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Compared to other appliances, the journey to buy a new TV is arguably one of the most elusive.
Unboxing them (and returning them, if you really need to) will have you sweating significantly more than, say, a robot vacuum would, and the tech involved gets far more in the weeds than, say, whether a refrigerator can reliably keep food cold. Of course, you can totally go to the store to try to assess things like brightness or color volume in person. But seeing 15 TVs playing the same exact thing is often less of a helpful real-life simulation and more of a disorienting house of mirrors.
There are two ways you could go about your TV hunt next: Falling into a Reddit rabbit hole of QLED vs. OLED or just seeing what an expert has to say.
How do I choose my new TV?
TV specs are notoriously confusing to people who don't test them for a living. Luckily, we happen to know someone who actually does test TVs for a living. Ty Pendlebury is a tech journalist who tests a ton of top TVs for CNET, which is owned by Mashable's publisher, Ziff Davis. Pendlebury has been honing his craft for almost 20 years at CNET, where there's a dedicated lab for testing TVs.
With Pendlebury's expertise in mind, we've pulled the best QLED and OLED TVs you can buy as of February 2025. It's a much more consolidated list than most others you'll find online — but that might be a relief if you're overwhelmed with the options. We've dubbed 65 inches as the sweet spot for most people, though these curated picks would also shine if you go an even bigger route. All options included come in 75 or 77 inches, with most also expanding to 83 or 85 inches. One even hits over 100 inches.
If it makes your investment feel less intimidating, just know that all of our picks are on sale right now — shout out to the end of football season for making February one of the best months to buy a TV on sale. Best Buy TV deals happen to cover the smart TVs we'd be recommending even at full price, spanning the best TV brands like LG, Samsung, Hisense, and TCL.
Best QLED TV for most people
Why we like it
The QLED TV market is a more saturated one than OLED, so pinpointing a singular model as the best QLED TV with no further questions asked is a little bit rockier. For most people, the best QLED TV for your buck will be the TCL QM8.
It's consistently regarded as one of the absolute brightest TVs on the market, and we're impressed that it's not in a higher price range given its punchy mini LED panel. Pendlebury says: "In my comparison tests, it continues to stand out with superior brightness and impact while still maintaining excellent contrast: a combination no other TV could match at this price."
While this intensity of brightness makes the QM8 a solid choice for viewing or playing in daylight, its more-precise-than-usual backlights keep details crisp in a dark room. This flexibility, plus VRR compatibility and 4K support up to 144Hz, make it a solid contender for gamers who want a screen bigger than a 55-inch, but don't want to spend thousands of dollars. But for a story dedicated to the best big TVs, it is worth noting that the QM8 offers serious attention to the 65-inch+ side of things: It has two sizes that exceed the traditional 85-inch max. Those ones are definitely a few thousand dollars, though.
What are the other sizes?
The TCL QM8 comes in 65, 75, 85, 98, and 115 inches.
Another pick worth considering
If you'd prefer to scoot a little further away from the $1,000 mark, the Hisense U6N is an excellent cheap QLED TV. Best Buy frequently has the 65-inch model on sale for $549.99, and its color volume and contrast are seriously punchy for a TV just over $500. It's not as impressive in the motion zippiness or gaming features department, though, so it'd be better suited for more casual TV watchers who care more about a big screen value.
The Hisense U6N also comes in 55, 75, and 85 inches.
Best OLED TV for most people
Why we like it
LG's C-Series OLEDs are the darling of the TV-obsessed corner of the internet. The 2024 C4 model builds on the beloved 2023 C3 with better peak brightness and support for 144Hz versus the C3's 120Hz. CNET's Pendlebury loves a lot about the C4: "Its perfect black levels, unbeatable contrast, and superb off-angle viewing kept it a notch above the mini-LED models in my comparison tests, and while its overall brightness isn't quite as impressive, it's still an incredible performer in all kinds of room lighting." This list of pros gave it better picture quality than any non-OLED TVs that Pendlebury has tested — without being "outrageously expensive."
Much of this impeccable quality is effortless on your part, too, thanks to the addition of Filmmaker Mode, in which the TV tweaks its own settings to preserve the director's intended aspect ratio, colors, and frame rates (rather than you doing the adjusting by hand). On top of screen-related specs, the C4 earns high marks from gamers with its 144Hz refresh rate.
What are the other sizes?
The LG C4 comes in 42, 48, 55, 65, 77, and 83 inches.
Another pick worth considering
The Samsung S95D is a rare OLED-specific model with a matte finish, stopping reflections in their tracks better than, well, pretty much any other TV. According to CNET's Pendlebury, "That matte finish really works, reducing windows and other glare to dimmer blobs instead of super-bright, mirror-like distractions. Between its versatile matte screen and awesome picture overall, the Samsung S95D delivers the best image quality of any TV we've tested."
The only caveat? The price. The 65-inch S95D retails for $3,099.99 and is on sale at Best Buy for $2,299.99 — $800 more than the 65-inch C4. The Samsung S95D also comes in 55 and 77 inches.
Bonus: Best outdoor TV
$4,999.99 Save $500
Why we like it
Most of the top TV brands still haven't branched out into the outdoor TV market (outdoor meaning waterproof). But we're OK with that, because Samsung's The Terrace is the only pick you'll need.
The 2024 version of The Terrace is the only Terrace with Neo QLED lighting, which is just Samsung's term of endearment for mini LEDs. This makes it the brightest Terrace yet, and brightness is the top factor determining how clear a TV screen's details are when watching in broad daylight — though the anti-glare screen helps, too. The Terrace's AI upscaling methods have even been optimized specifically for watching in a shaded outdoor space, regardless of the season. As for the waterproofness, the newest Terrace TV has an IP56 rating versus the older models' IP55.
What are the other sizes?
The 2024 Samsung Terrance (Partial Sun) comes in 55, 65, and 75 inches.
When will 2025 TV models be released?
The typical TV release cycle starts in January, when most TV brands announce their new models for the year at CES. That already happened in 2025, so now, we wait. March and April are the most common months for these TVs to become available to buy, and some can already be pre-ordered, like the new TCL QM6K.
The winter-unveiling-to-spring-release timeline isn't guaranteed, though. Some brands are a little vaguer about the official release of new flagship models — we don't know much about the LG C5 other than the fact that it exists. Other flagship TVs don't get their upgrades at CES at all, like the newest version of The Terrace that came out in September 2024.
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