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How to pick
Size first, and nearly everyone buys too small. A rough guide for a 4K set is to sit about one and a half times the screen's width away, which for most living rooms lands somewhere between 55 and 75 inches. Measure the wall and measure your sofa before you fall in love with a model. Next, ignore 8K entirely. There is almost nothing made in it, you cannot see the difference at normal viewing distances, and you are paying a large premium for a number. What actually changes the picture is how bright the set gets and how well it handles dark scenes. That is where OLED wins, with perfect blacks, though it costs more and is happiest in a room you can dim. A good QLED gets brighter and suits a sunny room better for less money. Every TV sold now is a smart TV, so do not pay extra for that, and if the built in software turns sluggish in a few years a cheap streaming stick fixes it. Last thing: budget something for a wall mount or a stand, and check the TV's VESA pattern before you buy one.
What I recommend
Everyday sets
Size first, and nearly everyone buys too small. For a 4K set, sit about one and a half times the screen's width away, which for most living rooms lands between 55 and 75 inches. Measure the wall and the sofa before falling in love with a model.
TCL or Hisense 4K smart TV
For a spare room, a bedroom, or anywhere the TV is on in the background, these are remarkable value and perfectly good. The picture will not hold up next to the sets below in a bright room, and the software is slower, but for the money nothing else comes close.
- Extraordinary value for the size
- Perfectly good in a dim room
- All the streaming apps built in
- Struggles in a bright sunny room
- Software slows down after a couple of years
- Sound is thin, budget for a soundbar
- Motion handling is basic
- Best for
- Spare room or background viewing
- Picture
- Fine, until the room is bright
- Software
- A bit slow, a stick fixes that
- Value
- Nothing else comes close
Hisense or TCL QLED
The sensible middle. Much brighter than budget sets, which is what matters if your living room gets afternoon sun, and colours hold up far better. This is where most people should be spending.
- Bright enough for a sunny room
- Colours noticeably richer than budget sets
- The jump from here to expensive sets is smaller than the price gap
- Still not as good as OLED in a dark room
- Built in sound is still poor
- Model names change yearly and are confusing
- Brightness
- Handles a sunny room
- Colour
- Holds up far better than budget sets
- Sweet spot
- Where most people should spend
- Sizes
- 55 to 75 inch
Better picture
Worth paying for if the picture is the point rather than background noise.
Hisense U8 or TCL QM series
The upper end of sensible. Mini LED backlighting gets very bright and handles dark scenes far better than a normal QLED, with the fast refresh rate that matters if anyone games. If you want a picture that makes people comment without paying OLED money, look here.
- Very bright, excellent in any room
- Mini LED handles dark scenes far better
- 120Hz for gaming
- Close to OLED for much less
- Blooming around bright objects on dark backgrounds
- Heavier and thicker than OLED
- Still needs a soundbar
- Backlight
- Mini LED, much better dark scenes
- Brightness
- Very high
- Refresh
- 120Hz, matters for gaming
- Value
- OLED-ish picture for less
LG or Samsung OLED
Perfect blacks, because each dot switches itself off rather than being dimmed. In a room you can darken, nothing else looks like it. The C series from LG is the one most often recommended for normal people.
- Perfect blacks, nothing else compares
- Superb viewing angles
- Excellent for gaming
- Very thin
- Expensive
- Less bright than mini LED in a sunny room
- Static images can in theory burn in over years
- Still needs a soundbar
- Blacks
- Perfect, each dot switches off
- Best in
- A room you can dim
- Less good
- Very sunny rooms
- Worth it if
- The picture is the point
Related reading
New TV still in the box?
Mounting, cables, apps and getting everything signed back in. I can have it working so you are not left with a remote and a shrug.