Although Tom’s Guide performs rigorous testing on every TV that comes through our doors to name the best TVs you can buy, there's a very interesting yearly TV comparison you should know about.
Over the weekend, Value Electronics held its 19th annual TV Shootout event where it took six of the top TVs from all the main manufacturers like Samsung, LG, Sony and Hisense and put them against one another.
The top six TVs picked to be in this year’s shootout include the Hisense U8K, LG G3 OLED, Samsung QN95C QLED, Samsung S95C OLED, Sharp 4TC65FV1U MiniLED TV and the Sony A95L OLED. Unfortunately, neither the TCL QM8 nor Hisense UX were included in the TV Shootout, which is a shame considering how great their HDR performance is.
Judges were evaluating the TVs in 20 distinct performance metrics ranging from grayscale and uniformity to HDR highlight detail. At the end, scores were averaged out and the TVs were given a final score out of 5.
And the winner is…
According to the scores provided by the judges, the Sony A95L OLED was the winner of the shootout with a final score of 4.5 out of 5, beating out all the other models.
In second and third place, respectively, were the LG G3 OLED and Samsung S95C OLED, Tom’s Guide’s current pick for the best OLED TV of 2023. Both the Sony and Samsung use Samsung Display’s QD-OLED panels, so it’s interesting to see that there was such a large gap between them in the test results. That’s not to cast any aspersions on the LG G3 OLED, which uses LG Display’s equally impressive 3rd Gen META panels.
Was it a surprise that Sony took home the win this year? Not particularly. Last year the Sony A95K OLED was Tom’s Guide’s best TV of 2022, and its successor will likely continue that trend when we get it to our testing bench in the next few weeks. It's also one of the most expensive 4K TVs out there, with the 65-inch model costing around $3,500 — roughly three times what the Hisense U8K costs.
Still, what's impressive about Sony's win is that it won it categories that are difficult for reviewers to measure like motion processing and artifact concealment. These are important aspects to TV testing that can't easily be measured by equipment.
Save $500 by packaging the King of TVs with a 7.1.2 Dolby Atmos soundbar
If you want to pick up a new 55-inch Sony A95L OLED and want to save some money on a great soundbar, check out the deal on Best Buy's website that shaves $500 off the sticker price of the Sony HT-A7000.
When combined in the cart, the price of the Sony A95L OLED and Sony HT-A7000 should show up as $3,699.98 — $500 less than its regular price of $4,199.
Looking for an amazing TV that doesn’t break the bank? Check out our guide to the best early Prime Day OLED TV deals that you can get right now.
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