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Best OLED TVs Available Now (October, 2023)

As the holiday shopping season gets underway, here are the best OLED TVs you can currently buy.

LG OLED evo TVs

Last Updated: October 6, 2023

TV technology has advanced so quickly that a high performing television from just a few years ago pales in comparison to today’s best displays. With increased competition, now is an excellent time to be shopping for a new 4K TV. As far as which TV technology is best, OLED (Organic Light-Emitting Diode) beats LED/LCD TVs for nearly all content and use cases, due to its superior black levels, contrast, motion reproduction, color saturation and picture uniformity. OLED TVs also offer much wider viewing angles than LED/LCD TVs, making them a great choice for large living rooms.

OLED TVs have made particularly large improvements in the past few years as LG has found new competition from Sony and Samsung. Sony began offering OLED TVs a few years ago, with display panels manufactured by LG Display, combined with Sony’s proprietary image processing software. In 2022, Samsung got back into the OLED TV game with the release of their new “QD-OLED” (Quantum Dot Organic Light-Emitting Diode) TVs. QD-OLED improves upon OLED’s picture performance aspects with improved color saturation and higher peak brightness, something that had been a mild weakness of OLED TVs in the past.

Value Electronics 4K TV Shootout 2023
We participated in this year’s Value Electronics 4K TV Shootout where six of the top-performing 4K TVs (including three OLED models) were run through a battery of tests to identify the top performing TVs.

The secret to OLED and QD-OLED’s superior image quality comes from their self-illuminating pixels. While LED/LCD TVs require a separate backlight element behind the LCD panel (which can lead to poor black levels and uniformity), OLED panels emit their own light source at the individual pixel level. Each pixel can be lit or turned off, or set to any level in between in order to create pure blacks, bright saturated colors and extremely high contrast images with excellent shadow detail.

For more details on the two OLED variations, check out our companion articles: WTF is an OLED TV? and WTF is a QD-OLED TV?, expertly written by OLED-Master Robert Silva.

All models recommended below (except the “Best Budget OLED” and the 8K OLED) are new, first introduced in 2023. They all offer full Ultra HD 4K resolution (3840 x 2160 pixels), excellent picture performance, a full suite of Smart TV apps and features, four HDMI inputs (including some or all with HDMI 2.1 support) and support for at least two flavors of HDR (High Dynamic Range): HDR10 and HLG (Hybrid Log Gamma) as well as one form of dynamic HDR.

All models but the Samsung include Dolby Vision dynamic HDR (the Samsung supports HDR10+ dynamic HDR instead). All models support Dolby Atmos immersive sound passthrough to an external receiver or Soundbar.

Buying Tip: How to Get The Best Deal

If you’re an Amazon Prime member, Amazon offers an additional incentive on select models in the form of cash back if you pay with an Amazon Prime credit card (5% to 10% back, depending on model). This can add up to $100, $200 or more in cash-back savings on certain sets. If you don’t have an Amazon Prime card, you can apply for one online with quick approval.

The Amazon Prime Card has no annual fee but does require you have a Prime Membership in good standing. It’s a great card to have if you purchase items on Amazon regularly as it gives you 5% cash back or more on virtually all Amazon purchases. Amazon also sometimes offers lower pricing for Prime Subscribers, particularly during their Prime Day deals. If you’re not already an Amazon Prime customer but see a lower price option for Prime customers on the site then you can sign up for a 30 day free trial of Amazon Prime here. As always, eCoustics relies on our readers to support the web site. Purchases made using our links may earn the site and its writers a commission.

For local shoppers, Costco offers excellent prices on some of these sets and has a generous return policy and excellent service in the unlikely event that you don’t like the TV in your particular home or you have technical issues with it.

And now on to our recommendations. Scroll down to read the full article or jump to individual recommendations below.

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Note: Pricing was accurate with items available and in stock as of the publication of this article (October 6, 2023). Pricing and inventory is subject to change so click the individual links to see current pricing.

In This Article:

Best Budget OLED TV: LG A2 (2022 Model)

LG-A2-OLED-900px

Last year, LG offered their entry-level A2 OLED TV starting at $1299 for a 48-inch version. Best Buy still has inventory of this model and is blowing them out for $649, a savings of 50% off the original list price. At present the company is only listing the 48-inch A2 model as new and in-stock but you may be able to find other screen sizes in your local Best Buy store. While the A2 doesn’t quite match the performance of the top of the line sets from LG, Samsung and Sony, it does still offer a beautiful OLED picture with deep inky blacks and rich colors. And while it works well for gaming, the native panel refresh rate is 60 Hz (compared to more expensive OLED TVs which include native 120 Hz panels).

Pros: OLED picture performance at a budget price.

Cons: Limited stock and screen sizes, 60Hz panel refresh rate

Bottom Line: Get an LG A2 OLED if you want the performance of OLED TV in a smaller size at a bargain basement price.

Where to Buy:

LG 48-inch OLED TV at Best Buy

Best Price/Performance OLED TV: Samsung S90C QD-OLED ($1699 for 65-inch)

For a company that wasn’t even in the OLED TV game just 2 years ago, Samsung has stepped up to the plate big time with their QD-OLED TVs. This year’s S90C model offers even higher peak brightness than last year’s model and all the advantages of OLED combined with Quantum Dot color technology. And a recent price reduction from $2,599 to $1,698 in the 65-inch size makes this 4K OLED TV purchase a no-brainer. It offers performance which approaches Sony’s A95L flagship QD-OLED TV for a little more than half the price.

Last year, Samsung’s QD-OLED panel was only available in 55-inch and 65-inch screen sizes, but this year, Samsung is offering the S90C in a 77-inch model, too. The 55-inch version is currently selling for $1,447 and the 77-inch for $2,697.

Samsung S90C QD-OLED TV - new in 2023

The Samsung S90C features the company’s QD-OLED panel with its inky blacks, accurate, nicely saturated colors and excellent contrast. The native 120 Hz OLED panel is equally at home with movies, sports, games or episodic TV shows. Samsung’s TiZen Smart TV platform includes access to all of the popular streaming services including Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video and more.

The S90C offers high peak brightness for viewing in rooms with some ambient light as well as an antireflective screen coating which minimizes the reflection of room lights on the screen. It also offers an incredibly low input lag (1.4 ms), making it an excellent choice for gamers. The native panel refresh rate is 120 Hz but this can be boosted to 144Hz for gaming when a PC is connected.

Pros: Stunning QD-OLED performance for less money, inky blacks, sharp 4K detail and accurate nicely saturated colors, HDR 10+ and Dolby Atmos support.

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Cons: No support for Dolby Vision dynamic HDR or DTS sound

Bottom Line: Get a Samsung S90C QD-OLED TV for a taste of that outstanding Quantum Dot OLED picture quality at a reasonable price.

Where to Buy:

Best “Cost No Object” 4K TV: Sony BRAVIA XR A95L 4K QD-OLED TV

Sony’s A95L QD-OLED TV took first place in this year’s TV Shootout, earning the crown of “King of 4K TV” for 2023. The Sony performed just a bit better overall than both the Samsung S95C the LG G3. Out of 10 categories of picture performance, the Sony took first place in nine. It also earned our “Best of CEDIA Expo 2023” award for best display overall. But at what cost? The 65-inch Sony currently sells for $3498, which is about $600 to $800 more than the LG and Samsung OLED TVs it competed against and more than twice the cost of the MiniLED/LCD competitors.

2023 Sony BRAVIA XR A95L QD-OLED TV

The Sony A95L list price in the 65-inch size is $3,498. The 55-inch version lists for $2798 while the 77-inch version sells for $4998. No discounts are being offered yet (as of October 13, 2023). But check back as we get closer to the holidays and you may see some discounts.

Does the Sony earn its lofty price tag? That depends. Are you looking for best picture quality TV on the market today and don’t care how much it costs? Then the Sony is for you. It’s great at upconverting standard definition and high definition content to 4K resolution, and it’s even better at displaying native 4K HDR content (including Dolby Vision content). It’s bright enough to produce a gorgeous high contrast image in a bright room but it’s equally at home for movie night in a pitch black room. The set even offers high quality sound: the TV effectively uses its entire screen as a speaker with 4 actuators resonating the screen, plus two built-in woofers in the back to supplement the bass. The set’s sound quality is actually as good as some standalone soundbars. But if you’re going to spend this kind of money on the display, we’d recommend pairing it with a real immersive surround system or at least a high-end soundbar system with discrete subwoofer and rear speakers.

The A95L is also a good choice for gaming, with support for Dolby Vision gaming (coming later via a firmware update) as well as built-in support for 4K/120Hz gaming, VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) and ALLM (Auto Low Latency Mode), two features important to hard-core gamers. It makes a particularly good match for the next generation PS5 console but it can make the most of PC gaming rigs and XBOX Series X as well.

The Sony A95L, like most Sony Smart TVs, is built on the Google TV platform. This means it has access to all the top streaming apps (Yes, even Apple TV+) as well as Google Assistant. It also has access to Sony’s own “BRAVIA CORE” streaming service. BRAVIA CORE features early access to many Hollywood titles (mostly Sony Pictures titles) and theoretically even has the ability to play IMAX Enhanced content in DTS:X immersive surround. I say theoretically because we tried to test this on its little brother the A80L and were unable to get it to play content in DTS:X. The movies came through as standard DTS 48 KHz 5.1 surround sound. And we don’t have a final production review sample of the A95L set to test yet to confirm whether DTS:X is supported on the A95L (thought Sony reps tell us that it does). In any case, the much more prevalent and ubiquitous Dolby Atmos immersive surround works great on the Sony TVs, including the A95L.

QD OLED Diagram
Blue OLED elements combined with red and green Quantum Dot layers provide the rich, saturated colors in both the Samsung and Sony QD-OLED TVs.

The Sony A95L uses the same second generation QD-OLED (Quantum Dot Organic Light Emitting Diode) panel that’s found in the also-excellent Samsung S95C TV, but it combines that panel with Sony’s latest generation Cognitive Processor XR for improved video performance. The QD-OLED panel is capable of higher overall brightness than a traditional OLED panel and this second generation QD-OLED panel is up to twice as bright as last year’s panel. This means the perfect black levels that OLED is well known for now have an even brighter white which leads to contrast performance that can’t be matched in any other consumer display.

Is the Sony A95L the perfect TV? No. While the set does support the latest HDMI 2.1 features on two of its HDMI ports, two of the HDMI ports are still HDMI 2.0. At the moment this is probably only an issue if you’re running multiple next gen gaming consoles or gaming PCs on the TV, but this issue can be resolved with a simple A/V receiver with HDMI 2.1 switching support. Also, the set lacks support for HDR10+ dynamic HDR, which means it cannot fully exploit the HDR elements of some 4K Ultra HD content. On the flip side, it does include Dolby Vision support which is currently the most widely used dynamic HDR format on disc and streaming sources. And with Dolby Vision content, the A95L presents an incredible image. The only other real drawback is the price. To get that extra little bit of performance, you’re paying a very high price.

Pros: Outstanding picture performance in bright or dark rooms, Very bright for an OLED TV, Supports Dolby Vision HDR, Great built-in sound

Cons: Expensive, Only offers two HDMI 2.1 inputs, No HDR10+

Bottom Line: Buy the Sony A95K QD-OLED if you want the highest performance 4K TV on the market today and don’t mind the lofty price tag.

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Get the Sony A95L 4K QD-OLED TV on Amazon:

Other Great Choices

While the Sony A95L is arguably the best performing display you can buy, there are other more affordable options worthy of your TV dollars. In most cases, performance of these sets is very close to the flagship Sony, for hundreds of dollars less. If you are leaning toward a larger screen size (77 inches or larger) you can actually pick up one of these for less than the price of the Sony A95L 65-inch model. For the 2023 model line, we’d recommend any of the following OLED sets, based on our own hands-on experience with each model.

Sony A80L OLED TV

Also a 2023 model, the Sony A80L uses LG’s WRGB OLED panel and enhances it with Sony’s proprietary Cognitive XR processor. Performance-wise, it is a small step down from the A95L in peak brightness and black level depth, but it still looks beautiful with a wide variety of content. The 65-inch A80L is available now for $1798 (about half the price of the A95L) and the 77-inch model is only $2698, which is less expensive than the 65-inch A95L. The A80L is also available in a new 83-inch size, currently priced at $4798. We’ve had the 65-inch model in for testing for the last few weeks and have been extremely impressed with its performance.

> Sony 65-inch A80L OLED Review

Sony BRAVIA XR A80L OLED TV

Buy or Check Current Pricing of the Sony A80L OLED TV on Amazon:

LG G3 META OLED TV

While Samsung and Sony stepped up their OLED game this year, LG hasn’t been standing still. LG has their own “magic bullet” for improved picture quality in this year’s G3 OLED TV. The G3 uses LG’s “META” Evo technology, which includes a new MLA (Micro Lens Array) screen which both improves peak brightness and expands the viewing angle. This enabled the LG G3 OLED TV to place second overall in the 2023 TV Shootout with a higher SDR score than the Samsung S95C QD-OLED and HDR scores just slightly below the Samsung. Like the Sony A95L, the LG G3 supports Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision HDR. For 10 years, LG has been (and remains) the top selling OLED TV brand, due to their wide range of models, excellent performance and strong value proposition.

2023 LG G3 OLED 4K TV Front

The LG G3 comes with a 5-year panel warranty, which is generous (and rare) in the TV industry. This will help provide some peace of mind for that TV investment. The G3 pricing is currently $1897 for the 55-inch, $2797 for the 65-inch, $3997 for the 77-inch and $5796 for the 83-inch model. Check the links below for current pricing and availability.

Buy or Check Current Pricing of the LG G3 OLED TV on Amazon:

Samsung S95C QD-OLED TV

Using the same QD-OLED panel as the Sony A95L, the Samsung S95C placed second in the recent TV shootout in HDR (High Dynamic Range) tests, and third in SDR (Standard Dynamic Range) tests just behind the LG G3. While the Samsung lacks Dolby Vision HDR support, it does include HDR10+ dynamic HDR as well as the much more common HDR10 standard. The 55-inch version is currently selling for around $1000 less than the Sony A95L while the 65-inch version is currently about $800 lower than the 65-inch Sony. A 77-inch version is also available for $3999 ($1000 less than the Sony A95L).

Samsung QN77S95C QD-OLED 77-inch 4K TV Angle
Samsung QN77S95C QD-OLED 77-inch 4K TV

Buy or Check Pricing of the Samsung S95C QD-OLED TV on Amazon:

LG 8K Z2 OLED TV

While there is little content currently available in 8K resolution, there are some 8K TVs on the market today. With over 33,000,000 pixels, 8K TVs offer four times the picture resolution of 4K TVs. And these extra pixels come in handy on larger screen sizes where detail and pixel density really start to matter. Currently only LG makes an 8K OLED TV, and even though the model was released in 2022, it handily beat the two MiniLED competitors in the most recent 8K TV Shootout. In addition to 8K resolution, the set includes Dolby Vision IQ dynamic HDR, a native 120 Hz panel and WiSA wireless speaker capability. It’s not inexpensive (the 88-inch version sells for $25,000) but if you want bragging rights for the OLED TV with the most pixels, this is your TV. A 77-inch is also available for a more “reasonable” $9,999.

2022 LG Signature 8K OLED TV

Buy or Check Pricing of the LG Z2 8K OLED TV on Amazon:

The Bottom Line

With increased competition, significant advancements in OLED technology and softer overall spending in the high-end TV market, now is a great time to pick up a high performance OLED TV at a discounted price. They’re still more expensive than LED/LCD models, but as they say, “you get what you pay for.” And you’re paying for picture quality: inky blacks, rich vibrant colors, natural motion reproduction and more faithful representation of what film makers, TV show directors and game-makers intended.

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It’s important to check current pricing by following the above links for each model. Amazon sometimes offers limited time unadvertised deals on select models so stock and pricing will vary.

Related Reading:

Best 4K UST Projectors (2023 Edition)

2023 TV Shootout Reveals Best 4K and 8K TVs You Can Buy

3 Comments

3 Comments

  1. Oled LG

    October 7, 2023 at 2:17 pm

    No Panasonic in this mix?

    • Ian White

      October 7, 2023 at 2:18 pm

      OLED,

      Panasonic TVs are not sold in North America anymore.

      Best,

      Ian White

  2. Robert Silva

    October 8, 2023 at 2:48 am

    Panasonic pulled out of the U.S. consumer TV market in 2016

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