Best TVs of 2024 tested: top OLEDs, Mini-LEDs and QLEDs for December

Helping folks find the best TVs for their living spaces is one of the best parts of my day as Tom's Guide's Managing Editor for TVs and AV. I take great pride in the rigor of our extensive testing regiment, and I personally see close to four dozen TVs a year at industry events, behind-closed-door demos, and at-home tests where I see how industry innovations affect every-day viewing.

As I test each model, there are a few features that I check to see if it could really be the best TV for you. These are the same things you want, like great picture quality, immersive sound, quick installation and set up, and access to my favorite streaming apps and other smart services.

I go through great lengths to view picture quality through every lens — contrast, brightness, black levels, color saturation, color accuracy, motion processing and upscaling. And all these factors combine when I decide whether it really is one of the best TVs around right now.

If you're wondering what the best TV looks like, check out the Hisense U8N. It faces some stiff competition from Samsung and the LG C4 OLED, but the U8N offers the best price-to-performance ratio. It's a TV I used for myself over the course of three months (a very long time in the TV testing world), and every time I turned it on, I was consistently impressed.

The quick list

About the author

Written by

Written by

Nick Pino

My name's Nick and I look after our guides to the best TVs, best OLED TVs and best 4K TVs. I have been covering TVs and AV for major tech publications for over a decade. Before I became Tom's Guide's Managing Editor of TV & AV, I was formerly the Senior Editor, TV and AV at TechRadar. My accreditations include THX Installation and Calibration training and serving as a Innovation Awards judge for TVs at the largest tech show in the world, CES. Before my days in journalism, I helped folks just like you at a local Best Buy working in the TV department.

The best TVs you can buy today

Best TV

Image 1 of 6

What you need to know
It shouldn't be much of a surprise that the Hisense U8 series is at the top of the list — its predecessor, the Hisense U8K, held this spot for most of last year. But what makes the Hisense U8N even better than its predecessor is the uptick in brightness. This TV can output over 3,000 nits in HDR, which means you're more than covered if you feel like TVs often look too dim and are hard to see. Its color vibrancy is also off the charts, second only to a Sony TV that costs three times as much money.

In short, the U8N offers performance we'd expect from a $2,000 TV for under $1,000.

So why didn't it get a perfect 5 out of 5 score from me? Well, two reasons. For one, Hisense just can't compete with Sony, Samsung and LG in post-image processing. Motion processing and upscaling aren't awful, and most of the time look really good everything considered, but other companies' processing techniques are on a whole different level. You're also stuck with just two HDMI 2.1 ports here.

Despite these flaws, most folks are going to be blown away by this TV.

Design: For my tests, I used a 65-inch model. At 56.2 pounds, it's not the lightest TV nor the thinnest, but that's to be expected from any non-OLED TV. To mount, make sure you grab a standard 600 x 400, M6 VESA mount. If you want to simply place it on top of an entertainment center, you can do that using the two included legs that come in the box.

Performance: You can't watch the Hisense U8N and not be impressed. Not only does it nail the perfect brightness in every setting thanks to the incorporation of a light sensor, but its color vibrancy is next level. In our lab tests, conducted by Tom's Guide's Head of Testing Matthew Murray, the Hisense U8N was able to go toe-to-toe with the much more expensive LG C4 OLED and even surpasses it in some key metrics like SDR brightness and color saturation. It cannot be understated how impressive this is.

The only reason I couldn't give it full marks are because of its upscaling and motion processing prowess. It's not bad by any stretch of the imagination, but actors' faces on the Hisense U8N might look a bit softer with hidden pores and clouds have soft edges rather than any real definition. Its lackluster motion processing can also create motion blur around the moving objects that's extremely noticeable, even to the untrained eye. Finally, serious gamers might also notice the smallest bit of latency. Anything under 20 milliseconds is nearly imperceptible to the human eye, but there are other TVs that have a hair less input lag for a slightly more responsive feel.

Smart TV: We genuinely like Google TV as a smart platform and we think you will, too. It does a phenomenal job at surfacing new and recommended content for you to watch and it has access to all the main streaming services. Even better, it doesn't really push you to use one service over another the same way an Amazon Fire TV might. The only potential issue is that you might notice a bit of a slowdown when you switch from one streaming app to the next.

Read the full review: Hisense U8N Mini-LED TV

Hisense 65" U8N Mini-LED TV: was $1,499 now $897 @ Amazon
Black Friday and Cyber Monday may be behind us, but the 65-inch U8N is still on sale for over $600 off its typical price.

View Deal

Best QD-OLED TV

What you need to know
Samsung's return to the world of OLED TVs has been a wild ride. It was one of the first manufacturers to make an OLED TV before dejecting the technology in place of QLED. Now, with the S95C OLED, Samsung proves it can do both perfectly.

Not only is its picture performance simply stunning, but when you’re not watching or using the TV, Ambient mode takes over and provides a carousel of aesthetically-pleasing animations and images. Samsung made Ambient mode mainstream, and though other TV brands have since introduced their own spin on it, we still like Samsung’s version the best.

We wish Samsung would implement Dolby Vision and maybe pump up the sound quality a bit more on the S95C, but overall, it's still an incredible QD-OLED TV.

Design: The Samsung S95C is a premium model, through and through. It uses metal materials, a bezel-less screen and has an impressively thin panel. It’s even thinner than the S95B, measuring a mere 10mm thick. If you like your TVs slim and sleek, but still able to fit on a home entertainment center with ease, the S95C's design is top notch. In terms of ports, the S95C has four HDMI 2.1 ports plus an ATSC 3.0 tuner.

Performance: Our reviewers loved the picture of the Samsung S95C OLED, citing its nuanced HDR performance, out-of-the-box color accuracy and wonderful black levels. In our tests, the S95C was able to reproduce about 141.5% of the Rec 709 color space in standard mode and a Delta-E accuracy score of 1.4 (with closer to 0 being best) in Filmmaker mode. For gamers, the S95C measured an excellent 9.2ms lag time, the lowest input latency of any TV we tested, and the set’s off-angle viewing is better than most, with the colors holding up well past the ideal 45 degrees.

Smart TV: Samsung's Tizen OS is a bit of a mixed bag this year. It can be difficult to navigate (especially if you wan to make tweaks to your picture settings), but you can still find all the major streaming apps, plus plenty of free content from Samsung TV Plus. On the plus side, the S95C can act as a SmartThings hub. If you’re growing your smart home or embracing the Matter smart home protocol, this TV control all of your devices, even if your home uses gadgets from all different manufacturers.

Read the full review: Samsung S95C OLED

Best OLED TV

Image 1 of 10

What you need to know
LG is the king of OLED TVs for a reason. When Samsung ducked out of the race to work on QLED screens, LG stayed hard at work improving OLED quality. The result is the LG G4 OLED — an absolutely stunning TV that leverages the power of LG Display's latest innovations in panel design. Sporting a new META 2.0 panel, the G4 delivers better brightness than nearly all of its peers (QD-OLED TVs, excluded) and has some of the most accurate out-of-the-box color we've seen on a TV in 2024.

Not only is the TV immaculately designed but LG is one of the only TV makers to offer a five-year warranty on its OLED TVs to cover them in case of any pixel degradation (i.e. burn-out or burn-in), and that gives me a lot of confidence recommending their brand. There are more OLED TVs out there than ever before, but for me the choice for the best OLED is clear in the 2024 LG G4.

Design: The LG G4 OLED splits the difference for families who want a TV that mirrors what they see in theaters without a big projector taking up space in their living room. The G4 has an art gallery-worthy design that's incredibly thin and almost melts into the wall. Mounted, I think it's one of the most beautiful TVs sold in 2024.

Performance: The LG G4 OLED doesn't require a calibrator to make it look great — out of the box it looks incredible. In our comprehensive lab tests, the LG G4 reached a peak brightness of 1,488 nits while maintaining perfect black levels. Its color accuracy in its Filmmaker mode is the lowest of any TV and it's tied for the lowest input latency. Movies that we watched on it looked sharp and vibrant. The Mushroom Kingdom in The Super Mario Bros. Movie had candy-color sheen to it, and action sequences in Avatar: The Way of Water have never looked so unreal (in a good way).

Smart TV: WebOS isn't the flashiest smart TV platform out there but it's a workhorse. It doesn't slowdown after years of use. It doesn't suffer from major disputes with streaming partners. It just works each and every time. Unfortunately, LG's Magic Remote can be a bit fickle. Some folks love the Wii-esque wand design, but others loath it entirely. Thankfully there are plenty of ways to control the TV, including Apple Airplay 2, Amazon Alexa, Apple Home, and Google Assistant, so don't worry too much if the idea of motion-based controls are a turn-off.

Read the full review: LG G4 OLED

• ^ Back to the top

Best value TV

Image 1 of 8