The 6 Best QLED TVs - Summer 2024 Reviews

The Sony BRAVIA 9 QLED is the best QLED TV we've tested. It's an amazing TV for use in a bright room due to its superb SDR brightness and reflection handling, so it easily overcomes glare in a well-lit room. The TV also looks spectacular in a dark room, with exceptional contrast that provides incredibly deep blacks and precise local dimming that helps it display bright highlights in dark scenes with almost no blooming. Like many Sony TVs, it's a standout option for a home theater due to its image processing, accuracy in both SDR and HDR, and support for Dolby Vision HDR and DTS audio formats. Although the TV's viewing angle is better than a lot of QLED TVs, it's still narrow, so it's not the best choice for watching shows or movies with a large group of friends.

It's also an outstanding TV for gaming with HDMI 2.1 bandwidth on two ports, up to 4k @ 120Hz, and VRR support. This makes it fully compatible with the Xbox Series X|S and the PS5, and it's also a good option for pairing with PCs. It also provides a responsive gaming experience due to its incredibly low input lag, and its quick response time provides fast motion with minimal blur behind it. The TV even has good speakers built-in, which is a rarity these days. It's only available in 65, 75, and 85-inch models, so it's really only suitable for those looking for bigger screens. Still, it's the best QLED TV currently on the market. If you're specifically looking for a Sony TV and the BRAVIA 9 is too expensive, you could opt for last year's Sony X93L/X93CL instead, which you can find on sale at some retailers. Its brightness isn't quite as good, but it's still bright enough for use in a well-lit room. It also still provides deep blacks in a dark room, but they aren't nearly as deep as the OLED-like blacks you get from the BRAVIA 9.

Although not technically a QLED TV, this list would be incomplete if we didn't mention the Samsung S90C OLED. While the other TVs on this list use an LED backlight with a quantum dot layer to achieve a wider color gamut, the S90C uses an OLED backplane and a printed quantum dot color layer on all of its models except on the WOLED-equipped 83-inch size. This combination results in much better color volume than WOLED displays while delivering deeper, more uniform blacks than the other QLED TVs on this list that use LED backlights.

This TV certainly offers standout picture quality, even when compared to the Sony BRAVIA 9 QLED. Unfortunately, its low-quality content smoothing isn't as good as the Sony, and it doesn't support Dolby Vision HDR or advanced DTS audio formats, making it a bit less interesting for home theater fans. Thankfully, it has a much wider viewing angle than the Sony, so it's the TV to get for a wide seating arrangement. Like the Sony, it supports VRR technology to minimize tearing in games, and it supports up to 4k @ 144Hz on all four of its HDMI ports (120Hz on the 83-inch size). It has a near-instantaneous response time and less input lag than the Sony, so it's a better choice for competitive gamers. If you have money to burn, you could opt for the Samsung S95C OLED instead. It's brighter than the S90C, but for most people, it's not worth the significant price premium over its lower-tier sibling.

There's also the newly released Samsung S90D/S90DD OLED. The TV has better HDR gradient handling, better low-quality content smoothing, and better HDR brightness. The improvements are minor though, and the TV is very expensive at launch, so the cheaper S90C is the better option to buy while it's still available and on sale. It's worth mentioning that Samsung's 2024 OLED lineup is confusing, as they're releasing S90Ds with both WOLED and QD-OLED panels, depending on the region and size. You can read more about this here.

The best mid-range QLED TV we've tested is the Hisense U8/U8K. It's an excellent TV with impressive picture quality and a Mini LED backlight, which lets it display deep, uniform blacks with almost no noticeable blooming in dark scenes, so HDR movies look fantastic. Its QLED panel delivers a superbly wide color gamut and fantastic color volume, making colors bright, vibrant, and realistic. It also has fantastic reflection handling and exceptional peak brightness, so it looks great even in the brightest rooms. The U8K even has better image processing than the Samsung S90C OLED, and it supports both Dolby Vision HDR and HDR10+. The cherry on top is its advanced DTS audio format support, so the content sounds and looks best, no matter its source.

It's a fantastic gaming TV, with HDMI 2.1 bandwidth on two of its HDMI ports for up to 4k @ 144Hz gaming. It supports all VRR technologies, has extremely low input lag, and has a good response time for a responsive gaming experience. It's one of the few TVs on the market that supports Dolby Vision at 4k @ 120Hz, which is great for Xbox Series X gamers. Unfortunately, the TV has a narrow viewing angle, so it's not a great choice for a wide seating arrangement.

The Hisense U8/U8N is also now available and is better than its predecessor in some ways. The TV has a faster response time and better contrast, and it gets brighter than the U8K. Unfortunately, it's not as accurate in SDR or HDR. It's also at its most expensive near-release. Since the U8K is already bright enough for use in almost any bright room, and its contrast is good enough for deep blacks in a dark room, most people are better off buying the cheaper U8K while it's still available and on sale.

The Hisense U7N is the best lower mid-range QLED TV we've tested. It's an impressive TV with a similar Mini LED backlight to the Hisense U8/U8K, although it has fewer dimming zones and isn't as bright, and its contrast isn't quite as good. Still, the cheaper Hisense has a very wide color gamut, excellent contrast, and superb black uniformity, so it's a tremendous choice for watching HDR movies as they really pop in a dark room. It also has fantastic reflection handling with very good HDR peak brightness, so it's no slouch in a bright room. Unfortunately, it has a narrow viewing angle, just like its higher-tier sibling. However, it still supports Dolby Vision HDR and HDR10+ formats, as well as advanced DTS audio formats, so you can take full advantage of whatever content you're watching.

It has the same good image processing as the U8K, making it a cost-effective home entertainment TV. The built-in Google TV platform is easy to use and has a ton of apps you can download, so you don't need to buy an external streaming box. It has a great selection of additional gaming features, including VRR support to reduce screen tearing and up to 4k @ 144Hz on its two HDMI 2.1 bandwidth ports. In some ways, it's an even better gaming TV than the more expensive Hisense U8/U8K due to its faster response time, leading to a slightly smoother gaming experience overall.

If you're looking to save some money and can find it in stock, you could opt for last year's Hisense U7K instead. It's not as bright as the U7N, but it's still bright enough for use in most well-lit rooms, and it has most of the same features as the 2024 model.

The best budget QLED TV we've tested is the Hisense U6/U6K. It's a well-rounded option with surprisingly good picture quality. This Hisense has excellent contrast, so dark scenes look amazing in a dark room, with little blooming around bright areas of the screen. It also has good peak brightness in SDR and decent reflection handling, so glare isn't an issue in a brighter room. It has an excellent color volume, making this TV very colorful overall. It's bright enough in HDR for a pleasant viewing experience, and just like the Hisense U8/U8K and Hisense U7N, it supports both HDR10+ and Dolby Vision HDR, although it doesn't support advanced DTS audio formats as those models do.

Unfortunately, its image processing is significantly worse than on the higher-tier Hisense TVs, so there's visible digital noise when watching low-bitrate content from streaming platforms. Still, it's a great TV for gaming, as it has superbly low input lag and VRR support for a responsive, nearly tear-free gaming experience. Unlike its more expensive siblings, it's limited to a 60Hz refresh rate, which is disappointing for gamers wanting to take full advantage of their Xbox Series X, PS5, or recent gaming GPU. Finally, like the other Hisense TVs, it runs the latest Google TV interface, and it supports hands-free voice control through either Google Assistant or Alexa to quickly open your favorite apps or search for content.

There's also the newly released Hisense U6N. It's supposed to have incremental upgrades like better contrast and brightness, but it's also quite expensive near its release. Since the upgrades it offers are minor, you're better off spending your money on the cheaper U6K while it's on sale.

We recommend a PFS Phosphor TV, the Hisense A65K, for the best cheap TV. It's just as colorful as TVs with quantum dot technology but at a lower price point. It delivers decent overall picture quality, with good black uniformity, but lacks advanced features like local dimming. It can't get bright enough to overcome glare in a bright room, although it does well in a moderately lit room with its good reflection handling. HDR content looks acceptable, with visually appealing saturated colors, but it's not bright enough to bring out the content creator's intent. If this matters, a more expensive model like the Hisense U6/U6K is better.

It's still a cheap TV, though, and it has limited picture processing capabilities and fewer features than the more expensive models on this list. It doesn't process low-quality content as well as on other TVs, although thankfully, its upscaling capabilities are good. This cheap TV offers gamers a few features: a good response time, extremely low input lag, and VRR support. For the price, the Hisense A65K is an attractive package, although, unfortunately, it's a Costco exclusive.