The best OLED TVs on the market today deliver beautiful image quality because of the self-lighting pixels that define this kind of technology. What these pixels allow for is rich, precise contrast for HDR in a way that even the best LCD TVs can’t match. That means they deliver an incredible cinematic picture that brings you more detail in darker areas of the screen than you’ll ever get from an LCD TV.
With one of the best OLED TVs, many of which are among the best TVs on the market, you’ll also find a starker contrast between light and dark, which is similar to the laser projection in movie theaters – especially if you buy a larger TV, like one of the best 65-inch TVs or best 75-inch TVs. Big TV brands, such as LG and Sony, use OLED tech in their premium TVs. Even Samsung, a TV company that had previously been holding out on OLED, has now entered the OLED TV space in a big way… at the time of writing, it makes our top-ranked OLED! Now that’s an entrance.
We’ve been testing TVs since long before the first OLED made it to market, watching the technology get better, more popular and more affordable over the years. This guide is based on our own testing and reviews of these products, comparing them to each other, and regular LED or mini-LED TVs you can find at the same prices. We’re judging them based not just on picture quality, but also the features they offer, and how that balances with the price.
For more about how OLED TV tech works and why it can be such a big upgrade for your home theater game, read our ‘What is OLED?‘ guide. But here’s the short version: OLED TVs deliver stunningly deep blacks and incredibly precise colors, and the latest flagship models deliver stunning HDR brightness to compete with mini-LED TVs.
Matt Bolton
I’m TechRadar’s Managing Editor for Entertainment, and I’ve been testing and reporting on TVs since 2017, but my experience writing about and reviewing screen technology stretches back to 2010. I love seeing all the latest TV releases as they come through our testing rooms, and I shape this guide by working with our reviewers and editors, to agree which OLED TVs we think best fit different needs, or represent the best value.
March 14 2024
Added graphs with data from our testing to each TV’s write-up, to make it easy to read and compare that information.
The quick list
Want to get straight to the best OLED TV for your needs? Use our quick round-up below to immediately find an OLED that suits you – and you can read more about it by jumping to our full write-ups and explanations using the links.
The best OLED TV for most people
This bright and stunning OLED TV brings you brighter pictures and top gaming tech at the same price as dimmer mid-range OLEDs, making it excellent value.
Read more below
The best budget OLED
If you want a more affordable OLED, but one with 120Hz and VRR for next-gen gaming plus beautiful overall image quality, this is for you.
Read more below
The best premium OLED
If you want an OLED TV that has outstanding picture quality, excellent gaming features and a stunning design, and are willing to pay a bit more for it, the Samsung S95C is for you.
Read more below
The best OLED TV for sizes
This isn’t as bright and doesn’t sound as good as the S90C at the top our list, but it’s still an excellent performer, and comes in the biggest range of sizes, from small to huge.
Read more below
The best mid-tier OLED TV for sound
Sony’s clever tech turns the screen itself into a huge speaker here, giving you much clearer audio than the likes of the LG C2. A great pick if you don’t want to add a soundbar.
Read more below
The best OLED TV for wall mounting
A super-bright OLED TV with gorgeous picture quality and future-proofed features. It comes with a special gap-free wall-mount bracket in the box, so it’s super sleek.
Read more below
The best OLED TVs in 2024
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The best OLED TV for most people
BUY IT IF
✅ You want QD-OLED’s premium strengths for less: This TV unlocks a higher level of brightness and color depth than other OLED TVs at the same price.
✅ You like gaming: With 4K 120Hz support on four HDMI inputs, sub-10ms latency, and a cloud-based Gaming Hub, the S90C is a gaming powerhouse.
DON’T BUY IT IF
❌ You want higher brightness:
The S90C doesn’t deliver as much brightness as Samsung’s step-up S95C QD-OLED TV (#4 in this list) does, or that the LG G3 does.
❌ You want Dolby Vision support: Samsung continues to neglect the Dolby Vision HDR format in its latest TVs, and there’s no indication it will ever change that up.
The Samsung S90C is our top pick OLED TV for most people. LG’s C-series OLEDs had dominated that spot for a long time, but the S90C is brighter and has better sound than the LG C3 (#6 on the list) for essentially the same price, so it’s a better value. It comes with a great range of connectivity options and gaming support, with full 4K 120Hz and variable refresh rate graphics on all four of its HDMI ports.
The S90C has the same Samsung Neural Quantum 4K processor found on the company’s flagship S95C QD-OLED TVs. This processor uses 20 neural networks that apply multiple ‘AI’-based refinements to incoming sources, with the end result being improved upscaling of lower resolution content to the TV’s native 4K display.
Picture quality is stunningly bright, measured at over 1,000 nits, resulting in contrast-rich pictures even by typical OLED standards. The S90C might not give you the 1,400-nit brightness you get with Samsung’s flagship S95C, but it still manages to deliver higher brightness and color depth than other OLEDs at the same price (the LG C3, for instance, is around 800 nits, by comparison). As with the other OLED TVs in this list, the S90C picture is watchable from nearly any viewing position.
Design-wise, the Samsung S90C has an incredibly thin panel, especially at its edges, though it’s a little chunkier in the middle due to the inputs connections/processing box. But the S90C is still a beautiful looking set, and has an impressive speaker array for such a slim TV.
Read our full Samsung S90C review
The best budget OLED TV
BUY IT IF
✅ You want a great picture for the price: The B3’s powerful contrast and vivid color reproduction rivals more premium OLED TVs on the market.
✅ You want a great gaming TV: With stellar gaming performance and and equally stellar picture, the B3 is a perfect choice for gamers on a budget.
DON’T BUY IT IF
❌ You don’t want to use a soundbar: The B3’s sound is just average at best, and most of its sound modes have an uneven quality. A soundbar is strongly recommended here.
❌ You want comprehensive HDR support: As with other LG TVs, the B3 lacks HDR10+ support, though Dolby Vision and HDR10 are handled.
The LG B3 is easily the best OLED TV choice for anyone looking for a more affordable option than the other models here. Thanks to its excellent overall picture quality, the LG B3 is great for watching movies. But with smooth motion processing and an extremely useful Game Optimizer feature, the B3 is also a TV that gamers should consider if they want OLED gaming on a budget. Only two of the B3’s four HDMI ports are version HDMI 2.1, but that’s only an issue if you’re playing with both next-gen Xbox and PS5 consoles.
Audio performance isn’t really impressive, although that’s expected at this price and it can be easily remedied by adding a soundbar. But the picture quality is impressive with exceptional contrast, strong HDR and punchy, vibrant color.
Some compromises inevitably have been made to keep the price low, so the B3 is less bright than the LG C3, let alone the Samsung S90C or the mighty S95C. It offers decent specifications for a very good price, however, including a comprehensive set of HDMI 2.1 gaming features including 120Hz, Variable Refresh Rate (VRR), and auto low latency mode (ALLM).
Read our full LG B3 review
The best premium OLED TV
BUY IT IF
✅ You want a bright OLED picture: The S95C offers class leading brightness for OLED TVs, thanks to its QD-OLED technology.
✅ You want a slim, wall-hugging TV: The miniscule screen trim, ultra-slim rear and external connections box make it an incredibly elegant TV.
DON’T BUY IT IF
❌ You want comprehensive HDR support: Even with its latest TVs, Samsung has not yet provided support for the popular and widespread Dolby Vision HDR format.
❌ You want the brightest possible TV: Even with its much-improved brightness, the S95C still can’t match the high peak light output of mini-LED TVs.
The Samsung S95C provides everything you could want in an OLED TV: stunning colors and contrast, plenty of gaming features including 144hz, VRR, ALLM and AMD FreeSync Premium Pro, packaged in a beautiful, slim design that looks incredible on any surface. Overall, the Samsung S95C is a real winner. For all this though, you are going to have to pay a more premium price, but for those with the budget this TV is worth it.
One of the Samsung S95C’s real highlights is its vibrant colors. In our full review, we said “the vibrancy of the S95C’s colours doesn’t stop it from also delivering stellar levels of tonal subtlety and finesse, though, ensuring that not even the most exuberant tone looks flat or cartoonish”. It’s this ability to strike a balance between bright HDR highlights and rich black levels that give it one of the best pictures around.
It does struggle a bit with its motion processing, it lacks Dolby Vision HDR support, and we recommend tweaking the presets to get the best image, but when it comes to spectacle, or simply having an OLED that’s more visible in a bright room during the day, the S95C is astounding.
When you throw in sound that follows what’s happening on screen, comprehensive streaming support, and support for all the latest HDMI 2.1 gaming features mentioned above, it’s absolutely one of the best TVs available today.
Read our full Samsung S95C review
The best OLED TV for sizes
BUY IT IF
✅ You want a versatile OLED TV: With a vivid, detailed picture, great gaming features and an array of sizes, the C3 covers a lot of bases.
✅ You like an intuitive smart TV platform: webOS 23 by LG is a much improved, streamlined version of its 2022 smart platform.
DON’T BUY IT IF
❌ You want a bright picture for daytime viewing: The Samsung S90C is brighter for around the same price, and the S95C is much brighter.
❌ You want the best TV for the money: The LG B3 is very impressive for notably cheaper, though has fewer sizes.
The LG C3 is our top pick if you’re looking for an OLED TV that doesn’t just offer a cutting-edge range of features, but it packs all of those features into TVs at more sizes than other OLEDs, from a small 42-inch to a large 83-inch option.
The newest LG C3 model is very slightly brighter than the previous LG C2 version, and also seems to handle contrast better in the processing – but more importantly is even more future-proofed and easy to use.
The smart TV software is excellent and makes it much easier to find what you actually want, while also putting key settings (that you choose) in a Quick Menu, so you can tweak what the TV’s doing easily. It’s fully equipped for next-gen gaming on all four HDMI ports, with 4K 120Hz, VRR and (this is rare) Dolby Vision gaming for Xbox.
And it throws in new features such as Quick Media Switching, so external devices can change frame rate or you can move between HDMI ports without the traditional TV feeling that the whole thing is about to fall over. And LG’s new Wow Orchestra feature means the TV’s speakers can work with compatible LG soundbar’s speakers, instead of being replaced by them, for even better results – we tested it, and it’s impressive.
If you want the absolute peak of smart TV features and you’re looking for a smaller or larger size than what’s on offer from rivals, then the C3 should be your pick.
Read our full LG C3 review
The best OLED TV for sound
BUY IT IF
✅ You want an OLED TV that’s great for watching movies: The A80L’s clean and nuanced 4K picture, along with its refined colors and detailed shadows make it perfect for movies.
✅ You don’t want to use a soundbar: The Sony’s screen itself acts as a reasonably full-sounding speaker and is capable of placing sound effects to track onscreen action.
DON’T BUY IT IF
❌ You plan to watch in a bright room: The subtle nature of the A80L’s picture won’t stand up to bright room viewing, making the latest-gen QD-OLED or flagship LG OLED TVs a better bet.
❌ You want the best TV for gaming: The A80L has good overall gaming performance, but only two of its HDMI ports pass 4K 120Hz with VRR and there’s no Dolby Vision 4K 120Hz support.
The Sony A80L is the company’s mid-range OLED and a competitor to the LG C3 (though it’s slightly cheaper than that TV in some countries) that delivers all the OLED picture quality essentials: deep and detailed blacks, rich color, and 4K 120Hz support for gaming. Also onboard is Sony’s Acoustic Surface Audio+ tech, which makes the screen itself a speaker, in this case combined with a pair of subwoofers for a fuller sound. The A80L is that rare TV that doesn’t need a soundbar: it’s impressively loud and also uses processing to accurately position sounds to correspond with the image on screen.
The image quality is astounding too. As we noted in our Sony A80L review, this TV is capable of “producing pictures that look more richly textured, crisper, denser, more three-dimensional and more refined,” than its mid-range OLED competition. Sony’s Cognitive Processor XR is also superior when it comes to creating crisp, yet natural-looking 4K images from streamed content, and can even make sub-4K video look very good. Color, contrast, and shadow detail are all well-handled too. The A80L’s main limitation is that it isn’t very bright – movie fans viewing in a darkened room will find it wonderful, but in a bright room Sony’s TV will be overwhelmed by contrast-reducing reflections.
PS5 owners especially will find the A80L to be a great gaming TV thanks to its ‘Perfect for PS5’ features, which improve HDR handling and enable auto mode-switching for different game genres when playing on Sony’s console. Only two of its four HDMI ports support the full set of HDMI 2.1 features – a disappointment when you consider that most LG TVs, and Samsung OLED models, provide four HDMI 2.1 ports.
Read our full Sony A80L review
The best OLED TV for wall mounting
BUY IT IF
✅ You want a beautiful wall-mounted TV: The premium, slim design combines with a special wall-mount that leaves no gap between the TV and the wall.
✅ You’re sick of reflections ruining your viewing: The G3’s anti-reflective screen combines with its brighter MLA OLED panel to help you see better in bright rooms.
DON’T BUY IT IF
❌ You want your TV on a stand: You’ll need to buy a separate stand if wall mounting won’t suit your home.
❌ You want HDR10+ support: The LG G3 supports all other HDR formats, but you won’t find HDR10+ functionality here.
The LG G3 is an excellent OLED TV that boasts fantastic picture quality and superb brightness levels. This is thanks to the introduction of Micro Lens Array (MLA) technology, which improves brightness in the LG OLED Evo panel by focusing the light better towards the viewer. Combined with LG’s latest generation of image processor, the result is vibrant colors and crisp textures, which in our review we noted: “work in harmony with deep blacks and dynamic contrast, making the picture of the G3 nothing short of sensational.”
The LG G3 is a fantastic TV in its own right, but we generally think that the Samsung S95C slightly pips it for value while being incredibly similar – the S95C is a little brighter across the whole screen, has better sound, and a great One Connect box for neater connectivity. But the G3 enters our best OLED TV guide as our top choice if you’re looking for a device specifically built for wall mounting. That’s not to say this TV won’t sit on a stand, but it comes with a custom wall-mount made especially for it that means it sits flush to the wall, giving it a nicer, more premium feel overall. (If you want a stand, you have to pay extra for it).
Value-wise, there’s no escaping the fact the LG G3 is a high-end TV and has a price tag to match. Having said that, the gaming features, picture quality and increased brightness make it worth the money in our opinion – it’s just that if wall mounting isn’t a priority, the Samsung S95C is better value overall.
Read our full LG G3 review
How to choose an OLED TV
How to choose the best OLED TV for you
OLED TVs tend to be premium TVs, which means you’re getting a certain level of features in almost all of them – they’re all 4K, they’re mostly 120Hz for gaming, for example, and they tend to all have four HDMI ports, and premium smart TV software.
But they’re absolutely not all the same. Some are much brighter than others (around twice as bright, in some cases), some have more HDMI 2.1 ports for next-gen gaming, some have better sound systems, and they don’t all come in the same size options.
It’s important to consider what size TV is best for you, and to do that you’ll literally need to measure the space you have to work with. Remember a TV that fills every available scrap of space in your living room might sound like a great idea, but you’ll need to consider viewing angles, screen brightness and whether you’ll be able to sit a decent distance from the TV to fully appreciate it. The LG C2 and C3 have the widest range of sizes of any TV we feature, so if you need something smaller, that’s a great place to start.
When it comes to HDR support, we recommend mostly that people choose TVs with Dolby Vision, because it’s the most commonly used advanced HDR format on the best streaming services. Samsung TVs only use HDR10+, which is similar technology, but not as well supported. It’s not a dealbreaker that Samsung’s TVs don’t support Dolby Vision, but as you’ll see in our list, we prefer sets that include it.
How much do OLED TVs cost?
The cost of OLED TVs varies hugely depending on what technologies are thrown in with an OLED panel, such as the resolution, processor, build quality, built-in speakers, and more. But suffice to say that entry-level models sit around (or, more recently, just under) the $1,000 / £900 / AU$1,500 mark.
More mid-tier OLEDs at larger sizes (65 inches and above) can double that figure, or triple it when you’re looking at the cutting-edge high-end panels. You might also notice that you don’t get that much of a lower price with the smaller 42-inch sizes of OLED TV – that’s because making them so small relies on relatively new tech, so they’re not quite such good value per inch.
Sales periods such as Prime Day or Black Friday tend to include lots of discounts on OLED TV models, though – especially from LG and Samsung.
Should I buy OLED or QLED?
OLED isn’t the only option for savvy TV buyers. Samsung’s competing QLED televisions outperform for brightness, while the introduction of Mini LED backlights has only improved peak light output and overall contrast – the areas that OLED generally has the upper hand with, thanks to its per-pixel brightness control.
It’s a tighter race than ever, then, though it’s worth assessing secondary characteristics for OLED and QLED screens. An OLED with a cheap processor may cause more artefacts and video noise, while a QLED with edge-lighting won’t get the true benefit of its enhanced color and contrast. Format or feature support can be crucial if you’re hooking up your TV to a PC, a games console, or a 4K Blu-ray player too.
What is the lifespan of an OLED TV?
According to LG Display, the makers of the OLED panels that go into every OLED TV on the list – around 100,000 hours. For most folks that’s about 10 years of TV watching and far exceeds the 40,000 to 60,000-hour lifespans of most LED-LCD TVs. That said, OLED TVs can experience something called burn-in when a static image is left on the screen for prolonged periods of time – so be sure to change the channel every few days.
Best OLED TV competitors: what else is out there?
OLED is, for many, the premium TV tech of the moment. Though once weighed down by inaccessible price points, a flurry of cheaper mid-range OLEDs and smaller panel sizes has helped bring OLED closer to the mass market.
Samsung and Sony’s current TV lineups include QD-OLED hybrids (they combine OLED panels with quantum dot tech, utilising the self-emissive properties of the former and color enhancements of the latter) – we have a separate guide to whether you should buy a Samsung OLED TV, if you want to read more about them.
For those with cash to splash, you’ll be choosing between a high-end OLED TV and Micro LED – a self-emissive panel technology that Samsung has leant into in recent times, but which has proved difficult to offer either affordably or at mainstream sizing (88-inch is the smallest we’ve heard about so far, as of 2024).
It’s a more complicated picture than simply OLED, then, though for deep blacks and true-to-life color – at a size you can actually get into the average living room – OLED may still be the best choice.
Is burn-in a problem in OLED TVs?
Burn-in, also known as screen burn or permanent image retention, is a visual artefact that sometimes appears when a TV has shown the same thing in the same place for a long time. It definitely happens on some OLED TVs, but manufacturers have come up with lots of ways to minimise the likelihood of it happening to yours.
There are three main ways in which OLED TVs can minimise the likelihood of burn-in. They can use image analysis to identify static images – TV channel logos, for example – and subtly dim them. They can gently shift the image around by a few pixels, something that your OLED probably does already without you noticing it.
And there’s a more brute-force approach, where the TV automatically dulls the brightness of the whole display when it detects a bright and potentially burn-in item. That latter one is the least popular because if it isn’t implemented well it can be quite dramatic and quite annoying. More modern TVs with this tech, known as ABL (Auto Brightness Limiting) are much more subtle about it than older ones.
Last but not least, you can take the DIY route. The default modes such as Vivid Mode on some TVs can be ridiculously bright, so changing them or using less blazing settings will make your eyes happy and reduce the risk of burn-in even further.
Ultimately burn-in is all about heat, hence the name. And the best way to reduce the risk of it and perhaps eliminate it altogether is to manage heat better in OLED TVs. And manufactures are doing just that. You’ll find clever heatsink technology and heat dissipation design in OLEDs from Panasonic, LG, Sony and more.
We’re not saying burn-in doesn’t exist. It does. But the advances in OLED TV tech in recent years means it’s much less of an issue than it was in early OLEDs, and for most of us it’s something we don’t really need to worry about too much.
How we test the best OLED TVs
When testing the best OLED TVs, we use the same criteria that we consider in all of our TV reviews, which focuses on picture quality, audio quality, smart TV platform, design, gaming features and value for money. Our testing is not only made up of subjective opinions about each of criteria, but also on objective measurements taken using specialized equipment – you can read our full guide to how we test TVs at TechRadar, or read on for a summary.
Using different AV sources, including broadcast, streaming and Blu-ray, we’ll run in every TV whilst cycling through its picture preset modes, such as Sport, Movie and Standard, to determine which settings are the most accurate for different types of media. We do this to determine what the best settings are for watching movies and TV shows or a sports match for example. Once we have established which picture modes are best suited for different types of content, we then analyze aspects of the display such as its colors, contrast, black levels and more using reference scenes we have specifically chosen to best evaluate these.
When testing an OLED’s picture quality, we’re looking for deep black levels and contrast, which should be better than many other TVs on the market thanks to the screen’s ability to dim individual pixels over local dimming found in LCD TVs – often this is determined by zones and the backlight’s ability. We’ll also look at the color’s vibrancy and punchiness compared to textures and details, particularly sharpness and true-to-life accuracy.
Using lower-resolution sources such as broadcast and DVD, we’ll also test a TV’s upscaling, looking to see how effectively that TV’s processing can enhance lower-res images to be displayed on a larger, 4K screen. During these tests, we also consider the viewing angle from off-center seats, which – again with the OLED panel’s ability to self-dim – should maintain strong contrast levels and picture quality even from the most awkward of viewing positions.
After these subjective tests, we then take specialized equipment — a colorimeter, test pattern generator and Portrait Displays’ Calman calibration software – to perform objective tests and record the results, taking measurements of brightness, color and grayscale accuracy, gamut and more.
The first test we usually do is of the TV’s brightness. Using different sized white window patterns, we measure the the TV’s peak brightness on windows including 10%, which will show the maximum brightness we can expect from the TV itself, and 100% to test full screen brightness, which will demonstrate how the TV can handle consistent levels of brightness across the whole screen (this is key when viewing sports). Full screen brightness also gives an idea of how well a TV will manage reflections.
OLED TVs have often been known to offer lower levels of brightness when compared to QLED and mini-LED. But in recent years, the introduction of OLED EX panels and micro-lens-array (MLA) tech means we expect higher peak brightness levels, but still lower full screen brightness when compared to other LCD panels. We use light controlled environments when testing brightness to make sure any other light sources, environmental or otherwise, does not affect results.
We also test color color reproduction in both SDR and HDR to compare its accuracy when displaying different source materials and the maximum color gamut it can show on screen. We do the same for grayscale as well, testing just how accurately a TV displays gray tones from black to white. With OLED TVs, we expect color accuracy to be among the best in the TV market, along with grayscale.
Gaming is another important aspect of TVs nowadays, so we make sure to test a TV’s gaming performance by analyzing response time, graphics and latency — all of which are areas OLED TVs often excel at. We also look out for features such as a Game Mode (for adjusting a TV’s settings to the most optimum for gaming), 4K 120Hz, VRR and more. We measure response time by using a Leo Bodnar 4K HDMI input lag tester to see what latency is added by a TV’s processing.
We always aim to keep our testing as consistent as possible, but it’s important to note that some of our writers’ setups and testing environments do vary. We do, however, make sure that all tests conducted use the same criteria between all of our writers, also making sure that the equipment is similar enough to achieve the same level of accuracy.
The latest updates to this best OLED TVs guide
March 14 2024
Added graphs with data from our testing to each TV’s write-up, to make it easy to read and compare that information.
March 6 2024
Expanded the How We Test section with more in-depth information on how testing procedure works and what tests are carried out.
February 5 2024
Replaced the LG A2 with the LG B3 as ‘best budget OLED TV.’
January 5 2023
Added the LG G3 as the ‘best OLED TV for wall mounting’ due to its high review score and special wall-mount bracket.
December 21 2023
Removed the Sony A95K and ‘best for picture quality’ category. Changed Samsung S95C from ‘Brightest OLED’ to ‘Best premium OLED’.
November 21 2023
Checked all products against our latest reviews to ensure we’re happy with the list (we are). Added a link to our Black Friday OLED TV guide.
October 19 2023
Updated the product lists to make the Samsung S90C our number one pick, reflecting our reviews. Added the LG B3 as the best cheaper gaming OLED.
September 21 2023
Added more buying advice for each model.
August 18 2023
Confirmed all links to ensure availability of models in list.
June 26 2023
Added this ‘latest updates’ section, to help readers see what recent changes have been made. Checked the products in the list against our latest reviews.
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