Best OLED TV: Six of the best OLED TVs

While we found Samsung’s S95B QD-OLED to impress in a number of ways, as an all-round package it didn’t quite convince us it was better than Sony’s more expensive A95K. At the second time of asking, Samsung’s unlocked more of the potential within its QD-OLED TV in the S95C.

The S95C continues on from where the S95B left off, our reviewer found it offered a brighter, more colourful and all-round more refined picture quality than before. Black levels and contrast are stunning for an OLED screen, the new filter on the screen reduces the issue with its predecessor whereby black levels could look less than strong. Brightness has been pushed up to as high as 1400 nits, feeding into a spectacular-looking picture performance with colours that are both fantastically vibrant and gorgeously subtle, revealing the natural shades in an image that previous OLED technology has struggled to find.

The screen itself is an ultra-slim effort thanks to the One Connect box. It holds all the TV’s processing, connections and is also able to power the TV. It helps reduce the clutter around the TV’s rear, and it also make for a neater installation if you decide to wall mount the screen.

In terms of features, the S95C is a more than capable gaming screen. We measured input lag at a rapid 9.2ms, and all HDMI inputs are certified to HDMI 2.1, with support for VRR and High Frame Rates up to 144Hz.

There’s no Dolby Vision, which continues to be a glaring omission in our minds, with the S95C supporting just HDR10, HLG and HDR10+ (along with the HGiG standard for gaming). The sound quality of the S95C’s speakers is also greater than we remember from the S95B, producing a bigger soundstage and better bass. The OTS sound system cleverly helps position sound effects in the right position on screen, and dialogue is placed with unerring accuracy as well.

The S95C will face increased competition from the LG G3 OLED and Sony A95L QD-OLED but at the time of writing the S95C is one of the best TVs in recent years, and sets a strong marker for the rest to hit.

Reviewer: John Archer
Full Review: Samsung S95C OLED

The Panasonic JZ2000 has been replaced by the LZ2000 and as we’ve come to expect from Panasonic’s flagship OLED models, its maintained its high level of quality, winning out best TV of 2022 award.

While similar in terms of looks and feature to previous generations, our reviewer felt that the latest iteration offered an even better performance than before. The picture quality is excellent, with Panasonic delivering its most dynamic and overtly vibrant HDR screen yet. It employs LG’s OLED EX technology to push the brightness for HDR content a little further, resulting in a general overall lift to the brightness of the image.

Colour volume has also been improved, especially for blue tones with more variety of colours now possible. With the full house of HDR10, HLG, HDR10+ Adaptive and Dolby Vision IQ, the LZ2000’s AI processor can take an image from any HDR source it receives and adapt it to the lighting conditions of a room for the best performance at any given time.

Not much has changed with the My Home Screen interface, but we find it to be one of the easiest and simplest to use, with all the Freeview Play apps included, and a wide variety of SVOD apps to choose from in Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video and Apple TV+. The gaming performance has been enhanced with the new Game Control Board that mimics LG’s Game Optimiser by showing a host of details such as VRR, input lag and the set’s HDR performance. We measured latency at 14.5ms, which is good, though not as fast as the LG OLED65G2 or Samsung S95B OLED.

The built-in audio system has had a boost, with the major upgrade the sets ability to steer sound to the left or right side so as to not disturb other people in the room. This feature doesn’t work with Dolby Atmos content, which remains convincingly theatrical and tall in the soundstage it creates with its side- and upfiring speakers. While the Panasonic LZ2000 is still an expensive buy, of the premium TVs we have tested, it was the most consistent overall performer with its picture, sound and features

Reviewer: Steve May
Full Review: Panasonic LZ2000

The A95K is a blend TV of OLED and Quantum Dot colour to create a QD-OLED TV that offers the best of both technologies. Priced at $2999 / £2699, the A95K incurs a premium cost over Samsung’s S95B QD-OLED and LG’s G2 OLED, but in our view this TV is one of the best 55-inch TVs available.

The A95K continues Sony’s mission of creating minimalist screens, though the stand is noticeably chunky and might cause issues for some set-ups given its size. It can be placed in two ways, with the rear position ensuring you won’t see it from your viewing position. The grid panel on the rear is just a fetching pattern either, as they can be switched around to conceal cables and cover inputs.

And those inputs cover two HDMI 2.1 inputs with support for eARC, VRR, ALLM, and 4K/120Hz. Compared to the LG C2‘s four HDMI 2.1 and that means if you have a soundbar to plug in then that leaves only one HDMI 2.1 input to use for any other devices. A set of connections you don’t often see are a pair of speaker binding posts if you want the A95K to serve as the centre channel in a (Sony-centric) surround sound system.

Our reviewer didn’t find this was a TV that was geared towards all gamers. If you have a PS5 there’s the Auto Tone Mapping feature that optimises the HDR performance but with no support for AMD FreeSync or Nvidia G-Sync, this wouldn’t be as suited for gamers as either the Philips OLED937 or Panasonic LZ2000. While an input time of 21ms is absolutely fine, the LG C2 can hit 12.9ms for a quicker response time.

We found the TV delivered Sony’s usual level of picture excellence, showcasing superior and natural colour fidelity detail levels to the brightest non-QD OLED screens, with excellent ‘true’ blacks, and the ability to find and reveal all the detail possible for a spectacular looking picture. However, brightness for HDR content is not a huge leap over the LG G2, but enough to have a positive impact.

We were less impressed with how it handled lower resolution content. While HD is handled with confidence, 480p content looks soft and edgy, and not all that pleasant. On more solid footing is the A95K’s motion handling, the TV displayed an unerring confidence and authority in marshalling sports like tennis without smearing or pixelation. It’s a class-leading performance.

Sound quality is big in size and accurate in terms of where effects and dialogue are placed on the screen thanks to the Acoustic Surface Audio+ system that uses actuators to vibrate the screen. This is good enough that you’ll need to spend a fair bit more to really elevate the sound quality on this TV.

Reviewer: Simon Lucas
Full Review: Sony XR-55A95K

Despite missing out on top spots on a number of our best TV lists, we regard the Philips OLED+937 as one of the best TVs on the market, especially if you’re after excellent picture and sound in an all-in-one solution.

The OLED907 could be described as chic, the OLED+937 is in our opinion a much more dramatic proposition with its Bowers & Wilkins sound system that’s integrated into the stand of the TV. It’s a stylish looking TV and one that grab people’s attention in whichever room it’s place in.

Connectivity is similar to the rest of Philips’ premium OLEDs, which is to say that there are four HDMI inputs, two of which support 4K/120Hz refresh rates, which means that one of inputs is shared with the eARC port. That’s less of an issue on this TV given that it comes with a very good Dolby Atmos sound system, so you could plug into two other HDMI 2.1 compliant devices if you so choose.

Android TV brings the smarts with Google Cast and Google Assistant voice control included. There’s a massive amount of entertainment apps courtesy of the Google Play Store, while Freeview Play adds the UK catch-up and on-demand apps. This model supports Ambilight in its four-sided form with all the LEDs driven individually, resulting in more precision in the colours projected behind the TV. It also supports Ambilight Aurora, which is gallery of images combined with the Ambilight effect.

The OLED+937 is stacked with features for gamers, with HDMI VRR, Nvidia G-Sync and AMD FreeSync offering a rapid and fluid picture performance for console gamers and PC owners. We also found a VRR Shadow Enhancer among the settings to preserve low level detail at high refresh rates. One are we were slightly disappointed with is the input lag, which we measured at 21.5ms. That’s a little below average.

We found the HDR performance on this TV to be excellent, thanks to Philips’ aggressive processing abilities and a high brightness OLED EX panel. It’s really good at showing small, bright highlights, which we measured to be around 1000 nits. The new Crystal Clear mode (or Vivid) is one we found to be very watchable, with brightly lit programmes benefit from the extra pop it bestows upon it. It’s a good option for watching during the daytime.

Bowers & Wilkins has made some big improvements to the sound system with excellent dialogue reproduction, a presentation that we found to be tall and wide and plenty of bass depth. There’s also compatibility with DTS Play-Fi to add extra speakers for an even bigger soundstage of multi-room music system.

Reviewer: Steve May
Full Review: Philips 65OLED+937

While OLEDs such as the Philips OLED+937 and Panasonic LZ2000 have more comprehensive HDR support, when it comes to watching films and sports there are few better than the A90J.

It boasts OLED’s typically excellent black levels, but when combined with whites that are brighter than the OLED norm, and a palette that’s wide-ranging in the colours it can display the Sony A90J produces a fabulous image. And it can hit around an impressive 900 nits of brightness, which is without the Evo OLED panel that ships with LG’s G1.

We found it to be brilliant at upscaling non-4K images, more nuanced and retrieving more detail than the LG C1, while its ability with motion of any type bests the Panasonic JZ2000, especially with sports, resistant to any stutter or artefacts that could cause a distracting performance and keep the viewer focus on the action in front of them.

Gaming-wise the A90J wouldn’t be our first recommendation, as while it has been updated to support ALLM and VRR technologies, input lag without VRR isn’t as quick as the C1 and it doesn’t support Dolby Vision Gaming that improves picture quality with supported games, a feature the LG, Panasonic and Philips have.

We found the Acoustic Surface Audio+ audio system that vibrates the screen to produce sound to be enjoyable performance, better than most flatscreen TVs are often capable of. We would add a soundbar into the mix such as Sony’s own HT-A7000 to deliver the high-end audio performance this TV deserves. The A95K is a better OLED but if the high cost of the QD-OLED is too much then the A90J is a less expensive alternative.

Reviewer: Simon Lucas
Full Review: Sony A90J

The OLED65C1 is still available for just £1499, but the OLED65C2 is not too far behind at £1899 and has reached the point where we would recommend it as the best mid-range OLED if you can stretch your budget far enough.

The C1 is still a worthy model for those interested in a cheaper 65-inch OLED, but the performance boosts for the latest screen are enough in our mind if you’re in the market for the latest technology. The C2 features the OLED Evo technology for increased brightness and it does hit slightly brighter peak brightness with HDR content for a punchier HDR performance.

With Dolby Vision IQ the OLED65C2 wrings out more visible detail in the darkest and brightest parts of an image that we remember the C1 be able to achieve, and TruMotion processing has improved to be more natural in its application with fewer artefacts. For those who don’t like the 24fps stutter of films, LG’s Cinematic Movement puts it within touching distance of the Sony A95K and Panasonic LZ2000 where motion is concerned.

WebOS is home to Freeview Play and all the UK catch-up and on-demand apps, while there’s plenty of other choices from video to sports and music to choose from in the content store. Gaming has always been a strength of LG’s OLEDs and as usual there is support for 4K/120Hz, VRR and ALLM across all the HDMI inputs. We measured latency at 12.9ms, which is in line with OLED65G2, and with VRR technologies such as HDMI VRR, AMD FreeSync Pro and Nvidia G-Sync, the latency can be whittled down to virtually zero in some cases.

We found the audio performance to once again be on the lacklustre side of things, with the AI mode highlighting detail that it shouldn’t and the Dolby Atmos performance, while clear and crisp in tone, never really presents a sense of width or height to the soundtracks we listen to. We’d suggest steering clear of the AI Sound Pro mode and opting for Standard or Cinema presets, which smoother and more energetic in the performance they deliver.

Despite the availability of the OLED65C3, we would rate the C2 as the better model especially at its current price, as there’s not much that’s different between the two in terms of performance.

Reviewer: Kob Monney
Full Review: LG OLED65C2