There are far fewer OLED TVs on the market, and they tend to be more expensive, though prices have dropped over the past couple of years.īut we’ve also included some great 65-inch 4K sets that cost under $1,000-some much less-plus a few really jumbo sets priced under $2,000.īefore you dive into the individual models, it pays to understand the two basic technologies used in today’s televisions: LCD TVs, which are also called LED TVs for the LED backlights that illuminate the screen and OLED TVs, where each pixel generates its own light. OLED sets do a great job of displaying the blackest parts of an image, so the deepest shadows can really look black, as in real life, rather than gray. OLED TVs also have essentially unlimited viewing angles, so the picture still looks great if you view it from the sides of the screen.
There’s a big wrinkle in the technology for 2022: Samsung and Sony are introducing a new type of OLED TV that uses quantum dots, which promises a brighter overall image. (The Samsung model is included below.) We’ll have an article discussing this QD-OLED technology, along with test results for these new TVs, in the coming weeks.Ī majority of TVs being sold are LCD sets.
While they generally can’t deliver OLED-like black levels, they get better every year, especially models that use full-array backlights, where the LEDs are spread across the entire rear panel instead of just along the edges. These models include a feature called local dimming, which divides the backlights into zones that can be dimmed or illuminated separately, depending on the scene. Some newer sets have Mini LED backlights, which use a large number of even smaller LEDs that can be divided into more zones and locally dimmed. Typically, only pricier TVs have full-array backlights with local dimming. Other sets are edge-lit, with the LEDs positioned on the sides of the screen. Some of these sets also include local dimming, but it tends to be less effective than in sets with full-array backlights. The best LCD TVs can create very bright, vivid images.