Some of the Best TVs We’ve Tested Are Seeing Massive Black Friday Price Drops

Are you shopping for a new TV but feeling overwhelmed by the selection and prices? Our expert team here at PCMag has researched and tested tons of TVs and scoped out the best Black Friday deals happening now so you can snag a high-quality, highly rated television at the lowest price possible. Some of our favorite top-rated models are on sale with options for all budgets.

And don’t forget to check out all the Best Black Friday Deals You Can Still Get.

When it comes to finding a TV that offers the best value, the Hisense 55-Inch U8N TV earns our Editors’ Choice Award. Compared with competitors, it provides the best and brightest picture along with an extensive set of features at a significantly lower price. The software lets you stream content directly from apps as well as through Google Cast or Apple AirPlay 2, which also makes it an extremely versatile smart TV. And let’s not forget that $450 discount!

As for the best budget-friendly TV, the Hisense U6N offers the best quality for the price—and that’s without the extra $200 discount for Black Friday. The colors are bright and accurate, with strong contrast and deep blacks, providing a viewing experience that’s usually only found in much more expensive TVs. Add to that extensive smart features and hands-free voice control, and it’s easy to see why it’s our Editors’ Choice award winner for affordable TVs.

If you’re ready to splurge on one of the best high-end OLED TVs out there, the LG 65-inch Evo G4 TV is the way to go. It boasts incredible brightness with color accuracy and true blacks. Plus, the WebOS interface is easier to use than most other platforms in similar OLED TVs. We’ve tested a lot of OLED TVs at PCMag, but this edges out the competition to earn our Editors’ Choice award. With over $1,250 in savings, it’s the perfect time to invest in this top-of-the-line model.

For anyone who already uses Alexa products, the Amazon Fire Smart TV Omni QLED is a clear top choice, especially with a 30% discount. It’ll integrate seamlessly with your other Alexa devices, allowing for easy control of your smart home and smooth streaming of shows, movies, music, and other content. In our review of the slightly larger 65″ Omni QLED TV in this line (also on sale), our expert loved the strong color and high contrast as well as the hands-free Alexa remote, giving it an “Excellent” rating.

The Insignia F30 Fire TV offers vivid ultra high-def picture quality and all the handy Fire TV features (including easy content streaming and Alexa integration) at a budget-friendly price. While it might not be as stunning as OLED or QLED screens, you’re still getting an incredibly clear resolution in a midsize TV, especially for the price. Coming in just under $200, it’s a reliable and affordable smart TV that won’t leave you disappointed. (Take a deeper look at all things Insignia for more insight.)

Samsung is known for its high-performing electronics, so it’s no surprise that its OLED S95D TV line boasts remarkable contrast, color, and brightness that rivals top LED models. The incredible viewing experience, coupled with the sleek, float-like design, earned it an “Excellent” rating in our review. If you’re looking for a big-screen smart TV with a gorgeous display, sub-millisecond input lag time, and tons of features, then the 77-inch S95 is what you want, particularly since it’s $1,100 off right now.

The Best Black Friday Deals on PCMag’s “Best of the Year” Picks

Imagine a stunning framed painting that’s secretly a TV—well, that’s exactly what Samsung’s The Frame TV is! With a customizable bezel, glare-minimizing matte finish, and slim wall mount, it hangs like a work in an art gallery. Our expert cautions, “Samsung’s The Frame lifestyle TV is one of the slickest digital picture frames you can buy but, as a regular TV, it’s far too pricey for what it delivers.” So, as a digital photo frame, it’s much more impressive with a striking customizable design and strong color performance. At this discounted price, it’s more worth the investment, particularly for those who prioritize aesthetics and versatility over technical specs.

Based on our testing, the Panasonic Z95A smart TV stands out for two reasons: it has the brightest OLED screen we’ve encountered (similar to an LED screen) and the best spatial audio system. So, if you want a gorgeous, well-lit screen with powerful, immersive sound to match, this just might be worth snagging for Black Friday—it’s $900 off!

It’s hard to find a TV for less than $100, particularly a smart TV with a built-in Fire TV. Add to that full HD resolution and bright, clear LED picture quality, and you’ve got quite the Black Friday bargain! Plus, the 40-inch size makes this the perfect screen for an office or bedroom. At this price, it’s hard to go wrong.

TV FAQs

Hi, I’m Will Greenwald, PCMag’s Lead Analyst focused on home entertainment. I have more than a decade of experience testing and evaluating TVs and all the other devices you might want to connect to them. As we head into the biggest shopping events of the year, you can expect to see major discounts on TVs, but not all of those deals are worth your money. Here are my answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about buying a TV, especially around sales events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. 

Is Black Friday a Good Time to Buy a New TV?

Oh yeah, if you pay careful attention. There are always great deals on TVs during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, with appealing options in all price ranges. There can also be a lot of older and lower-tier TVs that are discounted, which is why you need to check the specific model that’s on sale, not just the brand. Every TV brand has a broad range of models, and not all are particularly good. Check that the deal you have your eye on matches a model we’ve tested to confirm whether it’s worthwhile. 

How Much Should a TV Cost?

That depends on several factors. Screen size will make a big difference in price, with bigger screens costing more, but just as important is a model’s position within the manufacturer’s lineup. For example, TCL’s low-end 85-inch Q6 TV has a retail price of $1,500, while the smaller 65-inch version of their flagship QM8 costs $500 more. Within the same size range, performance and features are the most important considerations.

Generally, $1,000 for 65 inches is our price threshold for budget TVs. Anything more expensive is solidly midrange or higher. If you’re willing to pay around that much or slightly more (perhaps up to $1,500), you can get an excellent performer like the Editors’ Choice-winning Hisense U8N. If that’s a bit too expensive, you can get a 65-inch model for $600 to $800 if you don’t mind inferior colors, a picture that isn’t nearly as bright, or a panel with a 60Hz refresh rate instead of 120Hz. In the other direction, you can easily spend $3,000 or more for a 65-inch flagship TV that uses a crisp, lifelike OLED panel with a sleek design like the LG Evo G4, or with a powerful spatial audio speaker system like the Panasonic Z95A. 

What’s the Difference Between LED, Mini-LED, QLED, and OLED?

The answer is technical and confusing, but the difference between these technologies is what kind of panel a TV has and how it’s lit up. LED, mini-LED, and QLED TVs all use liquid crystal display (LCD) panels that show color and are backlit by a separate array of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) behind them. LED covers the entire category of LCD-based TVs. Mini-LED TVs use much smaller LEDs that can be dimmed in dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of individual zones to produce better contrast. QLED TVs can have regular LED or mini-LED backlights because they’re different on the LCD level: They add a technology called quantum dots to the LCD that lets it show a much wider range of colors. The best LED TVs are QLEDs with mini-LED backlights.

OLED TVs are completely different. They use panels consisting of a single layer of organic light-emitting diodes (OLED) that control both color and light. This lets the TV individually dim or brighten on a pixel level instead of in zones that cover hundreds of pixels, so you can get perfect black levels with no light bloom along contrasting edges. It also results in wide colors, and as a bonus, enables much thinner designs than LEDs allow for. It’s a far more expensive technology, though, and it can’t put out as much light as an LED. For more, read our explainer OLED vs. QLED: What’s the Difference?

What Is the Best Budget TV

Hisense has consistently offered some of the best deals in cheap TVs we’ve seen over the last few years, and our current pick in this range is the U6N series, which offers a fantastic picture with plenty of useful features. You can regularly find it for $650 for 65 inches, and it’s sometimes discounted even lower. Amazon’s Fire TV Omni QLED is another strong choice in this price range, and you can also find more budget TV options in our roundup of the best cheap TVs.

Make sure to scope out our Black Friday hub for up-to-the-minute deals on the tech you want most.

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About Will Greenwald

Lead Analyst, Consumer Electronics

I’ve been PCMag’s home entertainment expert for over 10 years, covering both TVs and everything you might want to connect to them. I’ve reviewed more than a thousand different consumer electronics products including headphones, speakers, TVs, and every major game system and VR headset of the last decade. I’m an ISF-certified TV calibrator and a THX-certified home theater professional, and I’m here to help you understand 4K, HDR, Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos, and even 8K (and to reassure you that you don’t need to worry about 8K at all for at least a few more years).

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