TV sales are as predictable as the changing seasons, with prices steadily dropping on multiple brands and models this time of year. As Black Friday has become more of a monthlong free-for-all than a weekend event, you’ll find many of the best TV deals available now, making it the perfect time to complete your big purchase. Below are some of my very favorites and top performers at a wide variety of price points for your perusal. And don’t forget to check out our Black Friday buying tips and curated gift guides as you check off your shopping list.
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TV Deals
LG’s C4 (9/10, WIRED Recommends) is perennially named one of the best TVs you can buy, for good reason, and it’s now at the lowest price we’ve seen all year. You’ll get the stunning contrast and perfect black levels of a top OLED display, rich and naturalistic colors, sparkling clear picture processing, and solid brightness with support for Dolby Vision HDR. LG’s smart interface is quirky but lightning-fast, and the Magic Remote works like a Nintendo Wii remote for versatile control. Extras like four fully-loaded HDMI 2.1 inputs to serve up the top gaming features make the C4 feel like a flagship TV at second-tier pricing.
Not to be outdone, Samsung’s second-tier OLED (9/10, WIRED Recommends) is another of my favorite TVs of the year. The 65-inch model’s QD-OLED panel (the 42-, 48-, and 83-inch models use a more traditional WOLED panel) provides fabulously rich colors and a slight brightness boost over its C4 counterpart, alongside the perfect black levels and excellent picture quality from any angle that makes OLED TVs top performers. Like the C4, you’ll get HDMI 2.1 support across all four inputs and Samsung’s Game Hub lets you stream games from an impressive list of services, including Xbox. Like all Samsung TVs, the S90D doesn’t support Dolby Vision, the most common dynamic HDR format, opting for HDR10+ instead. Otherwise, it’s hard to find a flaw.
If you’re after something more budget friendly, Hisense’s U7N QLED TV (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is our pick as the best TV for most people right now, thanks to its mix of killer brightness, punchy quantum dot colors, and excellent contrast. We saw some uniformity issues in testing (aka the dirty screen effect) but it’s not noticeable in most situations, and the TV’s mini LED backlighting system is a step above regular LED TVs, with loads of dimming zones for minimal “blooming” or light wash around bright images. An intuitive Google TV interface and high-end gaming features complete the package for a TV that punches well above its price.
Looking to bust the brightness barrier? Hisense’s 65-inch U8K TV (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is among the brightest we’ve ever tested, outshining the vast majority of LED rivals with its searing highlights and voluminous quantum dot colors. You might think all that power would make it a poor performer in the dark, but the U8N’s advanced mini LED backlighting allows for inky black levels with very little light bloom. You’ll also get top-end gaming features and a Google TV interface. The TV’s off-axis image quality and motion handling are just OK, but otherwise you’re getting a lot of the goodies found in premium TVs for far less money. Add in a good sale, and it’s hard to say no.
If affordability and convenience top your TV checklist, this balanced baseline model from Roku is an enticing choice. Roku’s simplified interface runs the show, making it easy for even the less technically inclined among us to navigate between inputs, broadcast TV, and your choice of hundreds of streaming services. The TV’s picture quality isn’t top tier, and its 60-Hz refresh rate may not appeal to avid gamers, but you do get good brightness, vibrant colors, local dimming for solid black levels without blotchy light patches, and smart support for Apple Homekit, Alexa, and Google Assistant.
Maybe you’ve been waiting to go gonzo with a mega screen this holiday season. If so, TCL’s QM7 is a tempting bargain, offering good performance at a great price in an absolutely massive screen size. I’ve only tested the 65-inch version, but the large-and-in-charge model should offer a similar overall experience, with excellent brightness and more dimming zones to provide good contrast and black levels. It’s loaded with features, including gaming extras and all major flavors of HDR, and its overall picture processing and screen uniformity are surprisingly solid for its class. My only hesitation with this TV is a settings issue I experienced where the HDR changes with SDR settings. TCL was able to fix this for me with a firmware update, and the brand says one is coming for all its TVs in December. That hindrance aside, this is a whole lot of screen real estate for a price that costs less than some premium 65-inch models. If you’re still unsure, Hisense’s excellent U8N comes in 100 inches right now for $3,000.
Another brightness champion, the Bravia 9 (9/10, WIRED Recommends) matches its next-gen LED potency with brilliant balance to create one of the most stirring performances of any TV I’ve tested. You’ll almost feel the heat of the sun or lasers cascading across the screen, while Sony’s proprietary backlighting and processing systems provide incredible contrast and clarity. You’ll get Sony’s Google TV smart interface for simple navigation, and high-end gaming features, including in-house PlayStation exclusives. The TV’s off-angle viewing is good, not great, and I wish Sony would offer HDMI 2.1 gaming support across more than just two of its four inputs, but if you’re after the best LED TV on the market at its lowest price yet, you’re welcome.
If I’d known the Bravia 7 (7/10, WIRED Recommended) would drop this low, I honestly would have given it a higher score. It seemed a bit too high at its $2,300 MSRP, but now that it’s $1,000 lower, and $400 off its original sale price, it feels like Sony’s giving these things away. My main gripe about the Bravia 7 was its notably poor performance from the side. If you’re mainly watching from straight-on, though, this is a killer performer for the money. The TV’s mini LED backlight is brilliantly bright, with dazzling colors, excellent contrast, and stunning clarity across content. Like most TVs in its class, it tacks on top gaming features (though only across two of its four HDMI inputs), and its Google TV interface adds intuitive control. At this price, this is among the best options for anyone after a bright-yet-refined TV experience.
