How to buy a Black Friday TV upgrade – the OLED, QLED and mini-LEDs that are really worth it, depending on your old TV
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If you’re thinking of checking out the best Black Friday TV deals this year for an upgrade to your existing TV set, there are two big questions you need to think about: how much of a difference are you really going to notice; and how much do you need to spend to see a difference that’s really worth having?
The answers to these questions will depend on your old TV’s age, its size, and its screen tech. I can’t possibly cover every model here, so I’m going to offer a crash course on what you can broadly expect in terms of upgrades, depending on which year you last bought a TV, and tell you which new models to look out for that will deliver what you’re looking for.
The best TVs have taken big leaps over the last few years, in everything from brightness to gaming features to how good the smart TV software is. I oversee all of TechRadar’s TV coverage, helping to compare and test TVs with our reviewers, and deciding what goes into our buying guides. I get eyes-on experience of how everything changes each year, so here’s my cheat sheet on how to buy smart in the Black Friday deals this year, based on the year you bought your current TV (up to 2022, because if you bought in 2023 and are looking to upgrade now, you’re surely a bit beyond needing a cheat-sheet), and then on the type of TV you have.
If you bought your last TV in 2020 or earlier
Most people probably have a TV that’s five years or older, but the last four years have been so huge for screen-tech improvements that I can basically group anything from 2020 or before into one big pot. Upgrade from one of those models and you’ll get immediately clearly better image quality, much slicker software, and more gaming features.
QLED
Let’s start with the hottest tech of the era: QLED… and QLED variations, including LG NanoCell and Samsung’s Triluminos TVs, which all have essentially the same quantum dot tech. Samsung’s popular mid-range QLEDs before 2020 had a direct backlight with local dimming, which enabled them to hit around 1,000 nits of peak HDR brightness – this means that in small bright areas they could reach a temporary brightness measured at around 1,000 nits. This was the best LED technology of the time, and it went into some excellent-value TVs, such as the Samsung Q80R or the Sony X900E/XE9005.
Today, we have mini-LED instead of the regular LEDs in those backlights, and many of the best mini-LED TVs are cheaper than those 2019 Samsung/Sony sets were, even in bigger sizes. The likes of the Hisense U8N can cruise past 2,000 nits, while also handling the division between light and dark areas better than those old TVs could. If you were to upgrade from a TV that cost around $1,000 / £1,000 five years ago to one around the same price today, you’d be able to get something with far more vibrant colors, more cinematic contrast, and in a larger screen size – and with next-gen 4K 120Hz gaming features, too. Check out the Hisense U8N, the Hisense U7N, the TCL QM851G (US only) and the TCL C855 (UK only).
Budget-friendly
Now let’s talk about budget TVs from before 2020. If you were paying anything less than $700 / £700, you would almost certainly have a TV with an edge-lit backlight instead of a direct-lit backlight. Edge-lit means lower brightness, less-even color tones across the whole screen, and weaker contrast.
Edge-lit TVs are dropping out of big-screen TVs in 2024, as better tech become much more affordable. For around $500 / £500 you can get the likes of the direct-lit Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED, which is an impressive set, or the Hisense U6N that features mini-LED tech for an even better and bolder picture in the US. In the UK, the TCL C805 is our pick of the cheaper mini-LED sets. These will feel like a quantum leap from a more budget pre-2020 TV, in terms of both picture quality and streaming software.
OLED
Finally for this era, we turn to OLED. OLED’s key trick – that it can turn individual pixels to true blackness – hasn’t changed over the years, and the likes of the LG C8 and LG C9 were actually capable of some pretty impressive brightness measurements. It’s only in the last couple of years, with the excellent LG C4 and Samsung S90C, that mid-range OLEDs have become bright enough to really offer a clear and obvious upgrade over those models. (If you have the cheaper and dimmer B8 or B9, you’d see an even bigger upgrade.)
However, high-end OLEDs such as the Samsung S95D and LG G4 can roughly double the maximum brightness peak brightness levels of those old OLEDs, so if you can go premium, you’ll see a real sea-change. This includes better full-screen brightness as well, which has always been the weakness of the best OLED TVs because it makes then susceptible to distracting reflections. The Samsung S95D, notably, includes a matte anti-reflective screen that massively reduces this problem.
However, I should note here that advanced mini-LED systems are so good now that some early OLED buyers who got them for the cinematic contrast may want to consider switching to mini-LED, because they’re much better than the LED TVs of five years ago. The Sony Bravia 9 is very expensive, but it’s amazing at contrast handling. The Samsung QN90D is also fantastic.
As far as switching to the newer OLEDs goes, the models I mentioned above are all excellent, but those who want superior built-in sound (and can pay a premium) should consider the Panasonic Z95A, while UK buyers who love an immersive experience should check out the Philips OLED809 and its Ambilight tech.
If you bought your last TV in 2021
This is where things start to get nuanced, because some areas of the TV world have progressed more than others. Let’s start with the hottest TV tech becoming mainstream in 2021.
OLED
This is significant, because it’s the era in which OLED matured into a product with far better reliability against screen burn-in, in the form of the LG C1. Brightness levels were still essentially the same as the sets in 2020, so you’ve still got the potential to see more beautiful colors and a more realistic image from the brighter TVs available today, especially if you upgrade to the likes of the high-end and massively bright Samsung S95D or LG G4, but there’s less of a difference in image quality and brightness if you upgrade to the likes of the LG C4 (though you will get a much better smart TV system). If you have the money and are looking to upgrade, there’s good reason to do it – but I think C1 users can justify holding out for longer than those with OLED TVs from earlier.
Mini-LED
This is also the year that Samsung introduced mini-LED on its higher-end TVs, again meaning that if you went with the top-tier Samsung QN90A or QN95A from 2021, the difference in today’s mini-LED TVs won’t be huge. If you got the more affordable Samsung QN85A, you could see more of a difference (today’s mini-LEDs are around 25-30% brighter), but again I think image quality isn’t really the reason to upgrade.
However, there are two good reasons to upgrade from these TVs: screen size and gaming connectivity. If you want a larger screen than you bought a few years ago, you can get something like the Hisense U8N, TCL QM851G (in the US) or TCL C855 (in the UK) that offer better quality than these older Samsung TVs, for pretty amazing prices. Or Samsung’s own TVs, of course, will offer this – especially the Samsung QN90D.
Gaming features might be the bigger draw for some people, though. A lot of these 2021 TVs had a single HDMI 2.1 port, which meant you could connect just one next-gen console. Maybe that’s enough for you, but gamers may want to future-proof with a Samsung QN85D, which is the cheapest good mini-LED TV you can get with four HDMI 2.1 ports.
QLED & budget-friendly
As for everything else released in 2021, the way that mini-LED has run down into the mid-range, and full-array backlight tech has run into even more affordable TVs, means that you can get a pretty great jump in quality if you have a cheaper set from 2021. The Roku Pro Series is ideal in the US; the TCL C805 is great in the UK. The Hisense U7N or Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED are great in both.
If you bought your last TV in 2022
Most people won’t feel the need to upgrade from 2022, but as ever, there’s some subtlety to it – especially if you bought a budget TV last time.
OLED
If you bought a nice mid-range OLED in 2022, you’re probably still feeling pretty happy with it. 2024’s mid-range OLEDs do offer a step up in brightness, but not enough to wow most people – I think it’d only be worth upgrading from the LG C2 if you’re going to jump up to the elite LG G4 or Samsung S95D. However, if you bought the LG A2 or LG B2 entry-level models and that gave you the OLED bug enough to want to upgrade already, jumping to the LG C4 would provide a clear improvement in brightness – and if you had an A2, you’d get next-gen gaming features as well. But I think only people who’ve become OLED enthusiasts should be upgrading from a 2022 model.
Mini-LED
There’s not too much difference in these products today compared to a couple of years ago, and I would generally say that few buyers of higher-end mini-LED sets should look to upgrade. Again, if you’re looking to get a bigger size, prices have fallen so much that perhaps you should go ahead for that reason, but don’t expect the picture quality itself to be a huge leap forward.
The Hisense U8N, TCL QM851G (in the US), TCL C855 (in the UK), Samsung QN90D, and the elite-priced Sony Bravia 9 stand out based on our testing as likely to feel like they deliver the best chance of a clear image-quality upgrade… though I also want to mention that the Hisense U7N (and TCL QM851G) go up to 100 inches, since we’re discussing bigger screens.
Budget-friendly
Mini-LED has become a lot more affordable compared to a couple of years ago, and so you might find that if you’re able to spend the same today as you did in 2022 on a budget big-screen, you can get a clear and worthwhile leap in image quality.
You could get the Hisense U6N or TCL C805 (in the UK) for around the same price as a budget Samsung edge-lit LED model a couple of years ago, and that will be a big upgrade in features as well as image punch. However, if you bought a smaller TV (32 inches, say), there isn’t much point in upgrading – 2022 TVs still rank among the best options you can buy at this size today, such as the LG 32LQ6300!
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