As a TV expert, I entered 2026 skeptical about 8K’s continued existence in the commercial TV space. Last year marked the end of Sony 8K TVs, and according to a recent report by FlatpanelsHD, LG has ceased making 8K OLED panels, too.

Samsung — makers of some of the best OLEDs and Mini-LED TVs on the market — remains the final 8K holdout among the big-name TV brands.

With the end seemingly in sight, it’s worth revisiting why 8K ultimately flopped. More importantly, it’s time to set our sights on the slew of new 4K sets launching in just a few short months. For folks who had their sights set on an 8K TV, what will be the next-best thing in 2026?

A quick recap on the meteoric rise and fall of 8K

In a nutshell, 8K failed for two reasons: cost and content. 8K displays are costly to make in TV-appropriate sizes. This makes the bar for entry quite high — more than most shoppers are willing to spend on a new TV.

For early adopters, a new 8K TV might’ve lit up their living room, but it probably wasn’t because they were watching native 8K content. There just isn’t much out there to enjoy that hasn’t been upscaled from a resolution of 4K or below.

Newly released 4K movies and shows have only recently become somewhat of a standard for streaming platforms. Live TV — like basic cable and over-the-air broadcasts — remains, for the most part, below 4K. (Though you can watch the Super Bowl in 4K this year).

This presents a problem. As an 8K TV-owner, not only is it difficult to find stuff to watch that makes the most out of your super-pricey new TV, but the upscaling process on sub-8K content (read: almost everything) can limit clarity and even introduce visual artifacts. This last part depends entirely on the capabilities of the TV’s picture processing software.

As mentioned, Samsung is still chugging along, building and selling 8K models to fill that niche. In addition to being the only new 8K TV to launch in 2025, the Samsung QN990F is also one of the better Mini-LED TVs we saw last year. That said, you’ll have to shell out a considerable amount of cash for it.

This year, the QN990F is being replaced by the 8K Samsung QN990H, so the endangered species lives on. However, it’s not clear yet how many size options will ultimately be available with the QN990H. Currently, only a 98-inch version has been reported.

These TVs are pricey and target a very narrow slice of the market. They’re a luxury item. But soon, the folks who wish to indulge in a posh, cutting-edge A/V experience will have to find another corner of the market to explore. That raises the question: What’s the 2026 version of a cutting-edge, luxury experience?

Enter RGB LED

RGB LED is a brand-new TV technology that comes in many names. Hisense calls its take on the tech RGB Mini-LED. Samsung is touting Micro RGB TVs (not to be confused with true Micro-LED). Similarly, LG is going with Micro RGB evo TVs.

Like the best Mini-LED TVs, these TVs leverage an array of super-small LEDs that can be broken up into dimmable zones. This goes a long way towards enhancing contrast and generating higher brightness.

Unlike the best Mini-LED TVs, however, RGB LED TVs have an added bonus: Their LEDs are red-, green- and blue-tinted. While the white light of garden-variety Mini-LEDs rely on a color filter, RGB LEDs do not.

We’re still weeks away from taking some of these sets through our testing lab and seeing what they’re truly capable of, but I’ll say this: There’s a lot of hype going around.

Every TV-maker entering the RGB LED market has reported brighter, purer color across all of these TVs. Managing Editor Nick Pino called the Hisense 116UXS RGB Mini-LED TV “the best-looking LCD TV” at CES 2026.

Pricing and sizing will vary by brand, but RGB LED TVs are quickly emerging as the next ultra-premium choice for high-end shoppers. And, if you were making moves to make 2026 the year that you finally splashed out on an 8K set, I wouldn’t blame you for switching gears.

The primary purported benefit of RGB LED TVs is bright, brilliant color — in some reported cases, up to 100% of BT.2020. Combined with the overall contrast and highlight brightness we’ve come to expect from the industry’s best Mini-LED TVs, I would argue that some of these RGB LED TVs have a chance of looking better than any 8K TV I’ve ever personally seen.

This is because our eyes are far more likely to notice enhanced contrast and color before an increase in native resolution.

In the OLED vs RGB LED debate, I would probably still choose OLED in 2026. But a big reason for this has to do with my expectation that many of these RGB LED TVs are bound to be prohibitively expensive for most people.

If you were already convinced about spending that sort of cash on a fancy, ultra-high-end TV, RGB LED might be the next-best thing to 8K this year.

More from Tom's Guide

• OLED TVs are getting brighter and cheaper in 2026 — here’s what you need to know before shopping
• I test TVs for a living but I won't be buying an RGB LED TV in 2026 — here's why
• It’s going to be a massive year for some of the most elegant-looking TVs on the market — here’s what you need to know about 2026 lifestyle TVs

Once upon a time, 8K resolution felt like the future of TVs. In recent years, however, TVs that feature native 8K resolution have been largely missing in action. As we look ahead to another year of the biggest TV brands battling it out by way of some of the best TVs money can buy, it's worth asking: Is this the year that 8K finally takes off?

Before we start prognosticating, though, let's take a closer look at the current state of 8K displays. More specifically, let's delve into why 8K TVs are so hard to come by today, and why they've always been hard to come by for the decade I've spent covering the TV industry.

Why haven't 8K TVs been a success?

There are two primary reasons why 8K resolution hasn't become the new standard for TVs: the costs associated with 8K and the lack of native-8K content.

When it comes to cost, 8K TVs are expensive to manufacture and too pricey for the average consumer. There aren't too many 8K TVs left on the market and the ones that do exist tend to be much more expensive than similarly sized 4K sets.

But perhaps more importantly, there just isn't that much 8K content out there to enjoy on an 8K TV. While it seems like the 4K standard has overstayed its welcome, the reality is that 4K TV shows and movies have only recently become the standard for streaming platforms. Live TV (like cable and over-the-air broadcasts) are mostly sub-4K by the time they reach your screen.

This creates something of a cycle; without 8K content, no one wants to shell out for an 8K TV, and since very few people own 8K TVs, content creators have little reason to spend even more money producing 8K content.

The possible expansion of 8K content is made more difficult to imagine when you consider that some TV brands (including LG) have recently pulled back on their support of ATSC 3.0, the format that makes it possible to pipe in native-4K content via an indoor antenna. If TV-makers are already comfortable giving up on 4K, over-the-air broadcasts, what hope does 8K have?

But 2026 is a whole new year. In just a few short days, the biggest TV brands in the business will be gathering in Las Vegas for CES, the world's largest consumer electronics show. Traditionally, this is the trade show in which TV-makers unveil their biggest and brightest TVs of the year — and the future of home entertainment is always on display.

Will there be any 8K TVs in 2026?

Having covered the TV industry for over ten years, I've learned that surprises are always right around the corner, particularly at CES. After all, the event presents one of the best opportunities of the year for brands to show off their most future-facing products in order to capture bold, eye-catching headlines.

With all of that said, I don't expect that 2026 will be the year of 8K TVs. In fact, there's an argument to be made that we're closer to the end of the road for 8K TVs now than when I started reviewing TVs in 2014.

For one thing, Sony recently revealed that the Z9K, the brand's only 8K set, has been discontinued. It made its debut in 2022, kicked around on shelves for a few years, and now its stock is all but gone.

The brand hasn't officially shut the door on 8K TVs, but for the time being, Sony is out of the 8K TV business. It's much lonelier out here for 8K TVs than it was just a year ago.

In 2025, Samsung was the only major TV-maker to release a brand-new 8K set. The Samsung QN990F dazzled us with excellent HDR brightness and fantastic Mini-LED-based backlight control, but there's no denying that its price is way too high for the average shopper.

Throughout the year, competing brands like Hisense, LG and TCL made virtually no mention of 8K TVs. And, with CES 2026 rapidly approaching, we're about to find out if any of these companies are about to throw their hat back into the ring with new 8K models.

While it's certainly possible that I'll be staring at some surprise 8K TVs in just a few weeks' time, I'm willing to bet that 8K TVs will once again be scarce at the tech industry's biggest trade show. If we do see some 8K action, it will likely come from the brand that has stuck with the display resolution for longer than any other company: Samsung.

At this point, Samsung seems determined to be the world's go-to supplier of new, up-to-date 8K TVs. Despite the writing on the wall, Samsung keeps putting out impressive (albeit expensive) 8K TVs. In just a few short years, perhaps the brand will be seen as being responsible for dragging us all into the future.

More from Tom's Guide

• Your TV in 2035 will be wildly different — and it’s not what you think
• Samsung just dropped the first ever Micro RGB TV — and it's a total game changer
• The most important TV tech of 2025 wasn’t OLED or Mini-LED

In my estimation, the Samsung QN990F Neo QLED 8K TV is unquestionably the most advanced television ever produced by the South Korean manufacturer from a technical standpoint. However, a couple of quirks hold it back from being one of the best TVs, period.

The QN990F boasts a number of clear advancements over last year's Samsung QN900D, though some of them may be seen as a double-edged sword when judged solely by the TV's unexceptional benchmark scores. Of course, context is everything.

Arguably the most immediately obvious upgrade comes with the addition of Samsung's glare-free display tech, which blew my socks off on the Samsung S95F OLED TV recently. Needless to say, I consider this a welcome inclusion, though some A/V purists will disagree.

Next, Samsung's One Connect Box has gone wireless this time around, meaning it can now transmit 8K/120Hz or 4K/240Hz signals to the screen from up to 10 metres away, so long as it isn't placed in a metal cabinet. Unfortunately, the move to a wireless signal means the introduction of significant input lag.

Of course, there is a workaround to that involving an additional Micro HDMI 2.1 port on the panel itself, allowing gamers to bypass the One Connect Box entirely to achieve minimal lag, but that can only be used by one source at a time. In other words, it's not very convenient.

My expectation going into this QN990F review was that it would effortlessly surpass last year's excellent QN900D. Surprisingly, I ended up discovering one particular advancement that I could've done without. The QN990F is still an impressive television, but it's no longer the GOAT in Samsung's stable.

Samsung QN990F Neo QLED 8K TV review: Pricing and availability

In the US and UK, Samsung's QN990F is available in 65-, 75- and 85-inch models, while in Australia, the 8K flagship is only offered in the largest 85-inch version.

From an MSRP / RRP standpoint, pricing for the QN990F starts at $5,499 / £4,999 for the 65-inch model, followed by $6,499 / £6,499 for the 75-inch model, and $8,499 / £9,499 / AU$13,799 for the 85-inch model.

However, many retailers are already selling the QN990F below the recommended price point. In the US, Best Buy and even Samsung itself are selling the 85-inch QN990F at a $500 discount, bringing its price down to $7,999.

Meanwhile in Australia, retailers like JB Hi-Fi and The Good Guys are selling the same model for AU$11,995 — a whopping AU$1,804 less than what Samsung is asking on its online store.

Unsure about which TV size is right for you? Our 'What TV size should you buy?' guide can help.

Samsung QN990F Neo QLED 8K TV review: Design and remote

Judged purely on aesthetics, Samsung's 8K flagship is, in my opinion, the most beautiful TV in the world this year thanks to its thin design (the 85-inch model being reviewed here is just 13.3mm thick) and a near absence of bezels around its display. It also sports the same Infinity Air stand that came with last year's QN900D — it's flat, centered and makes the TV look like it's floating.

Like Samsung's S95F OLED TV, the QN990F achieves its slim profile by moving most of its inputs to a separate One Connect Box, making it easier to access its HDMI and USB ports — especially when the TV is wall-mounted.

However, the One Connect Box supplied with the QN990F differs from its OLED counterpart in a rather significant way: it's now capable of transmitting 4K/2400Hz (or 8K/120Hz) signals to the panel wirelessly rather than through a single cable.

That also means that this time around, there's no way to create a physical connection between the One Connect Box and the display — signals are delivered exclusively over Wi-Fi.

The decision to go wireless does provide one major benefit — it allows the user more flexibility in their living room layout. The new (much smaller) One Connect Box can now be placed anywhere within 10 metres / 30 feet of the display, meaning you can maintain a minimalist appearance for the screen itself while keeping any connected Blu-ray player or gaming consoles tucked away in a separate area.

But while previous iterations of the One Connect Box also delivered power to the display along with audio and video signals, the new wireless version does not. That means the QN990F's screen and One Connect Box each require their own power source.

Additionally, the ability to place the One Connect Box anywhere in the room may prove moot for those looking to use anything but a compatible Samsung soundbar with wireless Dolby Atmos capabilities — the Sonos Arc Ultra, for instance, will still require an HDMI connection, which defeats the purpose of placing the One Connect Box far away from the screen.

Recently, I reviewed Samsung's S95F OLED TV and was blown away by its anti-glare display. Now, that same glare-free display technology has made its way over to Samsung's Neo QLED TV range, and it's just as impressive on the QN990F.

Just like with the S95F, I tested the QN990F in a fully illuminated room with a chandelier positioned to potentially cause reflections. Once again, the glare-free display dispersed light in such a way that no discernible reflection was visible. At most, an extremely faint haze could be observed when the screen was black, but it was nothing close to the mirror-like reflection offered by my own television.

Some A/V purists will argue that anything but a pure glossy display will result in image quality loss, but I can honestly say that hasn't been my experience with the QN990F (or the S95F for that matter). It's also not realistic to expect the majority of people to only watch television in complete darkness.

Samsung QN990F Neo QLED 8K TV review: Remote

As for the QN990F's remote, there's nothing new to report — it's basically identical to what we got with the last few generations of Samsung's top Neo QLED TVs.

It's small, has a round directional pad and center button for getting around menus and selecting things, a settings button, a microphone button, a back button, a home button, a play/pause button, volume and channel rockers, and dedicated buttons for launching Netflix, Prime Video, YouTube and Samsung TV Plus.

Once again, there's a small solar panel on the back of the QN990F's remote to help keep it charged, and there's also a USB-C port at the base of the remote for when you need to top it up quickly.

Samsung QN990F Neo QLED 8K TV review: Ports

As previously mentioned, most of the QN990F's ports are located on the wireless One Connect Box, with the exception of an additional Micro HDMI 2.1 port and a USB-C port on the rear of the panel.

On the One Connect Box itself, you’ll find four HDMI 2.1 ports (one of which has eARC capability) alongside three USB-A ports, an ethernet (LAN) port, a digital optical audio output, and a RF input for good old terrestrial broadcasting.

Unlike previous models, you won't find the standard One Connect cable port, as the new box will only transmit signals to the screen over Wi-Fi.

Of course, it's worth noting that the One Connect Box is no longer required for the QN990F to function now that the panel has its own power source. In fact, if your plan is to exclusively watch content via streaming and catch-up services, or game via the fifth HDMI port on the panel's rear, you can skip the One Connect Box entirely.

Samsung QN990F Neo QLED 8K TV review: How we test

At Tom's Guide, we follow a standard testing protocol for every TV we review. Our benchmarks include technical and subjective tests designed to rate the set’s performance.

For our technical tests, we use a Jeti spectraval 1501-HiRes spectroradiometer, a Klein K10-A colorimeter, a Murideo 8K-SIX-G Metal pattern generator, and Portrait Displays’ Calman TV-calibration software to take measurements. We also use a Leo Bodnar 4K Input Lag Tester for determining the TV’s gaming prowess.

Subjective tests vary based on the reviewer, but usually feature anecdotes from a diverse selection of movies, TV shows, and other content reflecting the types of things you may actually want to watch on the TV. For a more detailed look at what we do and how we do it, check out our “How we test TVs” page.

Samsung QN990F Neo QLED 8K TV review: Performance and test results

Having grown accustomed to Samsung topping its own peak brightness records each year, it's surprising to see the QN990F's HDR peak luminance (in a 10% window in Filmmaker Mode) falls short of last year's QN900D by a significant margin.

By default, the QN990F's Filmmaker Mode reached just 1,402 nits — well below last year's equivalent model, the QN900D, which reached 2,338 nits in the same test. It also failed to reach the 2,138 nits achieved by Samsung's top OLED of 2025, the S95F.

Needless to say, it's a curious result for a panel backed by thousands of typically ultra-bright Mini LEDs. The QN990F did manage to reach a more respectable 2,109 nits (in a 10% window) outside of Filmmaker Mode, so maybe there's just something amiss with that setting. Alternatively, maybe Samsung just wants to encourage users to apply its Vision AI features.

Finding the default Filmmaker Mode to be unusually dark, I set out to brighten it up by delving into the TV's expert picture settings, where I was able to set Contrast Enhancer to High and tweak a few other levels to improve the viewing experience.

Sitting down with the QN990F, my first instinct was to capture the metrics that really matter, such as how the 2006 big screen adaptation of "Miami Vice" looks on it. Immediately, I was impressed by how the TV handled contrast in the film's opening scene, which opens with a silhouetted woman dancing against a large, bright screen of swirling colors.

No obvious light blooming was present, although there was some loss of shadow detail around her arm, back and face. Of course, shadow detail can be tweaked in the QN990F's settings, though increasing it may come at the slight expense of the inky blacks this Mini LED TV is capable of.

During my QN990F review period, I took the opportunity to catch up on the "Mission: Impossible" movies, starting with "Mission: Impossible III" in 4K and was flabbergasted by how punchy and vibrant the film looked for the majority of its runtime.

Contrast and shadow detail were mostly excellent — particularly in the film's show-stopping bridge sequence, where explosions burn with vibrant orange intensity. However, the QN990F's backlighting system didn't handle the film's nighttime-set Shanghai sequence very well, with darker shots (particularly in close-ups) forcing the TV's Mini LEDs to overcompensate, resulting in swirling backlights and obvious blooming.

In terms of color accuracy, Samsung's QN990F faired decently in the all-important Delta-E test, which is used to determine color error and where lower scores are favored, measuring 2.1922.

That said, last year's QN900D performed better with 1.8413, while Samsung's flagship OLED of 2025, the S95F, achieved an exemplary 1.1972 measurement — the lowest color error reading of any TV we've tested this year.

Of course, it's believed that a Delta-E score of 3 is where the threshold of perceptibility lies, so it's unlikely for anyone to notice any real difference in color accuracy between any of the models discussed above (at least not with the naked eye).

In case you missed it, “The Terminator” movies were wrong — it turns out we will look back on 2025 as the year that AI took over. Samsung's QN990F is a testament to that, given how much of a focus there is on the company's Vision AI technology, which offers more than mere upscaling advancements.

Users can personalize the AI mode picture settings and UI through a screen-based interface. The customization process starts with selecting a scene type: sports, movie, or general. Subsequently, users are shown visual examples for brightness, contrast, color, and color tone, with four options available for each. Alternatively, users can choose to let Vision AI do its own optimizing based on your viewing environment and the content you’re watching.

I watched "Pulp Fiction" in 4K and used it to cycle through the AI modes offered by the QN990F. As you would expect, elements like color, shadow detail and tone all varied depending on which visual samples I selected, but I can say that image quality was exquisite in every instance.

Now that I’ve looked at different AI-tweaked picture setting combinations across multiple Samsung TVs, I’m not entirely convinced by the results. In my experience, the AI gives films an appearance verging on artificial, reminiscent of the Dynamic setting on most modern televisions (this one included). I appreciate that the functionality is there, but I’m glad it can be switched off.

Thankfully, the QN990F offers two Smart Calibration options through the SmartThings app for compatible smartphones. Basic Mode quickly optimizes white balance in about 15 seconds, while Professional Mode offers a more comprehensive calibration, taking several minutes and requiring a tripod-mounted phone in a dark room to perform a 20-point white balance adjustment, including gamma, grayscale linearity, and chromaticity fine-tuning.

Despite this, Samsung's continued refusal to incorporate Dolby Vision 12-bit color is a letdown. The company has chosen to use its own HDR10+ format, which unfortunately restricts the QN990F from showcasing many TV shows and movies at their best.

Samsung QN990F Neo QLED 8K TV review: Audio

Samsung’s QN990F features a 90W 6.2.4 speaker system, seemingly identical to last year's QN900D, delivering loud and high-quality audio with clear dialogue enhanced by Samsung's AI-powered Active Voice Amplifier Pro. As is typical with Samsung’s Neo QLED TVs, speaker grilles are positioned along the top and side edges of the panel.

The TV offers Dolby Atmos support, Object Tracking Sound+ (OTS+) technology and built-in height channels — all of which help to provide a subtle form of spatial audio. As always, you should probably consider purchasing one of the best soundbars available to achieve appropriately cinematic audio.

During my review of the QN990F, I tested its Q-Symphony feature with Samsung's flagship HW-Q990F soundbar. This technology allows the TV's built-in speakers and the soundbar to operate in tandem, creating a richer audio experience with noticeably improved dialogue clarity.

I should also note that Samsung's QN990F TV was able to transmit Dolby Atmos audio to the HW-Q990F soundbar wirelessly using Dolby Digital Plus, meaning eARC isn't required. That said, lossless Dolby Atmos TrueHD can only be achieved with a wired connection.

Samsung QN990F Neo QLED 8K TV review: Gaming

The QN990F boasts specs and features that make it seem like a gamer's dream, and in some ways, it is. That said, it's worth noting that there are a few asterisks on Samsung's claims about what the TV is capable of.

You may have read that the QN990F is capable of 4K/240Hz on all five of its HDMI 2.1 ports. However, the TV is actually using Samsung's Motion Xcelerator 240Hz technology to simulate a higher refresh rate via interpolation and VRR. This is because the QN990F's native refresh rate is only 120Hz.

Unfortunately, the biggest stumbling block comes in the form of the QN990F's new wireless One Connect Box, which introduces higher-than-normal latency. Our tests revealed an input lag of 36.4ms, which is almost 4x what the S95F recorded, and 3.5x what last year's QN900D achieved.

Granted, it's likely that the QN990F's fifth HDMI port, located behind the stand on the panel itself, would drastically cut down on said lag, however, I wasn't able to test this during my review period.

Sure, casual gamers might not even notice the lag, but it still feels counterintuitive for a TV to boast about blisteringly fast refresh rates while simultaneously offering the highest latency of any TV in recent memory.

Obviously, those who don't care about any of that stuff will be able to make their games look great without any fuss using the QN990F’s AI Auto Game Mode, which automatically optimizes picture settings based on the detected game genre.

However, serious players looking to fine-tune every aspect of their experience can still hold the remote’s ‘play’ button to open the QN990F's Game Bar UI, providing access to a comprehensive range of settings. Here, users also quickly toggle through features like Virtual Aim Point, Minimap Zoom, and Game Motion Plus while viewing their game’s resolution, FPS, and other relevant settings information.

Samsung QN990F Neo QLED 8K TV review: Smart features

Samsung's Tizen smart TV platform continues to offer one of the most cluttered interfaces on any television, with way too much to sort through when you press the home button on your remote.

In my review of Samsung’s S95F, I mentioned that the Tizen smart TV platform features a cluttered interface with an overwhelming amount of options accessible from the home button. Well, the same can be said for the QN990F, which offers an identical UI.

While Samsung aims to facilitate content discovery, I would personally prefer a straightforward list of apps and devices, and I have to imagine I’m not alone in that desire. Once again, the home screen is divided into three tabs: Discover (content suggestions), Live (Samsung TV Plus channels), and Apps (recommended apps).

All apps and content sources are located within the 'Discover' tab that initially displays a 'Recent' content row, followed by a row listing installed apps and connected devices, and numerous content suggestions from these apps. A large portion of the home screen will often be taken up by marketing for shows and Samsung TV Plus channels you may have no interest in, and it’s something I could do without.

On a positive note, Samsung has refined other UI elements. For example, the QN990F's settings now appear as smaller, floating windows on the left, improving content visibility during adjustments.

Additionally, Samsung has brought its Art Mode to more TVs than ever this year, and the QN990F is one of them. Along with the ability to access celebrated works of art and officially licensed content from the likes of Disney via the Samsung Art Store, the TV's Vision AI technology now lets you generate bespoke AI art through a series of prompts.

Samsung QN990F Neo QLED 8K TV review: Verdict

Despite a host of improvements, the Samsung QN990F Neo QLED 8K TV has a few drawbacks that prevent it from being the best Samsung TV of 2025.

I absolutely love its glare-free screen, but can appreciate that it won’t be to everyone’s taste. The main fly in the ointment for me, however, is that its new wireless One Connect Box causes significant latency on all but one HDMI port, located on the panel itself. That might appeal to PC gamers, but will likely turn off those of us with multiple consoles.

Given the QN990F’s hefty price, I would’ve liked for the One Connect Box to at least provide the option of a wired connection. While the QN990F is undoubtedly impressive in many ways, those seeking Samsung's top TV of the year might find the S95F a more suitable option.

While 8K TVs might be on their way out, Samsung's sticking to the market in force. It's set to launch not one but two 8K models within its 2025 TV lineup, with the QN990F set to be its flagship in the range.

We were privy to a recent hands-on with the new QN990F Neo QLED TV and it raises the question: how well does the new 8K TV stand up to its predecessor?

Our review of last year's Samsung QN900D gave that TV a perfect score. We hailed the QN900D's upscaling chops and incredible brightness. By all accounts, it's one of the best 8K TVs.

But Samsung aims to improve the 8K experience with the QN990F. The major problem is that this new entry lacks a lot of the finer qualities on offer in last year's set. From what we've seen thus far, there's minuscule performance improvements and a premium price for the QN990F leaves a lot to be desired.

Let's see which Samsung 8K TV is the better pick in 2025 — or if even 8K is still something worth considering at all.

Samsung QN990F vs Samsung QN900D: Specs compared

Samsung QN990F vs Samsung QN900D: Design  

You'll notice several similarities between both the old and new 8K models here, with the QN990F and QN900D sporting the same general look. They're both super thin, with the QN900D measured at 12.9mm vs the QN990F at 14mm, which is very typical of some of the best Samsung TVs (particularly its OLEDs).

Both models come equipped with the One Connect Box, which makes the 8K TV almost wireless, minus its power cord. You can connect all of your devices to the box and not have to worry about messy cables getting in the way of your home entertainment Feng shui, ideal most of all in the wake of Samsung adding its Art Store across the range.

Even when you poke around under the hood, there's little variation between them. The QN990F and QN900D both have the same processor in the NQ8 Gen3 processor. Plus, they both support a 120Hz refresh rate that goes up to 240Hz in VRR, giving users of the best gaming PCs blistering-fast speeds to work with.

And glare isn't a major factor to consider, largely because both the QN900D and QN990F have Samsung's anti-glare coating to minimize the impact of ambient lighting. It's a huge boon on Mini-LED TVs in particular, but these two 8K models mitigate glare quite well.

Audio-wise, the pair finally see major differences. The QN900D comes loaded with a 90W speaker built on 6.2.4-channel system, while the QN990F has a 120W speaker on a 6.4.4-channel system. It's not a major leap over its predecessor, but it will give you some much clearer, more impactful audio.

Aside from this, there's no other notable differences when it comes to design. You'll see more major differences between the QN900D and Samsung's cheaper 2025 offering in the QN900F. These two TVs might seem like better direct comparisons, but the QN900F is slightly less powerful with its use of the NQ8 Gen2 processor over the Gen3.

Samsung QN990F vs Samsung QN900D: Performance 

It's in picture quality where the two differ dramatically. Where last year's model's incredible upscaling abilities shine, the QN990F's fall flat — primarily in 1080p content. In our testing of the QN990F recently, we noticed muddled scenes in the lower specification, detracting from the overall experience.

The QN990F also doesn't excel in motion processing, either. Scenes with fast camera pans or even sports content were filled with judder and artifacting that diminished picture quality.

As Mini-LEDs go, they both come with exceptional brightness. The QN990F comes in at 1,242 nits in standard and 1,402 in HDR. Meanwhile, the QN900D's HDR performance in Filmmaker mode is 2,338, which goes to show its prowess in the market despite being a year old.

And even with the multitude of gaming features on offer, the QN990F doesn't seem like it will rank among the best gaming TVs. It has a high input latency of 36.4ms and if its motion processing in movies was anything to go by, faster games probably won't look great on this set.

That's not to say the QN900D would fare any better. It's hard to recommend an 8K TV for gaming right now, even if you're running a beast of a PC. You'd be sinking tons of money into an experience that might equate to, at best, 30 to 40 average frame rates.

But the Samsung QN990F does improve upon the color handling of its predecessor. The QN900D has a UHDA-P3 of 94.6% and BT.2020 of 70.83%, whereas the QN990F boosts these up to 95.43% and 75.81%. It's an incremental jump, but does show the QN990F is bringing some improvements to the platform.

Samsung QN990F vs Samsung QN900D: Outlook 

Despite the current state of the 8K TV market, there's still promise in the future-proofed technology. There might be a minimal amount of movies and shows to experience, and the list of compatible 8K games can be counted on just one hand.

In the face of Nvidia's new 50-series graphics cards, rumors of the PS6 on the near-horizon, and Kaleidescape's recent collaboration with the 8K Association, it feels like if there's ever a time to get an 8K TV, it's now.

But which might be the best option? It's clear to me that the QN900D makes the best choice, not solely due to its performance but also taking its price into account.

The QN990F and the QN900D are both practically identical, sharing the same processor, general design, and size ranges. If you want the best possible 8K experience in your quest to future-proof your entertainment setup, I'd go with the QN900D right now.

Kaleidescape, a company offers a wide selection of movies and shows that “match or surpass” UHD Blu-ray quality, just joined the 8K Association and it could be a huge win for owners of the best 8K TVs.

Joining the 8K Association will give Kaleidescape a huge leg up in terms of quality and selection for home cinemas (especially those with much larger screens) while also allowing 8K TVs to live on in the face of near-extinction.

The company has not yet announced any plans of making a new 8K player to service the higher resolution, but it does seem like it would be the next big step in “the advancement and standardization of 8K technology.”

What is Kaleidescape?

Kaleidescape is home to a massive catalogue of movies and shows that you can buy and download via its various players, like its recently announced Strato V or the Strato M. The company claims its downloads “match or surpass” UHD Blu-ray quality, with support for HDR10, Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos, and DTS:X.

The big draw is that its content is lossless, high-bitrate, and doesn't restrict file sizes, which isn't the case for Netflix or even Blu-ray discs. Even UHD Blu-rays are host to anywhere from 66Gb to 100GB of storage, and Netflix is limited by its low bitrate that hits a peak of 16Mbps.

Kaleidescape has none of these constraints. But these incredible leaps over the best streaming services and even Blu-ray content comes at a hefty premium, with the Strato V, its 4K movie player, priced at $4,000. For perspective, that's more than a 75-inch Samsung QN900D Neo QLED 8K TV.

A major win for 8K enthusiasts

It's no secret that 8K TVs have been limping along in a world that seemingly has no need for the future-proofed technology. Several of the most prominent TV manufacturers have stopped making them entirely, with Sony discontinuing its Z9K 8K TV earlier this month.

But Kaleidescape sees the potential in the higher resolution, as it wouldn't join the 8K Association if the writing was on the wall.

In a press release announcing the collaboration, Kaleidescape CEO and Chairman Tayloe Stansbury said, "Joining the 8KA positions Kaleidescape alongside other industry leaders, committed to fostering a collaborative environment, and dedicated to the advancement and standardization of 8K technology."

This could take shape in a number of ways. For starters, Kaleidescape will most likely soon begin to offer a broader range of 8K movies and shows in lossless quality, but it could even lead to the creation of its own 8K movie player. Who knows how much that might cost, though.

With Samsung offering not one but two 8K TVs this year — the QN990F and QN900F — it's clear there's still hope for the higher resolution, even with minimal native content and much fewer games available in 8K. But the ball is in Kaleidescape's court.

More From Tom's Guide

• Samsung TV lineup 2025: new OLED, Neo QLED and 8K TVs announced at CES
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In 2025, Samsung is bringing not one but two 8K TVs to shelves.

We’ve already taken a deeper look at flagship model, the Samsung QN990F Neo QLED 8K TV. Although it's just an initial hands-on, it nevertheless leaves a lot to be desired. From its poor 1080p upscaling to its astronomical pricing, there's a lot to consider before buying this 8K display.

That's where the QN900F comes in. It sidesteps the flagship with several key differences and a cheaper price, to boot. I'm already earmarking it as one of the best 8K TVs — if not one of the best TVs, period.

Although we have no testing data or a hands-on with this 8K set, I'm still stoked to see it in action — here's why.

Design makes all the difference

I was lucky enough to get a sneak peek of the more-affordable QN900F in South Korea last year. It blew me away.

What stands out the most for me is not its picture (which was gorgeous, to be fair), but rather, its overall physical design.

Samsung tweaked the chassis of this display to give it a more "lifestyle" feel. In fact, you can immediately see its similarities to Samsung's The Frame, which is adorned with elegant metal bezels.

On paper, they don't sound like a world of change, but when situated next to the flagship QN990F, the QN900F stands out.

There's a good chance it'll look even better when wall-mounted, aided in large part to its access to Samsung's Art Store. Samsung announced the Art Store is coming to all of its 2025 sets, and its library of over 3,000 works of art will really make the QN900F pop.

The QN990F, on the other hand, sports a silver bezel that's imperceptible if you're looking dead on. It's definitely eye-catching, but it doesn't capture that window-into-another-world type of look that makes the QN900F so compelling.

For most folks, however, the most eye-catching part of the QN900F will be its sticker price.

The cheapest 2025 8K TV you can buy

8K TVs are anything but affordable. In fact, they're largely being discontinued from various lineups due in part to their cost. But that hasn't stopped Samsung from soldiering on.

Pricing on the QN900F starts at $3,299 for its 65-inch model, which certainly isn't cheap. That said, it's a whole lot cheaper than the QN990F, which starts at an eye-watering $5,499 for its 65-inch model.

The more-affordable QN900F, while not a bargain, is still a pretty enticing deal on a future-proofed display. It's even cheaper than Sony's 2025 flagship OLED TV, the Bravia 8 II, by nearly $200.

And, while you might be missing out on an OLED screen, you'd be benefited with the glorious 8K resolution that would beat out many of the best gaming TVs in picture quality alone.

But there are some caveats you might want to consider before hitting the buy button.

Are 8K TVs still even a thing?

8K TVs lived in the limelight for the longest time, but that hype has long faded. There's definitely cause for trepidation when it comes to this kind of display on account of its cost-to-benefit ratio.

Native 8K content remains scarce. This is certainly one of the reasons why Sony just announced it's leaving the 8K market and LG hasn't announced plans to release a new 8K TV in some time.

But the QN900F still gives me hope in the promise of 8K TVs.

Beyond the nature of simply future-proofing your entertainment setup, the QN900F could also spell a whole new era when it comes to lifestyle-adjacent TV design. I can't wait to see more of it in action.

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8K TVs might be approaching the end of the line.

As first reported by FlatpanelsHD, Sony has confirmed that its Z9K 8K TV, which debuted in 2022, has been discontinued. It is one of only a few remaining 8K TVs you can still buy.

The Z9K will linger on shelves for as long as stocks are still kicking around, but production of Sony’s sole 8K set has ceased. For now, Sony is officially out of the 8K TV market.

According to the report, Sony hasn’t closed the book on 8K altogether, but as of now, there are no plans for future 8K sets. It’s especially unfortunate, seeing as how Sony’s own PlayStation 5 Pro boasts support for 8K games.

8K resolution was once seen as the logical successor to 4K. There was a time when its ascension was all but inevitable. Today, its future is anything but certain.

Why haven’t 8K TVs been successful?

In short, two factors are at the heart of 8K’s failure to take off: cost and content.

8K TVs are priced at a premium, far higher than most folks are willing to pay. On top of that, there aren’t many outlets for true, native 8K content.

Newly released 4K movies and shows have recently become the standard for streaming platforms. Live TV (like cable and over-the-air broadcasts) mostly remains below 4K.

The aforementioned PS5 Pro might proudly wear an 8K badge on its box, but only a handful of titles support an 8K mode.

Additionally, when you watch sub-8K content on an 8K set, you’re likely to encounter blurriness or artifacts in the picture on account of a punishing upscaling process.

This set of circumstances has made it hard for 8K to proliferate. Without 8K content, no one wants to splash out on a pricey 8K TV. Since very few people own 8K TVs, content creators have little reason to produce 8K content.

The clock might be ticking if you want to upgrade to 8K.

Can I still buy an 8K TV?

This year, there’s only one TV brand carrying the 8K torch: Samsung.

At the time of publishing, the flagship Samsung QN990F 8K Neo QLED is one of two 8K TVs making their debut in 2025 (the other being the Samsung QN900F). We recently took the QN990F for a spin, and while we were generally impressed, we noted its struggles in upscaling 1080p content.

Samsung’s 2024 8K model, the Samsung QN900D, remains available. But it’ll still set you back a substantial amount — right now, a 65-inch QN900D is $2,999 at Best Buy.

In 2024, LG launched a refreshed 8K QNED 99 Series version. Unfortunately, finding one of these in stock might be tough. LG hasn’t announced any plans to launch new 8K TVs in the coming years, either.

The future of TVs may be bright, but for now, we’ll have to do most of our dreaming in 4K.

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• Sony TV lineup 2025: new OLED, Mini-LED, and LED TVs releasing this year

I want you to close your eyes and imagine yourself in 2014.

The Ice Bucket Challenge is taking off. Taco Bell started serving breakfast, and while it’s generally fine, you know deep down that it could be better.

You’re excited to see Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” with your friends in a few days. You hear it’s in 3D — just like everything else. There are 3D TVs, too, and your tech-obsessed friend was just bragging about buying one.

Now you’re back in the present day (sorry).

Taco Bell is still serving so-so breakfast, but these days, the word for it is “mid.” You’re occasionally handed a pair of 3D glasses along with your movie ticket, but most flicks are limited to two dimensions.

Your tech-obsessed friend recently replaced their 3D TV with one of the best OLED TVs on the market.

Once upon a time, 3D TVs were everywhere. These days, they’re relics — quietly treasured by collectors and enthusiasts but mostly joked about by those who remember.

Having covered the TV business for over a decade, I had a front row seat to the rise and fall of 3D TVs. But lately, it’s starting to feel like the air has shifted.

What we can learn from the failure of 3D TVs

There are many reasons for the demise of 3D TVs, but you can basically file them into three distinct categories: finicky hardware, high cost of entry and a lack of 3D content.

Let’s start with the hardware. While cutting my TV-testing teeth, I spent a ton of time with 3D sets from brands like Samsung and LG. To say that 3D TVs were fussy is a bit of an understatement.

Obviously, there were the glasses. Generally speaking, these came in two flavors: active and passive.

To put it in simple terms, active 3D glasses — like the ones used by Samsung during the 3D TV era – worked by rapidly opening and shutting each lens in an alternating fashion. This would happen in sync with images on the screen, each frame intended for a single eye.

Passive 3D glasses, on the other hand, are somewhat closer to the pair you wear at the cinema. Their polarized lenses merge two off-set images, creating an illusion of depth. I remember using these when testing 3D TVs from LG.

Both styles had their advantages and disadvantages. Active specs offered a full-HD (1080p) 3D experience, but were heavy, battery-operated and seriously pricey.

Passive glasses were — and still are — lightweight. They’re super cheap, too, which made them easy to stock up on or replace when they broke (which happened often in my testing lab). Unfortunately, they also halved the picture’s vertical resolution, resulting in a blurrier image than what was available with active glasses.

Aside from the fact that neither eyewear option was ideal, the 3D TV experience just never felt like a 3D night at the cinema. Even if you owned a TV that leveraged easily accessible, passive 3D glasses, you still had to have enough on hand for all of your friends and family.

Common TV performance issues, like a lack of brightness or a narrow viewing angle, were exacerbated by 3D viewing. The glasses naturally dimmed the picture and made it all the more important that each viewer had a front-and-center viewing position.

Cost was another issue. While 3D TVs eventually started falling in price on their way out, they were prohibitively expensive for most people — even before you factored in the potential cost of additional glasses.

And despite the ubiquity of 3D movies in the early 2010s, it was hard to sell people on a new, expensive technology whose use cases were limited. Think about how much casual TV-watching you do on a regular basis compared to lights-off, sit-down movie nights.

More often than not, enjoying a 3D TV meant picking out a 3D Blu-ray, possibly charging up the battery of your 3D glasses and dimming the lights. It was a special ritual — they weren’t broadcasting “Parks & Recreation” in 3D.

Now that we’ve done the post-mortem, we know what 3D TVs need to do to come back from the dead.

How 3D TVs could stage a comeback (and why I think they will)

It’s safe to say that, of the two types of 3D glasses, passive pairs would be the better option in a hypothetical 3D TV revival. They’re cheap, easier to wear and don’t require charging. At the end of 3D TV’s life, LG had even developed passive, 4K 3D technology whose resolution was halved into a crisp 1080p picture.

But what if we did away with 3D glasses altogether?

At CES this year, I got to spend time with a glasses-free 3D monitor, the Samsung Odyssey 3D. The monitor analyzes 2D content — video games, old episodes of “Friends” — and converts it all to a surprisingly convincing 3D picture by way of a lenticular lens. With a front-facing stereo camera, the Odysseey 3D tracks viewers’ eyes to maintain the effect.

As impressed as I was with the Odyssey 3D’s performance, I have some serious questions about whether or not this technology would fit into most folks’ living rooms. Most people are squeamish about the prospect of a camera on their TV — and understandably so. It’s also unclear how the technology would scale up to bigger screen sizes, or how well it would hold up while an entire room full of people are watching.

But when we talk about big-screen TVs, it’s hard not to think about how everyone from influencers to TV brand ambassadors talks about bringing the theater experience home.

Movies are piped into our homes weeks after they debut in theaters, and people are buying bigger screens to enhance the home theater experience. 3D movies never fully went away, either; they’re still a part of moviegoing culture.

Recently, Tom’s Guide Global Editor in Chief Mark Spoonauer wrote about the experience of watching a 3D movie on the Apple Vision Pro.

“If you give this headset a shot and see just a few minutes of a 3D movie through it,” Mark wrote, “you’ll wish you had one.”

At the time of publishing, Mark reported that there were over 40 3D movies available through the Disney+ Vision Pro app. It seems that, despite widespread acknowledgement that 3D TVs are dead, there’s quietly been an appetite for 3D movies — at least at the local cinema and in VR apps.

3D TVs have an uphill battle in front of them. Without the convenience factor that movie theaters and VR headsets offer, there’s not much of a marketing opportunity. Without major brands taking another run at 3D TVs, there’s not much of a reason to produce and distribute 3D content to people’s homes.

That said, I've also been in the game long enough to recognize just how determined major TV brands are to set themselves apart from the competition, or to be the first to adopt new technology — or resurrect old technology.

The return of 3D TVs isn't a guarantee, nor is it imminent. But in recent years, I've seen enough rhetoric about bringing the moviegoing experience into our living rooms to believe that 3D TVs are truly dead for good.

And if they make their return, I'll be there — with or without glasses on.

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There's something interesting — and, some might say, depressing — going on with 8K TVs. They're arguably the most future-proof displays you can find in the market right now, offering you serious picture performance at a hefty premium, and yet, TV makers are dropping their 8K TVs in droves.

Sony and LG stopped selling or majorly advertising 8K TVs back in 2023 and while both TCL and Hisense have 8K TVs on the market, they're a few years old at this point. As of right now, Samsung is one of the only TV makers still launching new 8K models in its 2025 TV lineup.

With TVs getting bigger, you'd think 8K TVs would become the de facto resolution. But there's several reasons for their diminishing appeal.

In the face of fascinating newer technologies on the rise, like MicroLED TV, as well as limited content at that higher resolution, 8K TVs still have a long road ahead of them.

Is it too late for 8K TVs? Let's find out where exactly it all went wrong and how the ship might be course-corrected.

What even is 8K and what makes it special?

8K pertains to the resolution on the display (just like 4K), measuring out to 7,680 pixels horizontally and 4,320 pixels vertically. While they seem new, you'd be surprised how long 8K TVs have existed in the wild.

The first 8K TV hit the show floor at CES 2012 by Sharp — the very same year 4K TVs started being mass produced for consumers.

That being said, the 8K spec didn't really pick up steam until 2019, when both LG and Samsung kickstarted this side of the market with several varied models (starting at $5,000 for a 65-inch set).

Back then, LG's jaw-dropping Z9 OLED TV proved to be one killer display in this category, but at $30,000 for an 88-inch TV it didn't really have a wide audience.

LG has yet to announce a 2025 8K OLED, but you can still buy the 77-inch OLED Z3 from 2024 on Amazon for $9,996.

It wouldn't take very long for the 8K craze to fizzle, unfortunately.

You see, one of the major problems 8K TVs faced then (and still faces) is that so little 8K content actually exists out there.

Sure, there are a handful of movies in 8K source format, and even less when it comes to video games, but broadcast TV is still largely relegated to 1080p and most content set across the best streaming services is in 4K.

This means your 8K TV will require some serious upscaling, which all top-tier TVs like the Samsung QN900D can do with aplomb, but upscaled 8K will never have as much visual detail as native content will.

8K TVs get a reality check

But is a dearth of 8K content the only issue here? Bob O'Brien of Counterpoint Research explained in an email correspondence that it's not necessarily the lack of 8K content being a major factor, but more so the expensive nature of the sets.

"It's hard to see (or to demonstrate) a big difference between 4K and 8K unless you have a really big screen (>80") and stand very close (less than 1x the screen diagonal) to the display," says O'Brien.

In my hands-on experience with 8K TVs, this is something I've struggled with as well, and it's hard to recommend them to our readers when there are excellent 4K TVs that offer awfully similar performance for around $2,000 less than their 8K counterpart.

Ross Young of Counterpoint Research also went on to explain how 8K TV adoption was slightly stunted due to EU power consumption limitations: In order to meet these demands, "TV brands had to significantly reduce brightness," and the limitations on 8K TVs would inevitably be "carried over into the rest of the world."

In short, not only is there no native 8K content out there, but 8K TVs also had to reduce their brightness output to meet EU consumptions and, often, don't appear to look much better to an average consumer at a reasonable screen size.

The optics around 8K TVs aren't good, but the sales data is worse. According to the Global TV Shipment and Forecast report via Counterpoint, 8K TV sales peaked in 2022 at 400,000 shipments, then largely fell off during the next two years, with shipments declining by 35% in 2023 and then 45% in 2024.

Even in Omdia's recent quarterly TV Sets Market Tracker, 8K TV shipments were too small to even include in the data, according to FlatpanelsHD.

The 8K TV revival?

But O'Brien of Counterpoint Research does see a potential shifting in the currents. Extra-large-screen TVs (80+ inches) are on the rise these days, and it might well spell a reawakening for 8K sets.

He explains how these XXL screens are seeing major discounts while also selling like hot cakes, which could push the industry into its next major 8K era. Time will only tell, of course.

8K TVs are a tough sell. I definitely find the spec quite interesting, but I'm also keenly aware that the benefits of 8K just aren't exactly there yet.

One very popular concept I can see taking off with the spec is dual-watching. That is, having two or even four different screens playing on one set, which would be ideal for sports fans who don't want to miss a single game when multiple events are being broadcast simultaneously.

There's also 8K gaming to consider. With the launch of the RTX 5090 and PS5 Pro, 8K gaming could be here sooner rather than later. As of right now, games that support an 8K resolution are few and far between, but AI enhancements in the form of DLSS, PSSR, and FSR might get us there sometime in the near future.

So, while sales have sunk to all-time lows in the last few years, a resurgence could be coming for 8K TVs. It's largely a waiting game at this point, and with Samsung still pushing bounds in the space, at least there's one manufacturer still championing the specification — even if the rest of the world has largely given up.

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In recent years, TV refresh rates have gone up. As an A/V enthusiast and gamer, I'm ready for them to go up even higher.

For TVs, having a higher refresh rate would ensure that sports, action-packed movie sequences, and games will look almost as smooth and unblemished as real life.

But how exactly would this look? And, maybe even more importantly, is it really all that necessary to begin with? In my opinion, it’s about time we take HFR to heart and implement higher refresh rates on TVs heading into 2025.

Refresh rate and HFR: what they are and why they matter

Before we can fully dive into the world of higher refresh rates, let's get to the bottom of what a refresh rate is and what it means for your living room.

A TV’s refresh rate pertains to the amount of times per second it can draw a new image, which means a 60Hz TV is capable of refreshing an image 60 times per second, 120Hz can deliver 120 frames per second, etc.

For a while, TVs came equipped with a refresh rate of either 60Hz or 120Hz, with the latter being the best you could get. Then 144Hz came into play.

This era began back in 2022 thanks, in part, to Samsung. The Samsung S95B QD-OLED TV is quoted as the world’s first OLED TV to support 4K resolution at a 144Hz refresh rate. TVs were beginning to move further into the world of High Frame Rate (HFR).

HFR is championed by a small (but vocal) group of people, most of whom are gamers. Many people might already have a rocky relationship with HFR without knowing it. Most of the disdain comes from the "soap opera effect" of movies like Peter Jackson’s “Hobbit” trilogy or "Avatar," which were presented in HFR across the county.

But while moviegoing audiences might not be ready for HFR on the big screen, it could have broader implications for our living rooms. Higher frame rates means a smoother, cleaner picture during fast-paced content. Higher frames on TVs would be most beneficial for sports and action sequences, giving NASCAR races, football games, and James Bond movies an air of added realism. Why not add a little more juice to the Olympic games?

HFR could one day prove a worthwhile upgrade across the board, but it's unsurprising that its biggest advocates are gamers. In fact, I think the next generation of displays should go all-in on higher refresh rates for gaming alone.

HFR and the future of gaming

Higher refresh rates are generally better for gamers.

Modern gaming monitors are now hitting incredible highs in refresh rate performance, but a majority of the player base on TVs use a modern console, like the PS5 or Xbox Series X. These consoles cap out at 4K/60Hz or 4K/120Hz (depending on what your TV supports), but with one of the best gaming PCs, you have a bit more freedom in how many frames you can eke out in a particular game.

The key distinction is that most gaming is played in 1080p resolution or lower, as even some of the best gaming PCs can’t handle 4K output at a smooth-enough clip. But, as already mentioned, refresh rate isn’t entirely dedicated to the gaming capabilities of a particular display. Higher refresh rates would not only give PC gamers added control over how they experience their games, but give creators more options in how their content is experienced.

One of the ways higher refresh rates on TVs can give creators more freedom is in wider adoption of specific technologies, like Quick Media Switching. It’s a niche concept, but essentially allows a TV or device to play a particular show or sports broadcast that has multiple refresh rates without a 2-3 second blackout period.

But if it's so easy to see a future where higher frame rate gaming finds its way into our living rooms, why isn't it here yet?

Higher refresh rates on TVs: what's the hold-up?

There are several limitations to TVs adopting higher refresh rates, and it starts with costs. TVs of this nature would be incredibly expensive and would most likely be situated at the top of most brands' lineups, making them rather hard to acquire for the average consumer.

Right now, the Samsung QN900D is one of the only TVs in existence that supports a 4K 240Hz refresh rate thanks to its onboard video processor and its 8K resolution. Unfortunately, it’s not so easily leveraged. To actually tap into this higher spec, you would need a source device that supports a 4K/240Hz refresh rate signal, specifically one with Display Stream Compression (DSC), which is found mostly on Apple silicon and Nvidia’s RTX 4080 and 4090 GPUs.

Which also brings us to our next issue: the availability of HFR content. Simply put, there's not a lot to choose from.

But that doesn't mean we should give up on these possibilities.

I think it's important to give gamers and creators the freedom push the envelope. Going up to at least 240Hz on displays would give game developers much more wiggle room. It would also give sports an entirely new look and feel, adding depth and immersion.

Until then, I'll continue to dream in HFR.

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A product I’ve been pining for since 2019 was quietly released last month. Yet it’s only this week that I’ve started to see it available online (and even then, it remains hard to find in stock). Said product is the Philips Hue Play HDMI sync box 8K. Catchy, right? 

Once paired with a Philips Hue Play Gradient TV light strip, it mimics the colors of any on-screen action you’re watching, then casts them onto your wall. It’s a seriously nifty sight to behold in full flow/glow. 

While I think the old 4K model is great, the key limitation of Philips’ first sync box, released some years back, is that it doesn’t support HDMI 2.1. This new 8K model does. And it should put on quite the light show alongside one of the firm's outstanding light strips I've spent hundreds of hours enjoying. 

I’ve got about as much interest in watching 8K movies or gaming at that ludicrously demanding pixel count (7,680 x 4,320) as a Coulrophobia sufferer has in being trapped in a Big Top full of freaky, face-painted jesters. And yes, I did just teach myself a new word about clowns.

What I actually care about is being able to play the best PC games at 4K/120Hz with my sync box and TV lightstrip working their glowing magic on my home office’s wall — yup, I play the best Steam games on a television, not a monitor.

It’s an experience I’ve been craving for over three years which Philips and its $250 / £230 accessory couldn’t give me due to its HDMI 2.0/HDCP 2.2 limitations. Well, now the company finally has granted me my most super-geeky of AV wishes.

That’s because the new HDMI sync box from Philips supports 8K at 60Hz, my long desired 4K at 120Hz — which should prove useful to Sony gamers planning on buying the upcoming PS5 Pro — and both 1440p and 1080p at 120Hz. To give Philips’ aging 4K model credit, it can also handle a 120Hz signal at those last two resolutions. 

The catch with the 8K sync box? Philips wants me to fork out an eye-watering $350 / £300 on it. Even for an AV enthusiast of my slightly unhinged levels, that’s a little too rich for my veins.

Sync or swim

Although, who knows? You’re currently reading the words of a dude who bought a special PC stand on wheels so he could roll his rig through to his living room every night to play way too much of a classic stealth game that keeps kicking my ass to this day. If I sell my old model for a decent sum, I might pull the trigger on the 8K upgrade for that sweet, sweet 4K/120Hz support.

Just bear in mind that if you are tempted by either of the Dutch’s company’s HDMI sync boxes, you won’t just need a Hue Play lightbar, you’ll also need the Philips Hue Bridge. The little puck lets your sync box and light strip talk to each other, while it can also be used to control any Philips smart bulbs you may have in your home. That’s why I linked to the bundle further up the page.

From my frigid home here in the Great Britain, that £300 figure is just too steep at the moment to realize my PC gaming 4K/120 fps glowed up dreams. Considering it’s only been out a matter of weeks and I can only find it available on Philips' U.K. store, I’m hoping that by Black Friday 2024, the Philips Hue Play HDMI sync box 8K will be more widely available. 

And hopefully it will cost a less wallet-hammering sum in the not too distant future.

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• I tried Govee's Smart Star Light Projector, and now I can't sleep without it 
• The best gaming PCs in 2024

The internet was abuzz the past few weeks in the wake of PS5 Pro leaks spreading like wildfire. There’s a lot riding on Sony’s updated console, worth four years of ever-building excitement, and all eyes are set on its performance capabilities. 

One of these rumored capabilities has me already picking out my next display among the best 8K TVs. Sure, this concept of 8K gaming has evolved into a meme at this point, as Sony did advertise it on the boxes of newly released PS5 systems —before removing the 8K tag in January 2024. 

Still, the more recent PS5 Pro rumors pointing to a monster 8K gaming console makes me hyped to try it with the Samsung QN900D 8K QLED TV. You might be thinking that its $2,499 price isn't cheap, but the potential future proofing and underlying specs make it a worthy pairing for the PS5 Pro. 

Of course, none of the rumors surrounding the PS5 Pro are fact, so don’t get too excited until Sony itself makes an official announcement. Given how still early 8K gaming is, the Samsung QN900D has some interesting tricks up its sleeve that give it extra legs in the market for those hotly anticipating the PS5 Pro. 

Who needs 4K, anyway? 

Recent reports suggest the PS5 Pro might be capable of supporting in-game resolutions up to 8K, which came to light via a leaked spec sheet featuring an AI Accelerator in tandem with a custom machine learning architecture. The best consoles can do right now in terms of gaming is 4K resolution at 120Hz, which could potentially make 8K at 60Hz a viability for the system. 

This is why many players tend to appreciate the best gaming PCs over modern consoles, as they offer a far wider berth in resolution and refresh rate support. I, for one, like the buttery smooth gameplay afforded via higher frames (and, hence, higher refresh rates) over better image quality (or a higher resolution, in this case).

This is also why on most modern PS5 games you can choose to play either in performance or quality mode, which allow you to sacrifice better graphics for higher frames per second or vice versa. The PS5 Pro could have a similar functionality, one that works in tandem with the refresh rate and HDMI VRR/ALLM functionalities to allow you to game either in 8K/60Hz or 4K/120Hz (and even further, 1080p/240Hz for those who might want it). 

That’s all assuming, of course, that the PS5 Pro will even have support for 8K gaming. Herein lies the biggest hurdle for the new console to overcome, as many believe releasing a PS5 Pro would be a bad idea — but maybe the Samsung QN900D can quell those fears.  

The pitfalls of early adoption

Samsung’s QN900D is marked as the perfect pairing for the PS5 Pro due in large part to its already existing AI upscaling potential. In my own Samsung QN900D hands-on demo I got to experience cloud games played via Xbox Game Pass, which were then upscaled to 8K and looked utterly gorgeous on the display. 

In the hands of the Samsung QN900D, the PS5 Pro could potentially do even more than game in 8K. While 8K gaming has plenty of gamers ecstatic about the potential fidelity presented at this resolution, what I’d love to see more is Sony draw out that raw power of the PS5 Pro so it could hit 4K at 240Hz, which the QN900D supports. 

Think about it, while gaming in 8K might sound like the future, there’s no doubt it will run quite poorly. Add to that the fact that even some of the best computers in the market — even those using RTX 4090 GPUs — struggle running games in 8K and there’s little chance Sony’s next console could gain such support or play games at an optimal frame rate in that resolution. 

That’s why higher frames is always the go-to over graphics. There’s little fun in experiencing newer releases at suboptimal frame rates, case in point being Dragon’s Dogma 2, which launched earlier this year on PS5 and Xbox Series X at a capped 30fps. Compared to some of the best TVs in the space, the QN900D has a low input latency of 10.4ms, which makes it even more ideal for such fast-paced gaming. 

But one major flaw wrestling in the shadows behind the PS5 Pro is that it could, just like its predecessor, still lack Dolby Vision support. This HDR format is arguably one of the best and one that would radically improve upon the performance of 8K gaming on PS5 Pro. 

Buttery smooth console gaming 

Unfortunately, we’re not quite there yet when it comes to 8K gaming. While I do think it would be an unforgettable experience, I don’t think I’d be willing to sacrifice frame rates for 8K resolution — even if it were 8K at 60Hz. But, what I would love to see is a wider refresh rate support, especially in the face of a burgeoning market for 144Hz TVs (and ever-expansive monitors, like the forthcoming 480Hz OLED model via LG).  

Thus, if you’re a gamer and you’re wondering if your next TV needs 144Hz, the answer is yes. Some of the best TVs are now equipped with support for the refresh rate range, while others are testing new boundaries like TCL and its Game Accelerator feature. Displays like the 2024 QM8 Mini-LED TV can run games at 1080p in 240Hz via VRR, which could be the next step for consoles to explore when it comes to 8K resolution.  

Luckily, the Samsung QN900D offers a solid solution to the problem, but the PS5 Pro still isn’t without some potential pitfalls. Improved internals that can allow it to support gaming at 240Hz (or, hopefully, even higher refresh rates) along with Dolby Vision would allow the PS5 Pro to stand tall in the lineup of storied Sony consoles. 

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• Do you actually need Dolby Vision on your next TV? Here's the answer
• Eco Mode on TVs explained: When to use it and how to turn it off
• Hisense is making OLED TVs now, but there's a serious catch

Samsung's QN900D Neo QLED 8K TV is the South Korean electronics giant's flagship television for 2024, and it's undoubtedly the most premium TV it has produced to date, sporting a stunning new design, a number of OS refinements, and a third-gen AI-powered processor.

However, like last year's excellent QN900C, the QN900D arrives in a world which continues to debate whether 8K TVs are worth investing in. Many will argue that native 8K content is practically non-existent at present, making support for 8K resolution completely superfluous.

On the flip side, there are those who see the benefits of upscaling on larger displays, and don't actually care whether the content they're viewing is being rendered in its native resolution.

Those in the latter camp will be pleased to learn that Samsung's QN900D has upped the ante when it comes to upscaling, going all in on AI in an attempt to wrestle that particular crown from Sony (of course, we'll need more time with the Sony Bravia 9 to see how things shake out).

Obviously, the QN900D won't be for everyone. For starters, 8K resolution comes with a big jump in price which many won't be able to justify. And if you were hoping that Samsung would finally bring Dolby Vision support to this year's flagship TV, you're going to have to keep waiting.

Still, our time with the Samsung QN900D Neo QLED 8K TV has us convinced that it's not only Samsung's best TV of the year, but one of the best TVs of 2024.

Samsung QN900D Neo QLED 8K TV review: Price and availability

Given that the QN900D is Samsung's flagship TV of 2024, it comes as no surprise that it carries an equally premium price tag. What does surprise us, however, is that its pricing has remained largely the same as last year's QN900C (with the exception of the UK and Australia, where it's a little more expensive for the larger sizes).

The QN900D starts at $4,999 / £4,999 / AU$6,499 for the 65-inch model, before moving up to $6,299 / £6,499 / AU$8,999 for the 75-inch model, and topping out $7,999 / £9,499 / AU$11,999 for the 85-inch behemoth, which is what we tested. However, you could potentially bring the price down by using one of our Samsung discount codes.

• Samsung QN900D 65-inch: $4,999 / £4,999 / AU$6,499
• Samsung QN900D 75-inch: $6,299 / £6,799 / AU$8,499
• Samsung QN900D 85-inch: $7,999 / £9,499 / AU$11,999

Samsung QN900D Neo QLED 8K TV review: Design

For the last few years, Samsung's flagship televisions have been unrivaled in terms of design, and the QN900D continues that tradition by being the South Korean electronics giant's most beautiful TV yet.

Boasting a new 'Infinity Air Design', the QN900D once again sports a practically non-existent bezel (we're talking 1.2mm on the top and sides, and 8.1mm at the bottom). However, Samsung takes things a step further this year with a new mirrored pedestal stand which makes the display look like it's floating, giving it even more of an all-screen appearance.

We're also pleased to see the return of Samsung's brilliant One Connect Box — a detachable media receiver that holds all of the QN900D's various inputs and acts as the TV's power supply.

The box itself can be mounted on the back of the QN900D's pedestal stand, or tucked away in a nearby entertainment cabinet for easy access to its four HDMI 2.1 ports (one of which supports eARC) and other connections (RF input, USB ports, Ethernet port and Optical audio out). All of the inputs are then fed through to the screen via a single cable — that means only one cord to hide when wall mounting.

With the Infinity Air Stand attached, the 85-inch model we tested measures 73.9 x 42 x 12 inches (1877.4 x 1067.1 x 304.9mm). Without the stand, the screen itself measures just 0.5 inches (13.3mm), which is still remarkably thin for a TV with Mini LED backlighting behind its display.

And, as with previous Neo QLED flagships, the QN900D has speaker grilles along the top and sides of its display, which is one less thing distracting viewers from its practically borderless screen.

Samsung QN900D Neo QLED 8K TV review: Performance

This year, the big selling point for Samsung's latest flagship is its 8K AI Upscaling Pro functionality, powered by the new NQ8 AI Gen 3 Processor. As the name suggests, the feature takes advantage of AI neural networks to enhance the TV's image quality on the fly. That means sharper detail and increased clarity for content that falls below 8K native resolution (i.e. almost all content).

While this technology isn't new for Samsung, having been deployed on the manufacturer's previous flagship TV, it has been drastically beefed up this year. According to Samsung, the QN900D's 8K AI upscaling makes use of 512 neural networks — eight times the number used by the QN900C.

At default settings, the QN900D's AI upscaling resulted in the noticeable reduction of noise and artifacting in the TV's Standard and Dynamic picture modes, while color, brightness and motion smoothing all received a huge boost, occasionally venturing into unnatural territory.

While the AI-tweaked colors and showroom-ready image clarity will surely result in many, many televisions sold, they're at odds with the wants of A/V purists, who are more concerned with accuracy and the original intentions of filmmakers than ever before — even film grain is being wholeheartedly embraced these days.

Thankfully, the QN900D still offers Movie and Filmmaker Mode settings, meaning cinephiles can completely avoid all the neural network tweaking if they want to. On top of this, Samsung's handy Smart Calibration tool is still available via the SmartThings app, allowing you to optimize your Movie Mode to near-professional standards within minutes. We absolutely recommend doing this, as the default values in Movie Mode are somewhat dull right out of the box.

The two shots below from Saving Private Ryan illustrate the difference between Dynamic and Filmmaker Mode at default settings. Notice how the teals and reds of the scene are blown out to near neon levels of saturation.

As for general performance, it will come as no surprise that the QN900D's Mini LEDs offer incredible brightness and improved backlight control, resulting in excellent contrast while exhibiting even less light bleed than its predecessor.

When we reviewed Samsung's QN900C last year, we noted that it boasted the highest peak brightness of any TV we'd reviewed in recent memory. This time around, the QN900D can't quite make that claim — that honor goes to the Hisense UX, which broke every possible test metric at CES 2024.

Before you start worrying, you should know that Samsung's Mini LED-sporting QN900D is still astoundingly bright, reaching a peak luminance of 2,338 nits in a 10% window, putting it well above high-end OLED TVs like the LG C4 (1,049 nits) and even Samsung's own S95D (1,777 nits).

If there's one area where Samsung's QN900D disappoints, it's the TV's lack of Dolby Vision support. We understand that Samsung would rather promote HDR10+ given its hand in creating the standard, but there's no denying that Dolby Vision's 12-bit color is technically superior, on top of being widely preferred by videophiles. Given that Samsung is the number one TV manufacturer in the world, it feels almost silly that its flagship television still doesn't support Dolby Vision.

Of course, the real measure of quality for many will come down to how the QN900D handles color, and on that front, Samsung's flagship is remarkably impressive.

Once again, this quantum dot-sporting Neo QLED TV delivers seriously vibrant color saturation, reaching 99.83% of the Rec. 709 color gamut in Filmmaker Mode for SDR content (compared to last year's 99.13%), while HDR content reaches 94.6% coverage of the UHDA-P3 Color Gamut (compared to 93.04% on the QN900C).

Color accuracy on the QN900D is also excellent, measuring 1.8413 in our Delta-E test, where lower numbers are favored. That's a significant improvement on last year's flagship, which measured 2.8686, putting the QN900D on a similar playing field as LG's C4 OLED, which measured 1.8201.

For more see how we test and review TVs.

Samsung QN900D Neo QLED 8K TV review: Audio

Along with its image upscaling prowess, the QN900D's AI processing also extends to sound, where a new AI-powered dialogue booster called Active Voice Amplifier Pro uses deep-learning to make dialogue more pronounced.

Samsung's Adaptive Sound Pro technology has also received an AI upgrade, taking advantage of neural processing to analyze and remaster sound objects on a scene-by-scene basis, resulting in improved clarity and audio balance.

Just like last year's model, the QN900D sports a 6.2.4-channel system with 12 embedded multi-directional speakers in total, delivering a 90W output. Along the top edge of the QN900D is an array of up-firing speakers, qualifying it for true Dolby Atmos, even if the level of immersion is on the minimal side — especially when compared to a soundbar.

Speaking of soundbars, the QN900D supports Samsung's Q-Symphony technology, allowing the TV and its speakers to perfectly sync up with compatible soundbar models, resulting in a more pronounced center channel for dialogue. We tested Q-Symphony using Samsung's new Q990D Q Series soundbar and heard a significant lift in dialogue level.

The feature is also said to work with Samsung's new Music Frame, theoretically giving users additional speakers for a beefed up surround experience, though we didn't get around to testing this for ourselves.

Additionally, the QN900D supports wireless Dolby Atmos with compatible Q Series soundbars like the one mentioned above, meaning one less HDMI cable coming from your One Connect Box.

Samsung QN900D Neo QLED 8K TV review: Gaming

As with previous Samsung Neo QLED TVs, the QN900D is a gamer's dream television, delivering full HDMI 2.1 support for 4K/120fps gaming on PS5 and Xbox Series X consoles on all four HDMI ports. That also means support for variable refresh rates (VRR) and auto low-latency mode (ALLM).

As with image and audio quality, gaming also gets an AI boost on the QN900D, with a new AI Auto Game Mode which provides automatic setting optimization. It's said that the AI engine is smart enough to recognize the game you're playing and automatically adjust picture and sound quality for an optimal experience. We tried the feature out with Forza Horizon 5 and the game looked quite stunning to our eyes, with great contrast levels during night time racing.

Samsung's Gaming Hub also returns, giving players quick access to Game Mode settings, such as Game Motion Plus, Game Picture Mode, an FPS counter and more. FreeSync Premium is also supported, so PC gamers can play at refresh rates of 144Hz without worrying about screen tearing or dropped frames.

As for latency, our 4K Leo Bodnar Signal Lag Tester recorded 10.4 milliseconds of input lag from the QN900D with Game Mode enabled, which is slightly up from last year's model, which recorded 9.6 milliseconds.

Samsung QN900D Neo QLED 8K TV review: Interface and apps

Samsung has given its Tizen smart TV platform a slight refresh on the QN900D, with a focus on discovery and making it easier to resume shows and movies you've already started watching.

Pressing the home button will still bring up the home screen, though instead of going straight to your row of installed apps, you now get three tabs: Discover, Live and Apps. Discover provides you with a wealth of content suggestions, while Live shows you what's currently streaming on a selection of channels from Samsung TV Plus. And, as the name would suggest, Apps takes you directly to your Apps section.

By default, your home screen journey starts on a content row that keeps track of what you've been watching in a new 'Recent' section, which is immediately followed by 'Suggestions'. While this does add an additional step for those who just want to quickly switch apps, the new row does prove rather helpful.

Additionally, the refreshed Tizen OS sees the introduction of accounts, so multiple users can have their own personalized home screen experience. In theory, this will provide a better selection of suggested shows and movies on the home screen that will be more tailored to individual users.

Samsung QN900D Neo QLED 8K TV review: Remote

Due to the early nature of our review period, we were provided with one of Samsung's white universal TV remotes in place of the final release remote. However, our US-based staff writer Ryan Epps was able to try out the proper remote during a different hands-on session and can confirm it remains relatively unchanged from last year's model.

That means the remote once again gets its power from a small rear solar panel that absorbs light (both natural and artificial) to charge an internal battery and keep it going for a much longer time. And if you need faster charging, it also has a USB-C port.

If you've used a Samsung TV remote in the last few years, you'll know what to expect with the QN900D. The remote is small, lightweight and minimalist, with a circular directional pad for navigation.

You also get volume and channel rockers, a selection of function buttons (back, home, play/pause), a settings button, a mic button for voice commands, and dedicated buttons for launching Netflix, Samsung TV Plus, Disney Plus and Prime Video.

Samsung QN900D Neo QLED 8K TV review: Verdict

Samsung has pulled out all the stops for its QN900D Neo QLED 8K TV, delivering its most premium television to date. Boasting advanced AI-driven features, the QN900D delivers stunning picture quality and excellent audio.

Contrast is also exceptional on the QN900D, with its Mini LEDs striking the right balance between remarkable brightness and near-OLED black levels. It's also a brilliant TV for gamers, thanks to its suite of game-centric features and full HDMI 2.1 support.

While not everyone will appreciate the AI-powered upscaling on offer, purists can continue to watch their favorite films as they were intended with Movie and Filmmaker Mode. Aside from the continued omission of Dolby Vision support, it's hard to fault Samsung's QN900D Neo QLED 8K TV, as it's one of the best TVs the company has delivered yet.

The biggest problem with buying an 8K TV right now is that there simply isn’t that much 8K content out there. However, Samsung and Warner Bros. Discovery are looking to change that.

In a press release, Samsung announced that it was partnering up with the major Hollywood studio to bring more 8K content to consumers. Specifically, it’s bringing 8K movie trailers for upcoming Warner Bros. Discovery releases to over 65,000 retail stores.

Okay, so the 8K revolution isn’t here just yet. This 8K content seems to be limited to in-store tech demos. But this is a good step forward, given it will give consumers a real test to gauge an 8K TV versus a 4K TV and to see how an 8K TV handles native 8K content versus upscaled 4K content. That’s a big win for consumers who, up until now, kind of had to just take the word of TV manufacturers and experts that 8K TVs were, in fact, better at certain things. 

Samsung and Warner Bros. Discovery already had a small-scale version of this partnership at some stores. According to the press release, the two companies ran a trial run at over 450 stores in the U.S. and Europe earlier in the year by showing Creed III on Samsung Neo QLED 8K TVs. However, this seems to have been enough of a success to take the partnership worldwide.

There’s a chance you’ve already seen an 8K trailer for a Warner Bros. Discovery movie at your local TV retailer. As part of this new partnership, Barbie is one of the movies that got the 8K trailer treatment. Other movie trailers that will be coming later this year include” Blue Beetle, Dune: Part Two, Wonka and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.” 

Full disclosure, I may pull up with a folding chair at my local Best Buy to watch the trailer for Dune: Part Two in 8K. I bet that will look stunning.

Mainstream 8K TV content feels closer than ever

Every indication in the press release is that these are, in fact, native 8K trailers rather than upscaled 4K trailers. There’s always a chance that the lede has been buried here, but for now, I’m working under the assumption that these are not 4K trailers being upscaled by the 8K TVs. If that’s the case, then we are tantalizingly close to 8K content. If 8K trailers start becoming the norm, the only step left is doing the entire final product in 8K. 

Hopefully, in the meantime, Samsung and Warner Bros. Discovery partner up to bring these 8K movie trailers to your Neo QLED 8K TV at home as a free channel or app. While it wouldn’t make me buy an 8K TV this instant, it would make your 8K TV a cool thing to show off to your friends and family and allow Samsung 8K TV owners to get a viewing experience no other TV owner can have. That’s a distinct step up from what 8K TVs currently are, which are just beautiful displays that upscale existing 4K content.

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• Shopping for an 8K TV? 3 to buy and 1 to skip
• Samsung’s stunning 89-inch MicroLED TV could be what's next after OLED
• This 98-inch Samsung QLED TV just gave our favorite 8K TV a massive upgrade

If you look through our guide to the best TVs, you’ll notice an absence of 8K TVs. That’s because while an 8K TV undoubtedly gives you incredible display resolution, they’re still a bit ahead of the curve. Between the costs of buying one and the lack of 8K-ready content, it's not something you absolutely need to buy this second.

But maybe you’re an early adopter that wants to get in on 8K now and enjoy the ride as more 8K content becomes available. Well, good news. There are some truly spectacular televisions out there with 8K resolution — including one that may be the best Mini-LED TV we’ve ever reviewed. So even though you’ll be waiting for a wide variety of 8K programming, you’ll still have a truly excellent TV in the meantime.

With that in mind, we’ve curated a list of three 8K TVs you can buy right now abnd which we’ve also tested here at Tom’s Guide. We'll also warn you about the 8K TV that you should pass on no matter what.

Buy this: Samsung QN900C Neo QLED 8K TV

If you want an 8K TV, the Samsung QN900C Neo QLED 8K TV is the one to get. Two other 8K TVs in this guide are also great, but the QN900C offers a truly dazzling peak brightness of 2,433.6 nits in a 10% window. Credit the Mini-LED technology powering the display, which is the top choice for display manufacturers targeting elite brightness. 

Unfortunately, the Samsung QN900C Neo comes without Dolby Vision HDR support, which is admittedly a bummer for a TV that costs $6,299 right now at Best Buy if you get a 75-inch model. But with HDR10+ and HLG, you’ll still get tons of HDR content that the Neo Quantum HDR 8K Pro processor can analyze and improve picture quality down to the pixel.

And in terms of future-proofing, the Samsung QN900C Neo comes with four HDMI 2.1 ports, which means every single HDMI port on the One Connect Box can support 4K/120fps or 8K/fps content. So if you want a TV that will be ready for 8K shows, movies and games, this is the best bet out there.

Buy this: LG QNED MiniLED 99 Series 8K TV

As incredible as the Samsung QN900C Neo QLED 8K TV is, the LG QNED MiniLED 99 Series 8K TV is a close second. It’s a bit older than the Samsung QN900C, and it can’t match the brightness levels of the Samsung set, either. In fact, it also falls short of the TCL 6-Series I’m going to recommend in the next section of this article as well. That said, you still get an incredible picture, thanks to the MiniLED’s color reproduction and still excellent brightness.

And you’re largely covered on future-proofing as well, despite this being an older model. You get four HDMI 2.1 ports to ensure that you’ll be able to handle 8K/60fps content once it becomes more widely available. And unlike the Samsung QLED 8K, the LG 99 Series 8K features Dolby Vision support in addition to HDR10 and HLG HDR formats.

The biggest knocks on the LG 99 Series 8K — aside from the relatively weaker brightness — is that because it’s a bit older you’ll be locked into a more outdated version of LG’s webOS smart TV platform. And the upscaling processor didn’t impress us on the LG like it did on the Samsung. 

But the TV itself is a bit cheaper than comparable models, possibly because of these shortcomings. Right now, you can get a 75-inch LG QNED MiniLED 99 Series 8K TV for $2,999 at Best Buy. That’s less than half the price of the Samsung, and that could make this the better 8K TV for your budget. 

Buy this: TCL Roku TV 6-Series 8K (R648)

If you’re trying to get an 8K TV for even less than the $2,999 the LG 99 Series will set you back, there is another option — but you’ll have to act fast.

The TCL Roku TV 6-Series 8K (R648) is a surprisingly good 8K TV given that it cost less than the LG C2 OLED TV at launch — and LG's set is the best TV we’ve ever tested. Despite the budget price, you get an impressively bright Mini-LED display with great color gamut coverage. TCL even created an 8K streaming service just for this Roku TV, so it beats out the other TVs in terms of available content.

Here’s the catch — well, two catches, actually. First, while you get support for Dolby Vision, HDR10 and HLG formats, and you get other great features like Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM), you only get two HDMI 2.1 ports. Again, there’s not a ton of 8K content out there, so you may only need the two HMDI 2.1 ports, but it's a definite mark against the TCL 6-Series 8K.

The other catch? You’ll need to get the TCL 6-Series 8K right now. As of this writing, the only place that still has it is Amazon, which has a 75-inch TCL Roku TV 6-Series 8K (R648) used (like new) for $2,475. I don’t typically advocate buying used or refurbished for my electronics, but by buying “Like new,” Amazon will guarantee that the TV itself is in excellent condition, with only blemishes to the packaging — not the TV itself. 

I use this a lot to save a little money at Amazon, and the only time something went wrong, Amazon took care of it no questions asked. This TV is even sold and shipped by Amazon, so you don’t have to worry about a third-party seller either. But still, just be aware of that caveat if you try to score this deal.

Skip this: Any 8K TV smaller than 75 inches

If you’ve noticed, I’m only recommending 75-inch TVs, and only giving you pricing for them as well. That’s because if you’re buying an 8K TV, you need to get one with a display that is at least 75 inches or larger. The 65-inch or smaller displays will definitely be cheaper but at that size, your eyes will struggle — if not outright fail — to tell the difference from 4K. 

Where you sit matters, too. You need to be up close to your TV (twice as close as with a 4K TV) to really tell the difference in picture quality between the best 8K TVs and the best 4K TVs. So unless you have the ideal space to watch your 8K TV, hold off for now. But if you have a great room to watch a massive, high-resolution TV, then the three TVs mentioned above are definitely your best bet. 

More from Tom's Guide

• This is the one thing to know before you buy a TV
• I test TVs for a living and these are my top 5 picks for all budgets
• Shopping for a gaming TV? 3 to buy and 1 to skip

The best 8K TVs are in a class of their own. They are the cream of the crop, providing truly absurd resolution. However, they also require more power than their 4K TV counterparts — and that could be a problem.

As of March 1, a European Union regulation has gone into effect that effectively bans 8K TVs, in theory. This is because of the Energy Efficiency Index (EEI) that the E.U. uses to set power consumption limits on technology — like televisions. 

Announced back in October 2022, as reported on by our friends at TechRadar, the E.U. announced that the 2023 EEI would have a new lower limit that set the maximum power consumption level for all TVs at 90W, which is significantly lower than the 190W that new 8K TVs can consume.

TV manufacturers have been left scrambling to comply with this new regulation and have been lobbying the E.U. to revise the 2023 EEI but to no avail. So does this mean that European consumers can no longer buy — or even use — 8K TVs? 

Well, not exactly. Let’s explain why you can still get an 8K TV in the E.U.

E.U. 8K TV ban: Samsung’s solution 

There are several 8K TV manufacturers, but it's Samsung that seems to have already developed a workaround for this 8K TV ban. The ban is specifically based on the EEI power consumption numbers, so if you can manufacture an 8K TV that consumes less than 90W then you are in the clear.

Because of this loophole, Samsung has decided to ship its 8K TVs with low-powered default settings. According to AV Magazine, the new Samsung 8K TVs will come out of the box with a “brightness-limiting eco mode” as the default brightness setting. This will allow the TVs to still meet the EEI limit while maintaining their 8K resolution.

But does this mean that Europeans will be limited to low brightness settings if they want 8K resolution? Turns out, the answer to that is, no. The E.U. regulation requires that the TVs be energy efficient out of the box, but once users have them set up, they can change to a higher brightness setting and watch to their heart's content, even though their 8K TV will now consume more power than the 90W limit set by the EEI.

So if you want an 8K TV, and you live in the E.U., you may want to stick to Samsung's 8K TVs for now. Other manufacturers will likely find workarounds for the E.U. regulations if Samsung’s workaround is successful, but in the meantime, Samsung is the only company that has presented a workaround that lets it continue to sell new 8K TVs in the E.U. 

The best 8K TV is the Samsung Neo QN990F, and not just because it's one of the only 8K TVs you can buy right now. The picture quality is genuinely incredible and the display is glare-free so you can put it in any room, even one bathed in sunshine.

Normally, I'd also recommend a cheaper option, but you're kind of limited at this resolution. There was a time when 8K was going to take over the world, but now Samsung is one of the only brands even producing an 8K TV.

And since there are very few 8K TVs in the wild, producers don't go to the expense of filming 8K. The QN990F side-steps this problem, as the TV can upscale 4K content to 8K, so you can get impressively crisp and mesmerisingly detailed pictures.

If that's what you need from your new TV, then the Samsung Neo QN990F really is the best 8K TV you can get. For everyone else, one of the best TVs (in 4K) will be a better option, and get you more for your money.

The best 8K TV available right now

The Samsung QN990F isn't just the best 8K TV, it's one of the most striking TVs too. It's incredibly thin and has barely visible bezels that make it look as though the screen extends right to the edge of the display. Combined with the impressively high resolution visuals, it's one of the most immersive experiences you can have at home.

But this isn't an 8K TV for watching 8K films, TV shows and sport. You won't find media natively in 8K, so the real skill of the QN990F is the way it handles upscaling 4K content to 8K resolution. Usually I'd tell you to avoid AI features (as they're not very good) but my exception would be here, as the upscaling is AI-powered and tremendous.

The only thing to be wary of is using the upscaling on HD movies and TV shows. With the lower resolution, there's less information for the TV to work with, and it ends up filling the gaps with detail that looks artificial and draws your attention away from the scene. So it's best to reserve the upscaling for 4K content.

But even without that, there's an almost absurd amount of customization you can do to the image with Samsung's Vision AI software. You can tweak pretty much every metric imaginable, and this can have mixed results if you experiment too much. We found it best to use the presets and let it do its job without too much interference.

Curiously, we found that this model, released in 2025, is significantly less bright than the 2024 QN9000D. Given the levels we're talking about here, towards the upper end, you're not going to have a catastrophic issue with the brightness, but it's odd to find that a newer model has lower performance.

Speculating here, it could be because Samsung believes the newly-bolstered Vision AI means that you don't always need a brighter image. It could be that you need better contrast, improved dimming, or better detail in dark blacks, and that's where the AI can jump in. And we found that it worked well when watching 2006's "Miami Vice."

Plus, the QN990F has inherited the same glare-free display tech as the Samsung S90F. We put the TV in a bright room, positioned near a ceiling-mounted chandelier to increase the likelihood of reflections. Yet, the QN990F had no problem with that setup at all, and dispersed all the ambient light almost entirely.

My main criticism of the QN990F is its price. At several thousand dollars, it's a lot to invest in a TV. It handles 4K and 8K content brilliantly, and the glare-free screen is exceptional. But it has a 120Hz refresh rate (lower than the 144Hz or 165Hz found on many premium sets), and good, but not fantastic audio performance.

Ordinarily, these aren't things to write home about, but at this price, you'd expect the top-of-the-range performance. If you need a TV capable of upscaling to immaculate 8K, then this is absolutely the best 8K TV out there. But I suspect you'd get more for your money choosing one of the best TVs or one of the best OLED TVs instead.

• Read our full Samsung QN990F review

How we test the best 8K TVs

We test 8K TVs the same way we test other TVs; we watch them. Okay, fine, how we test TVs is more involved in that, but you get the gist.

Before we sit down to watch movies, TV shows and play games, each model is delivered to our lab for specialized benchmark testing. We use industry-grade equipment to do this, including a colorimeter, pattern generator, spectroradiometer and calibration software.

We do this because it helps us compare between each TV's performance, but also because it means we can check our measurements against what the manufacturer claims, just like we do when testing a phone's battery life. Plus, the data is useful when seeing what's changed in the latest version of a TV.

When we've captured all the brightness, color accuracy and contrast data in our spreadsheets, it's time to put the TV through it's real world test; what's it like to actually use and watch the TV?

We watch movies, TV shows, and sports, with colorful, cartoonish films to see how it handles these vibrant worlds, the dark and shadowy realms of TV shows like "Stranger Things" (or any Christopher Nolan movie) and live sports (which needs the TV to handle contrast well at a good refresh rate).

Combining these real world experience with our testing data means we can more readily recommend a TV for a particular use case. Brightness results are one thing, but it's not until you get it in a real, sunlight-bathed room where you can see how it actually handles brightness, and whether any anti-glare coating helps.

FAQs

Editor's Note: November 11, 2021 – Only a month after writing this op-ed, TCL has announced the first 8K streaming service, exclusive to TCL's 8K Roku TVs. It's an important step forward for 8K, and one that we hope signals a change in the 8K landscape.

2021 has been the year that 8K TVs finally became available in sizes and prices that the average TV shopper might consider, but 8K adoption is still stalled by one glaring omission: there's still no 8K content. And if this TV reviewer can make a Christmas wish a little early, it's for movie studios or streaming services (or anyone really) to release something in the 8K format.

Recent reviews, like the TCL Roku TV 6-Series 8K (R648) and the LG QNED MiniLED 99 Series 8K TV present us with some of the most affordable 8K sets to ever hit the market, but testing and reviewing these models is a little like banging your head against the wall. For all their technical superiority, without any real 8K content to watch on these TVs, anybody with an 8K TV is still stuck with 4K content, relying on upscaling to make it look better on the higher resolution screen.

What little 8K content is out there is, frankly, boring. It's mostly travelogues and nature videos, with the occasional demo video from 8K camera makers. In a recent review, my colleague Matt Murray had mostly positive things to say about the 8K set, but made a valid point as he closed out the review. "The sticking point remains 8K itself. It’s still a phantom format, with no major movies or TV series taking advantage of it in any real way."

But it wouldn't take much to fix that. Even a mediocre indie film or web series that effectively used 8K could get real traction with the small but growing audience of 8K TV owners.

A quick rundown of the state of 8K content highlights the dearth of content using the higher resolution. (For a broader discussion of the topic, check out 8K TVs: What can you actually watch in 8K?) 

• The best TVs right now
• Black Friday TV deals: great early sales 

The future of 8K: Cable, satellite and broadcast

Despite the growth of streaming, cable and satellite is still a major distribution channel for content, particularly at higher resolutions. But there's not much to speak of – DirectTV has a few dedicated 4K channels, while Dish and Comcast mostly offer 4K only for On Demand movies. 

Most 4K support winds up being streaming through common services like Netflix. With relatively few channels offering 4K content, and some common set top boxes not even equipped to handle 4k resolution, these legacy players might not be the place to look for leadership in 8K support.

Oddly enough, the best bet for traditional TV providers might be over the air broadcasts. The ATSC 3.0 standard (also called NextGenTV) includes the ability to send 4K signal over the air, and theoretically can handle 8K resolution as well. It's still early days on that front, with ATSC 3.0 rolling out one or two channels at a time in major cities across the country, but it's the one bright spot when it comes to 8K TVs getting proper UHD programming.

The future of 8K: Movie studios

The elephant in the room for any new format is Hollywood. Movie releases and episodic content won't be available in 8K until filmmakers and studios start shooting in 8K. While there is some forward progress on this front, likely more than is publicly known, it's still very hush hush.

Recent well-funded releases, such as hit Marvel series like WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier are available to stream in 4K, providing something that looks great on today's 4K TVs. 

And, like The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, some are even shot at higher resolution than 4K. The production team used 8K Panavision Millennium DXL2 cameras and shot some action scenes in 6K with Blackmagic Design Pocket Cinema Cameras.

Does this mean we'll be getting an 8K re-release of the latest Marvel shows? Maybe, but probably not. The higher resolution is instead used to afford more freedom in the editing room, letting filmmakers tighten shots and get close-ups on actors without losing picture quality, since they can scale down to 4k as needed.

However, there's a glimmer of hope from just knowing that 8K footage is being captured, and that the ecosystem of equipment and the workflows of movie production are starting to work with the higher resolution in some capacity.

In fact, the best hope might be from titles that get both a mainstream and IMAX release. Dune is getting both a standard and IMAX theatrical release (our streaming editor, Henry Casey says IMAX will be the best way to watch the film), which again provides a tantalizing possibility of there being content out there that would actually make the most of the 80+ inch screens and more than 33 million pixels offered by many of the recently sold 8K TVs. 

The future of 8K: Streaming

Which brings us to streaming. In a few days, Dune will be released in theaters, but it will also be coming to living rooms through HBO Max on the same day. If you're paying for the ad-free version of the streaming service, you can watch it in 4K HDR, getting the best version of the film right from Warner Bros.

Is it too much to hope that there might be an 8K version that lets home theater owners replicate the full IMAX experience? Well, in a word, no.

Not to spend too much time talking about cameras again (I swear, I'm not usually one to get into the nitty-gritty of film production, but it's relevant to this topic), but the IMAX portions of Dune, though shot for a different aspect ratio and made for a larger movie screen, weren't captured in 8K. The film's Arri Alexa LF IMAX cameras record in native 4.5K, only slightly higher than what your 4K TV can handle – and again, that extra resolution is there mostly to give movie makers some freedom in the editing bay.

If the biggest movie of 2021, with its massive scope and scale, isn't even being shot at higher than 4K, then it's unlikely we'll ever see an 8K version of the film. And if we do, it will be done with the same sort of upscaling that 8K TVs already use for 4K content.

Which brings us back to the crux of the matter – the lack of 8K content. No amount of support for new discs or higher-bandwidth streaming will be able to make 8K content where there was none before. Upscaling can only go so far, and from what I've seen, it doesn't quite cut it. It's okay for making your 8K TV look like a really good 4K display, but even with the best processing and AI enhancement, it doesn't quite look right. That means you either need new 8K scans from film, or new content shot in 8K.

Studio-backed streaming services such as Disney+, HBO Max and Paramount Plus can draw from a significant library of movies, and some streaming services have become studios in their own right, such as Netflix, pumping out original shows and movies, and distributing others. If the key to 8K content is native 8K material, they have to start making it themselves.

The future of 8K: No Blu-ray on the way

If you're holding out for an 8K version of Blu-ray UHD discs, I wouldn't hold my breath. Not only are there no announced or even rumored 8K Blu-ray players, or an 8K Blu-ray disc format on the horizon, there's even some speculation that 8K video may be too data-dense for current disc capacities. This issue could be sidestepped by returning to multiple discs for a single movie, or heck, maybe they'll just make the discs larger, and we'll get the Blu-ray equivalent of laser disc in the coming years.

All joking aside, I haven't seen anything that suggests 8K Blu-ray is on the way in the next year or two. There is a higher-density triple-layer BDXL format that's under development, but looking at past trends for 1080p and 4K adoption, it could still be a few years yet before 8K physical media is available.

All of this is also ignoring the question of whether disc-based movie distribution will last much longer, anyway. A report from earlier 2020 in Variety reported that Warner Brothers and Universal have combined their DVD  and Blu-ray businesses after losing billions to declining physical media sales. As many studios transition to their own streaming services, it's possible that disc-based media could get phased out entirely, instead of adopting a new niche format.

The final nail in the coffin? Chris Chinnock, executive director of the 8K Association, wrote off 8K Blu-ray entirely back in 2019. In an interview with Inside CI, he made it pretty clear. "The Blu-ray Disc Association is not looking at 8k," said Chinnock. "Discussions could start again, but I see this as a low probability."

The bottom line is that physical media for 8K may never be a reality.

Who could make an early play for 8K? YouTube

But there's one major player in the streaming game that stands uniquely well positioned to make an 8K play early, and that's YouTube.

YouTube is one of the few outlets for 8K content already, and YouTube TV, a separate subscription-based cable replacement service, could leverage that streaming know-how with an 8K YouTube original.

We've already seen one YouTube Original become a breakout hit, though you might not have realized it. Cobra Kai, which has it's fourth season debut later this year, may have found its audience on Netflix, but it started on YouTube, as a YouTube Original, available only to paid subscribers. Granted, it's no Dune, but you can stream it in 4K just fine.

Is it that much of a stretch to hope that a similar series could give us a show in 8K? Even sticking to 8K-friendly content like nature scenes and beautiful detailed closeups, a series that gives 8K TV owners something to watch at the full resolution their TV provides could have a small, but loyal audience. With a little promotion, something like that could go a long way to quell some fears in TV shoppers' minds about buying into 8K this early.

A competently shot short form series available in 8K, even with one or two shots per episode that take advantage of the visual spectacle that 8K affords, can go a long way in this transitional period prior to major Hollywood involvement. Plenty of YouTube series could transition to 8K pretty easily, like cooking shows, beauty tutorials, fitness instruction, or music videos. (I'd suggest product reviews and unboxing videos, but I wouldn't want to make extra work for my colleagues.)

If I were a content maker or a film student looking to get my foot in the door, I would invest in an 8K camera or try to partner with LG or Samsung or another 8K TV maker. You don't even need to pay big money for something like a Red Helium 8K camera, you could shoot with a phone, like the Samsung Galaxy S21 or the Asus ROG Phone 5, or one of the other 8K-capable smartphones out there. The point is that there's a chance to start carving out a niche in the 8K world now, while there's plenty of room for newcomers to make a mark. It might just be amateurs that give us the first real market for 8K media. 

The bottom line… for now

At the end of the day, it's still hard for me to recommend 8K TVs to anyone, unless it happens to be a smoking deal. And until an 8K TV can show the average watcher something that they actually want to see in that higher resolution, then 8K ultra HD sets will continue to be a hard sell.

But hey, maybe Hollywood has a surprise up their sleeve for the holiday season. Or maybe some enterprising director looking for a break can make headway with an 8K camera. It's a wide open opportunity right now, and it's not everyday that such an opportunity arises.

Here's hoping someone takes advantage of it, and gives 8K TV shoppers a reason to buy.

• Best Black Friday 65-inch TV deals: Get 4K on the cheap

It takes a while for every captivating new technology to become commonplace enough for ordinary consumers to have regular exposure to it — and to be able to afford products that use it. The TCL Roku TV 6-Series 8K suggests that the company renowned for bringing good-looking sets to lower price ranges thinks 8K (at 7,680 x 4,320 pixels, four times the resolution of 4K) might have finally reached that point.

The TV itself makes that less obvious at the moment. It carries all the usual advantages of TCL models in terms of price and picture quality, but is hobbled by existing to showcase a technology that hasn’t had the time it needs to live, breathe, and influence the industry. This makes the TV itself a curiosity — particularly in its 65-inch incarnation — and not a terrific value prospect, even if you see the next big leap forward as more of an investment than a money pit.

Editor's Note: November 11, 2021 – TCL has just announced the first 8K streaming service, exclusive to TCL's 8K Roku TVs. It's an important step forward for 8K, and makes the TCL Roku TV 6-Series 8K (R648) a little more enticing than when we first reviewed it in July of 2021. Our rating remains unchanged, for now.

TCL Roku TV 6-Series 8K (R648): Price and availability

For our review, we assessed the 65-inch version of the TCL Roku TV 6-Series 8K, the 65R648. Because the other available model, the 75-inch 75R648, shares the same core features and underlying technologies, we expect the 65R648 and the 75R648 to be comparable in performance — if not necessarily viewing experience. (See the Performance section for more on this.)

• 65-inch (model 65R648): $2,199.99
• 75-inch (model 75R648): $2,999.99

TCL Roku TV 6-Series 8K (R648): Design

The Roku TV 6-Series 8K generally retains the thick, boxy look of previous entries in TCL’s 6-Series, with a few tweaks. The set measures 57 x 32.7 x 3 inches at its thickest, with the main portion of the screen itself slightly more than 1 inch deep.

Its size and weight (just over 70 pounds) mean that you will need another person’s help to set it up safely. The brushed-metal bezel is thin on all sides except the bottom, where its half-inch width is big enough to accommodate the TCL and Roku TV logos; there are quarter-inch bands of black on the top, left, and right.

The back of the TV is all black, with the plastic compartment housing the set’s components sporting thin, vertical lines to mask the vents. A column in the center is all black, except for the two metal concentric circles that add some visual interest to the top-middle portion. The screw holes for the VESA mount frame that center column.

Should you prefer to place your TV on a table or entertainment center instead of on the wall, a wedge-shaped metal stand is included that easily connects to the bottom of the TV with four screws.

The attractive brushed-metal stand is heavy duty, measuring 18.9 x 7.8 in front of the TV when installed (and raising the screen about 2.5 inches), while built-in cable management channels on its back side help simplify the usually tedious process of keeping your media setup neat.

TCL Roku TV 6-Series 8K (R648): Ports

All the ports are easy to access, as they are all side positioned. The power port is on the left, and everything else is on the right: the Ethernet port, the pinhole Reset button, four HDMI ports, the coaxial cable connector, one USB 2.0 port, the headphone jack, and the optical audio out port. The large hardware Power button is positioned below them, in the lower-right corner.

Only two of the HDMI ports support the HDMI 2.1 standard, which allows for next-generation technologies like 120 Hz refresh rates at 4K resolution, Variable Refresh Rate and Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM), for automatically switching over to gaming settings when you activate your console. Because the ports are not labeled, figuring out which uses which standard requires some trial and error. At least the port supporting eARC and ARC is marked as such.

As HDMI 2.1 becomes more prevalent in the industry, hopefully TCL will follow the lead of companies such as LG, which on its recent models has equipped all its HDMI ports with the newer, more powerful standard.

TCL Roku TV 6-Series 8K (R648): Test results

Among the offerings TCL highlights on the Roku TV 6-Series 8K line are the mini-LED backlighting and Contrast Control Zones for upping the contrast across the whole picture, in addition to the quantum dot (aka QLED) technology we’ve seen on previous models from TCL and Samsung. What do these mean as far as what appears on the screen?

For testing TVs, we use two pattern generators (an AccuPel DVG-5000 for SDR and a SpectraCal VideoForge Pro for HDR), the X-Rite i1 Pro spectrophotometer and the SpectraCal C6 colorimeter for display measurements, and Portrait Displays’ Calman calibration software.

In both Normal and Movie SDR modes, the R648 covered 99.8% or more of the Rec. 709 color gamut, which was just behind that of last year’s TCL 6-Series Roku TV 55R635 in Standard mode (99.86% versus 99.92) and more clearly ahead in Movie mode (99.79% versus 99.08%). The R648 outstripped it in color fidelity, too, using the Delta-E measurement (which specifies the difference between the transmitted color and what appears on the screen): 2.12 versus 2.85 (with lower numbers being better). The new set was superior in brightness, too, with its brightest mode registering 621 nits as opposed to the 594 nits of the earlier model.

Although OLED sets tend to deliver superior performance across the board, the R648 does what many TCL TVs do: punch above its weight relative to price.

TCL Roku TV 6-Series 8K (R648): Performance

For the time being, there are two key questions to consider with respect to 8K video performance: How does the set look when upscaling from lower resolutions, and how does it look when playing native 8K content? For the R648, let’s take them one at a time.

As far as the first question is concerned: not too bad. It maintained both the sharpness of edge and the starkness of contrast so necessary to the early farmhouse scene in Blade Runner 2049. It attractively conveyed all the dazzling earth hyper-tones of the Italian Riviera, and the sparkling blues and greens of the underwater scenes in the new Disney-Pixar animated film Luca. Zack Snyder’s Justice League retained its apparently intended sense of color-sapped, two-dimensional “cartooniness” with the aggressive popping of its contrast-bombing special effects. The lightning-streaked final battle between Rey and Palpatine in Star Wars; The Rise of Skywalker lacked a bit of the oomph we’ve seen on other TVs; the swirling festival on Pasaana bordered on the garish in both the Normal and Bright Dolby Vision modes, but passed muster in Dark.

In all cases, these 4K-rendered movies looked acceptably sharp when observed from a standard viewing distance (eight to ten feet from the screen). Softer edges were visible in these titles only when looking at them from far closer than any human being ever should, so you don’t have to worry about all your 4K movies being visually “obsolete” in 8K any time soon.

Upscaling from 1080p, however, was another matter. In almost everything we tested, the fuzziness was conspicuous and distracting. Coming off best was Mission: Impossible — Fallout, though even that evinced a loss of the richness that make that action film look so immediate at lower resolutions. Most other videos shot in HD looked straight bad, as if shot in wrinkle-obscuring soft focus.

Don’t forget that 8K is 16 times the resolution of 1080p, so all of this is, on some level, to be expected. Let your living and entertainment circumstances guide you: If a large chunk of your movie library is in 1080p, and if you’re forced to sit fairly close to your set, 8K may just not be right for you at this time.  

Then there’s native 8K content. Disclaimer: We’re seriously hobbled by the current dearth of it, so we didn’t have an extensive collection of movies to sift through; we were mainly limited to YouTube nature and tourism videos. No, these aren’t genuinely representative of what you’re likely to watch, but they’re good for showing off what the resolution means. Even from a standard viewing distance, we could make out single strands of fur on animals or the individual bricks on a Swiss windmill, and the bustling nighttime Manhattan cityscape came alive in all its twinkling glory just as it does when you’re padding through the streets of the City That Never Sleeps.

Comparing the 65R648 side-by-side against another 65-inch TV we’ve recently reviewed, the 4K Sony Bravia XR A80J, painted a different picture. The exact same videos, looked at this way, appeared almost identical, and in a couple of cases, the A80J actually looked fuller and cleaner. This isn’t a huge shock; cramming a lot more pixels into the same amount of space means they’ll be small enough for the nuances to evaporate before you get too far away from the screen. This is why a lot of premium 8K sets are 75 or 85 inches, bigger than even most 4K TVs: It’s a lot easier to see what you’re getting, regardless of where you’re sitting.

In fairness, the A80J is also a higher-end 4K TV and the 65R648 comes with a bleeding-edge premium, so they’re not really directly competitive. But it’s nonetheless an important reminder that not all TVs are equal, content is key, and the built-in limitations of, well, optics are always in play. Pixels blending from far enough away isn’t a bad thing, per se (just ask Georges Seurat), but it doesn’t help in making a compelling argument for a “smaller” 8K TV at this moment in the technology’s life cycle.

One thing that’s true of the R648 at every resolution: Its off-angle viewing leaves a great deal to be desired. Colors are drained of most of their vibrancy well before you reach the corner of the set, and once you’re at or past that, forget it. The summery peaches and reds of Luca’s face flattened into colors you’d expect to find on a sun-bleached poster; and the color version of Zack Snyder’s Justice League, which already laughs in the face of saturation, becomes barely a half-step removed from the black-and-white “Justice Is Gray Edition” when viewed from anywhere other than straight on. If anything, full-screen color tests were even worse: At the corners, an all-orange screen became lemon yellow, cyan turned pastel green, and violet was a violent magenta. Solid red, green, and blue fared the best, but that’s not high praise for a large television.

TCL Roku TV 6-Series 8K (R648): Gaming

If one area makes an open-and-shut case for 8K today, it’s gaming — but even that’s not caveat-free. The TCL Roku TV 6-Series 8K sets are the first at this resolution to support THX Certified Game Mode, which meets certain benchmarks for color, speed, image clarity, and more. As previously mentioned, two of the R648’s HDMI ports support the gaming-friendly HDMI 2.1 standard, and firing up our Xbox Series X showed that nearly all of its capabilities are met by this set. And when it comes to input lag, it just surpasses our threshold of 20 milliseconds for smooth gameplay, with 19.3 ms as measured with the older 1080p Leo Bodnar Signal Lag Tester and 14.6 ms when measured with a newer model designed for higher-resolution sets.

As with 1080p video, older games are iffy; Assassin’s Creed Odyssey was passable, but looked smudged and fake. But last year’s Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, optimized for more modern hardware, had the crisper, realer look we craved; even with all the details turned up, the 120 Hz refresh rate ensured smooth movement of the lead character, Eivor, in action at various levels of intensity. We can’t yet report on how native 8K console games would play, but based on what we’ve seen here, we’re not too worried.

But the R648 did allow us to test 8K PC games, and this may have come the closest to converting us. We tried three titles — Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, and DiRT 5 — and they all looked terrific, with the combination of the TV’s size and resolution providing the next level of immersive experience that smaller monitors are not always able to realize.

Here, though, we faced a different bottleneck: PC performance. Our test system was a gaming desktop with a 10-core, 20-thread Intel Core i9-10850K processor; 32GB of RAM; and, most crucially, an Nvidia RTX 3090 graphics card — not just the gold standard for 8K gaming today, but pretty much the only standard. The card, with its sky-high 24GB of video memory, could handle the stress, but even it could only do so much. With the graphical details maxed out in every case, frame rates hit a low ceiling: on Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition, 23.1 fps for the High benchmark preset, 18 for Ultra, and 11.5 for Extreme; on Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, 25 fps; and on DiRT 5, 27.6 fps; remember, 30 fps is typically considered the bare minimum for a smooth experience. And this is the same system that, at 4K, turned out frame rates on the same tests of 69.9, 55.5, 36.6, 64, and 75.2 fps, respectively. Yes, you’re getting a huge gaming playground with 8K, but the performance you have to sacrifice may not be worth it — and if you have a lesser video card, you’re just wasting your time unless you want to dial back the visuals (maybe a lot).

That’s not all you’re giving up, either. Nvidia lists its version of the RTX 3090 at $1,499, which is high enough, but thanks to the global shortage, the least expensive one available at Newegg is $2,739, and Amazon’s lowest is $2,724. If you don’t already have this card, you’ll probably want to wait to expand your PC gaming into the 8K realm when doing so is more realistic.

TCL Roku TV 6-Series 8K (R648): Audio

Whether you prefer watching movies or playing games, you want a TV’s audio to be top-notch, and, similar to other TCL sets, the R648’s isn’t. With its two 15-watt speakers, movies, music, and games alike sounded blown out even at lower parts of the set’s volume range, and metallic distortion became increasingly evident the higher it was cranked. Soprano vocals came across as shrill with that setup, slightly clipping and sounding roundly unpleasant. The TV’s problems with layering sound were especially noticeable with dialogue, which got swallowed up if anything else was happening at the same time. (We tried multiple sound modes, and experienced these issues to some degree or another in all of them.)

Interestingly, the 30-watt subwoofer contributed to tolerable bass presence, as evidenced by the relentless thumping of The Knife’s “Silent Shout,” and it took until about the volume midpoint to lose its luster. That’s something, but if audio is really critical for your TV-watching enjoyment, pair this TV with one of the options in Tom’s Guide roundup of the best soundbars.

TCL Roku TV 6-Series 8K (R648): Smart features

As its full name implies, the R648 uses the familiar Roku TV interface. A scrolling menu on the side highlights the available choices, which include “Featured Free” (no-cost TV shows and movies); “My Feed” (your customizable video stream); movie, TV, and channel stores; Search; and Home, which provides instant access to your installed content channels, live TV (if you use it), and whatever other devices you have connected via HDMI. (At the time of writing, another option was “2020 Tokyo Olympics,” which provided a one-glance medal breakdown alongside a link to watch daily highlights or live coverage with the proper subscription — a fun addition.)

Roku TV is quick to learn and easy to use, but it lacks the depth and breadth of functionality that characterize the best smart TV systems, such as Google TV. There’s not much wrong with it now that its app selection has expanded to include such necessities as Apple TV+ and Disney+, but it’s starting to look simplistic and dated compared with the more advanced offerings found on other sets.

TCL Roku TV 6-Series 8K (R648): Remote control

The Roku TV remote, on the other hand, has received a major update — and it’s a welcome change. Replacing the tiny, squat black one that’s been all but universal for years is a sleeker silver-and-gray model that’s easier to hold and more comfortable to use. It measures about 7.3 by 1.6 inches, with all the buttons in the top three-fifths or so; the blank bottom section slides open to reveal the battery compartment. The main buttons are round, decently sized, and easy to press, as is the navigation wheel and its central OK button; only the buttons that access dedicated streaming channels (Netflix, Disney+, Apple TV+, and Hulu) are oblong in shape, so you’re unlikely to hit anything accidentally in the dark.

Another option is the new Roku Voice Remote Pro ($29.99, sold separately), which looks and feels a lot more like the traditional Roku remote but which offers improved voice controls. A hands-free switch lets you issue voice commands without first having to depress the microphone button (though it’s still there to use even if you turn off the hands-free mode). There are also two new programmable personal shortcut buttons, and a built-in headphone jack lets you listen to the TV silently. Plus, if you misplace the remote (which, let’s face it, you eventually will), you can say “Hey Roku, where’s my remote?” to get help in tracking it down.

These are fun capabilities, no doubt, and if your preferred method of interacting with your TV is by voice, this is an upgrade that’s worth having. (It should work with any Roku TV, too — not just this one.) Personally, I prefer the size and shape of the redesigned included remote, and it’s too bad the new voice features aren’t standard on it.

TCL Roku TV 6-Series 8K (R648): Verdict

However much we may want to pretend otherwise, we don’t yet live in an 8K world. Heck, with so many worthwhile videos (on YouTube and the streaming services) that are still coming out in 1080p, and internet bandwidth rather less than affordably maximized at many locations in the U.S., it’s likely to be years before we get there. My colleague, Tom’s Guide TV Editor Brian Westover, suggests we’re a decade away; I’m more bullish, and think that the speed of 4K adoption and the constant improvement in internet speeds puts it closer to five (with 8K videos worth watching hitting even before that), but its status as the de facto industry standard is not merely around the next corner. And as good as gaming on an 8K TV can be, PC hardware needs to go up in performance and down in price before that becomes wise, either.

All that said, the TCL Roku TV 6-Series 8K (R648) might be worth it if it were a killer performer in its own right. The sound, which aspires to the average but doesn’t always get there, and the aging smart TV interface are sticking points, and the benefits of 8K are literally and figuratively hard to see on the 65-inch model we tested. All this gets in the way of its fine color and brightness, solid design, and nice new remote — the things that do make this TV worth considering.

The problem is, you can get all this and more in a 4K set that costs the same and will still be a viable, even enviable, choice for years to come. Considering the prices of most consumer models, it’s understandable why early adopters would want an 8K TV just to say they have the next, big thing. But although it’s currently hard to find a cheaper 8K set than the TCL Roku TV 6-Series 8K (R648), it’s all too easy to find a better 4K model — and most viewers will find they don’t miss those extra few million pixels that much, if at all.

TCL launched its first 8K TVs earlier this year with the TCL Roku TV 6-Series 8K (R648), but only a few months later, the TV maker has stepped up its game by offering TCL customers the first 8K subscription video service available on smart TVs.

TCL 8K TV owners will be able to get the Explorers 8K premium subscription service, the new 8K streaming service from the The Explorers Foundation. The TV maker has partnered with The Explorers Foundation, an initiative built around protecting and promoting biodiversity through documenting the planet in all its glory. 

Specifically, by gathering and sharing a large library of 8K and 4K ultra HD video devoted to the natural, cultural and human heritage of Earth.

I've written at length in the past about the complete lack of 8K content options available on 8K TVs.  Up to this point, you're pretty much stuck with YouTube and Vimeo, which host 8K videos.  But the content selection is sparse, the discovery process is lousy and the 8K content available is drowned out by the mountains of other videos the services offer. There hasn't been a good source of 8K content for TV owners to enjoy. 

With The Explorers streaming app, TCL is hoping to change that. Pulling from a community of documentarians and filmmakers, The Explorers offers a mix of 8K and 4K content from around the globe. And not just in the sense that media is made in different countries. We're talking about footage from icy Arctic glaciers to tropical islands of French Polynesia. The Explorers platform is devoted to exploring all of Earth, whether that's nature, culture or human events.

"8K HDR enhances images with stunning sharpness and depth of field," said Gregory Martoglio, world-renowned nature cinematographer and frequent contributor to The Explorers. "The powerful images of the natural world that we've preserved in 8K video look spectacular on The Explorers Channel through the TCL 6-Series 8K TV."

What that means for TCL TV owners is that there is a library of 8K content available now. And the promise is that there will be new content through the app daily.  Even if it doesn't have the latest movies and TV shows, the idea of a steady drip of 8K content is a major step up from where we've been, giving 8K TV owners something new to watch every single day.

TCL customers can get a free trial subscription for 3 months, and continuing subscriptions cost $2.99 per month. The Explorers Foundation gets a portion of the proceeds from this monthly fee, so a subscription is also a great way to support a good cause.

It's worth noting that The Explorers app is available to all Roku customers, and only the 3-month free trial is exclusive to TCL customers. It will also be available on future 8K Roku models, though only TCL is making those at the moment.

The Explorers 8K app is available through the Roku Channel Store, but sign up will require setting up an account on the Explorers Plus web page. 

The LG QNED MiniLED 99 Series 8K TV is one of a selection of new models showing that 8K is now on the threshold of affordability for a greater number of people. LG’s new entry in that contest is the QNED 99, which purports to fuse a number of existing display technologies and its own innovations into one four-times-larger-than-4K-resolution set positioned for the Next Big Display Thing. It's an easy addition to our best 8K TVs list, but does it present a compelling case for buyers?

On the surface level, yes. This is a reasonable way for all you slavering early adopters to get 8K into your home (provided you have a spacious place to put the set) and get some good features as part of the deal. But as this review is being published in early fall of 2021, a lot of roadblocks to widespread 8K adoption remain, foremost among them high prices, low Internet bandwidth for streaming the crazy number of pixels required, and such a dearth of content that there’s almost nothing to stream anyway. LG can’t solve these problems with the QNED 99—only time and wide-scale adoption can do that—and nods toward some new ones while introducing a couple of its own along the way. Yes, the QNED 99 gets the job done, but right now, it’s not entirely clear how much that job needs to be done at all.

LG QNED MiniLED 99 Series 8K TV review: Price and availability

For our review, we assessed the 75-inch version of the LG QNED 99, the $3,499 75QNED99UPA. Because the other two available models, the 65-inch 65QNED99UPA and the 86-inch 86QNED99UPA, share the same core features and underlying technologies, we expect those sets to be comparable in performance—though the 75-inch one is likely to be the best choice for most shoppers, for reasons explained in the Performance section.

• 65-inch (model 65QNED99UPA): $2,499.99
• 75-inch (model 75QNED99UPA): $3,499.99
• 86-inch (model 86QNED99UPA): $5,299.99

LG QNED MiniLED 99 Series 8K TV review: Design

First things first: The 75QNED99UPA is big. Measuring nearly 66 inches wide and 38 inches tall and weighing 82 pounds, you’ll need at least two strong people to set it up and position it—and having a third on hand might not be a bad idea, especially if you’re planning use one of the best TV mounts to wall-mount it. (The shipping weight is a hefty 106 pounds, so even moving the box may be a challenge.) Even just adjusting the TV once it’s set up can be a trial; figure out where you want it, put it there, and leave it.

In most other ways, the set is subdued in the design department: good looking, but in no way ostentatious. From the front, not much is visible beyond the sprawling screen except the thin, silver-colored rim and the quarter-inch bezel on the left, right, and top; the third-inch bezel on the bottom sports the red standby light in the middle, but not a lot else.

The back is largely a featureless plain of dark metal, too, with a few alcoves cut for the ports and two in the upper corners for a flush-mounting solution (to be released later this year), the holes for installing a 400x400-millimeter VESA mounting bracket, and not much else. Although the 1.1-inch-thick TV is designed to be wall mounted, it includes a wedge-shaped, brushed-metal stand if you’d prefer to place it on top of something else. The attractive stand does add 13 inches to the depth, though, so check that you have sufficient space for it.

LG QNED MiniLED 99 Series 8K TV review: Ports

The power connector is on the right side of the TV and the remaining rear-panel ports, all downward-aiming, are on the left. These comprise (left to right) IR Blaster, RS-232C, coaxial cable, optical audio out, Ethernet, two HDMI, and two USB ports. Two additional HDMI ports and one more USB port face out the left side, making it a lot easier to quickly connect or disconnect frequently moved devices.

All four HDMI ports support the newest HDMI 2.1 standard, which allows for next-generation technologies like 120 Hz refresh rates at 4K resolution; Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM), for automatically switching over to gaming settings when you activate your console. The only advanced HDMI 2.1 feature that's missing is Variable Refresh Rate (VRR). We greatly appreciate LG’s using HDMI 2.1 on all its ports, and hope that other TV makers follow suit in short order.

LG QNED MiniLED 99 Series 8K TV review: Test Results

To get a better idea of how the QNED MiniLED 99 Series compares with comparable TVs, we fired up our usual testing regimen using Portrait Displays’s Calman Ultimate calibration software, X-Rite i1 Pro and SpectraCal C6 colorimeters, and two pattern generators: the AccuPel DVG-5000 for SDR and the SpectraCal VideoForge Pro for HDR.

The QNED 99 is one of the brighter TVs we’ve tested, registering 442 nits in its SDR Cinema mode and 557 nits in its brightest mode (Vivid), supporting LG’s claim that this is the brightest TV the company has ever released. It doesn’t quite match the maximum SDR brightness of 621 nits we saw from the TCL 6-Series 8K (65R648), or come close to the Samsung QN90A Neo QLED’s 1,814 nits (though we’ve never seen anything that does); and these results are largely mirrored in the HDR modes. But the QNED 99, like the other two TVs, continues to make an impressive case for the brightness potential of Mini LEDs.

We saw superior color reproduction from the QNED 99, too. Its 2.06 rating for Delta-E, which measures the difference between the color at the source and the color displayed on the screen, was the best among the three sets, with the TCL registering 2.12 and the Samsung 2.57.

With SDR content, the LG model also covered a slightly greater percentage of the Rec. 709 color gamut (99.95%) than the other two sets in Standard mode, with the TCL’s 99.86% and the Samsung’s 99.79%. It was, however, weaker with HDR, covering less of the Rec. 2020 and UHDA-P3 color gamuts than either of the other two sets.

LG QNED MiniLED 99 Series 8K TV review: Performance

We discovered from our previous mainstream 8K set, the TCL Roku TV 6-Series 8K, that a 65-inch screen is wholly inadequate to conveying the full capabilities of 8K, due to the pixel density that ends up as not registering much more visibly sharp than 4K, especially if you’re not up close. We’re happy to report that this LG makes a far better case for the new display resolution—provided you’re able to watch it from far enough away.

From a viewing distance of about 12 feet, the 75QNED99UPA’s picture was a revelation: razor-edged crisp, even down to the individual hairs on animals’ faces or lights in the New York City skyline. No matter what I watched (a subject we’ll return to in a moment), the result was jaw-dropping, and about as transformative as the first time I saw an HD or 4K TV in full-resolution action.

There are two unavoidable problems here, however. First, you simply don’t derive the same benefits if you’re much closer. From about eight feet from the screen—even 10 in some circumstances—the blotchiness is detectable and distracting, and you’re more aware of the individual picture elements than of the scene as a whole. Things are still watchable, but move forward any more and they look outright bad. This isn’t the fault of the TV itself, but rather the science of optics, which can’t easily be canceled to justify your $3,500 purchase. With the 85-inch 85QNED99UPA, you’d need to be positioned back still farther to gain the same effect, which may not be worth it, even if you’re able to place it somewhere large enough to justify it. At least for the moment, 75 inches seems to be the 8K sweet spot for average-size living rooms, but care and consideration is still required.

The second problem is native 8K content: There basically isn’t any. We conducted our evaluation using exclusively 8K YouTube videos, which work terrific for that, but don’t exactly excite with their long-term viewing potential. By the end of our testing period, I was getting mighty sick of the nature surveys and travelogues that constitute almost the entire library of available videos, no matter how amazing they looked. This will undoubtedly change as more 8K sets in homes necessitate real movies and series using the format, but for now, there’s essentially nothing to watch in 8K.

The question then becomes: How does the 75-inch QNED 99 upscale? Pretty well, again provided you’re not nose-to-glass with the screen and choosing your material carefully. The 4K versions of Blade Runner 2049, the Disney-Pixar animated film Luca, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, and Zack Snyder’s Justice League all delivered the goods from that 12-foot vantage point, though were notably less distinct closer to the screen. Unfortunately, 1080p content is another story. Upscaling that lower-resolution video resulted in the loss of all manner of fine details. In the mountaintop fistfight at the end of Mission: Impossible—Fallout, for example, the towering rock outcropping and Tom Cruise’s face looked flat and featureless, almost fuzzy, and not as rife with rough-hewn realism as in 4K upscaling. The message is unmistakable: Stick with the higher resolution whenever possible.

LG touts the QNED 99’s confluence of technologies designed to enhance picture quality across the board. These include Mini LEDs, for greater brightness and deeper blacks, thanks to more precise backlight control, and NanoCell Color and Quantum Dot, for improving color reproduction. And these resulted in picture quality that was generally strong, within the limits outlined above.

The set had no trouble defining the high-contrast areas of the early farmhouse scene in Blade Runner 2049, presenting every nuance of expression on Ryan Gosling’s and Dave Bautista’s faces in their taut confrontation. Luca’s Mediterranean color palette and soft skin textures showed through beautifully. And the wide expanse of the screen was ideal for playing Zack Snyder’s Justice League (which was shot in the IMAX aspect ratio), with the intense action and even more intensely desaturated colors alternately invigorating and enervating you, just as the visionary director intended. The LG TV stumbled only with The Rise of Skywalker, with the high-contrast climactic battle scenes in Palpatine’s subterranean Exegol lair appearing oddly grainy, the inky blacks of the shadowy cave not playing nicely with the myriad blue-white lightning flashes.

Considering how far back you’ll need to sit to take advantage of the set’s 8K capabilities, you probably won’t have to worry much about off-angle viewing issues if you position things properly. There’s some washing-out of the image at extreme angles, which was most notable in our full-panel color tests but showed up a bit in live-action video, too. But it was slight, and you have to be close to the TV and sitting practically at the corner for it to matter—two things that will never (or at least should never) happen with a TV like this one.

We did encounter two performance oddities worth pointing out. As far as the screen goes, even on higher-end TVs, you can sometimes see streaking from heavily contrasting picture elements, such as white text overlain on solid black (such as the top or bottom of a letterboxed movie). Usually, though, this is minor and doesn’t detract from the experience. But combining the LG’s high resolution and above-average brightness, it can get incredibly intrusive on this set—it was so severe with video header information in the Amazon Prime Video app that at first it appeared the TV itself was detective. This didn’t occur often, and it always straightened itself out when the video returned to normal, but it was deeply ugly and distracting whenever it occurred.

The process of using the TV itself was also occasionally muddy. Such ostensibly ordinary activities as moving around the menus, scrolling through the home screen, or launching apps, could sometimes take an inordinately long time, with especially bad lag while changing selections. This didn’t come up all time, but we encountered it frequently enough for it to frustrate.

LG QNED MiniLED 99 Series 8K TV review: Gaming

The QNED MiniLED 99 Series is equipped with LG’s Game Optimizer, which collects a number of console-friendly functions in a single menu. (These work only over HDMI, so they won’t have an impact on the rest of your viewing.) Among other things, these let you tweak the light and dark areas of the screen depending on the genre of game you’re playing; reduce blue light; and activate AI Game Sound, which optimizes the TV’s settings for the game’s content.

Thanks to its abundance of HDMI 2.1 ports, the QNED 99 is an excellent bet for contemporary gaming; a check of our Xbox Series X showed that the TV supported all of the console’s available technologies, including HDR, 4K at 120 Hz, and more. Its measured lag times of 18ms and 15.8ms, respectively determined using our Leo Bodnar 1080p and 4K lag testers, more than surpass our 20ms threshold for top playability, though there are faster sets to be found. (The LG has less lag than the TCL 6-Series 8K, but itself has quite a bit more than the Samsung QN90A, which blisters with 12.6ms at 1080p and 9.9ms at 4K.)

Our main caveat is the same as with video viewing. Newer games that render in 4K upscale appropriately to 8K; there was barely any fuzziness detectable in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, and the game played smoothly even during its heavy fighting sequences. Older titles, however, such as Assassin’s Creed Origins, were of course still playable, but looked much worse. You don’t need to abandon any game more than a year or two old, but you’re probably better off sticking to new ones if you want top-flight visuals.

LG QNED MiniLED 99 Series 8K TV review: Audio

With a 60-watt, 4.2-channel audio system, the QNED 99 is not poorly equipped in the sound department, and those capabilities are augmented further with the application of other features and technologies. Most prominent is Dolby Atmos surround sound, which adds an extra layer of aural immersion when you watch something recorded in it. But there are a number of other LG-specific configurations as well, such as AI Acoustic Tuning, for tailoring the sound to your specific viewing environment, and AI Sound Pro, which separates and clarifies speech and other types of sound. The former didn’t make a significant difference for me, but the latter did, adding a depth and richness to certain pieces of content (particularly The Rise of Skywalker, where it was as though I was plunged into the center of the orchestra) while not doing much to others.

Movies in particular, even with loaded with action and many layered audio elements (as is common in Zack Snyder’s Justice League), had a clean, distinct sound, even in the relatively flat Standard mode, and gained additional juice in Cinema (the best balanced of the modes to my ear). Low bass notes had firm but hardly overwhelming presence in songs like The Knife’s “Silent Shout,” and more soaring trebles similarly came across just fine through most of the set’s volume range. If you want to maximize your ears’ experience, you can play with the various presets and the equalizer, but the defaults were satisfactory for me all the way around.

At the furthest extreme (upwards of volume level 90), both lower and higher music lost a tick of clarity, but never discernibly topped out or became unpleasant to listen to. That said, like most TVs, the QNED 99 never gets ear-squeezingly loud, even at its highest. So if you want something that will shake the walls and rattle the rafters, you will definitely want to check out one of Tom’s Guide’s best soundbars.

LG QNED MiniLED 99 Series 8K TV review: Smart features

LG’s webOS operating system remains intuitive and simple to navigate, with a streamlined home screen (more acutely resembling the Android TV/GoogleTV design style) that puts the app selection front and center while also serving up plenty of additional content possibilities from a wide variety of sources. Apps on the QNED 99 are attractive and responsive, good matches for what you’ll see on other TVs and mobile devices, and the, uh, Apps app for adding more is well designed, letting you see at a glance both which are popular and which have been most recently updated.

Among the preinstalled apps is LG Channels, which surfaces a thick catalog of free viewing material mostly drawn from TV series and live broadcasts, but also some movies. But you can find other things to watch via the straightforward Search function in the upper right; to its left are a panel for advertising a sponsored show (usually from LG Channels) and a five-way carousel suggesting different things you can or should do with the TV.

The TV connects to LG’s ThinQ smart ecosystem, so you can use the remote control (see below) to control or check the status of other LG home appliances you may have.

LG QNED MiniLED 99 Series 8K TV review: Remote control

The QNED 99’s remote is an updated version of LG’s Magic Remote, which combines traditional remote functionality (and thus lots of buttons) with that of a computer mouse: You can access on-screen options with a movable pointer rather than having to use the directional pad, and select with the clickable scroll wheel near the remote’s center. I have personally always hated the pointer, finding it far slower and clunkier for navigating the menus, but it remains available if you prefer it.

Another interaction option is voice control: Hold down the remote’s centrally located microphone button and you can speak your commands to the TV. The first time you do this, you’re also given the opportunity to turn on Hands-free Voice Control, which doesn’t require the remote; just say “Hi LG” and what you want to do, and the set will take care of it. Both versions of the voice control worked well.

Otherwise, the remote is now slightly more rectangular, fitting more naturally into the hand, though its curvy underside and decent weighting remain; overall, it’s a lot more comfortable to use now. Also a plus are the cleaner controls, with more rounded buttons (the old version used a lot more ovals), soft-touch rocker switches for channel and volume, and other space-saving moves that allow for additional shortcut keys at the bottom (for Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, LG Channels, Hey Google, and Amazon Alexa).

LG QNED MiniLED 99 Series 8K TV review: Verdict

If you’ve staked your claim on the bleeding edge of technology, we’re finally at the point where the concept of an 8K TV makes sense. Though pricey, they’re no longer second-mortgage expensive, and there are enough models out there that you can choose the one that most aligns with your preferences and potential brand loyalty.

From that standpoint, the LG QNED MiniLED 99 Series 8K TV is a perfectly tenable choice. It marshals a satisfyingly high level of brightness and color accuracy against its competitors, wields a capable audio system, and throws in a sparkling array of smart technologies, a good operating system, and an improved remote control. Though it’s sometimes slow to use, even that is tolerable. And, as a larger set, it lets you see—in a way you can’t with smaller sets, such as the 65-inch TCL 6-Series 8K (65R648)—all that 8K has to offer.

The sticking point remains 8K itself. It’s still a phantom format, with no major movies or TV series taking advantage of it in any real way. To get the most out of what little content that does exist, you really do need to get a large, expensive model, and have a lot of space and patience to devote to it. And for watching anything else, you have to rely on upscaling, which is an iffy prospect at best, even on a set with an otherwise good picture.

For everything the LG QNED MiniLED 99 Series 8K TV offers, it’s still a tough sell when the prices are this high and 4K and even 1080p are still so prevalent. The fact remains: If you buy this TV—or any other 8K TV—today, you’re buying it primarily for what it will deliver tomorrow.

TCL has announced the new premium TCL X9 85-inch 8K OD Zero Mini-LED TV (X925PRO), which is shaping up to be TCL's most premium TV yet. This comes after the company's announcement of its first TCL Google TVs.

From killer features like an integrated multi-function stand and built-in webcam for video calls to the deep bench of Google TV features and killer 8K picture with mini-LED backlighting, the TCL X9 85-inch 8K Google TV is shaping up to be the best TV TCL has ever made.

Here's what we know so far about the TCL X9 85-inch 8K OD Zero Mini-LED TV (X925PRO).

• Tested and reviewed: The best TVs of the year
• TV buying guide: 9 things you need to now
• What's the difference? Google TV vs. Android TV

What is the TCL X9 Google TV?

The 85-inch 8k Google TV is part of TCL's X9 series, a range of premium TVs previously sold only in non-US markets, such as Europe and Australia. Formally named the TCL X9 85-inch 8K OD Zero Mini-LED TV (X925PRO), it's the top-of-the-line model from the X9 series, but it appears to be the only X9 model that's going to be sold in the States.

Also referred to as the X9 Pro, The 8K Google TV goes above and beyond anything that TCL is done before, with a refined version of any LED backlighting, paired with TCL's QLED enhancements and 8K resolution. To this it adds a stunning sleek design that's the thinnest TCL has ever made, and features extras like an integrated stand, built-in webcam and huge multi-speaker array that should offer impressive audio.

TCL X9 Google TV price and availability

The 85-inch 8K X9 Google TV Will sell for $9,999.99. That is the most expensive TCL model available in the United States, but the price is not entirely unreasonable. Top 4K models from our best 85-inch TVs page include sets that range from $1,799 for the 85-inch TCL 4-Series Roku TV (also from the TCL XL Collection) up to $4,999 for the 85-inch Samsung Neo QLED QN90A, our current top pick for premium 4K sets. 

And 8K models routinely sell for much more. Other premium 8K models range from the almost-budget-friendly 85-inch Samsung QN800A Neo QLED 8K set that originally listed at $6,499 to the 88-inch LG Signature ZX OLED, which sells for $29,999.

TCL hasn't announced a launch date for the X9, stating in a press release that it "will be available in North America later this year" but that it will be selling in global markets first.

TCL X9 Google TV design

The most stunning thing about the TCL X9 may not be the 8K picture or incredible mini-LED backlight, but the physical design of the TV itself. It's the slimmest model TCL has ever made, thanks to the thinness afforded by the new OD Zero backlight, but it doesn't stop there.

The screen is surrounded by barely-there bezels, with edge-to-edge glass. The TV chassis is a combination of brushed anodized aluminum and glossy piano black finishes. But the real stunner is the TV's integrated stand. With a swivelling design that can be configured as a floor stand, table-top stand or even a wall mount, it's ready for any setup.

And it comes with an Onkyo soundbar that promises immersive 3D sound, and sports the same brushed metal finish as the TV chassis.

TCL X9 Google TV specs and features

In addition to the usual features, the TCL X9 Google TV has some unique features too. An array of built-in microphones allows hands-free use, letting you use the Google TV as a giant Google-powered smart speaker.

But it also features a giant soundbar, which contains a 25-driver speaker array that offers object-based sound with 5.1.2 channel audio.

The TV itself boasts four HDMI ports, including one with eARC and two HDMI 2.1 ports for full 8K media and gaming at 60Hz. That connectivity compliments the gaming support, which includes standard HDMI 2.1 features like variable refresh rate (VRR) and auto low-latency mode (ALLM) which TCL calls Auto Game Mode.

The X9 also features a pop-up webcam, which can be used for video chats using Google Duo. When not in use, the webcam is stored inside the chassis of the TV, eliminating concerns about unwanted eyes peering in through an unused webcam. Once you end a Google Duo video call, the webcam automatically lowers down into the TV chassis.

What is the TCL XL Collection?

The X9 Google TV is part of the TCL XL Collection, a trio of extra-large TVs that includes 85-inch models with both 4K and now 8K resolution.

With 85-inch models in the affordable TCL 4-Series, the mid-range TCL 6-Series, and now the premium X9 Google TV series, the TCL XL collection offers the biggest screens TCL makes, across the full range of options – 4K and 8K resolutions, price is ranging from low to high, and smart options from both Roku and Google.

What is OD Zero?

After initially introducing their first mini LED TV in 2019, TCL has been working to refine the technology. The third generation version of mini LED is being called OD Zero, a name which directly references what makes this new version special – it has virtually zero gap between the mini-LED backlighting and the display panel, eliminating the parallax issues that older mini-LED TVs experienced.

This new version of mini-LED improves upon a technology that was already great. Mini-LED backlighting uses specialized LEDs that measure just 0.008-inch across, and can be used to give an 85-inch TV thousands of individual backlighting zones, allowing the tightest brightness and dimming control you'll get without OLED.

Removing any gap between these smaller LEDs and the display panel also means that TCL can make TVs thinner. While not as thin as OLED panels, which can be printed on glass and need no backlight, mini-LED TVs do offer the possibility of TVs measuring less than an inch thick.

What is Google TV?

The X9 8K TV is also part of TCL's growing collection of Google TV models, which use Google's latest smart TV software. Built upon the foundation of Android TV, Google TV offers a more content focused experience, with a revamped interface, personalized content recommendations, and The ability to add movies and shows to your personal watch list from your phone or laptop, creating a more seamless experience for Google users.

Google TV also features deeper smart home integration, with the ability to monitor cameras from connected doorbells and home security cams, Google Assistant voice interaction that lets you use TV as a smart speaker to control all manner of gadgets, and parental controls that give moms and dads better tools for managing TV time.

(To learn more about TCl's move to Google TVs, check out TCL Google TVs just put Roku and Fire TV on notice — here’s why.) 

TCL X9 Google TV outlook

All told, the TCL X9 8K Google TV is shaping up to be the best TCL TV ever sold in the U.S., bringing to bear TCL's most advanced technologies, the latest smart TV capabilities from Google, and the combination of 85-inch screen size and 8K resolution that should leave early adopters and TV enthusiasts salivating.

We'll be on the lookout for more details about the TCL X9 8K Google TV, including a review if the opportunity presents itself. Keep an eye on this page for new details and rumors.

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Anyone who knows me, or who reads my work here on Tom's Guide, knows that I have opinions about TVs. That's sort of my job.

One of the opinions I hold strongly is that 8K TVs, for all their visual splendor and premium features, are not ready for prime time. I frequently tell people not only to avoid buying an 8K set (even the best 8K TVs) but to spend their money on premium 4K TVs instead, because 8K isn't worth the money.

So why did I just recommend an 8K TV to my father?

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Let's start by reviewing why I tell people to avoid 8K TVs. This is largely about two factors: content and price. There's just no 8K content out there. Not in movies, not in streaming, not in games. And with 8K models commanding a premium over even the best 4K sets, it's not worth the extra expense. And so, my general advice – which I have no problem sharing with friends and family – is to not even worry about 8K TVs.

So, back to my dad. 

My father has been finishing the basement of my parents home for the last couple of years. The crowning jewel of this rather significant undertaking is a home theater, complete with a pricey sound system, a rack mount of home theater equipment, comfy couches and a recently built snack bar, complete with a mini fridge full of snacks and a SodaStream for fizzy drinks. I even helped revamp his home Wi-Fi setup to better serve his smart TV and streaming needs.

So when it came time to purchase a TV, he was already armed with a laundry list of TV-related advice that I had given him over the months that this project has been going on. 

And once he started shopping, I had plenty of suggestions. I knew the dimensions of the room, so I helped him settle on the perfect screen size, with his choice between the best 75-inch TVs and the best 85-inch TVs (check out our guide to what size TV should you buy if you're having trouble deciding). We've had conversations about HDR formats and smart TV operating systems. We've discussed the nuances of OLED vs QLED TVs.

The 8K TV my dad bought

As he weighed his options and looked at sets from local retailers, he was nearly set on the new Samsung QN90A Neo QLED TV, an editor's choice product, a Tom's Guide 2021 Award winner and our current favorite among the best TVs on the market. The 85-inch version is selling for $3,999, and it's a really spectacular TV.

But then, something caught his eye. At his local Costco he spotted a 2020 Samsung Q850T 8K QLED TV, sized a just-right 82 inches, selling for $2,999. 

So my dad called me up.

"Son, I know what you've said about 8K TVs, but what do you think about this one?"

I looked at the price for the Samsung Q850T 8K QLED. I looked at the specs. It has HDMI 2.1, a 120Hz QLED panel, 4.2.2 channel sound and even Samsung's excellent Object Tracking Sound+. It's missing Dolby Vision support, like all Samsung TVs, and it uses direct full array backlighting instead of localized dimming, but on the whole, it's a great looking TV.

I looked at reviews, and my own notes from product briefings with Samsung. And then I surprised myself, as well as my dad. "Go for it."

On sale for about $3,000, this 8K set was a full grand less expensive than the 4K 85-inch Samsung QN90A Neo QLED TV that I had initially recommended, and that he had gone to buy. The size difference, a mere 3 inches, is hardly significant, and the feature set will be extremely similar, especially for any of his regular uses. 

But the biggest reason is price. Precisely because 8K TVs have struggled to find an enthusiastic market, this set was on clearance, and steeply discounted. My dad was able to buy it for less than some of our favorite 4K models. He even got an extended 4-year warranty for free because he bought it through Costco.

Alas, Costco now lists the Samsung Q850T 8K QLED as out of stock, but you can get get it at Amazon or Best Buy for $3,799, which is still $200 less than Samsung's 85-inch 4K QLED model for 2021.

Bottom line

Why did I tell my dad to buy an 8K TV? Not because he cares about 8K resolution, he doesn't. He will never own a PS5 or an Xbox Series X, let alone worry about games that run in 8K.

Ask me any day of the week, and I'll still tell you that you don't need an 8K TV. But if you pay attention, and find a great sale, an 8K TV makes for a fantastic 4K TV, and when the price is right it's definitely worth buying.

My dad did not buy an 8K TV. He bought a fantastic TV that happens to support 8K resolution, and he got a smoking deal on it.

TCL has finally launched its first 8K TV, seen in our TCL Roku TV 6-Series 8K (R648) review. It's a lot of things – a beautiful  TV, a great gaming set, and a capable Roku smart TV – but the biggest draw is the price. It's the most affordable 8K TV to ever come to market, selling for under $3,000, beating out even the most affordable 8K sets from Samsung and LG and undercutting some of the more premium 4K TVs as well.

The age of  relatively cheap 8K TVs is officially here. With the 65- and 75-inch models selling for $2,199 and $2,999, the TCL 6-Series 8K set is the most affordable we expect 8K TVs to get for 2021. And even with the cheapest 8K set ever sold, I'm having a hard time telling anyone they should buy it.

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It's not that the TCL is a bad TV, far from it. It's not perfect – we were a little bummed out by the set's limited viewing angles and you definitely want to pair the TV with a soundbar for better sound – but the jump to 8K is an undeniable improvement over 4K. Or it would be, if there were anything you'd want to watch available in 8K. 

It all goes to prove my existing opinion that people don't need 8K TVs right now, and it may be years before they do. Let's briefly run down the many, many problems with buying an 8K TV today.

Firstly, there's not much an 8K TV can give you that a great 4K TV can't provide. The big difference is resolution, everything else is pretty much the same. Smart functions, audio quality, connectivity, are all a match for current 4K models. The only instances where 8K TVs have something that 4K TVs don't is where the manufacturer has intentionally downgraded its 4K smart TVs to make 8K sets more attractive.

The other issue is screen size. While 65-inch 8K sets are available (the TCL is a great example of this), the real benefits of 8K resolution are hard to see in that size, simply because it's not big enough to make the most of an 8K display's 33 million pixels. For that, you'll want a 75-inch or larger TV, and ideally something in the 85-100-inch range. Most homes simply don't have the physical space to accommodate a TV that large.

But the biggest issue, by far, is the lack of 8K content. There are no shows offered in 8K. There are some current movies shooting in that resolution, but they're being cropped and mastered for 4K displays. It's possible that 8K Blu-ray discs will prove too data-dense for the limits of physical media formats, and streaming in 8K is still a daunting task that will bump up against the limits of the broadband available to most households. (For more detail, check out our article 8K TVs: What can you actually watch in 8K?)

The Olympics were initially being hyped as a chance for 8K to finally get some broad exposure, with NHK offering more than 200 hours of the games shot in stunning 7680 x 4320 Ultra HD. But now that we're partway through the games, it doesn't look like viewers in the United States will get to enjoy any of that. You can't even find any 8K clips from the games on YouTube, currently the world's most accessible source of 8K footage.

And gaming is just as much of a bust. The latest consoles – despite having hardware that could theoretically handle 8K resolution – are decidedly 4K gaming machines. And the 8K-capable graphics cards that could let PC gamers use the 8K displays to full advantage are both scarce and far more expensive than most people are ready to pay.

That's all to say that we aren't recommending any 8K TVs to shoppers, not even the best 8K TVs. The TCL Roku TV 6-Series 8K (R648) is a gorgeous TV, and the most affordable entry-point for 8K TV yet, but it's just one of many 8K sets that have arrived ahead of any mainstream (or even much niche) 8K content. The TV is great, but 8K just isn't ready yet 

TCL today announced the price and availability of its highly anticipated 8K Roku TVs. Both a 65-inch model ($2,199) and 75-inch model ($2,999) will hit retail next month.

We've known TCL planned to launch rather affordable 8K sets soon, but price and availability had been under wraps until now. The two models are pitched as an extended offering of the TCL 6-Series Roku TV (R635), one of the best TVs we've tested this year.

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Like the standard 6-Series, the 8K 6-Series lineup will run the always-reliable Roku TV. TCL makes some of the best Roku TVs, but since the company hinted at a step into Google TV platform, we weren't sure which software to expect on 8K units. 

“We are thrilled to offer TCL’s first 8K resolution sets this year in partnership with Roku," said Chris Larson, TCL's Senior Vice President via press release. "Not only will we be ready for the next stage of 8K content as new game consoles and streaming services roll out, but more importantly, we’re making 8K more accessible to all."

8K TCL Roku TVs: Should you buy?

The best 8K TVs offer ultra-high resolution — 7680 x 4320 pixels, to be exact. More pixels mean more dynamic picture quality. 

When consumer 8K TVs first materialized, the premium for elevated performance ran several thousand dollars. Along with a limited catalog of 8K content available to watch, high price has prevented wider adoption of the pixel-packed screens. 

We've seen expenses come down, but even this year, most 8K TVs start at over $3,000. The fact that TCL's 8K sets fall below that threshold could be good news for growing interest in the screen technology. There are some high-end 4K OLED TVs that cost more than $2,199, or the price of the 65-inch 8K TCL Roku TV.

If you've been asking yourself, "Is this the time to buy an 8K TV?" the answer is... maybe. Again, 8K isn't nearly as standardized as 4K in terms of content offerings, and there's a lot that needs to figured out before you'll be able to watch blockbuster films in 8K. 

But for the price, there's a draw to TCL's 8K TVs. Not to mention, they're the first 8K TVs with THX Certified Game Mode, complete with Variable Refresh Rate and Auto Low Latency. While you won't be able to experience 8K gaming, the next-gen graphics of the PS5 or Xbox Series X should look fantastic on these sets.  

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I've been looking at 8K TVs since they were first announced by Samsung in 2018. I've seen demos of 8K sets from Samsung, LG and Sony. I've tested and reviewed one 8K TV and have had hands-on time with several others.

And let me tell you, 8K is amazing. Combine that incredible resolution with some of the largest TV sizes ever sold, and you get a genuinely life-like experience: it's like looking through a window. Actors walking through a scene on screen are human sized and objects are at normal scale. It looks so incredibly real that it's not just an incremental upgrade over 4K, it's an evolutionary step forward in display technology.

It's also not worth buying. Not now, and maybe not for several years.

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The biggest hurdle facing 8K TV adoption is price. With even the most affordable 8K sets costing more than $3,000, the majority of TV shoppers just aren't interested, and who can blame them? Some of the models on our list of the best 8K TVs cost twenty or thirty thousand dollars.

At smaller screen sizes — the sort that are actually affordable — 8K resolution is much less impressive. An 8K picture is best enjoyed on screens that measure between 75 and 100+ inches, much larger than most 4K TVs in the home, since an 8K display is essentially four 4K displays stitched together into one seamless picture. Larger screen sizes may be getting more popular, but 85-inch TVs are simply too large for most homes, and that's the range where 8K really looks its best.

Throw in the need for a new HDMI standard (HDMI 2.1 is the first to support 8K resolution over a single cable), and the huge bandwidth requirements for streaming 8K video (YouTube is still your only real option), and there are simply a lot of hoops to jump through for an already expensive TV.

But all of this is a waste of time without any 8K stuff to watch on that giant 33-million-pixel TV screen. And that's a problem that won't be solved anytime soon.

Adopting new formats takes time. The first HD TVs started selling in 1998, but it wasn't until 2008 that Blu-ray was adopted as the new standard for HD movies releases by all of the major Hollywood studios — a full decade later.

The switch to 4K was a little different. The hardware of 4K TVs became widely available and affordable faster than almost any consumer tech I can think of – dropping from the $24,999 price of the Sony XBR-84X900 in 2012 to where we are today, when any set from our best TVs under $500 offers 4K resolution, not to mention smart capabilities.

But even there, with millions of 4K TVs in homes, the availability of 4K media is still less abundant than you'd expect. Streaming in 4K is a premium add-on, as the majority of streaming is done in 1080p. Ultra HD Blu-ray discs are still selling alongside standard Blu-ray and DVD, and gaming has only really caught up with the 4K trend with the release of the PS5 and Xbox Series X. None of our picks for the best gaming TVs for PS5 and Xbox Series X have a higher resolution than 4K.

For those who follow the TV industry, none of this should be a surprise. It's definitely not a shock to TV manufacturers. 

The first time I got to test an 8K TV, there was a team of engineers on hand, all apologetic that there were no test standards or equipment that was made for 8K.

Samsung's first 8K TVs were so far ahead of the curve that they required running multiple HDMI cables to piece together a mosaic of 4K feeds, since the HDMI 2.1 spec hadn't even been finalized yet.

That's all to say that it is extremely early days in 8K-land. There are still major questions that don't have answers yet, like how will we make 8K media when the file sizes severely outstrip the highest capacity Blu-ray formats? Raw 8K footage clocks in at 121.5 GB per minute, and the best triple-layer Blu-ray 3.0 tops out at 100GB. Even switching to some other storage medium would require some impressive leaps in storage capacity, at a price and scale we've never seen before.

And with the dwindling number of manufacturers making Blu-ray players – even bigger names like Oppo and Samsung have stopped making players – who's going to develop the next gen players needed for 8K?

How can anyone expect 8K streaming to take off when bandwidth in the US averages is low enough to make 4K streaming difficult? Will it be a major leap in household bandwidth, advancements in compression and media codecs, or both?

There's a very real chance that 8K has pushed video too far for current storage and data transmission technology to catch up to anytime soon. Or, maybe we'll see some really impressive changes in the tech landscape as TV makers and Hollywood studios throw their weight into R&D to make 8K work.

Either way, there's a lot that still needs to be figured out before anyone should buy an 8K TV. As I said, 8K is an evolutionary step forward, but we've still got a lot of evolving to do. There will (probably) be a point where we start recommending people buy 8K TVs, but that's not happening anytime soon.

Look at any review of any 8K TV on the market and you'll run into one nagging question: Where's the 8K content? The first 8K TVs were introduced in 2018, and three years later the availability of 8K media is still relatively non-existent.

The 8K Association, the industry body that handles 8K certification and promotes the 8K format, puts it this way on their website: "We admit, it’s not yet as simple as flipping to any TV channel to find beautiful 8K resolution content." 

Boy, what an understatement. Here’s what you need to know about 8K content and where to find it. 

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8K content: The chicken, the egg and the pandemic

New formats are always faced with something of a chicken and egg problem, with new hardware required to support the latest and greatest formats, and media in that new format to justify buying the hardware that supports it. And movie and TV production sometimes evolves slowly, as these new standards have to filter through to camera equipment, editing software, and new distribution methods are needed for the sudden jump in bandwidth. 

Navigating this early stage can make or break new technologies, with many innovations never achieving the critical mass needed to create a thriving ecosystem of both hardware and content. Even when it does happen, it can sometimes be pretty slow.

The first HDTVs started selling in 1998, but it wasn't until 2008 that Blu-ray was adopted as the new standard for HD movies releases by the major Hollywood studios – a full decade after the first HDTV went on sale.

The interesting counterpoint to this is the newer 4K standard, which was introduced in 2012, but in less than a decade, 4K TVs have become the standard for the TV market, dropping in price drastically – just check out the best TVs under $500 for some excellent examples of affordable 4K TVs.

But 4K media is still relatively scarce. Ultra HD Blu-ray discs were introduced in 2016, but Netflix started streaming in 4K two years prior. But even as UHD Blu-ray sales and 4K streaming options have grown, 4K media remains a small segment of the media market. Most over-the-air broadcasts are in 720p, with cable and satellite still stuck at to 720p and 1080i, and even streaming is mostly done at 1080p, though there are many more options for 4K streaming today.

All of this is exacerbated by recent events. 2020 was expected to be a breakout year for 8K content. The Tokyo Summer Olympics were set to be broadcast in full 8K resolution, and 8K capable game consoles were on the horizon for the holidays.

But then, as with most things 2020, the year of 8K failed to go as planned. Now the PS5 and Xbox Series X are here, but 8K gaming isn't enabled, and the Tokyo Olympics have been rescheduled for this July, complete with NHK's 8K broadcast. And here we are, in the middle of 2021. 8K TVs are available to buy, some even at somewhat reasonable prices, but 8K content is still nowhere to be found.

That's all to say that a meaningful rollout of 8K media could be years away. We could still be writing articles in 2031 about whether it's worth buying an 8K TV, and helping people figure out how to find and watch 8K content.

8K content: What you can watch

But if you're interested in buying an 8K TV now – or perhaps have already ponied up an extra few thousand dollars for one – you want to know where you can watch 8K media now, today.

We'll take a look at each option in detail, but the short answer is that there are still relatively few places to get 8K video, and professionally-made 8K movies and shows are still largely missing.

For 8K TV owners, your biggest selection of media will still be upscaled media, blowing up 4K and 1080p content to display on your big 8K screen. But you can find some 8K video through select streaming outlets, enjoy gaming in 8K (provided you have the right hardware), and you can even try making your own 8K videos.

In the near future, there are a few other options on the horizon. Broadcast technology could soon (sort of) support 8k content, and 8K sports may be a reality within the next year.

Let's look at each option in detail.

8K content: Upscaling

Talk to any TV manufacturer about 8K TVs and there's one term you'll be hearing a lot of: Upscaling.

Upscaling is the process used to make lower resolution content display properly (and hopefully look better) on a higher resolution screen. In simple terms, it does this by adding additional pixels to the picture, allowing lower resolution images to display on the larger screen. The most basic forms of upscaling use what is called pixel doubling, turning a single pixel into a larger 2x2 cluster of pixels. Doing this across the image turns a 1920 x 1080 image into a 3840 x 2160 pixel image, and doing it again will fill the 7680 x 4320 pixels of an 8K display.

But pixel doubling alone is a fairly crude method, and it makes for lousy looking images, especially on higher resolution displays. In the past, TV manufacturers have applied a number of technical tricks to the upscaling process, using anti-aliasing and smoothing to eliminate the jagged edges that simple pixel doubling creates, color distribution to create more natural looking objects, and more.

But on 8K TVs, which are just as likely to be upscaling 720p imagery from broadcast television as they are a 4K Blu-ray movie, the upscaling has to be significantly better. To this end manufacturers are using machine learning, with AI driven upscaling that can identify objects, pick out different types of scenery, and even make educated guesses about textures and patterns that may not have been captured in the original content at all.

Frankly, upscaled 4K or lower resolution content is far and away the most realistic content for your 8K TV, because there's just not much out there yet. And there's no denying that the latest upscaling technologies are significantly better than anything we've seen in the past.

The good news is that 4K content when upscaled to 8K resolution looks pretty great. But lower resolution content, whether it's 1080p shows streamed from Netflix or 720p shows broadcast from major networks, is harder to get right. No matter how smart the upscaling is, blowing something up several times the size and resolution of the original content will be noticeable.

8K content: Streaming

You can't talk about modern TVs without talking about streaming, but if you're looking for 8K movies on Netflix and Amazon Prime, you're out of luck. The biggest names in streaming have announced no plans for 8K in the near future, and some, like HBO Max launched without even having any 4K content. (They have since added some 4K titles, but not all TVs and devices support it.)

There's also the question of bandwidth. Netflix says you need at least 25 Mbps download speeds to stream 4K Ultra HD content, and Sony's new Bravia Core streaming service is promising true lossless streaming quality in 4K, and it's estimated to use up to 80 Mbps to stream in ultra HD. (Check out our guide What internet speed do I need? to learn more.) 

Streaming 8K content, which has four times the resolution of 4K, and up to 120 frame rate (double the 60 frames per second that 4K generally uses), will demand much more.

HDMI 2.1, the first HDMI standard that can handle 8K, has a bandwidth of 48 Gbps. Even with as-yet-undeveloped compression technologies, minimum bitrate for streaming in 8K will be 100 Mbps or higher. Given that median download speeds were roughly 86 Mbps for homes in the U.S. last year (according to Speedtest.net), it's unlikely that we'll have widely available broadband to support 8K streaming anytime soon.

So where can you stream 8K video? The pickings are mighty slim. You can stream 8K video on YouTube and Vimeo. You'll have a small selection of landscapes and similar stock footage options to choose from.

NASA also has 8K footage available for download, from the first 8K video of Earth (shot in 2018) to … well, that's it. (It's also available on YouTube.) 

8K content: Gaming

The latest gaming consoles dangle a vague promise of 8K gaming, but neither one really delivers. Both the PS5 and the Xbox Series X use custom AMD hardware that can output up to 8K resolution, with frame rates up to 60Hz at that resolution. But neither console has really delivered on that promise, since there are no games that take advantage of this resolution.

In order to actually game in 8K, you'll need a high-end gaming PC rocking either an Nvidia RTX 3090 or an AMD Radeon RX 6800. Even then, you'll be limited to a handful of games - almost nothing is made to be rendered at 8K resolution. As with movies and shows, upscaled 4K content is probably the best you'll get in most cases.

8K content: Record your own video

The best place to get 8K content might actually be to make your own. Whether you want to pony up the tens of thousands of dollars for a Red Helium 8K camera – that's what the movie studios are using – or just make the most of the 8K video capabilities on your new Samsung Galaxy S21, the shortest path to getting 8K video on your TV might be a phone camera in your hands.

Actually, a smartphone may be your best bet. A few of the we've reviewed offer 8K video, like the OnePlus 9 Pro, the Asus ROG Phone 5 or the Asus Zenfone 8. But if landscape timelapses are your thing, pretty much any 35 megapixel camera can capture images at 8K resolution.

But, even if you're content gathering video in 3-5 minute snippets and skipping anything like editing – you'd encounter the same production issues that Hollywood is already running into – that's still an awful lot of work just to enjoy the full capability of your new 8K TV.

8K content: Blu-ray

Even in this age of streaming, videophiles tend to hold out for physical media, so it makes sense to imagine that 8K Blu-ray discs are in the works.

Ultra HD Blu-ray is the best way to get 4K movies for 4K TVs, but any 4K aficionado will tell you that even those pickings are pretty slim. Even the 4K releases of major movies, like Avengers Infinity War aren't true 4K, they're 2K source material scaled up to 4K – not much different than what your TV already does with full HD video.

A single triple layer Blu-ray 3.0 disc has a capacity of 100GB, which might be enough for an 8K movie, but not without some serious compression. Raw 8K footage weighs in at 121.5 GB per minute, with a full hour of footage resulting in a giant 7.29 TB file. Adding metadata like high-dynamic range and deeper color depth will only make for even larger digital files. 

The good news is that once media or streaming formats are figured out, there should be some 8K movies ready to go. Several recent films have shot in 8K – Guardians of the Galaxy 2 was the first major Hollywood film shot at the higher resolution.

But most productions that use 8K cameras aren't even planning an 8K release. Instead, they shoot in 8K so that they can later reframe shots and tighten in on actor's faces in the editing booth without losing resolution for the 4K version of the movie.

8K content: Sports

Sports will likely be the first place that real progress is made for 8K content. The postponed Tokyo Olympics is still planned to showcase 8K, with live 8K footage shared in Japan by broadcaster NHK, and international audiences getting 8K online, through download or streaming.

Samsung and BT Sport have teamed up in Europe to offer Premier League and Champions League matches in 8K, and LG shot a single Premier League match in 8K in late 2019 – though that was largely a move to gather some demo material for LG's 8K sets.

But equipment for live events is even more cost prohibitive than movies. Cameras like the Sony UHC-8300 cost about a half a million dollars, and on-site production equipment is similarly expensive, and has to be updated to handle the increased demands for data and storage.

8K content: Broadcast

Finally, all this upcoming 8K content might be most easily delivered to antenna users. The next step in broadcast TV (ATSC 3.0 or NextGen TV) offers much better signal bandwidth than current transmission standards, and can already deliver 4K content over-the-air. 

Recent trials with multiple antennas have proven that 8K signal can actually work over-the-air, using MIMO (multiple-input and multiple-output) technology similar to that used in modern Wi-Fi gear.

ATSC 3.0 broadcasts are being introduced in cities around the country, and the first TVs with ATSC 3.0 tuners appeared in 2020. But just like 8K TVs, it's still very early in the game for NextGen TV, and the rollout is happening slowly.

8K content: Long-term outlook

I've seen enough 8K TVs to confidently say that 8K is a major upgrade over 4K, and it's an upgrade you definitely want… eventually. The improvement in picture quality is genuinely stunning, and the level of realism it delivers will be game changing for more than just entertainment.

But every time I'm asked whether an 8K TV is worth buying now, the answer isn't just "no", it's "not for a long time". And the lack of 8K content is the biggest reason. TV shoppers can overlook a lot – price, size, complexity, unfinished standards – but only when jumping over those hurdles gets them something in return. And without any real 8K content available anywhere, there's no prize at the end of that steeplechase. Right now, 8K TVs are just a big, expensive, complicated way to watch 4K movies.

That could change within the next year or so. The Olympics might be a turning point, driving 8K adoption enough to spur development in streaming and home media. Gaming might suddenly take off, provided GPUs or current game consoles ever become widely available. It could happen sooner than any of us expect. But I'm not betting on it.

Prices are lower than ever before, and 8K TV has never been better than it is right now, with great smart capabilities and awesome features to match the superb 8K resolution. Prices on current 8K TVs have come down hundreds and even thousands of dollars, and the newest crop of 8K smart TVs is set to launch in the coming weeks, making sales prices on current models the best they've been all year.

If you've paid even a passing interest to 8K technology and the growth of 8K TVs in the market, you're probably asking yourself "Is this the time to buy an 8K TV?"

Honestly, probably not. But it's a better buy now than it's ever been, with more options and better prices from major manufacturers, and TVs that will actually fit in your living room.

Let's look at why 8K TVs are still hard for us to recommend, and why now is the best time to buy one if you've still got your heart set on an 8K model.

What is an 8K TV?

If you're not the sort to follow news about TVs and display technology, then you might only just be hearing about 8K TVs and wondering what it actually is. The defining feature of an 8K TV is the resolution of the screen, with four times as many pixels as a 4K screen. Any additional features offered on an 8K TV, such as video processing, smart functions or premium audio support, are all secondary, and aren't exclusive to 8K TVs. It's all about resolution. So what does that mean?

Full HD TVs have a resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 pixels, hence the other common name for full HD, 1080p. This is the best resolution you'll see from broadcast TV and most satellite and cable TV services, and is the resolution offered by standard Blu-ray discs.

The next step up is 4K, also called ultra HD, which has a resolution of 3840 x 2160, and is effectively four full HD displays combined. The majority of new TVs have 4K resolution, as do the current top-of-the-line Blu-ray formats. You will see some 4K programming offered by cable and satellite providers, and there are 4K streaming options out there, from services like Netflix, YouTube, and others, but 4K is still considered the premium option for most TV viewing.

Newer 8K displays quadruple that resolution, with 7,680 x 4,320 pixels, with the 8K name being a convenient shorthand for offering twice the horizontal pixel density of 4K. That's a total of 33,177,600 pixels - a dramatic step up from the roughly 2 million pixels that you'd see on a full HD picture.

Is 8K really better than 4K? Yes, but there are a couple of caveats. That higher resolution is genuinely impressive, but only when watching 8K material. Upscaled 4K material doesn't have quite the same impact.

The other issue is size. 8K TVs are among the largest screens you can buy today, and that makes sense, because the higher resolution makes the most difference on a larger screen. TVs smaller than 75 inches may not actually look better than comparable 4K sets because the size of the screen and the distance it's viewed from will leave viewers unable to see much of a difference. Is 4K better than 8K in these smaller sizes? It is if you're sitting the same distance from the TV.

Bottom Line: An 8K TV offers higher resolution than 4K TVs.

Are 8K TVs better than 4K TVs?

The larger question is, beside the higher resolution of the 8K screen, are 8K TVs better than 4K models in terms of features or smart capabilities? And that's a harder question to answer.

Manufacturers like LG and Samsung have gone out of their way to distinguish 8K models as the new standard for premium televisions, and one way that they have done this is to offer enhanced features.

Samsung, in particular, has loaded up its 8K sets with the best-of-the-best features offered on its TVs, from processing to audio capabilities. This is most clearly seen (or rather, heard) in Samsung's Object Tracking Sound Plus audio, which uses an array of speakers in the TV chassis to match the location of an object on screen to the perceived location of the audio.

But similar options are available on Samsung's top 4K QLED models, albeit without the added features of scene-by-scene audio positioning data. It's also extremely similar to Sony's Acoustic Surface Audio, which is available on it's high-end 4K TVs.

In terms of basic functionality, from viewing channels from antenna or cable to streaming through smart apps and services, the core smart TV functions remain unchanged. There's no real benefit to watching Netflix on an 8K TV, and the most useful features will all be found on the 4K TVs from the same manufacturers.

The other point of differentiation is in build quality. The 8K TVs that we've been able to use or see demonstrated generally offer the most premium construction of any TV on the market, from stylish metal chassis with ultra-narrow bezels to fancier remote controls.

But a TV is still a TV, and unless a manufacturer has started scaling back what's offered on top 4K sets, the differences between an 8K design and 4K design are fairly minimal.

Bottom Line: 8K TVs offer more bells and whistles, but the best 4K TVs match them in every way that matters.

8K TV price: How much does an 8K TV cost?

Because 8K presents a significant upgrade from the 4K resolution offered on the majority of TVs, even the most affordable 8K TVs are priced as premium products. Even the most affordable models sell for around $3,000, and prices can range as high as $59,999 for the largest 98-inch 8K TVs.

Right now, manufacturers and retailers are clearing out old stock to make room for the upcoming 2021 models, and that has brought prices down a bit, with the most cheapest 8K TVs being the 65-inch LG NanoCell 8K (65NANO99UNA) for $2,799 and the Samsung Samsung Q800T 8K QLED TV (QN65Q800TAFXZA) for $3,199.

75-inch models sell for between $4,000 and $4,500, with options from LG, Samsung and Sony. But in the 80 to 85-inch sizes, prices vary more, with the 82-inch Samsung Q800T 8K QLED TV (QN82Q800TAFXZA) selling for as little as $5,999 and up to $8,999 for the Sony Z8H 8K LED Smart TV (XBR-85Z8H).

8K OLED models are a different story, with LG's 8K OLED TVs selling for $19,999 or $29,999 for the 77 and 88-inch models, respectively.

And if you want the biggest 8K TVs, the 98-inch models from Samsung and Sony each sell for $59,999.

8K screen sizes: Is bigger better?

For a long time, 4K TVs could only be had in sizes up to 65 inches, and then 75 inches. 8K displays, however, start at 65 inches and go up from there. The reason for this is pixel density, literally how many pixels can be fit into a square inch of screen space.

Since 4K and 8K TVs are using the same technology to put the millions of pixels onto a display, the difference between 4K's 8.3 million pixels and 8K's 33 million pixels has to be solved with a larger surface area. In fact, the pixel density between a 55-inch 4K TV and a 110-inch 8K display is identical, because an 8K panel is essentially four tiled 4K screens stitched together on a single piece of glass.

As a result, the biggest difference between 4K and 8K TVs has been screen size, with 4K TVs ranging from 32-75 inches and 8K sets generally ranging from 65 inches up to 110.

Current trends do show this difference disappearing, however. As shoppers continue to buy larger 4K displays, manufacturers have started making 85-inch 4K sets (check out the best 85-inch TVs for our favorites), with more coming this year.

And 65-inch 8K TVs, once limited to a single model from Samsung, have grown to include models from LG in 2020 and maybe another from Sony in the coming months.

But one problem still remains: Most people don't have room for these jumbo TVs in their homes. Living rooms may be able to accommodate 55 and 65-inch TVs, but larger screens start to present some logistical problems due to the sheer size of the screen. Delivery and installation get more complicated, you need to think through where the TV will go, and whether you have enough space to sit a comfortable distance from such a large screen. (Our guide to What size TV should you buy? includes guidelines for minimum viewing distances at various screen sizes.)

Bottom Line: Most 8K TVs are too big for the average home, with 4K models offering a better fit for most living rooms.

The big problem: Where to find 8K content?

8K content was supposed to get a huge boost in 2020, with the Tokyo Olympics slated to have 8K versions of major events. But then came the coronavirus pandemic, messing up those plans (along with pretty much everything else in 2020). The Tokyo Olympic games have been postponed until July 23, 2021, and all reports point to those 8K plans still being on track for the postponed events.

Game consoles were also supposed to support a big step up in 8K demand, with both the PS5 and Xbox Series X promising to support 8K gaming. But the new consoles have arrived — if you can find one — and 8K support is still conspicuously missing. Hopefully we'll see some 8K-ready games coming to market soon, but as of now, the PS5 is still waiting on a software update to unlock 8K capability, and there's no word on when the capability will come to the Xbox Series X.

The only option for 8K gaming at the moment is PC gaming, thanks to the latest Nvidia 30-series graphics cards. While all of the current GPU models theoretically support 8K output, the specifics of that capability will vary widely between the different GPU Models, and the few games that can support 8K resolution still struggle to hit the sort of frame rates that gamers are after. (See our guide Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 vs 3080 vs 3070 vs 3060: Which GPU should you buy? to learn more.)

What about streaming and other traditional content sources? Well, as of right now, there just isn't much out there. You can find some 8K video through YouTube and a handful of other online sources, but there is no real outlet for 8K content yet, and no movie or show releases that utilize the higher resolution.

Until we see either a streaming platform with 8K material or a new 8K-capable version of Blu-ray (or whatever 8K format might replace it), there's just no mainstream content in 8K, and very little niche content, as well.

Bottom line: There's no 8K content, aside from a few niche videos and games.

What 8K TVs are available? Samsung, LG and more

When it comes to 8K TVs, the biggest brands are really the only players, with LG, Samsung and Sony offering the only 8K models on the market now. While there are some 8K models slated for 2021 from companies like TCL, and Hisense is introducing its first 8K model to non-U.S. markets, the top three brands remain the major players in the 8K space.

While the new 2021 models are being announced by LG, Samsung and Sony in the coming weeks, all of the 8K TVs currently on the market are the 2020 models launched last spring. We'll update this list with new information as the 2021 models become available.

LG 8K TVs

LG's ultimate OLED is the LG Signature ZX 8K OLED TV. Not only is it the only 8K OLED on the market, it also packs in a more powerful 8K variant of the Alpha 9 Gen 3 processor for more advanced upscaling.

The big, beautiful display features a stylish built-in stand that includes an integrated sound bar for superb audio quality, and removes the need for wall mounting or dedicated furniture to put the large TV on.

Not nearly as premium are LG's 8K NanoCell TVs, which use LCD panels with NanoCell color filtering. The high-end LG NanoCell 99 Series boasts an 8K picture, with a large 65 or 75-inch LCD screen. LG has improved the backlight with what it calls Full Array Dimming Pro technology that tightens dimming zone control for deeper blacks and sharper contrast.

Samsung 8K TVs

The current range of Samsung 8K QLED models is still the largest around.

While it's a little crazy to think of any 8K TVs being "mainstream" at this point, Samsung pushed hard in 2020 to clearly position the 8K QLED sets as the new premium flagship models for the brand, and offer the sets at sizes and prices that are far more approachable than any other manufacturer has yet offered.

The Samsung Q800T 8K QLED TV is the more affordable option of Samsung's 8K models. With sizes ranging from 65 inches up to 82 inches, it offers a range of screen sizes and pricing that makes it the most approachable 8K TVs we've seen since Samsung kicked off the 8K category a couple years back.

And pretty much every feature offered on Samsung's 8K sets is available on the Q800T, from the high-powered Quantum Processor 2.0 8K with Deep Learning Super Resolution upscaling to a full array, local dimming (FALD) backlight and Samsung's Object Tracking Sound Plus.

Making up the middle option in Samsung's premium QLED sets is the Q900TS, which boasts all of the features seen on the less-expensive Q800T, but adds Samsung's impressive, nearly bezel-free Infinity Screen, more local dimming zones and better HDR support.

Starting at $5,499 for the 65-inch model, the Q900TS is notably more expensive than an premium 4K set you could buy in the same size, but it's still relatively affordable among 8K TVs.

If money is truly no object, then you might be interested in the 98-inch Q900 Series LED 8K UHD Smart Tizen TV, one of the 2019 8K models still sold by Samsung. It's not as up to date on features as the current models, but the screen size is the biggest of the 8K Samsung models — it's also the most expensive, selling for $59,999.

Sony 8K TVs

The Sony Z8H 8K TV boasts sharp picture quality with its 8K LCD screen, and comes in 75- and 85-inch sizes. Sony touts the Z8H's powerful contrast and better-than-average black levels, as well as immersive sound. Similar to the 8K offerings from Samsung and LG, Sony’s Z8H uses a full-array LED panel with local dimming.

Sony’s new Acoustic Multi-Audio feature turns the Z8H’s entire frame into a tweeter. By vibrating the set’s frame, sound stays in sync with the picture and seems to jump directly out of the display.

Z8H owners will benefit from a new backlit remote, too. And if they’d prefer to control the set with their voice, the Z8H’s built-in, far-field mics are Google Assistant-enabled. Just talk to the screen to search for entertainment or control your smart home devices.

If you want to go even larger, Sony is also offering the 98-inch Z9G Master Series 8K TV. A 2019 model that Sany hasn't updated, the giant Z9G is the largest 8K TV Sony offers. It's another LCD-based set with LED backlighting and uses Android smart TV software, but for that largest size 8K set, you'll pay $59,999.

Are 8k TVs worth it?

After looking at the best and most affordable 8K TVs on the market, the question remains, are 8K TVs worth it? We would have to say no. The biggest problem continues to be the lack of 8K content, but the larger screen sizes, higher prices and lack of other benefits mean that 8K sets are just not ready for the mainstream.

The best reason to get an 8K TV right now is still bragging rights more than anything else. Without higher-resolution content to play on your 8K TV, the best you can do is enjoy upscaled 4K movies and shows, and that's not enough of a reason to spend the hundreds or thousands of dollars extra for an 8K set.

Bottom line: There's not a good reason to buy an 8K TV yet. That may change as new developments in streaming and content arrive, but for now, we recommend sticking to 4K TVs.

You can already throw down money for Samsung's newest TVs, with the latest 4K and 8K Neo QLED TVs available for pre-order now. While we're still waiting for the new Samsung MicroLED TV to become available, Samsung's latest 4K and 8K TVs are up on the Samsung website, complete with a pre-order bonus.

Samsung's 2021 line of premium 4K TVs is available for pre-order now, starting as low as $1,599 for a 4K model, and $3,499 for a 65-inch 8K model.

• Check out the best TVs we've reviewed
• TV buying guide: 9 things you need to know
• Plus: The best Samsung TVs of 2020: QLED, microLED, and 8K TVs

Samsung's Neo QLED TVs enhance Samsung's already great quantum dot LCD technology with mini LED backlighting that offers dramatic improvements in contrast and backlight control. We haven't had a chance to go hands-on with the new TVs yet, but we've seen the technology used before, and the differences are significant.

Of the Neo QLED sets put up for pre-order, it's split half and half between 8K and 4K models.

The 8K sets include both the premium Samsung QN900A Neo QLED 8K Smart TV and the more affordable QN800A Neo QLED 8K models. Both models feature 8K resolution, Samsung's latest video processing technology and excellent sound, but the more premium QN900A also has Samsung's Infinity Screen design, which virtually eliminates the bezel around the QLED panel.

The Samsung QN900A Neo QLED 8K Smart TV starts big and goes bigger, selling in 65-, 75- and 85-inch sizes, and starts at $4,999 for the 65-inch option.

The more affordable QN800A models not only have a narrow (but noticeable) bezel around the display, it also omits the Object Tracking Sound Pro technology that's featured on the QN900A.

The Samsung QN800A Neo QLED 8K Smart TV is available in 65-, 75- and 85-inch sizes, but looks to be the most affordable new 8K TV yet, starting at $3,499.

The 4K models cover both the top-of-the-line Samsung QN90A Neo QLED 4K Smart TV – which replaces the 2020 Q80T QLED TV – as well as the new QN85A Neo QLED 4K Smart TV. The premium QN90A starts at $1,799 for the 55-inch model, and comes in 55-, 65-, 75- and 85-inch sizes.

The Samsung QN85A Neo QLED 4K Smart TV looks like it fits in between the premium 90 series and the step down 80 models, creating an in-between line that expands Samsung's premium 4K offerings. The biggest difference is that the QN90A also boasts Samsung's Object Tracking Sound Pro, for more immersive audio. HDR performance is better on the QN90A, with Samsung claiming a 50% wider color gamut between the two.

The Samsung QN85A Neo QLED 4K Smart TV is also available in 55- to 85-inch sizes, with a starting price of $1,599.

As an incentive for pre-orders, Samsung is also offering free professional mounting services with each pre-order. Valued at $120, it's a great way to save some money getting your new TV installed.

MORE: I don’t recommend 8K TVs, but I just told my dad to buy this one

One of the biggest advancements in TV design to come to the forefront during CES 2021 is mini-LED, the extra-tiny light-emitting diodes used in the backlights of some of the latest and greatest smart TVs. 2021 is shaping up to be the year of the mini-LED TV, as Samsung and LG join TCL in using mini-LED backlight technology to make TVs better than ever.

Here's our quick overview of which TVs will feature mini-LED in 2021, why mini-LED is such an improvement over traditional LCD sets, and why this mundane sounding technology is one of the most exciting developments for TV shoppers in years.

• The best TVs right now
• Micro-LED vs mini-LED: What’s the difference?

Basics of Mini-LED

Mini-LED may seem like a relatively small change, but the technology offers real improvements to LCD-based TVs. Illumination and brightness is a key factor in making a great TV picture. Along with color and contrast, brightness makes a huge difference in how well a TV can display an image. You can get a more detailed explanation of mini-LED technology in our guide Micro-LED vs. Mini-LED: What's the difference?, but these are the broad strokes.

As TVs have evolved over the decades, the technology used to put moving pictures in our homes has changed dramatically. Though older cathode ray tube and plasma technologies and current OLED TVs are self-immissive (producing their own light), since the move to LCD panels, the majority of TVs on the market have required a separate backlight as part of the TV display. That once meant fluorescent lighting, but modern TVs use smaller, more efficient LED backlights.

Behind the LCD panel is one of several backlighting options, producing the light that makes the TV screen glow. On basic TVs this backlight might take the form of edge lighting, which rings the screen with LEDs, or full array backlighting, which uses a matrix of LED lights to provide consistent backlight across the screen, and more premium TVs feature full array with local dimming, which breaks up that lighting matrix into separate addressable zones. These zones can be brightened or dimmed independently, with brightness mapped to match the bright or shadowy portions of the screen for a more dynamic picture.

This local dimming is one of the driving factors behind the introduction of HDR formats, with LED brightness capable of reaching levels higher than past fluorescent-lit panels, with more controlled backlight. The result is a combination of lighting tech and media formatting that makes for deeper shadows, brighter highlights, and more vivid color.

Mini LED promises significant improvement over this development, allowing for a much higher number of discrete dimming zones. Measuring about one-fifth the size of a standard LED light, mini-LEDs are seriously tiny. LEDs in the mini range are only 0.008-inch (200 microns) across. The smaller LEDs illuminate a smaller portion of the screen, and can be clustered more closely together, allowing for zones that are limited to a mere handful of pixels rather than sections of the screen that might measure several inches square.

But that's not the only thing that mini-LED offers. The smaller physical dimensions of these individual LEDs will also allow LCD TVs to be thinner than they have ever been before.

So with mini-LED promising thinner TVs that look better and brighter than ever before, you'd expect a big jump in price, and to only see this new technology in the most expensive models, right? Well, that's where mini-LED offers its best feature – affordability.

You will pay a little more for mini-LED-equipped TVs in the coming months, but probably not a lot. TCL's impressive 6-Series Roku TVs offer mini-LED backlighting for an extremely reasonable price – under $1,000 for all but the largest 75-inch model – and the improvements to the picture quality are clear. We can only hope that this same price-conscious philosophy is applied to Samsung and LG's newest models, but we'll have to wait and see.

Manufacturers bet big on mini-LED TVs

TCL introduced its first mini-LED TV back in 2019, but the 2020 TCL 6-Series Roku TV (R635) refined the technology and brought it to an affordably-priced TV. The result was one of the best TV values we've ever seen, and Samsung and LG were clearly paying attention, as they both have new mini-LED TVs on the way this year.

And now that major manufacturers have turned their attention to mini-LED, new innovations built on top of these tiny diodes are already emerging.

Samsung plans to bring the new technology to it's premium 4K and 8K TVs this year with the Samsung Neo QLED line. Samsung's mini-LED technology includes tiny diffusers built into each mini-LED, eliminating the need for a separate diffuser panel between the backlight and the LCD.

Samsung is pairing these mini-LEDs with its QLED quantum dot-enhanced LCD panels, and calling the new models Neo QLED, and it's taking center stage on all of Samsung's premium 4K and 8K TVs. We've loved Samsung QLED TVs in the past, so we're excited to see how the new models are improved with the new tech.

LG is also jumping on the mini-LED bandwagon, adding the tiny backlights to several of it's mid-range LCD TVs, which it's calling LG QNED. 

LG is taking a different tack, adding mini-LED backlight to its mid-range Nanocell TVs, and updating those panels with a hybrid technology that combines Nanocell filtering and quantum dot color boosting. That trio of enhancements just might make LG's new QNED TV line the best LCD based TV on the market, but we'll have to get it in for testing to be sure.

Finally, TCL is the only company offering mini-LED TVs that already has mini-LED sets on the market. After introducing mini-LED to its 8-Series TVs in 2019 and to the award-winning 6-Series Roku TV in 2020, TCL is introducing TCL OD-Zero, a new implementation of mini-LED that eliminates the gaps between the mini-LED backlight and the LCD panel. The result should be not only slimmer TV designs, but also an even better implementation of mini-LED.

TCL's existing mini-LED designs will continue to sell throughout the new year, with the 2020 6-Series 4K sets continuing on as the prime 4K offering in the new year. The TCL 6-Series model line will expand with new 8K models in 2021, but mini-LED will continue to be one of the defining features of the value-focused smart TVs.

Should you hold out for a mini-LED TV?

With new mini-LED TVs on the horizon but at least a couple of months away, the reasonable question for TV shoppers to ask is whether mini-LED is worth waiting for. Should you hold out for a mini-LED TV?

The answer is yes, but you don't have to. Our TCL 6-Series Roku TV (R635) review named the affordable smart TV an Editor's Choice in part because its mini-LED backlight delivered superior dimming and brightness control, and it still sits near the top of our best TVs list as the best TV value on the market.

If you want to wait for a similar mini-LED set from Samsung or LG, you will need to wait until those TVs launch this spring. We expect to get more details about models and pricing in February, and estimate that the new TVs will launch in March or April.

Going forward, unless you're on the tightest of budgets, we will definitely be recommending that shoppers opt for mini-LED when it's available. The improvement to picture quality is significant, and the increase to a TV's price is negligible, making it a must-have for TV shoppers in the coming year.

Samsung has pulled the wraps off of its 2021 TV lineup, and while we expected new 8K and 4K models, Samsung has brought a range of enhancements to bear on its newest smart TVs.

From new display technologies like Micro-LED and Mini-LED to eco-conscious packaging and a super convenient update to the remote control, Samsung wowed us with the TVs that are slated for the coming months.

• The best TVs right now
• Micro-LED vs Mini-LED: What's the difference?

Samsung upgrades to Neo QLED

The first big change is what Samsung calls Neo QLED, the new version of QLED coming to  the 2021 8K QN900A and 4K QN90A flagship TVs. Neo QLED refines Samsung's quantum-dot-enhanced displays with Quantum Matrix technology, which is Samsung's catch-all term for mini-LED backlight and its related features.

With a proprietary mix of micron-scale LED backlights and a tiny diffuser layer applied to each diode, Samsung Neo QLED 8K and 4K TVs will get brighter backlight, with more depth and gradations of luminance.

The smaller LEDs allow for more densely packed backlighting zones, with much more tightly controlled backlighting, allowing the TV to deliver deeper black levels and brighter highlights with less of the haloing seen on current LCD and QLED TVs. It should be a big step toward blurring the lines between QLED and OLED, and a noticeable improvement over last year's QLED sets.

The smaller LEDs also allow for a slimmer chassis design, so Neo QLED sets will have a thinner build with Samsung's basically-bezelless Infinity Edge screens. 

And for Samsung's top-of-the-line models, there's also a new OneConnect box, now in a smaller, more discreet package. The OneConnect box allows the display to be as slim as possible, with nothing but the display panel and speakers in the TV, and the video processing and various HDMI and USB inputs offloaded to a separate box, connected with a single cable (which also serves as the TV's power cable). 

The new slim design can sit on your entertainment center, or it can be mounted on the backside of the TV stand, tucked out of sight.

Samsung's new Neo Quantum Processor is more than just a beefier chip. Samsung has previously touted it's AI-driven upscaling and video processing, but the new processor uses a combination of multiple, simultaneous machine learning processes – "up to 16 different neural network models,"  according to Samsung – to optimize the different elements of picture quality, with separate processing for brightness, focus, object and motion, with additional processing for audio and dialogue.

Samsung's Object Tracking Sound is back, with audio that tracks along with on-screen objects and actors, providing a more realistic and immersive experience. Q-Symphony is also back, which lets you use a Samsung soundbar with your Samsung TV and use all of the speakers in concert to provide a wider and taller soundstage with better support for Dolby Atmos and simulated surround sound.

Though Samsung didn't announce any details about specific models or pricing, that news may already be available, thanks to a leaked list of new Samsung model names and screen sizes.

Samsung finally has a MicroLED TV you can buy

Samsung is also introducing the first consumer micro-LED TVs this year, appropriately named the Samsung MicroLED TV. The refined version of The Wall that Samsung has been showing off for the last few years, the new sets use microscopic LEDs as the individual pixels on the TV, delivering a self-emitting display that rivals OLED for picture quality.

Samsung touts the MicroLED technology as being longer-lasting and more durable than the organic materials that put the O in OLED, with no burn-in and no color drift after a few years of use.

The MicroLED also gets Samsung's Ambient Mode, with a low-power option that lets the display blend into the surroundings when not in use, or display art or helpful information when not being used for active watching of shows or playing games.

Samsung is still touting the modular capability of micro-LED modules, but the MicroLED TV is a single-size display that comes pre-assembled in standard aspect ratios. (Frankly, the modular aspects have always seemed more relevant to signage than in-home TVs.)

Since the screen is so large, Samsung is also introducing Quad View, which lets you divide up the screen into four sections, and each can run off of a separate input. The large size means that you can use each Quad View section of the display as a separate 1080p TV, whether that's for watching simultaneous sporting events, gaming side-by-side, or just letting family members enjoy different programs at the same time. Using Samsung's mobile app, viewers can also listen to each view separately over headphones.

Samsung initially announced only a large 110-inch version of the MicroLED TV, but today's announcement expands that to additional models, with a 99-inch model and the promise of "smaller sizes by the end of the year." 

Samsung unveils Solar-charging Eco remote

Samsung's Solar Cell remote control solves a common irritation by removing the replaceable batteries from the remote control and replacing them with a rechargeable battery and solar cell that can charge the remote using the indoor lighting of your living room.

Samsung's packaging is getting a little more eco-friendly, with a new low-ink design that reduces print waste and makes the cardboard easier to recycle. The new packages also use a new ink that is more sustainable than the oil-based ink traditionally found on TV packaging.

Samsung's accessibility features have gotten a major boost, with enhancements to features like voice guide and high contrast visibility modes for the blind, and smarter captioning for hard of hearing users.

Mini-LED and micro-LED are two terms you'll start seeing more often in 2021 as new TVs use the new technologies for better displays. But what exactly do those terms mean? And how are mini-LED and micro-LED different?

When you think of LEDs, you probably think of simple tiny lights, like power indicators, Christmas lights, and glowing features on toys. But LEDs play an essential part in one technology you probably use every day: Your TV. And the role of the humble light-emitting diode is about to get a lot bigger with the latest LED technologies.

LED Basics

LED stands for light emitting diode, and they're one of the simplest components in modern technology. LEDs have a specialized semiconductor that glows when current passes through it, and operating one is extremely simple: when current is on, it emits light. When it's off, it goes dark.

Ever since they appeared in consumer products back in the 60s, LED development has refined upon that basic premise. Improvements have made them brighter and produced a rainbow of different colors, but that basic functionality has defined the LED for decades. Recent products like high-efficiency light bulbs and the flashlight on smartphones all benefit from the higher brightness offered by modern LEDs, but they've also been used in everything from infrared remote controls to digital displays.

The biggest change to come to LED technology was the introduction of organic compounds that allowed multiple color LEDs that could be deposited onto glass much like a printer puts ink on paper. With the ability to display bright colors and perfect blacks, OLED has become the leading display technology in the TV world.

But mini-LEDs and micro-LEDs may change the TV technology landscape considerably in 2021.

Mini-LED: Tiny backlights make a big difference

Mini LEDs are smaller than the average LED, with diodes that measure in the 0.008-inch (200 microns) range, or about a fifth the size of what a standard LED measures. That smaller size means that more of them can be packed together in the same area, allowing a full array backlit TV to boast thousands of micro LEDs behind the LCD panel, and to offer a hundred or more discrete dimming zones.

That's an order of magnitude increase compared to local dimming on TVs that use standard LEDS, where dimming zones would number in just the dozens on the most premium models. Each of these smaller dimming zones provide more tightly controlled backlight, and thus better brights, deeper darks, and less haloing caused by dimming zones that spill into high contrast areas. This translates into superb HDR performance, but also a richer picture overall, bringing LCD-based TVs much closer in line with OLED, the current champ in the TV display technology world.

And the best part? The price isn't much more than competing TVs using standard size LEDs. For a price increase of a couple hundred dollars you can get a drastically better picture, the sort of improvement that used to cost several hundred dollars to make the premium jump to OLED.

TCL has made a name for itself introducing mini-LEDs back in 2019 with the TCL 8-Series Roku TV, and then bringing the same mini-LED backlight to the TCL 6-Series Roku TV (R635) model that is our favorite value TV of the year. The result is one of the best TVs you can get, and at a price that's under $1,000 for all but the largest 75-inch model.

Competitors have definitely noticed, with Samsung gearing up to introduce mini-LED TVs in 2021, and there are rumors that LG is set to do the same.

Should you buy a mini-LED TV?

Absolutely. Mini-LED TVs offer a simple, yet effective refinement of the TV designs we already love, giving you better picture and performance without major price increases. If there's any new technology we recommend for shoppers to hunt for in 2021, this is it. However, while there are some good mini-LED sets now, it’s worth waiting to see what will be out later this year.

Micro-LEDs: The tiniest LEDs you can get

Not to be confused with mini-LED, micro-LEDs are even tinier, and offer a much bigger change to TV technology. Current micro-LED sizes are as small as 50μm — about 0.002 inches across — making them 1/100th the size of a conventional LED. That's just about small enough to serve as a single pixel in conventional TV sizes and resolutions, and that's where micro-LED gets really interesting. If mini-LEDs provide a refinement on the existing LCD backlight, micro-LED promises to be more revolutionary, offering a technology that can go head to head with OLED and win, with better brightness and more vivid color.

The best way to understand micro-LED pixels is to think of the old Jumbo-Tron displays at sporting events, where individual lights made up the big, visible pixels of the screen. But those displays were giant in size and low in resolution, and wouldn't be suitable for home use. On the other hand, microscopic LEDs, literally microns across in size, are small enough to function as individual pixels in a more traditional display.

Clustered in triplets of red, blue, and green, each cluster is a single pixel that can be lit up for whatever color or brightness level you want, or even switched off entirely. That switching off adds something that LCD panel TVs can't offer: true black and infinite contrast.

But they also can do a trick OLED TVs haven't yet been able to achieve, which is brightness levels up to 5,000 nits, roughly five times the peak luminance of the brightest OLED displays. Micro-LED also promises to fix the last nagging concern for OLED buyers: Screen burn in. Thanks to the different chemical and electro-luminescent properties of OLED and micro-LED, individual micro-LED pixels will have no risk of retaining static images over time, and should last much,  much longer without the color degradation that occurs with OLED's organic materials.

Samsung has been showing off micro-LED displays for a couple of years now, with commercial signage and proof of concept demonstrations of The Wall, a massive modular micro-LED TV that measured 146 inches, literally enough to cover a wall from floor to ceiling. (Not to be left out, manufacturers like LG, Sony and TCL have all shown off similar micro-LED displays in the last two years.)

But there was another reason for that enormous size: Samsung was still refining the manufacturing of micro-LEDs, and that's the size that was needed to hit 4K resolution. However, Samsung has successfully made the micro-LEDs more micro, and shrunk The Wall down into the much more reasonable 110-inch Samsung MicroLED TV for 2021, with smaller sizes sure to follow as the technology is further refined.

Should you buy a Micro-LED TV?

While they will be on the market, we recommend holding off on buying a micro-LED set. Right now, the few models that will be sold are going to be positively giant, and will have price tags to match. Think tens of thousands of dollars for a 4K micro-LED TV.

For that sort of money, you can get much better resolution, even if you want a TV that's too big to fit through the door. Samsung, LG and Sony all offer big screen 8K sets, with sizes up in the 88- to 98-inch range. Prices are between $30,000 and $60,000. We'll let you decide if you can afford something like that.

More importantly, we expect 8K sets to get a lot more affordable in the coming year. Samsung's most affordable 65-inch 8K set is already selling for less than $3,000, and we expect additional affordable models from more TV makers in the next few months. Micro-LED is definitely a technology to keep an eye on, but it's probably not worth buying right out of the gate.

Samsung has announced the most affordable 8K TV yet, just in time for people getting ready for the 8K-ready PS5 and Xbox Series X game consoles. Samsung Electronics UK has just announced a new model, the Q700T QLED 8K TV, which is the 'cheapest' 8K model to date.

The new Samsung Q700T starts with a 55-inch model that sells for £1,999 and a 65-inch model for £2,699. And no, that pricing isn't a typo – Samsung has only announced UK availability of the new TVs so far.

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The pricing is cheaper than Samsung's current entry-priced 8K set, the 65-inch Samsung Q800T, which sells for $3,199 / £3,799. But the lower price does come with some changes to the overall quality of the TV.

Samsung Q700T features

Samsung's Q700T QLED TV offers the same Ultra HD resolution and impressive color seen on the more expensive models, and Samsung still backs the 8K picture with it's Quantum Processor 8K, which handles everything from motion smoothing to upscaling lower-resolution content – an absolute must for 8K TVs, since 8K content is still mostly nonexistent.

The Q700T also boasts Samsung's immersive Object Tracking Sound+ (OTS+) technology, with eight speakers built into the four sides of the TV's chassis to provide 3D sound that tracks right and left, up and down, and provides the illusion of sound coming directly from the screen. Samsung also includes Adaptive Sound+ and Active Voice Amplifier (AVA), which adapt the sound to the room around it, and then tailor the output depending upon the type of content.

Last but not least, the Q700T is ready to take on 8K gaming, with support for AMD Freesync and Variable Refresh Rates (VRR), and a reported lag time of as little as 9.7 milliseconds. Pair that with the 8K/60Hz or 4K/120Hz output offered by either the PS5 or the Xbox Series X, and you've got a set made for next-gen gaming at top resolutions and frame rates.

Samsung Q700T trade-offs

The Q700T does not have Samsung's zero-bezel display, though the bezels on the set look to be in line with the acceptably slim bezels seen on Samsung's 4K QLED sets. The Q700T also has a different stand, using a cylindrical pedestal stand instead of the more premium angled stands used on the Q800T models.

But the biggest hit comes in the display itself, which has half the dimming zones of the Q800T and drops the overall HDR rating to HDR1000, half that of the Q800T's HDR2000 rating. While 1000 nits of brightness is still high, and should look great compared to almost any 4K set on the market, it's going to look dimmer than on the more expensive set.

The biggest problem with the new Q700T could be it's size. At 55 and 65 inches, 8K resolution won't be fully appreciated unless you sit less than 2 feet away from the screen – any farther back, and 8K is hard to distinguish from 4K. And while a 55- or 65-inch set is easier to fit into most homes, it's small enough that most of that detail just won't be appreciated anyway.

Samsung Q700T outlook

The new Samsung Q700T should be a welcome addition to the premium TV space, offering an 8K set that won't fill a wall the way that an 80+ inch set would, and brings 8K down to a level of affordability that will actually fit some people's wallets. We just hope the new set makes its way to the US market.

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TCL's new 8K QLED TV delivers an IMAX Enhanced-certified movie theater to your living room so you never have to leave the house to catch a blockbuster again.

Called the TCL X915, this 8K TV comes in 75- and 65-inch variants, offers Quantum Dot display technology and supports Dolby Vision HDR/HDR 10+. The X915 also boasts Local Dimming Technology, which often provides excellent contrast. As for sound, TCL says the X915 packs a built-in Dolby Atmos soundbar made from Onkyo hardware.

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The X915's IMAX Enhanced certification means viewers can benefit from the same 1.90:1 picture aspect ratio they'd experience while enjoying IMAX movies at an actual theater. While the screen at home might not be as large, you'll get to watch 8K upscaled and IMAX remastered films up close.

Not many popular manufactures have prioritized IMAX Enhanced technology yet since it started rolling out last year, but we're excited to see TCL betting on it for one of its 2020 TVs. 

TCL is also taking a bet on a feature that hasn't fared well for smartphones: a pop-up camera. If you get interrupted by a video chat as you've just settled onto the couch, a webcam will materialize. Far-field microphones will let you answer the call, even if your remote is buried deep between the cushions.

The microphones can also be used to navigate the Android TV interface, which leverages Google Assistant and the best Google Assistant commands to search for content, as well as integrate your TV into your smart home system. 

Some of the features announced for the TCL 2020 TVs show up on the X915. One of them is HDMI 2.1 support, which allows such features as enhanced Audio Return Channel (eARC) with uncompressed audio formats and gaming with variable refresh rates that match the TV's refresh rate to the game console's output frame-by-frame to eliminate tearing and judder.

TCL X915 price and availability

8K TVs might not be mainstream yet, but with manufactures like TV throwing their efforts behind ultra-realistic picture formats, we could be interested in owning them sooner than we think.

If the TCL X915 has you sold, you might be waiting to buy it depending on where you live. It's already available to purchase in Australia and is rolling out across Asia and Europe now. 

Pricing for the U.S. has not been announced yet, but based on conversions on the prices coming out of India the 75-inch model costs $4,000. Samsung's Q900 8K in 75 inches is about the same price, for comparison.

 After a week of going hands on with new TVs at CES, we've gotten a pretty good look at all of the major new models, technologies and features coming to televisions in 2020. It will be a few months yet before any of these new models are available to buy, but if you're starting to look at a new TV, it's always worth paying attention to what could land on our best TV list.

We did see some exciting things in the TV space while we were in Las Vegas, but whether or not it's worth waiting to buy one of these new TVs is another question. While many of the trends we predicted have come to fruition, we were surprised that most of the hot technologies and new capabilities were being debuted on 8K TVs. Current 4K sets are getting only incremental updates, like improved smart TV software and a couple of funky new form factors.

OLED TVs: Finally, some competition

OLED technology will be offered by more companies than ever before in 2020 as Vizio, Philips, Panasonic and newcomer Konka are all planning to bring new OLED models to market this year. After several years of OLED sets coming exclusively from LG or Sony (who use LG OLED panels), the introduction of any competition from other brands is refreshing, and should open up the market to new leaders and lower prices.

LG and Sony are still in the OLED game, however, and they're both offering some impressive models that leverage their experience in making top-notch OLED sets. LG has announced the new Gallery Series, which packs a complete OLED TV, including the sound system and components, nto a super-slim 20-millimeter-thick package that can be hung flat on the wall. Sony's own OLEDs are getting a 2020 update with the Bravia A8H, which boasts an improved version of Acoustic Surface Audio, Sony's sound-from-screen technology.

With all of these OLED TVs on the market, we can safely predict two things: 2020 will deliver the best OLED TVs yet, with even better picture quality and sound than we've seen in years past. But it's also very likely that this will be the year of the affordable OLED. While prices will stay in the premium range when products launch, it's entirely possible that we'll see prices dip below $1,000 during big sales like Amazon Prime Day or Black Friday later this year.

8K TVs: Are you still throwing your money away?

We've been seeing 8K TVs at CES since 2018, but so far, we've been urging people to wait on buying these new sets themselves. While 8K TV still has some maturing to do, 2020 may be the first year we don't actively discourage people from buying the new higher-resolution sets. With new models announced by LG, Samsung and Sony, along with the first 8K model from TCL, the range of 8K TVs has never been broader.

The new offerings include the Samsung Q950 8K QLED, which boasts a fancy frameless design and a new sound system that offers audio quality to match the beautiful 8K picture. Sony's Z8H does the same, with an improved version of Sony's Acoustic Audio+ technology that actually vibrates the frame of the TV with an embedded tweeter to produce sound. 

8K TVs are coming down in price, and 2020 will be the first year that 8K content is finally available. The Tokyo Olympic Games will be broadcast in 8K – at least for some events – thanks to a partnership between LG and Japanese broadcaster NHK. And the upcoming Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 consoles will both be capable of gaming in 8K. The first 8K streaming options are expected to launch this year, and Samsung is pushing a new compression technology, called AI ScaleNet, that will allow 8K video to be streamed within the same bandwidth currently used by 4K streams.

It will still be at least a year before we start recommending anyone buy an 8K TV, but we've reached the point that early adopters are no longer throwing money away by buying into 8K technology too soon.

Smart TVs that listen: Proceed with caution

The other big trend to watch for should have you a bit more cautious, as smart TVs get the ability to listen to everything around them. The surging popularity of smart speaker technology has encouraged TV manufacturers to build the same capabilities into smart TVs. 

Since many smart TVs already offer voice assistants like Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant and others built in, it's a logical step in making voice interaction more accessible. And there will definitely be more convenience in being able to talk to your TV directly without having to speak into a microphone built into the remote control.

But it does raise some questions about privacy and security. TV makers have a checkered history when it comes to tracking user data, keeping close tabs on viewing choices, app interaction and more. And this information is almost always shared with third parties, usually with advertising in mind. There's no reason to think that manufacturers will suddenly turn away from this valuable trove of data when microphones that listen to the room are suddenly standard in many TVs.

That said, every TV manufacturer we've spoken to has taken pains to make sure that these microphones can be disabled, and will require users to opt into their use, whether as part of the setup process for a new TV, or as a separate function to enable. Rest assured, we'll be keeping a close eye on this development in the coming year.

Upgrading in 2020

The bottom line here is that, when it comes to buying a new TV in 2020, you may not want to hold off on purchasing for the latest TVs to arrive this spring. There are a few things worth waiting for if you're in the market for specific features or capabilities, like OLED or 8K. And if you're security-conscious, it might be a good time to pick up a top 2019 model before built-in microphones become commonplace.

But when it comes to the majority of 4K smart TVs, the annual churn of new models and features may not be quite as compelling as in years past. If you're in the market for a new TV, you're safe to check out our best TVs of 2020 for great models you can buy now. 

LAS VEGAS — Sony gave us our first glimpse of its 2020 flagship TVs during its CES 2020 kickoff, with an early look at the Sony Master Series Z8H 8K smart TV.

This new 8K set builds upon the superb quality of last year's model, the 88-inch Master Series Z9G 8K TV, which was one of the most impressive sets we saw in 2019 and an early entry into the growing 8K category. The new Sony Master Series Z8H model offers small but significant improvements over last year's version, and it's clear that Sony has taken pains to improve its 8K TVs without giving up the technical excellence the company has already achieved.

We got to go hands on with the Sony Master Series Z8H and the gorgeous A8H 4K OLED, and we're pleased to say that Sony's category-leading performance looks to be going strong in 2020.

The Z8H 8K TV very closely follows the template of the previous year's design, at least in terms of looks. The back side of the TV has a checkerboard pattern of ventilation grills and textured panels, with a very squared off design and a flat-to-the-table stand that extends from the bottom corners at 90-degree angles.

But similar looks belie some impressive improvements with this year's model. Specifically, the new 8K set features an improved version of Sony's Acoustic Audio Plus to deliver sound that seems to come directly from the screen.

Sony has improved the technology for 2020 by adding an embedded tweeter in the frame, which vibrates the frame itself to produce some of the sound for the TV. This reduces the physical space needed in the chassis for speakers above and below the screen, which in turn allows for a slimmer overall design that still offers impressive sound. If it's anything like last year's implementation, the effect is dramatic in how it enhances viewer immersion.

The vibrating frame is also a fascinating move to deliver a technology more in line with the sound-from-screen experience offered by Sony's OLED panels, which actually vibrate the glass OLED panel to produce audio. The layered construction of an LCD display prevents that same technology from being used here, but the vibrating frame allows a similar experience.

The impressive audio goes both ways, as the Sony Master Series Z8H also sports embedded far-field microphones for hands-free use. This allows simple voice interaction without having to fumble with a dedicated button on the remote control; instead, you simply speak in the room and activate the TV with a trigger phrase, much like any smart speaker.

When used in conjunction with Google Assistant, which comes included on the TV as part of the Android TV operating system, the Sony Z8H 8K smart TV effectively doubles as a smart home speaker, allowing all of the voice interaction and smart home control of a Google Home device.

As we've seen in months past, the 8K picture looks superb, with excellent clarity color and brightness. And with 8K content actually on the horizon in 2020 — we'll see 8K content from the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and both the Xbox Series X and PS5 consoles will be 8K-capable when they launch later this year — it may actually be time to start thinking about 8K as more than a novelty.

The Sony Master Series Z8H 8K LED TV will be available in 75- and 85-inch sizes, which scales back Sony's offerings to a slightly more realistic size than last year's 88- and 98-inch models. The new, more modest sizes should fit into homes more easily, and hopefully won't carry the 98-inch model's astronomical $69,999 price tag.

Sony hasn't specified when the new 8K sets will go on sale, or what they'll cost, but we anticipate that they will be part of the 2020 lineup that is expected to launch this spring.

Be sure to check out our CES 2020 hub for the latest news and hands-on impressions out of Las Vegas. 

TCL's TV lineup just got a lot more impressive with an eye-popping 8K LCD TV that boasts thousands of mini-LED backlights, quantum-dot enhancement and a slew of other premium touches. The upcoming TCL Mini-LED 8K Roku TV has us rethinking both how soon we can expect 8K technology to take hold in people's homes, but also where TCL sits in the competitive food chain of TV makers.

TCL's mini-LED backlight wowed us when we first saw it on the TCL 8-Series Roku TV, which packed a staggering 25,000 discrete lighting zones into its 75-inch premium set. At CES 2020 today (Jan. 6), the company made things clear that it's just getting started, with a new version called Vidrian Mini LED which embeds these micron-scale thin-film LEDs into a clear glass panel that gets placed directly behind the LCD panel. 

This micro-LED glass panel reduces the number of layers in the LCD stack, removing unwanted light-dimming filters and keeping the overall thickness of the TV relatively slim.

I asked Aaron Dew, director of product development for TCL North America, what makes Vidrian such an improvement over even last year's impressive mini-LED. "It's not only the mini-LED's, it's also the semiconductor circuitry," he said. "So it's not like a separate board for the electronics, it's simply a sheet of light." 

In the construction of the TV, that means TCL can eliminate the gaps between the LCD and the backlight, while also keeping the TV slim and the construction sturdy.

Between the thousands of individually dimmable points of light and the thin, optically optimized glass surrounding each mini LED, TCL hopes to make Vidrian Mini LED the new leader for TV backlight. And in our first look at the TCL Mini-LED 8K Roku TV set, we can't help but think the company's on to something.

Watching the new 8K set, I was impressed not only with the remarkable clarity of 8K— such sharpness and crisp detail is simply expected at this ultra-high resolution — but I was just as impressed with the well-controlled backlight, which offered both bright highlights and deep shadows with very tight control.

And it seems that TCL's new glass-panel tech has eliminated the one complaint I had about mini-LED in 2019: viewing angles. With fewer layers between the backlight and LCD panel, the company eliminated the parallax effect that we saw on the TCL 8-Series 4K set, where off-angle viewing shifted the backlight so that it no longer aligned properly with the picture.

The new TCL Mini-LED 8K Roku TV is packed with other top-flight features, too. The set is outfitted with HDMI 2.1 ports, to support 8K content and higher frame rates for content of any resolution. It also supports uncompressed audio and enhanced Audio Return Channel (eARC) for connecting to soundbars. Other HDMI 2.1 features coming to TCL's new set include auto game mode, for immediate recognition of game consoles, as well as variable refresh rate support.

TCL has also worked with Roku to make hooking up a new soundbar more seamless, with automatic device detection and a less cumbersome method for setting up soundbar controls through the TV remote.

TCL is also aiming to top the standards of other 8K sets, throwing its weight behind 8K Association Certification. The company has also worked with THX for a new gaming mode, leveraging the expertise of THX to certify gaming products for high performance on big screen TVs. This goes above and beyond basic game modes, but includes optimizations for both better visuals and low lag times.

The new TCL Mini-LED 8K ROKu TV will launch in North America sometime in 2020; however, additional specifics about availability and pricing have not been announced.

See all the hottest new tech products in our CES 2020 hub, including all the latest announcements and hands-on impressions from Las Vegas.

Samsung might be known for The Frame TV, which hangs on the wall like art and sports a decorative frame around the screen, but the rest of Samsung's premium TV lineup might be losing the bezels entirely for 2020.

Just days ahead of CES, a leaked image of Samsung's new 8K QLED TVs was spotted by German tech site 4Kfilme. The images show a Samsung TV, complete with the L-shaped pedestal base used on previous QLED models, but the lack of black bars around the display gives the TV a pronounced new look.

The lack of bezel would be a stark change from past models and other LCD TVs, replicating a trick previously offered on Samsung's Galaxy phones and a handful of LG OLED TVs. But it would be a major improvement for LCD TVs, and mark a new level of refinement for the technology, alongside Samsung's quantum dot enhancement and local dimming, two innovations that have drastically improved the quality of most TVs on the market.

While not truly bezel-less – the picture clearly shows a bottom bezel, and likely has slim borders around the top and sides of the screen – the proportions are such that at a comfortable viewing distance the bezel should be difficult to even notice. The result should be something akin to the platonic ideal of TV design: When viewing the TV, only the display panel can be seen.

Additional reporting by 4Kfilme and Samsung-focused news site Sammobile suggests that this new feature may be called "Zero Bezel" or "Infinity Screen" based on trademark filings from the company in early 2019. Reports from South Korea also suggest that manufacturing for the new premium design is set to begin early this year, starting in February in advance of a March product launch.

While this is all unconfirmed at this point, the basis for these reports looks pretty solid. With CES literally days away, we can expect a number of major TV announcements in the coming week, and we're sure Samsung has more than one trick up its sleeve, with a full slate of TVs for the new year. There will be plenty of news from every major TV manufacturer, so keep an eye on our CES 2020 coverage for all the latest news.

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If TVs have had a unified theme in 2019, it's the introduction of 8K. Sony's Master Series Z9G 8K TVs are leading entrants in the new category, providing the eye-popping 7680 x 4320-pixel resolution that defines 8K, along with a host of features and performance tweaks unique to Sony TVs. The result is staggering, with giant screens, unbeatable detail, and fantastic clarity and realism.

Sony will offer two sizes of the Master Series Z9G starting this June: The 85-inch model will sell for a (relatively) modest $12,999, while an even larger, 98-inch model will sell for an astonishing $69,999. Obviously, the 98-inch model will be a niche product, even compared to the rest of the 8K landscape.

8K delivers reality

During our time with the 85-inch Z9G, Sony demoed the set with a handful of 8K clips. While each clip was very different from the others, they all drove home some of the unique benefits of 8K technology. These clips demonstrated, across a wide breadth of content types, just how much more real everything seems at such high resolution.

One clip showed the natural splendor of Yellowstone National Park, showcasing plants and animals, mountains, and the geological oddities the park is famous for. Whether it was a sweeping mountain vista or a close shot of a tree, the level of detail was immense.

Frost crystals on a tree branch were exquisitely lifelike. Stray hairs were visible on the nose of a caribou. A baby bear playing in tall grass looked cuddly enough to be cute, but real enough to make you nervous about its protective mother.

A different clip of high-performance cars racing through the streets not only showed the blood-red paint job of a Ferrari and the vibrant yellow of a Lamborghini, but also offered impeccable detail, bringing that same level of realism to every shot. The realism extended not only to the candy-colored exteriors of the cars, but also to dashboard controls, steering wheels and brake pads peeking through the spokes of the wheels.

Another clip showed crowds from Carnival in Brazil. There were glitzy costumes and elaborate floats, and the incredible detail offered by 8K resolution made it possible to pick out individual faces in crowds of thousands.

Approaching reality

Every detail on an 8K screen is sharp enough to trick the brain into thinking you could reach out and touch what you're seeing. The effect is amplified by the larger size of the screens. The sheer size of an 85-inch TV is enough to present images at nearly a 1:1 scale with actual objects and people, and the pixel density is so high that even moving toward the display doesn't reduce the realism.

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At 85 inches, the Z9G has a pixel density of more than 100 pixels per inch, so you can get very close to the TV without being able to distinguish the individual points of light that make up the picture. That seamless image, in which the underlying pixel structure is so difficult to see, seems to almost short-circuit something in the brain, and it's seen less as an abstraction — an image representing a real person or object — and more as a reality.

It's the sort of thing that's hard to really convey in text or photos and has to be experienced. Suffice it to say, if you thought the jump from 1080p to 4K was impressive, then the move to 8K will seem even more so.

Beyond pixels

But there's more to a TV than pixels alone, and Sony has a track record of producing some of the best TVs available. With the Z9G, the company is bringing its best, and the 8K set benefits from every optimization and performance-boosting technology offered on Sony's lower-resolution 4K consumer TVs.

Chief among these is high-dynamic-range content, made possible by a full-array backlight with local dimming zones. With 85 inches of screen to light, Sony has ramped up the brightness and provided an unspecified number of dimming zones to provide brightness exactly where it's needed. And you don't get the blooms or halos of unwanted light in other portions of the screen that you'd get with less-precise backlighting.

In the clip of racing supercars, the HDR performance was easily seen in the glowing headlights and taillights of each car, glowing even against the bright colors of the cars themselves. As the autos raced through the night, shadows around the streets ranged from deep black to merely shadowy, and the handling of these midrange brightness levels was superb, with no detail lost in the dimmer light. To my eyes, the set delivered one of the best HDR experiences I've seen.

Supersound

The Z9G is also outfitted with Sony's Acoustic Multi-Audio, a technology for replicating the sound-from-screen experience offered on premium 4K OLED sets, like the Sony Master Series A9F. While LCD technology can't use the same techniques — literally turning the OLED glass into a vibrational surface for producing sound — the new set does approximate the overall experience with an array of cleverly placed speakers.

Along the bottom are two speakers to handle most of the sound in stereo, positioned right along the bottom edge of the display. But a second pair of tweeters provides additional sound, primarily dialogue, along the top edge. The speakers themselves reside behind the display, in the TV chassis, but the sound is piped up and around the top edge of the display, to provide an additional audio source.

These four speakers do a convincing job in approximating the feel of sound coming directly from the display. The result is more-realistic audio, with dialogue that seems to come from the actors on screen and that can even track right and left as characters move from one side of the picture to the other.

Sony Z9G: Big and bigger

Sony's 8K TVs have one defining feature, aside from impeccable resolution: They're huge. The smaller of the two is the 85 incher we looked at above, which is already larger than most mainstream TVs and even many 8K TVs offered by competitors. (Samsung's four 8K models top out at 85 inches.)

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But Sony's second 8K size option is a stunning 98 inches, measuring more than 7 feet across. And the price is just as huge, with the 98-inch Z9G selling for a heart-attack-inducing $69,999.

The price difference is also enormous. For the cost of one 98-inch 8K set, you could buy five of the 85-inch models, with nearly $5,000 to spare.

This is the future of TV

This isn't my first time seeing an 8K TV, or even seeing this model of 8K TV — Sony was showing off the Z9G at CES 2019 — but we're at the point where I finally believe that 8K is more than a gimmick. The incredible realism offered by this resolution grabbed me in a way it hasn't before and made it seem obvious that this is the next evolutionary step in consumer TVs.

It will be years before we can safely recommend that anyone buy an 8K TV. But the number of 8K sets on the market (including Sony's 85-inch Z9G) is an encouraging step in the right direction, offering a glimpse of where TV technology is headed.

Even though we aren't there yet — nobody should be buying an 8K TV when there isn't even 8K content available yet — we will get there. Japanese broadcaster NHK has already started delivering 8K content to viewers, and the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo will bring that to a global audience. We can expect 8K sets to really take off then, dropping in price as the technology matures.

But one thing is true right now: There's nothing out there that tops this.

Credit: Tom's Guide

Sony is bringing the Master Series TVs into the 8K future with the latest models, a pair of 8K TVs that boast not only impressive picture, but also excellent sound.

The Sony Master Series Z9G 8K LCD TV comes in two sizes, 98 and 85-inches, and we got an up close look at both.

Eyes-On with Master Series Z9G 8K

Both TVs feature high resolution panels that deliver the sort of sharpness and clarity that only 33 million pixels can provide. Watching a stream of sample videos, I saw sports cars race along an intensely detailed road, with asphalt so sharp and clear you'd expect it to feel rough to the touch. A scene of swimming sharks could be mistaken for a live aquarium tank at first glance.

Watching scenes from film and television drove home ho great any content can look on the new displays. Bright colors popped on screen when watching a green goblin working as a flight attendant in the latest Hotel Transylvania, and I felt transported into a tense interrogation scene in the TV show The Blacklist.

With a 98-inch screen, human figures can be shown in almost full scale, and it made for a more realistic viewing experience to see people in realistic size and detail.

But the Master Series Z9G 8K TVs have more to offer than just 8K. Higher resolution requires more processing muscle, and Sony has outfitted the new TVs with Picture Processor X1 Ultimate, a processor aimed at not only making 8K content look good, but making everything else look better with the X-Reality PRO engine handling upscaling.

Paired with that higher resolution is high-dynamic range (HDR) capability, powered with a potent backlight. Sony calls its illumination tech the Backlight Master Drive, and it's paired with the new IMAX Enhanced video certification, which delivers not only dynamic brightness data, but also includes post-production color enhancement, sharper contrast and overall clarity. It also includes sound, with an optimized version of DTS:X codec technology, for powerful sound.

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Acoustic Multi Sound: TV Audio Gets Real

Sony's newest TVs also bring one of the best features from the rarified OLED line to the new 8K LCD models with Acoustic Multi Audio, which creates a distinct sound-from-screen effect. That used to be restricted to Sony's OLED models, which use the single glass panel as the vibrational surface for internal speakers.

The layered design of LCD panels makes that approach impossible on non-OLED displays, but Sony took up the task of replicating that same approach for more of its displays.

With an array of four speakers set above and below the display panel, placed right along (and built into) the bezel. By pumping out sound so close to the display and in tandem from top and bottom, Sony manages to recreate the same sound-from-screen effect.

We got to try out the new sound system on the new Sony Z9D 8K OLED TV, where we saw and heard a variety of samples to demonstrate the effect. Watching a clip from The Blacklist, James Spader's gravelly voice seemed to come directly from him as he sat tied to a chair.

Switching back and forth between the four channel Acoustic Multi Audio and regular two-speaker stereo sound, the standard  Audio sounded artificial notably separate from the scene. Switching back to the four-speaker system put us in the interrogation room with the actors.

The results sound impressive, with audio not only coming seemingly from the center of the LCD panel, but it actually tracks right and left across the screen, providing the illusion that sound is coming directly from the mouths of speaking actors.

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Bravia Gets New OLEDs

While 8K may be the most amazing feature to come to new Sony TVs, the company didn't stop there. Sony is adding a new 4K OLED to the lineup, with the new A9G OLED TV, coming in 55-, 65-, and 77-inch sizes.

These models are thinner, with sharp new designs and a passel of new features. All of the Master Series TVs include a dedicated Netflix Calibrated Mode, which is optimized for streaming 4K and HDR content.

They also get an updated version of Android, with the inclusion of Android TV version 8 (called Oreo), which includes an updated interface and increased compatibility with Google Home and Amazon Alexa smart speakers. If you don't want to buy another device, Google Assistant is built in, handling content search along with general information search and smart home integration.

These 4K OLED models also get the sound-from-screen treatment, with the introduction of Acoustic Surface Audio+. What the plus refers to, in this case, isn't totally clear, but Sony assures us that the audio has been refined from previous iterations.

Apple AirPlay Comes to Sony, Too

Following the surprise hot trend of the show, Sony's smart TVs are getting support for Apple AirPlay 2 and HomeKit. The feature lets iPhone and iPad users share content easily with Sony smart TVs, with one click access to share video, photos, music and more.

It's also the first such Apple compatibility we've seen on and Android TV. It's not yet clear whether this capability will extend to other current Android TVs, or if it's a capability extended only to individual manufacturers.

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How early is too early? That’s the question I have been asking myself ever since getting an in-depth look at Samsung’s 8K TV range. Buying an 8K TV isn’t something I thought we would have to talk about for a few years yet, but here we are with the first line of 8K TVs shipping to the UK first and then to the rest of the world.

If you want an 8K TV, then you will have to pay big for the privilege, as the lowest-priced model in the UK - the 65-inch QLED 8K (Q900R) - is an eye-watering £4,999.99. Currently the US is set to only get the 85-inch model and that costs, deep breath, $14,999.99. Granted, for that price you get TV technology that’s on the top of its game.

True 8K resolution clocks in a 33 million pixels, four times that of 4K. It’s the brightest TV ever released, using direct LED lighting (offering 4800 nits in Dynamic mode) which means HDR content pings when shown on it.

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All of this is lovely but what will you actually watch on it, given 8K content is extremely rare? Samsung believes it has the answer: upscaling.

Upscaling to the max

That’s right, for the majority of your viewing on the Samsung 8K TVs you will be watching content that’s upscaled from the source, which makes this TV the most expensive upscaler around.

At least the technology inside doing this processing is first rate. Samsung’s Quantum Processor 8K (which is powered by AI, apparently) upscales anything from SD upwards to ‘8K’ levels of quality. The exact science on how this is done boils down to Samsung’s image processing creating new detail to add into a picture, reducing the noise and restoring the edge of pixels.

“I had to stop myself from reaching out to pick the insects up - it truly was like staring through a window into a world beautifully enhanced by HDR.”

I was dubious that the upscaling could be that good but it was impressive. SD footage wasn’t the pock-marked noise-fest I thought it would be (although it certainly was nowhere near 8K quality), while HD footage upscaled to something that looked on a par with 4K. The content we were shown, though, was built specifically for the demo. I think if you had a grainy piece of SD footage to start with the effect would be dulled.

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The TV came to life when some true 8K content was shown. It was the same demo that was on display at IFA - a close-up look of some ants and its was utterly life-like. I had to stop myself from reaching out to pick the insects up - it truly was like staring through a window into a world beautifully enhanced by HDR.

Not content with the content

But yet I am still not convinced. Perhaps there’s a tinge of jealousy of not being able to afford these TVs, but even to my richest friends I wouldn’t be able to recommend Samsung’s 8K TV range… yet.

Yes, the QLED 8K (Q900R) is the best TV you can buy right now, by some margin. But take something like LG OLED65C8 - an OLED TV you can get for half the price. Or, if you want to stay brand loyal, the superb Samsung Q8F9 QLED. Yes it’s only ‘4K’ but the technology built into these TVs is stunning and will stay stunning for years to come.

he big issue: the world doesn’t feel ready for 8K TVs yet. Consumers are still figuring out where and how to get 4K content to watch on their shiny new 4K TVs but when they do watch something they are utterly impressed by the picture quality. So the idea of shifting so soon to an 8K panel will be hard to stomach for many.

Those who wait to upgrade to 8K, even for just a year or two, will be rewarded with cheaper prices, a refinement in design (the Q900R’s picture maybe stunning but it’s a little industrial in its overall look) and an actual reason to purchase - and that is more 8K content.

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One of the things I watched upscaled on the 65-inch version of the Q900 was Guardians of the Galaxy 2. It was one of the first Hollywood films shot in 8K on the RED camera and scaled down for release. Filmmakers are beginning to shoot in 8K to future proof but the general public just hasn’t been given access to the format. That, with time, will come.

Future proofing on board

Samsung has thought of future proofing as well, which is important considering the price paid for these panels.
The company has been very clever in its thinking about upgrades. The upcoming HDMI 2.1 standard is 8K-ready, but the changes may not stop there. Given 8K is a format where the official spec is in flux, it is highly likely that we will see a new type of HDMI come into existence when the format hits the mainstream. If this does happen, Samsung has parked all the connections in the One Connect Box. This means that if specs change, its existing panel will not need upgrading, only this box will.

This type of future proofing is a smart move by Samsung, and may tempt some with deep pockets to consider buying a TV.

The best type of future proofing you can do for the moment, though, is ride the 4K wave a little longer and see what happens to pricing when Samsung’s rivals eventually show their 8K wares.

Credit: Tom's Guide

If you really want to impress your friends and don't mind spending a boatload of cash on a TV, Samsung is now selling the most bleeding-edge set we've seen.

The tech giant is now offering its 85-inch Q900 QLED 8K TV for pre-order for a whopping $15,000. If that price is a little too much to swallow but you still want to get your hands on the 8K set, you can sign up for Samsung financing, which will cost you $416.70 for 36 months.

Samsung announced its new 8K televisions in August. The company said that it would offer four models, ranging in size from 65 inches to 85 inches. Samsung is currently only selling the biggest of the bunch, but the 65-, 75-, and 82-inch models should be available for pre-order at some point soon.

In the world of display resolutions, 8K is king. The new 8K standard (also called 8K UHD) delivers the equivalent of four 4K displays in a 2 x 2 grid, for a total resolution of 7680 x 4320 pixels.

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Samsiung's QLED TV also includes an 8K AI Upscaling feature that remasters content that was produced in 4K or even lower and converts it to 8K. Additionally, Samsung's television has HDR compatibility and according to the company, it's capable of producing "optimal sounds for each scene."

This ultra-premium set sports a nearly bezel-less design and with an Ambient Mode, you can take a picture of the wall behind the screen and use it as a screensaver to make it feel like your TV is transparent. Neat, but $15,000 neat?

Indeed, the biggest problem here is that 4K content is hard to come by. Even on your cable service right now, you're not even getting programming in 1080p. Getting a television with 8K resolution all but guarantees that the amount of content you'll actually be able to watch in real, native 8K will be hard to come by for years.

But as one analyst recently told us, that won't stop shoppers from adopting 8K. And it's just a matter of time before prices come down, just as they did with 4K sets.

"Is the market very limited, sure, but it takes a long time for costs to come down and the product to get better and you have to start somewhere," said NPD analyst Stephen Baker. "It is a great opportunity for Samsung to show how strong their technology is to their consumers and to their competitors."

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Samsung's eagerly pushing into new territory with the release of the 85-inch Q900FN QLED TV, the first consumer-level 8K TV available. But is it worth jumping in on 8K?

For 8K technology to really take hold, there's an entire ecosystem of content creation and distribution that will need to come together. While it's very likely that those moving parts will come together to make 8K Ultra HD the next big standard for TVs, it'll be years before it's a must-have.

What is 8K?

First, some explanation of what 8K resolution really means, and how it relates to the TV you probably have in your home right now.

Full-HD resolution offers 1920 x 1080 pixels. That 1080 vertical pixel count is called full HD, and is sometimes referred to as 1K resolution. The standard was developed in the 1980s, but full-HD broadcasts didn't start in the United States until 1998. Satellite- and cable-television providers didn't start carrying HD programming until 2002 and 2003, respectively, and most broadcast, cable and satellite channels today still use full-HD resolution.

According to a 2015 study from the Leichtman Research Group, 81 percent of households in the United States have at least one high-definition television. Chances are high that most of what you watch on TV today is still at full-HD resolution.

Ultra HD (or 4K resolution) quadruples that resolution to 3840 x 2160 pixels, sometimes called 2160p. This is equivalent to four 1K displays combined in a 2 x 2 grid, hence the name 4K. There is more to it than that (see our guide to 4K technology for more details), but the general usage has more or less settled on the explanation we've given. In any case, the terms 4K, Ultra HD and UHD have become interchangeable in regard to consumer TVs, and all refer to 3840 x 2160 resolution.

Adoption of 4K has been rapid, with prices coming down quickly and sales growing since the first 4K TVs hit the market in 2012. ABI Research released a report in July that estimates that 44 percent of all TV sales will be 4K-flat-panel units this year.

The new 8K standard (also called 8K UHD) takes this a step further, delivering the equivalent of four 4K displays in a 2 x 2 grid, for a total resolution of 7680 x 4320 pixels. If you're keeping score at home, this is a quadrupling of a quadrupling, and offers the same resolution as 16 full- HD displays tiled in a 4 x 4 grid.

That's a massive increase in sharpness and detail, and it brings a fourfold increase in the amount of video data that needs to be delivered to a TV – early implementations have actually used four simultaneous HDMI connections to deliver what amounts to four separate 4K signals to make up a single 8K picture.

Who is offering 8K TVs?

Samsung has made some waves with the announcement of the upcoming 85-inch Q900FN QLED 8K TV, which is the first consumer-level 8K TV to hit the market, but competitors won't be far behind.

LG teased its first 8K TV back in 2016, and is demonstrating 8K OLED displays at trade shows like CES and IFA. Sony has also been showing an 8K display, with a boundary pushing 10,000- nit brightness and advanced image processing. These competitors haven't announced any plans for commercially available 8K TVs, but there's no doubt that they are in the works.

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And Samsung's not exactly alone. Manufacturer TCL is prepping an 8K model for sale to non-U.S. markets, and Sharp has a 70-inch Aquos monitor that started shipping in Asia last year and in Europe earlier this year. Thanks to licensing conflicts in the U.S. – the Sharp brand is owned by manufacturer Foxconn, but U.S. manufacturing and licensing rights belong to competitor Hisense for the time being – the Sharp monitors likely won't make it stateside.

But the technology has been in development for years. Panasonic was showing off a 145-inch 8K plasma display back in 2012. The first 8K display went on sale back in 2015, sold by Sharp for a cool $130,000, but it was aimed at businesses rather than consumers.

The six-figure price of that early model may seem astronomically high, but even consumer-level 8K will be at a premium for some time. Samsung hasn't released pricing on the 85-inch Q900FN QLED 8K TV, but has said that it will be in line with other models in the QLED lineup, which includes the 88-inch Q9F 4K TV that retails for $19,999. These new TVs will be extremely expensive for at least the first few years they're on the market.

What about 8K content?

The arrival of this next-gen technology also sets off something of a chicken-and-egg problem. Nobody is offering 8K content, because there haven't been any displays capable of showing it. On the other side of the coin, consumers will hesitate to buy the newest super-high-resolution displays if there's no content that takes advantage of the expanded capabilities. Even if consumers are willing to give new display technologies a shot, the expense of being an early adopter will keep adoption rates very low for the first few years, keeping 8K content in its own tiny niche outside the mainstream.

I spoke to industry analyst Stephen Baker at research firm NPD, to get his take on the new technology. He said that "if the tech is ready there isn't any reason not to make it publically available." He acknowledged several obstacles to quick 8K adoption, but said, "It is a great opportunity for Samsung to show how strong their technology is to their consumers and to their competitors."

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A report from Display Supply Chain Consultants (DSCC) and Insight Media released earlier this year forecasts that sales of 8K TVs in 2018 may reach as high as 100,000 units. That's barely a blip in the millions upon millions of TVs out there, not to mention monitors and other displays.

But Baker said that this is entirely expected. "Is the market very limited, sure, but it takes a long time for costs to come down and the product to get better and you have to start somewhere." He noted that slow sales are part of the process of introducing a new technology. "No one expects this to sell a lot and it won't at what will be very expensive prices."

But the content will come eventually. There are already production-level 8K cameras hitting the market from manufacturers like Astrodesign, Hitachi, Panasonic, Red and Sony, meaning that 8K video content will start to trickle out. The 2017 film Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 was the first feature film shot entirely on 8K-capable RED cameras. Similarly, new digital-film scanners will allow 8K remasters of movies shot on film, meaning that even older films may reappear in 8K editions.

Japanese broadcaster NHK has been heavily invested in making 8K broadcast technology a reality, and has  been testing 8K capture with footage from the London and Rio Olympic Games and concerts.

NHK has begun broadcasting a dedicated "Super Hi-Vision" 8K channel in Japan. But, without commercially available displays that can handle the content, the broadcaster has had to create specialized installations and events to expose the public to the new technology. They have also partnered with Sony and Panasonic to broadcast the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in 8K, which will likely be the first major mainstream broadcast of the new resolution.

Samsung is taking a different approach to the dearth of 8K content by figuring out how to make everything look better in 8K, pouring major resources into upscaling technology. The new enhancement tools use machine learning to create and improve upscaling, even going so far as to insert texture and detail into low-res video so that it looks its best on Samsung's new TV.

Delivering 8K Content

Getting a display for tomorrow’s 8K content solves only half the problem, however. Delivering that content poses another set of hurdles. Current technology is already pushed pretty hard by 4K content, whether it's streaming services, media players or gaming consoles. Quadrupling the amount of raw data involved will require some big shifts.

Streaming services that offer 4K video feeds already must contend with broadband bottlenecks – and that's not taking into account the quarter of Americans who can't afford or don't have access to it. Streaming in 8K will require jumping to a much higher bandwidth, like Gigabit (1Gbps) speeds available on fiber and cable networks. Gigabit internet is available in many cities, but it's scattershot even in areas with multiple Gig-speed providers.

Consumers have also been backing off on physical media for a while, and sales of 4K Blu-ray discs dropped 14 percent from 2017 to 2018 – and this after streaming outpaced total disc sales in 2016, according to a report from Digital Entertainment Group (DEG) (as reported by Variety).

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And gaming consoles only caught up to 4K this year, with the PlayStation 4 Pro and the XBox One X. Stepping up the graphics to render at four times the resolution and detail will be a real challenge.

And then there's  cable. To put it bluntly, 8K won’t work with any cable you currently own. In fact, the HDMI Forum's Technical Working Group has developed a new standard, HDMI 2.1, to handle the massive bandwidth demands of 8K video and all the extra data that comes with HDR, higher frame rates and deep color modes like 10-bit and 12-bit color.

The standard was released in 2017, but there's no need to go hunting for an HDMI 2.1-ready TV just yet. The first HDMI 2.1-compliant TVs are hitting the market this year, but good luck finding anything else that works with it. Cables certified for HDMI 2.1 are few and far between, and the only device that can output over the 2.1 standard is the Xbox One X.

A look at the 8K Future

Initial 8K TVs will be very expensive, and with only one or two manufacturers actually offering consumers 8K resolution TVs, the options will be few. However, with 8K TVs on the horizon from major manufacturers like Sony, LG and others, the scarcity of 8K-capable models should open up in the next two to three years.

Industry analysts predict that by 2020, only a fraction of homes will have an 8K-capable TV, but they predict that the Tokyo Olympics will help drive sales into mainstream territory.

There's no avoiding progress, especially when it comes to consumer technology, and 8K movies and shows will arrive in homes one way or another. But it won't happen immediately, and it will likely be years before we're ready to recommend that shoppers go all-in on an 8K TV.

At CES last January, I spoke to Andrew Sivori, vice president of TV marketing at Samsung Electronics America. I asked about the new TV and how the new resolution might inhibit early adoption. His answer was quick and clear, "They said the same thing about HD, and about 4K. And here we are."

LAS VEGAS, NV — Sony demonstrated a prototype of its 8K display with a peak brightness of 10,000 nits at CES 2018. The company did not disclose when it plans to commercialize the product, if at all. While the display’s main feature is extremely high luminance, it packs a bunch of other important technologies.

Sony calls the prototype it demonstrated at its CES 2018 press conference the "X1 Ultimate Full-Spec HDR 8K Display." The 85-inch device with a 7680×4320 resolution relies on an unknown display technology and an undisclosed backlighting system to enable a peak luminance of 10,000 nits.

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To put the 10,000 nits number into context. Contemporary high-end UHDTVs offer peak brightness at 1000 – 1500 nits; to get the Ultra HD Premium logo on a TV, the device should have a peak luminance between 540 and 1000 nits (subject to black level performance) and VESA’s DisplayHDR certification currently tops at 1000 nits (black level performance has to be met to get the badge).

Then, there is Dolby’s Pulsar reference monitor for Dolby Vision post-production with a peak brightness level of 4000 nits. So, 10,000 nits is a lot. In fact, the Dolby Vision specification supports maximum luminance of 10,000 nits.

A big question is whether this is something that is eagerly awaited by the industry in the foreseeable future because in addition to peak luminance, display panels need to properly support large color spaces, but clearly this is Sony’s technological achievement.

It's interesting to note though that while the most eye-catching aspect of the prototype set is its brightness, that's not the only reason Sony is showing off the set at CES. The display is also a vehicle to show off the company's latest X1 picture processor, in this case being equipped with a pre-production version of Sony’s X1 Ultimate processor that features two times higher “real-time processing power” compared to the current-gen X1 Extreme. The latter is known to support multiple HDR-branded video post-processing techniques, so it is logical to expect its successor to further develop such capabilities.

While high luminance and a wide color gamut are important, contrast ratio is a yet another factor required for a stunning picture on a screen. When it comes to displays with LED backlighting (and I doubt that we are dealing with an OLED-based prototype), precise control of LEDs and calibration of their light beams is a method used by manufacturers to achieve deep blacks today.

Several years ago, Sony already demonstrated a 4K display with a 4000-nits brightness featuring its Backlight Master Drive technology that ensured both incredible luminance and a high contrast ratio with its 1000 independently controllable lighting zones. Since technologies tend to evolve, we may be looking at a successor of the Backlight Master Drive tech to be used on the "X1 Ultimate Full-Spec HDR 8K Display," but a linear growth of the number of controllable lighting zones is hardly the only option that Sony has at hands.

Sony naturally does not disclose any additionally technical details about its prototype. As such, the key takeaways here is that the company had developed an ultra-bright backlighting along with a way to keep the display’s contrast ratio at a decent level as well as a processor that can handle content with peak luminance of 10,000 nits and presumably in a wide color spectrum.

This story originally appeared on AnandTech.

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