Best Televisions for Design And Build (2024)

The C3 has very good peak brightness in both SDR and HDR content.

The C3 has a nearly infinite contrast ratio, leading to deep, inky blacks, perfect black uniformity, and no blooming around bright objects.

However, when displaying very bright images, it loses some color accuracy, especially with greens.

The C3 suffers from the same pink vertical banding found on LG's other OLED panels.

If you've never owned a smart TV before, I think you're going to get along with WebOS just fine.

There are ads built into the menu that you cannot fully disable.

You may find yourself needing to approve updates frequently.

The speakers on the C3 are alright; they're doing a pinch, but you'll benefit from pairing the TD with a soundbar or speaker system for extra bass.

Thanks to the A9 Alpha processor Gen 6 inside the unit, there's additional AI sound mixing, so the sound, well, sounds better.

All four HDMI inputs support HDMI 2.1 bandwidth.

The TV supports FreeSync and G-Sync. It also supports HDMI Forum VRR to reduce stuttering from any VRR-enabled source.

The color gamut readings are excellent.

The peak luminance with a 10% white window was exactly 2800 nits.

The TV's contrast is outstanding; seriously, it's so good that it approaches OLED territory.

The Bravia 9 has incredible HDR brightness, and when paired with its fantastic contrast, highlights really pop out during darker scenes.

The Sony Bravia 9 uses version 12 of the popular Google TV interface.

The interface is smooth and easy to use, but sometimes the settings get stuck.

This TV displays ads, and you can't disable them.

The remote is backlit and features a matte finish with blue speckles.

The most premium aspect of the Bravia 9, unrelated to picture quality, is the onboard audio system.

This TV delivers full-room sound like no other TV on the market.

Voice Zoom 3 is an excellent feature overall, and I can wholeheartedly endorse it if you are experiencing any issues with the clarity of audio in dialogue.

There are four HDMI ports, though only ports three and four support HDMI 2.1 bandwidth for 4K at 120 Hz signals.

Port 3 is also the eARC port, which means you'll lose one of your 2.1 inputs if you connect the TV to a receiver or a soundbar.

The TV can pass through all major audio formats, including Dolby and DTS.

Samsung's 8K lineup includes all the features, and the QN900D is at the very top of the lineup.

Samsung's upscaling has taken a notable leap forward on this TV.

The QN900D looks extremely good in its filmmaker mode for both SDR and HDR.

The QN900D achieved 2400 nits peak white from a 10% window.

A refreshed Tizen Smart TV OS includes a new health app.

The QN900D also features Samsung's all-new NQA AI Gen 3 processor.

Samsung's TV has you covered because it supports Xbox and GeForce Now cloud gaming.

This actually comes with a 6.2.4 speaker setup, and these speakers are placed all around the screen.

Active Voice Amplifier Pro essentially uses AI to listen to the audio you are listening to and then either cuts the voice out of it or separates it from the background audio.

It will, of course, come with four HDMI 2.1 ports, allowing you to plug in up to four devices.

I really like Samsung's One Connect Box for cable management.

The S95D's anti-glare and anti-reflective technology doesn't go that far; it does, however, keep the TV screen surface from looking like a dark mirror.

What Samsung has done here, as part of the solution, is to dissipate ambient light rather than have it directly reflected by eliminating the mirror-like effect found in OLED TVs.

The S95D is a QD OLED TV, which means it can fundamentally produce higher color purity and a slightly wider color gamut with better saturation in very bright colors than a WRGB OLED TV.

The S95D measured really well. I did need to change the color temperature setting in filmmaker mode to 'warm two' to get the best white balance, so I suggest you do the same if you want the most accurate picture.

I'm not the biggest fan of the Tizen Samsung Smart TV operating system.

Tizen is quite snappy. I mean, the TV boots up really quickly when you turn it on, and the smart TV interface is immediately usable.

The TV comes with the 2024 version of Samsung's proprietary Tyen OS, as is expected of Samsung's highest-end 2024 TV. Tyen runs fast and smooth here.

There are ads on this TV, like on any other TV. You can turn off targeted ads, but you can't remove them entirely.

The speakers are rear-firing. You have panels of speakers lining the edges here, and you have eight of these bass transducers.

It helps if the TV is placed in close proximity to the wall behind it because it relies heavily on the reflection of audio waves to sound its best.

The third HDMI port doubles as the EC Port, which can pass through advanced audio formats from Dolby. Sadly, like other Samsung TVs, the S 95d doesn't pass through any DTS audio formats.

The S95D comes with Samsung's One Connect Box, which, though long the bane of many custom installation professionals, does allow a single cable connection to the TV.

The Box itself has four HDMI ports, and while all of them support HDMI 2.1 bandwidth like last year, they're limited to 40 Gbps per second instead of the full 48.

Last year, there were many reports of connection issues with the One Connect Box. It's unclear whether these issues were related to the reduced bandwidth or the box itself.

Regarding picture quality and latency, I can't detect any difference whatsoever between the M3's wireless system and an HDMI cable connection.

There's no added compression or pixelization, so poor video source problems aren't further exacerbated by the wireless connection.

I don't experience any perceivable lag with video games, though admittedly, I'm not a hardcore FPS player.

Well, it looks like after you get past the zero connect box-related setup, the rest is the standard LG webOS setup.

I connected the Xbox and the Blu-ray player, and they were both automatically recognized. Everything is set up and good to go.

I had to revisit my review to watch it because I did not recall being a big fan of the TV's onboard audio.

There's bass; it doesn't sound anemic, but it lacks presence, richness, and, most of all, clarity.

The bass is quite a bit better than I remember, and the clarity has actually been fine.

This is the wireless transmission box. This is an aimable antenna that you see swirling around on the top. There are three, not four, HDMI inputs.

LG claims a range of up to 30 feet with a line of sight, and whenever such a range is claimed, you can expect some variables.

There are exactly zero ports on this TV, or at least on the display part of it.

The Sony X95L is the best LCD TV I have ever tested.

It has a VA panel with an extremely high contrast ratio, and with the local dimming feature on, it is actually one of the best we've seen on any LED TV.

The HDR peak brightness is amazing, so those highlights pop, making the content look vivid.

It also features an excellent mini LED local dimming capability with almost no blooming around bright objects.

It uses Google TV as a smart platform, which is easy to use and has a ton of apps available for download.

It supports Google Chromecast, allowing you to easily cast anything from your phone.

There's a mic in both the remote and the TV that you can use with Google Assistant.

Like most TVs, they're nothing special. While dialogue sounds clear at moderate listening levels, there's some distortion at maximum volume.

It doesn't produce much bass there either, which is expected, and you need to get a proper sound system if you want the best listening experience.

The TV has a center speaker input, allowing you to connect a compatible Sony Soundbar and use the TV's internal speakers as the center channel.

There are four HDMI ports, but only two of them support HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, allowing you to connect devices like gaming consoles or high-end PCs.

Sadly, one of those HDMI 2.1 slots is also the eARC port, so if you want to connect a soundbar or receiver for audio pass-through, you'll lose one of the HDMI 2.1 inputs.

Outstanding in the QA, it has a great native contrast ratio.

The QM8 has a ridiculously high HDR brightness.

It's the brightest TV we have ever tested, at least in HDR.

The TV displays deep and inky blacks next to bright highlights in dark rooms.

Google TV is running perfectly on this TV.

The first thing you see when you turn it on is the Google TV interface.

The remote is large, yet it doesn't have a numpad.

There are many apps you could download, but like any Google TV, there are ads throughout the interface.

The good news is that it produces a bit of bass thanks to that subwoofer.

The TV's sound profile is balanced enough that dialogue is easy to understand.

There's also quite a bit of distortion at maximum volume, and the TV doesn't get very loud.

It has two HDMI 2.1 ports, but only one is capable of 4K at 144Hz.

The TV has an ATSC 3.0 tuner, so you can watch over-the-air channels in 4K.

There's a digital optical audio out port, a 3.5 mm jack for your headphones or other audio devices, and an Ethernet port.

The LG B4 is an OLED, so it has a nearly infinite contrast ratio with deep, inky blacks that create an immersive experience while watching in a dark room.

It is not bright enough to properly display brighter highlights or very bright scenes.

The B4 is one of the best TVs we've ever reviewed in terms of its PQ EOTF tracking.

It's a 120Hz panel, so fast action and sports look very smooth, but without any kind of soap opera effect.

The TV greets you with the webOS interface, which is LG's proprietary system. It's fast and easy to use.

You can customize the homepage for each member of your family.

Despite the great interface, there are still ads that you can't disable.

It works with your Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, and Apple HomeKit.

The B4 has decent sound quality; it's nothing special, but it's not bad.

The speakers barely produce any bass, which we've come to expect.

The speakers do get quite loud, which makes us wonder why the C4 is so darn quiet in comparison.

The audio on the B4 is provided by a two-channel, 20-watt system.

The TV has four HDMI ports, and all four support HDMI 2.1 bandwidth this year.

Some of the inputs face the side and are close enough to the edge to be accessible when the TV is wall-mounted.

The TV also has some inputs facing the back, which are nearly impossible to use if your TV is sitting flush against the wall.

Finally, for wireless connections, you've got Bluetooth 5.1 and Wi-Fi 5.

The LG C4 offers remarkable contrast due to its nearly infinite contrast ratio.

The C4 is very bright in HDR, but unfortunately, the C Series still doesn't have the MLA layer like the G Series does.

The TV has exceptional reflection handling, as its glossy screen finish significantly reduces the intensity of direct reflections.

The LG C4 does have an excellent viewing angle, but it has a green tint that is noticeable from an angle of about 27° onwards.

The LG C4 has an excellent automatic game mode that activates when playing console or PC games.

The TV comes with the 2024 version of LG's web OS interface. It works well and supports user profiles.

We encountered a bug where you get a black screen on your TV if you've been frequently changing resolutions and refresh rates in a short period of time.

The C4 has ads like every other TV on the market, but it does allow you to remove some of them.

The TV's second HDMI port doubles as the E port, and it passes through a variety of advanced audio formats, including DTS.

The TV has four full HDMI 2.1 bandwidth ports, and they're all capable of up to 4K at 144 Hz.

All the inputs face towards the right, making them easy to access if the TV is on its stand, but they can be hard to reach if you wall-mount the TV.

The 65-inch model only has 384 dimming zones, but they're put to good use, as this TV's contrast with local dimming enabled is fantastic.

Its effective local dimming feature provides very deep blacks in a dark room.

It also has excellent HDR brightness, which is a significant improvement over the U7K.

Highlights really stand out on this device, especially in darker scenes.

The Hisense U7N uses version 12 of the Google TV smart interface. It's snappy and easy to navigate.

The u7n has a redesigned remote this year. It features a brushed metallic finish, the typical app shortcut buttons, and, guess what, it has backlighting.

The remote and the TV have built-in microphones, so whether you want to use the remote or just your beautiful voice for commands, it's up to you.

Unfortunately, like all TVs, there are ads, and you can't opt out of them.

The TV can pass through all major audio formats, so you won't have to worry about getting the best sound out of your 4K Blu-Rays, for example.

Supports both HDR 10 Plus and Dolby Vision, so you'll get the best HDR quality no matter the source.

The TV has four HDMI ports. Ports 3 and 4 have HDMI 2.1 bandwidth and support up to 4K at 144 Hz.

The HDMI 1 port also doubles as the ER port, so you won't lose a precious HDMI 2.1 port when you have a soundbar connected to the TV.

What is less excellent is that the USB, Ethernet, and Optical ports are on the back, so you can't access them when the TV is up against the wall.

Finally, there's an ATSC 3.0 tuner on the side.