The 10 best 4K TVs of 2023, tried and tested with expert advice on how to choose
We conduct hundreds of product reviews here at Telegraph Recommended, but few tasks are as important as helping you choose your new TV. While it’s exciting to upgrade to a better telly, no-one wants to shell out on the wrong sort of tech. (If you don’t want to shell out at all, read our guide to the best TVs under £500.) Every company claims it makes the best 4K TVs, from giants like Samsung, who account for one third of all sales, to the well-established likes of Sony and LG and challengers like Hisense and TCL. But they all use different technologies to do it. So who’s telling the truth?
First, let’s step back and define some terms. We’re looking at 4K here, which is unusual in small TVs but has become the standard in 43-inch, 50-inch, 55-inch, 65-inch and 75-inch TVs. But what does it mean?
“4K (also known as Ultra High Definition or UHD) gives an indication of a TV’s picture clarity,” says Dylan Squire, purchasing director at Richer Sounds. “4K is the next step up from Full HD, which itself improved upon the original HD TV that came in around the turn of the century. 4K uses over 8 million pixels, which is four times as many as Full HD. More pixels means more detail.”
Remember, 4K is not a competitor to LED, OLED and QLED. Those refer to how the screen is illuminated, rather than the number of pixels that make up the image. You’ll find an explanation of these and other TV terms at the bottom of this feature. We’re leaving OLEDs out of this review because they’re still very expensive. (You will soon be able to read our guide to the best OLED TVs). So, excluding OLEDs, here’s a quick look at my top five 4K TVs:
Which are the best 4K TVs in 2023? At a glance
What’s new in 4K TVs this year?
“Screens can now be made brighter than they have been before,” says Molly Leese, technology buyer at John Lewis. Look out for the phrases ‘mini-LED’ and ‘micro lens array’ (MLA), both of which boost screen illumination and contrast. “Samsung is expanding their anti-reflective technology,” Molly continues, “which is great in rooms with a lot of sunlight. And we are seeing a trend towards lifestyle products – TV’s which are more of a design feature for the home, rather than just a TV on the wall. Examples are LG’s Objet and Samsung’s Frame.”
Meanwhile, Dylan Squire says that the biggest advance this year comes from the relentless march of AI. “When used in TVs, AI optimises the picture and sound for the best results in your room – often without you even knowing it.”
How much should I spend?
Good 4K TVs will usually cost between £500 and £1,500 for a 55-inch screen. (In order to compare like-for-like, we always test 55 inch models.) Bigger screens will cost more and the latest high-performance TVs from big-name players like Samsung, LG and Sony also carry a premium.
For a better deal, don’t buy a brand new TV in spring or summer. Wait until November, when there may be as much as a third off the price. Or wait until next year, when your TV will often be half its original price.
How I tested the best 4K TVs
One by one, I’m borrowing these TVs to test at home so that I can assess how smoothly they integrate with peripherals and apps as well as gauging things like brightness, screen reflection and viewing angles. Before that, I visited the TV departments at John Lewis and Richer Sounds to assess peak sound and picture quality.
“We always suggest that customers view a shot of a sports pitch and see how 4K makes the grass ‘pop’ into focus,” Dylan Squire says. Personally, I make sure to view nature and action films too, especially those with very bright and very dark scenes that stretch the dynamic range (I’ve found Denis Villeneuve’s Dune is great for this).
One drawback of TVs becoming ever thinner is that there’s less room for the speakers. Some sound weedy without attaching a soundbar, while others go all out to offer realistic, cinematic audio. I made a note of that, as well as rating the TVs’ looks, price and user-friendliness.
Remember, streaming 4K TV uses a lot of data. You may want to read our guides to the best broadband and the best broadband TV deals after this.
Best 4K TVs
1. Samsung QN90C
£1,299 for 55-inch model, Samsung
Best overall, 9 out of 10
We like: no TV has more lifelike colours
We don’t like: the Tizen operating system has fewer features than Android
- 43in, 50in, 55in, 65in, 75in and 85in sizes available
- Display type: QLED with mini-LEDs
- High dynamic range types: HLG, HDR 10+ Adaptive (see FAQ section for explanations of these terms)
- Sound: 60W from 6 x speakers and 2 x subwoofers, Dolby Atmos, Object Tracking sound
- Inputs: 4 x HDMI2, 2 x USB, ethernet, aerial
- Tizen Smart TV and Bixby, Alexa and Google voice assistants built-in
Expert recommended
As Molly Leese says above, it’s all about the new brightness-enhancing mini-LED technology this year. Samsung’s version is called Neo-QLED and they’ve put it in two new TVs. The hard-to-come-by QN95C has twice as many dimming zones for better dynamic range, but this QN90 comes in far more screen sizes, is cheaper and is much more widely available, making it our preference – and that of Dylan Squire.
“This Samsung has already proved to be a big hit with reviewers and customers and, with its improved Mini LED technology, it’s easy to see why,” he says. “As with the previous model, the QN90C uses Mini LEDs for higher contrast and a more lifelike picture. What’s new is the Quantum AI processor, which has 20 neural networks looking at the content that’s coming into the TV and upscaling it to perfect the picture quality for that content, whether gaming, streaming or broadcasting.”
“The QN90C has a new anti-reflective screen that noticeably improves daytime watching and the sound has also taken a considerable step-up from the QN95B model. Samsung’s Object Tracking Sound (OTS) system uses small speakers placed around the TV’s body to firmly sync the sound you hear with the picture you see.”
Since the TV is only one inch thick, there’s definitely a limit to the built-in speakers’ power and you will still need a soundbar to get the fully immersive ‘Q-Symphony’ experience. In fact, there may be an argument for sticking with last year’s QN90B, which will be cheaper now this has come out, but what really impresses about this TV is the colour fidelity.
Samsung have asked Pantone to validate 2,030 individual colours on the QN90C, so that the colours on screen are the colours you see in real life. This is surprisingly hard to find on modern TVs and is the main reason for making this our best buy. The only thing missing is Dolby Vision, which Samsung don’t support: they say their own AI does the same job of optimising the dynamic range frame by frame.
Overall, the QN90C is about as good a telly as you can get under £2,000 and is likely to stay that way for, oh, at least a year.
2. TCL C845K
£849 for 55-inch model, Currys
Best value 4K TV, 8/10
We like: cutting-edge Mini-LED and QLED projection at a low price
We don’t like: the AI is not quite as cutting edge
- Only 55in size available so far
- Display type: QLED with mini-LEDs
- High dynamic range types: HDR10+, HLG, Dolby Vision IQ
- Sound: 2 x 25W speakers plus 20W subwoofer, Dolby Atmos
- Inputs: 4 x HDMI2, 1 x USB2, ethernet, Wi-Fi
- Google Assistant built-in
Tested at home
China’s TCL is now the second biggest TV brand in the world after Samsung (they overtook LG in the last year or so), a position they achieved by offering similar designs to their Korean counterparts, but hundreds of pounds cheaper.
This year’s C84 Series is quite a step forward from the outgoing C83, since it combines QLED with the latest mini-LED technology, allowing a much brighter image and a greater dynamic range (for brighter brights, darker darks and more shades in between). Samsung have not long been using mini-LEDs, so to see it in a sub-£900 TV is remarkable.
I tested it on nature programmes, movies and games. The colours were intense and lifelike, with a good amount of detail in the shadows, while videogames were bright, sharp and responsive. Almost more impressive was the simplicity of the operating system. It’s an Android TV and the apps, inputs and features are far more streamlined than the needlessly fiddly competition. Perhaps too streamlined: as with many Chinese products, they don’t really go in for instruction manuals, leaving you to google some how-tos.
My first night with the C84 was all positive. I was fully immersed in watching Dune, with rich detail across the colour and contrast range and surprisingly powerful sound from its three Onkyo speakers. Over the next few days, I noticed that not all content looks quite as good: a cavalry charge in a war film looked a tad blurry. I put that down to its AI ‘brain’ (the AiPQ 3.0 processor) not being quite as capable as Samsung’s.
Overall, a well-priced, highly usable 4K TV capable of truly beautiful images, but with some small weaknesses under the surface.
3. Sony Bravia XR X90L
Currently £1,199 for 55-inch model, Sony
Best LED 4K TV, 9/10
We like: superb AI image and sound processing
We don’t like: lack of mini-LEDs means the dynamic range isn’t quite cutting edge
- 55in, 65in, 75in, 85in and 98in sizes available
- Display type: LED with full array local dimming
- High dynamic range types: HDR10, HLG, Dolby Vision
- Sound: 2 x 10W woofers and 2 x 5W tweeters, Dolby Audio, Dolby Atmos
- Inputs: 4 x HDMI, 2 x USB, Ethernet, aerial
- Google Assistant built-in
Expert recommended
Sony don’t use the word ‘QLED’ because it was first popularised by their rivals Samsung. They call their colour-boosting technology ‘triluminos pro’. But don’t be fooled, it very much competes on the same playing field.
Given Sony’s rivalry with Samsung, you may ask why I haven’t chosen the better-specced new Bravia X95L, whose mini-LED backlighting makes it a closer match to the new Samsung QN90C above. Well, the X95L is only available in large sizes and higher prices, starting at £2,399. This new 55-inch Bravia X90L doesn’t have mini-LEDs, but it is nearly a grand cheaper and still has a lot of cutting edge features.
The first reason to buy is its ‘Cognitive Processor XR’, one of the AI processors Dylan Squire told us to look out for. It enhances the part of the image that it judges to be the focus of your attention and does the same to the sound, for a more immersive experience.
“The X90L also features a much-improved screen over its predecessor,” Dylan Squire says. “The new dimming structure optimises the backlighting, improving the contrast, clarity and image depth.”
The final reason for choosing the X90L is the sound. “Sony have introduced Acoustic Centre Sync,” Dylan says. “This works in combination with a Sony soundbar. The idea is that the soundbar creates a spacious, cinematic feel while the TV’s speakers concentrate on crisp dialogue – and it works.”
The crispness is achieved by balancing the sound from the four speakers, to make it feel like it’s coming from the part of the image you’re looking at. These built-in speakers can’t quite do full justice to movie sound effects or loud music (you’ll need the soundbar for that), but the clarity is impressive.
There are a few marks against the X90L: it doesn’t do quite as well as its competitors when viewed from an angle, or in a very bright room. It’s also expensive compared to the Chinese-made newcomers like TCL. If you’re on a budget, you may prefer to seek out a deal on the almost-as-good Sony X90K from last year. But if you want a Bravia that’s bang up to date, this is the one to go for.
4. Hisense U8K
£999 for 55-inch model, Amazon
Best 4K TV for gaming, 8/10
We like: bright, responsive screen and meaty sound
We don’t like: finding your favourite picture settings takes a bit of work
- 55in, 65in and 75in sizes available
- Display type: QLED with mini-LEDs
- High dynamic range types: HDR10+, Dolby Vision IQ
- Sound: 2 x 10W speakers, 2 x 5W tweeters, 1 x 20W rear subwoofer with Dolby Atmos
- Inputs: 4 x HDMI 2.1, 1 x USB3, 1 x USB2, ethernet, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.1, aerial
- Vidaa Smart OS built-in, works with Alexa and Google Assistant
Expert recommended
China’s Hisense were once leaders in ‘spare room tellies’ but are now snapping at the heels of the big two (Samsung and LG), particularly with their ‘ULED’ range. These are basically QLEDs with ‘ultra-resolution’, ‘ultra-smooth motion’, ‘ultra-wide colour gamut’ and ‘ultra-local dimming’. This year’s flagship model is the U8K.
“The biggest news for the latest Hisense ULED TV is the introduction of Mini LED tech – yes, that again,” Dylan Squire says. “Whereas the older Hisense ULED TVs used dozens of conventional LEDs to backlight the TV’s picture, the U8K uses thousands, all grouped into a few hundred hybrid-dimming zones. This gives vastly improved lighting control, leading to enhanced colour definition and contrast.”
The U8K has an anti-reflection screen, just like the latest Samsung. It also has Dolby Vision, which is used on the latest XBox games and has a Game Pro mode with low latency and a 144Hz frame rate. This automatically switches on when it detects a console, allowing faster, smoother gaming.
Non-gamers might be more impressed with the sound. “This is one of many new TVs that are compatible with the cinematic-sounding Dolby Atmos,” Dylan Squire says. “Unlike some, however, the U8K has the speaker array to do it justice. The 2.1.2 channel sound means that there are separate speakers for sound effects and a dedicated, albeit small, built-in subwoofer.”
There are some niggles. The initial settings are a little brash and you may have to consult YouTube for how to get it the way you want it. The Vidaa operating system is not one of the world’s best. But this is right up there with this year’s leading 4K TVs, for £400 less. It has to be worth a look.
5. Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED
£569.99 for 55-inch model, Amazon
Best smart 4K TV, 8/10
We like: packed with smart features and remarkably cheap
We don’t like: a bit too ‘online’ for some older users
- 43in, 50in, 55in and 65in sizes available
- Display type: QLED
- High dynamic range types: HGL, HDR 10+ Adaptive, Dolby Vision
- Sound: 2 x 12W speakers, Dolby Digital Plus
- Inputs: 4 x HDMI, 2 x USB, ethernet, aerial
- Alexa built-in
Tested at home
Amazon’s Fire TV launched in the UK in March and won’t have pleased the competition. The prices are low and the quality is decent, so they can’t be making much of a profit – but a price war is a good thing if you’re replacing your old telly.
Fire TV was previously a plug-in that turned your TV into a smart TV, considered one of the best TV streaming devices. Now it is a TV in its own right. There are three ranks. The 2-Series at the bottom end is a great HD telly starting at £250, but it’s not 4K. The 4-Series from £430 is 4K, but can’t compete in terms of picture quality with this range-topping Omni QLED model, which starts at £570. All are very light, slim and well-made, with Amazon Alexa built in and access to pretty much every viewing app in existence.
The picture on the Omni QLED screen is superb for the price, using quantum dots and a form of AI called HDR10+ Adaptive that senses the light levels in your living room, and in the scene you’re watching, and tweaks the picture accordingly. With only 64 dimming zones versus hundreds in the new mini-LED TVs, it can’t match them for fine gradations of contrast. But the difference in quality isn’t as big as the difference in price.
The Omni series is very much a lifestyle product, displaying art or your photos on its home screen alongside a slew of Alexa screen widgets like weather, calendars and interactive ‘sticky notes’. You can link it to your smart appliances like thermostats and security cameras. It knows when you enter or leave the room and its microphone is always on, listening out for Alexa prompts, unless you switch these features off. I did, immediately, along with anything else that stood in the way of me just watching Gardener’s World. This is definitely not a TV for the tech-phobic.
On the other hand, if you’re under 40 and feel at home in YouTube-land, absolutely everything you want is here – including the BBC iPlayer and All4 apps, which are missing from some smart TVs due to licensing issues.
The only thing to watch out for is the sound. Although the output is in Dolby Digital Plus, the built-in speakers are tiny, so you will definitely need a soundbar. Conveniently, Amazon sells those.
6. Sky Glass
Best 4K TV for sound, 9/10
We like: available for £19 a month added to your Sky bill
We don’t like: the picture quality can’t quite compete with the newest TVs here
- 43in, 55in and 65in sizes available
- Display type: QLED
- High dynamic range types: Dolby Vision
- Sound: Max 215W 3 x front-firing speakers, 2 x up-firing, 1 x subwoofer
- Inputs: 3 x HDMI, Wi-Fi, ethernet
- Sky voice control built-in
Tested at home
It’s been quite a year for newcomers entering the TV market. Sky’s first television is a strong proposition, allowing you to ditch not only your old telly but your satellite dish as well. The shows stream over broadband, so people who can’t put a dish up can now watch shows like The Last Of Us (Sky Atlantic) and Poker Face (Sky Max), which have been two of the best things on telly this year.
As you can probably tell, I’m a Sky fan. It seemed a no-brainer to pick up a new ultra-high definition telly as part of my monthly subscription (it’s £19 a month for 48 months). The picture quality is excellent, although having tested a lot of this year’s new TVs, the comparative lack of detail in dark areas was noticeable. Sound-wise, it’s unusually powerful, with a decent array of forward- and upward-firing speakers built into its two-inch thick frame, including a meaty subwoofer. This does mean it’s relatively heavy for its size.
I had been hoping the Sky Glass would be easier to navigate than other 4K tellies. It is, but you still have to scroll down to find the actual TV guide. The main screen is dominated, Netflix-style, by the latest releases, things you’ve been watching and things you might like. That includes Disney+, Amazon Prime and any other streaming services you’ve signed up for: they’re all there rubbing shoulders with the Sky stuff. My wife says she’d still prefer an old-fashioned channel guide. Our parents would not be able to handle it at all.
There are a few other sacrifices. With no hard drive, you can’t permanently keep any recordings: they’re only available for as long as the streamer keeps them in the cloud. Dozens of beloved films which we’d saved on our old Sky box for years are lost now. Ah well.
I also had occasional problems with the sound going out of sync, no doubt caused by the huge demands it places on the broadband. They went away with a simple turn-it-off-and-on again. Serious gamers have complained that the 66-millisecond latency is too slow for action games, but I’ve happily been playing away with my old-man reaction times unchanged.
Overall, this is a reasonably priced (though not cheap) 4K telly that doesn’t pretend to be ultra-premium but performs well enough in terms of picture, functions and especially sound to hold its head up among the better-established competition. It’s also simpler to use and comes with content the others can’t provide. Unless you get Sky Stream, of course. But that’s for another review.
7. Philips PUS8807
£599 for 55-inch model, Currys
Best looking 4K TV, 8/10
We like: latest version of ‘ambi-light’ is the most reactive yet
We don’t like: no QLED and no mini-LED make this relatively basic for 2023
- 55in, 65in and 75in sizes available
- Display type: LED with micro dimming
- High dynamic range types: HDR10+, Dolby Vision
- Sound: 2 x 10W speakers with Dolby Atmos
- Inputs: 4 x HDMI, 2 x USB, ethernet, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0, aerial
- Google Assistant built-in, works with Alexa
Expert recommended
Philips are famous for their Ambilight TVs, with a ring of coloured LEDs at the back which cast a glow against the wall, constantly changing to match the colours on screen. No-one else does it, it has plenty of fans and the Dutch tech firm has stuck with it for the latest generations of their OLED and LED TVs.
The very latest model, the PUS8808, is not in shops yet, so for now this 8807 model is the one to buy if you’re after a mid-range 4K TV with something a bit special about it. It has a quite stunningly slim screen, just 8mm thick, and a razor-thin bezel around the edge. When fixed to the wall with the ambi-light going, it’s a work of art in itself.
“It sounds gimmicky but in practice, Ambilight gives a more immersive picture,” Dylan Squire says. “The PUS8807 uses the latest ‘intelligent LEDs’ that are faster to respond to colour changes.”
Picture-wise you’re not quite getting the state of the art here. There are no quantum dots to increase the colour palette or mini-LEDs to fine-tune the dynamic range, but there is a decent processor, making it Dolby Vision compatible. Colours and contrasts are up there with many of the TVs on this list.
Due to its ultra-slim design the speakers are very small, but Philips make an excellent range of soundbars (we’re currently testing their Fidelio) which can turn it into quite a different beast.
“This particular model is also one of the first to feature DTS Play-Fi Home Theatre,” Dylan Squire says. “This lets you integrate the TV wirelessly into a compatible speaker system. Effectively, the TV’s speakers become the centre channel for dialogue, with other, wireless speakers taking up the surround sound task.”
It’s an Android telly, so very easy to use and has Netflix, Disney+, iPlayer, Prime, Spotify, YouTube and Apple TV all built in, plus Google Stadia for gaming. If you’re buying this for the Ambilight (which, realistically, you are), you’ll be getting a very decent modern 4K TV that’s just a shade behind the pace, at a price that seems fair.
8. LG QNED86
£1,399.98 for 55-inch model, LG
Best reduced-price TV, 9/10
We like: almost identical specs to this year’s best TVs, for half the price
We don’t like: you either love or hate the ‘magic remote’
- 55in, 65in, 75in and 86in sizes available
- Display type: QLED with mini-LED and NanoCell
- High dynamic range types: HLG, HDR10 Pro, Dolby Vision IQ
- Sound: 2 x 10W speakers with Dolby Atmos
- Inputs: 4 x HDMI, 2 x USB, ethernet, Wi-Fi, aerial
- LG ThinkQ built in, works with Alexa and Google Assistant
LG are always at the cutting edge of TV tech. The latest LG OLED TV, the G3, is probably the best screen you can buy right now. But we’re not reviewing OLED TVs here. This QNED, which came out last year, costs £1,400 less than their flagship and is a remarkably capable QLED telly.
Like most of the TVs on this list, it uses mini-LEDs as well as quantum dots to enrich its range of colours and shades. But LG also use a technology called NanoCell which sits above the quantum dots, filtering the colours so that, for example, a red will be really red. The actual details are a trade secret but there’s no doubt their QNED screens are some of the best you can get without going OLED, beaten only by Samsung for the depths of their blacks and the vibrancy of their colours.
The reason this doesn’t come higher up our list is that, as Dylan Squire says, the AI at the heart of TVs is increasingly important. This one doesn’t use LG’s newest a9 Gen6 but last year’s a7 Gen5 processor, making it ever so slightly behind the cutting edge.
Everything else about the QNED86 is bang up to date, with Dolby Vision IQ and Dolby Atmos to upgrade the picture and sound and AMD FreeSync to perfect the gaming experience. The WebOS operating system is generally well-liked - although I hate the ‘magic remote’ that sends a cursor flapping around the home screen. The only real downside is its relative lack of audio power - just two 10W speakers and one 20W woofer, when Sony and Samsung’s newest tellies boast four and eight respectively. Though there is a ‘TV Sound Mode Share’ feature to create surround-sound from your home speakers, it’s not guaranteed to work with every set-up.
The huge plus is that, since it’s a year old, you can now pick this excellent TV up for around half its original price. Frankly, unless you’re obsessed with having a newer telly than your neighbour, this one’s a no-brainer.
9. Panasonic LX800
Best budget LED TV, 7/10
We like: naturalistic colours and good performance in daylight
We don’t like: has none of the latest colour- and contrast-boosting screen tech
- 43in, 50in, 55in, 65in, 75in sizes available
- Display type: LED
- High dynamic range types: Dolby Vision IQ
- Sound: 2 x 10W speakers with Dolby Atmos
- Inputs: 3 x HDMI 2, 2 x USB 2, ethernet, Wi-Fi, aerial
- Google Assistant built in
Panasonic’s latest MX range of LED TVs about to hit the shops, so the LX range from 2022 is going to be one of this year’s most affordable 4K tellies as shops offload their old stock.
It wasn’t quite in the premier league even last year, being a standard edge-lit LED TV rather than QLED, but if you like your images to look natural and realistic, this could be the one to go for. It doesn’t overdo the colours or the brightness and the dynamic range is respectable, even if it doesn’t use the latest AI. It does have Filmmaker Mode, which plays films exactly as the director wanted it to be seen.
It’s an Android TV, so easy to use, with YouTube, Netflix and Prime pre-loaded. Although its two 10-Watt speakers are nothing special, they do a decent job unless pushed really loud.
This year’s best new TVs can beat the LX800 for sound, for detail in the shadows and for gaming features, but if your budget is under £500 it’ll make sense to snap this up.
10. Toshiba QF5D
Best budget QLED TV, 7/10
We like: exceptionally low price for a QLED
We don’t like: last-gen image processing
- 43in, 50in, 55in and 65in sizes available
- Display type: QLED
- High dynamic range types: Dolby Vision IQ
- Sound: 2 x 10W speakers with Dolby Atmos
- Inputs: 3 x HDMI 2, 2 x USB 2, ethernet, Wi-Fi, aerial
- Alexa built in
It’s quite surprising to find a 55-inch QLED TV at this price, but Toshiba have been making low-priced TVs for long enough (their first was in 1939) to know their market. You don’t get up-to-the minute mini-LED projection, but the QF5D does have 300 dimming zones for a better dynamic range than you expect at this price, and the colours are great.
It’s a Fire TV, so has many of the same interactive features as Amazon’s own TV (above), which younger viewers will tend to love and older viewers will tend not to. If you’re upgrading from a much older telly, it’ll be quite a change. One thing that will amaze older buyers is how slim and light it is, with a bezel so thin it’s effectively frameless.
There’s no doubt it’s a good-looking telly and it’s tempting to ask why you’d pay two or three times as much for some of the TVs above. The difference is the HDR algorithms, which aren’t as up-to-date, giving not quite as much detail in the darkest and brightest parts of the picture, but many will think that’s a small sacrifice for the low price. It also has quite weedy sound. But that’s true of any TV this thin, including many of those above.
Overall, this is about as good a television as you can get for this money and you wonder if Toshiba might not have underpriced it. Still, after 84 years they must know what they’re doing.
4K TV FAQs
What is the difference between OLED and QLED?
Each pixel on an OLED TV is an individual organic light-emitting diode. These require no backlight, so the screen can be much thinner. More importantly, when the pixels are off they are completely off, allowing much deeper blacks and more realistic lighting effects. Motion on screen tends to be smoother on OLED TVs.
QLED TVs are illuminated by LED backlights and a layer of microscopic phosphorescent crystals, which glow when charged. These ‘quantum dots’ allow a much broader colour spectrum and higher peak brightness than OLEDs, making them easier to watch in bright rooms. They can also be viewed from a wider angle.
QLED was once associated with Samsung, but is now used extensively across the 4K TV market and prices are coming down quickly. OLED remains a relatively premium choice. It’s rare to find a new OLED TV under £1,000.
What is mini-LED?
Mini-LED is a new way of illuminating QLED screens, using much smaller diodes of less than 0.2mm. This begins to approach the microscopic size of OLED pixels and allows more control over the dynamic range. Because there are more of them, the image is several times brighter. It’s relatively new, but appears in many of this year’s best 4K televisions.
Mini-LED is not to be confused with micro-LED, a next generation technology that is so far only found in super-premium, oversized TVs costing over £50,000.
What is HDR?
High dynamic range allows much finer gradations of light and darkness. On an old-fashioned TV, a scene set in a dark room with bright sunshine outside would have been a mess of white ‘bloom’ and black ‘crush’. An HDR TV can reveal all the details within the scene.
There are four different HDR formats. HDR10 is the original. Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime and Apple TV all stream content in HDR10 and you should expect any 4K TV to support it.
Dolby Vision is more sophisticated, balancing the dynamic range frame by frame instead of scene by scene. The latest version, Dolby Vision IQ, also compensates for the lighting in the room the TV is in. Dolby is a proprietary brand that manufacturers have to sign up to. Most have.
HDR10+ was Samsung’s version of Dolby Vision (they don’t like signing up to other people’s tech), which has since been adopted by many other manufacturers.
HLG (hybrid log gamma) is the HDR format used by broadcasters like the BBC and Sky. Most modern TVs that support HDR10 will also support HLG.
Many TVs will now support all four of these formats. The software will detect which one is being used and switch between them automatically.
What is screen refresh rate?
The refresh rate, measured in Hertz, is how many times a second the screen is updated. Most new 4K TVs are capable of 120Hz, which gamers, sports fans and action film lovers say gives a smoother and more exciting experience because there’s less blur when objects move quickly. However, 60Hz is perfectly good enough for most casual viewers. You will only see 120Hz if the input is in 120Hz (from a games console, for example).
What is motion smoothing?
Motion smoothing, or motion interpolation, inserts computer-generated frames between the existing ones to make movements seem smoother. It’s useful for gaming and can make it easier to follow the action when watching sports. But it should be turned off for all other types of viewing. It causes the ‘soap opera effect’, where everything looks as though it was shot on video in a brightly lit TV studio. Tom Cruise and Martin Scorsese hate it, along with all right-thinking people. Unfortunately it is turned on by default in all modern TVs.
What is 8K?
8K TVs have four times as many pixels as 4K TVs: about 33 million, versus about 8 million. That means the picture is clearer, sharper and more realistic. However, they are twice as expensive and at the moment there is practically no 8K content available (because it takes up a huge amount of streaming bandwidth). So there is no point buying an 8K TV right now. As a result, the major manufacturers have gone rather cool on them.
What does edge-lit mean?
Edge-lit TVs are cheaper and thinner than back-lit TVs and more economical to run, but they can produce a lower-quality image in some instances. Rather than having the light-producing LEDs directly behind the image-producing LCD panel, they are arranged at the edge. The light is spread across the panel using a system of ‘light guides’.
What is local dimming?
In LED TVs (including QLEDs), it’s not yet possible to turn each individual pixel off to achieve total blackness. Local dimming attempts to get close to this goal by dividing the screen into zones. The zones behind dark parts of a scene can be dimmed so that you can see more detail in them. Look for full-array local dimming, which has the most zones and therefore a greater dynamic range.
OLED TVs don’t need local dimming because each pixel is its own light source.
What is the brightest TV?
Samsung’s QN100, a 98-inch version of our Best Buy QN90, can achieve a peak brightness of 5,000 nits. Nits (from Latin nitere, ‘to shine’) measure brightness over a given area. For years the standard for TVs was 250. The technology now exists to make TVs much brighter: the latest mini-LED TVs are capable of well over 1,000 nits.
On its own, more brightness does not make a TV better: it’s all about the range. A greater range between the top and bottom allows more detail and better contrast.
What is the best screen size?
If you’re buying a 4K TV, you need a screen that’s over 40 inches or you won’t see the difference over previous-generation (1080-pixel) HD. This is why the vast majority of 4K TVs are only made in sizes between 43 and 75 inches.
The right size for you will depend on how far you sit from the telly. If it’s about eight feet, go for a 43-inch TV. If it’s about 10-11 feet, go for a 55-inch TV. Only consider 65 inches or bigger if you sit over 12 feet away from your TV.
Bigger TVs are also heavier and have a wider stand, so you will need to consider where you are going to stand or mount it.
