rate, and automatic low-latency mode. Its full-array local dimming worked well in our tests, and its dynamic tone mapping better preserved HDR highlights. The HDMI 2.1 gaming features worked perfectly, too, with the TV automatically detecting our Xbox Series X and enabling variable refresh rate and game mode while displaying everything at 4K 120 Hz. But 8K is a feature that we don’t think you need right now due to the price premium, and it can actually have negative effects. This TCL model has to scale all 4K content to 8K to display it, and in our tests it scaled some content incorrectly. For the same price, you can get either our upgrade pick, the Samsung QN90B, or an OLED TV, both of which offer superior 4K performance today. If you need 8K, the TCL 6-Series R648 is a good option, but by sticking with 4K, you get a better TV for the price.
This article was edited by Adrienne Maxwell and Grant Clauser.
Lee Neikirk is a senior staff writer reporting on TVs at Wirecutter. He has been testing and reviewing AV gear since 2012 and is an ISF-certified TV calibrator. When he’s not fussing over pixels, Lee is either jamming on a guitar, playing video games, or driving around endlessly trying to find beach parking.
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