The best OLED TVs are coveted for their excellent picture reproduction, phenomenal motion processing and top-of-the-line upscaling. With unbeatable black levels and perfect contrast, they offer a cinema-like experience for not that much more money than a traditional LED-LCD or QLED TV.
This year, OLED TVs have really reached the next level thanks to QD-OLED and LG Display’s 3rd Generation META panels. OLED TVs with either of these panel types are brighter, more colorful and longer lasting than their predecessors. That may lead you to think that they’d be significantly more expensive – however, that’s simply not the case. The Samsung S95C OLED, our top-rated OLED TV of 2023 that uses a QD-OLED panel, doesn’t cost much more than OLED TVs we’ve seen in past years from the likes of Sony or LG. Want to stick with an LG or Sony? No problem. Both of which have QD-OLED or 3rd-Generation META panel OLED TVs of their own.
In short, there’s a good option for every OLED lover out there – it all just depends on how much you want to spend, what level of performance you’re looking for and which TV maker you like.
Nick Pino
My name’s Nick and I look after our guides to the best TVs, best OLED TVs and best 4K TVs. Most of my day is spent watching and evaluating new screens from LG, Samsung, Sony, Hisense, TCL and Vizio. I have 10 years of experience in AV, and before I joined Tom’s Guide I was formerly the Senior Editor, TV and AV at TechRadar. I love helping people find the perfect TV, so please feel free to reach out over email or tag me on Twitter and I can help you out.
The quick list
The best OLED TVs you can buy: a visual guide
The best OLED TV you can buy
The Samsung S95B took a swing at our list of the best OLED TVs and fell just short of the top spot. But its successor, the Samsung Samsung S95C, is the best OLED TV in 2023.
The best LG-made OLED
The LG G3 is one of the brightest OLED TVs on the market, and its visuals are eye-catching no matter what you want to watch. Only a few tiny flaws keep it from perfection.
The best Sony-made OLED
If it wasn’t significantly more expensive than the other models on the list, the Sony Bravia XR A95L would be the best OLED in 2024. However, if you’ve got the money for it, it’s truly Sony’s best OLED TV to date.
The LG C3 OLED is the best value OLED
If spending more than $1,500 on a new OLED TV wasn’t what you had planned on, check out the LG C3 OLED that offers a great performance at a reasonable price.
The best sounding OLED
Want great audio out of the box? The Sony Bravia XR A80L delivers the high picture quality you’d expect from an OLED and the surprisingly good sound you might not.
The cheapest OLED TV
The LG A2 OLED isn’t as bright or colorful as other OLED TVs, but it’s a great television if you want an OLED TV without paying a premium for it. This TV can often be found for $650 during sales events like Black Friday or Amazon Prime Day.
The full list: Best OLED TVs in detail
The Samsung S95C OLED TV is the clear winner when it comes to being the best OLED TV in 2023. It’s great for gamers and it’s great for home entertainment enthusiasts.
For gamers, we measured the Samsung S95C at 9.2ms lag time with a Leo Bodnar 4K Lag Tester, resulting in responsive gameplay across a variety of genres. Meanwhile, the S95C’s new 144Hz refresh rate kicks in when connected to a gaming PC. Pair that refresh rate with AMD’s FreeSync Premium Pro, and the S95C makes for one of the best gaming TVs.
For cinephiles, the Samsung S95C offers some of the highest color saturation (141.5% of the Rec 709 color space) and best color accuracy (it has a Delta-E accuracy score of 1.4) of any TV. In terms of brightness, it’s 30% brighter than the Samsung S95B OLED and close to double the brightness of last year’s LG OLED TVs.
If you want an OLED that wins in nearly every single spec, the Samsung S95C OLED is the only viable option.
Read our full Samsung S95C OLED review.
Best LG OLED TV
If you want to stick with an LG OLED but still want the brightness that rivals a Samsung QLED TV, the LG OLED evo G3 offers the best of all worlds: It’s an OLED TV, so you get perfect blacks, infinite contrast, and intense colors, but its high peak brightness ensures optimal HDR playback that rivals QLED screens.
What does it do better than the Samsung? LG’s webOS smart platform is easier to use and it comes with wall-mounting bracket that gives the G3 its gallery design.
So why is it second? Its higher price certainly hurts and, for our money, QD-OLED looks a better than LG’s 3rd Gen OLED panels. It’s close, and fans of LG OLED TVs will find a lot to love here, but for now the G3 OLED holds the number two spot.
Read our full LG G3 OLED review
Best Sony OLED TV
By themselves, QD-OLED TVs already combine two of the best worlds of current display technology: quantum dots for vibrant colors and expanded brightness and OLED for perfect blacks and the infinite contrast they allow. In addition, Sony’s Cognitive Processor XR enables and executes a variety of other features that the company claims further enhances picture quality. Together, the A95L’s picture isn’t merely good, it’s sumptuous with every type of content, every time. It’s difficult to know what to say without it sounding like mindless rhapsodizing, but that’s what this TV reduces you to.
With stunning picture and sound quality, a raft of innovative and interesting features, and a few killer extras, the A95L easily deserves to play among the most stalwart of the industry’s power players — and it dominates them in more than a few categories.
For nearly $3,000, it’s a bit much to ask — even given the myriad positives — considering the stiff competition out there from the likes of Samsung and LG, which are nipping at Samsung’s heels with new TVs that will build on the advances from their excellent last-generation sets, the S95C and the G3 respectively.
Read our full Sony Bravia XR A95L OLED review
Best Value OLED TV
The LG OLED C3 is the latest iteration in LG’s vaunted C series of upper-midrange 4K TVs. Previous TVs in the C series, like the LG C1 OLED and LG C2 OLED, have been acclaimed by reviewers (including here at ), industry professionals, and everyday consumers alike for the outstanding picture quality and strong usability they offer at a still-reasonable price.
And with the LG OLED C3 it pulls off the hat trick.
What’s more, this C series lineup is LG’s largest in terms of size options — the configurations span from 42- to 83-inches, all of which sport full arrays of HDMI 2.1 ports. Most also feature LG’s evo OLED panel, which was first introduced on the LG G1 OLED TV. With it, the LG C3 hits around 820 nits at peak brightness and covers 98.98% of the UHDA-P3 Color Gamut.
It has its shortcomings (see: sound quality) but it’s an awfully affordably option compared to the flagship OLED TVs in the top two spots.
Read our full LG C3 OLED review.
Best Sounding OLED TV
The Sony Bravia XR A80L is the latest in Sony’s line of upper-midrange consumer OLED TVs, and it’s one that more than holds its own against formidable competition from LG and Samsung. Beyond the perfect blacks and infinite contrast you’d expect from any OLED set, Sony also deploys its estimable catalog of picture- and sound-enhancement technologies to deliver a sprawling entertainment experience that few other TVs in this price range can fully touch.
Its visuals and audio are more than enough to qualify the A80L as one of the best TVs you can buy, and it might be the best choice if you’re looking for a do-it-all solution for decking out your living room. It is not, however, the brightest OLED you’ll find. And a bit of inertia in its specs and performance suggests Sony may not hold on to this crown forever.
Still, the A80L shows both that Sony deserves to hang with the cool kids and that its position in the pack is precarious. Want a terrific, well-rounded TV at a solid price? Right now, in mid 2023, the A80L is a solid choice.
Read our full Sony Bravia XR A80L review.
Cheapest OLED TV
What are you able to get if you don’t have (or don’t want to spend) quite as much money on an OLED TV? With respect to the entry-level line of the LG A2 OLED, the answer is something pretty darn good.
Admittedly, you won’t get everything with the A2 that you will with pricier and tonier LG TVs. You’ll have to settle for a lower refresh rate, an older HDMI standard, and lower brightness. But considering that it wasn’t that long ago that OLEDs were unthinkable at the sub-$1,300 price point — to say nothing of the sub-$1,000 price point at which the smallest model can currently be found — those features might be small prices to pay if all you can pay is a small price.
Buying an A2, even at this low price, won’t make up for what the A2 OLED doesn’t have: faster refresh rates, HDMI 2.1 ports, and dazzling brightness chief among them. For a lower-level TV at a bargain-basement price, “Who cares?” is a fine response — in these circumstances, most people won’t (and shouldn’t).
Read our full LG A2 OLED review
OLED TV FAQs
How much do OLED TVs cost?
The cheapest 4K OLED TVs on the market are the LG C1 OLED and the Vizio OLED TV. Both sell at around $1,299 for the 55-inch model as standard, but both can regularly be found for less than $1,000.
The majority of OLED TVs in the 55- and 65-inch range sell for between $1,500 and $2,000, but premium models will often cost more, and larger screen sizes can routinely sell for $3,000 or more.
We’re hoping prices will continue to fall as OLED panel yields continue to rise and we see smaller and smaller models, like the new 20-inch OLED panels LG Display is researching.
What is OLED?
OLED stands for Organic Light Emitting Diode, a display technology that uses organic compounds to create clusters of red, green, blue, and white points of light to make up the individual pixels of the TV. On a 4K TV with 3840 x 2160 resolution, that means a single OLED panel will have 8.29 million pixels. And unlike standard LCD TVs, each one of those pixels produces its own light, and can be individually turned on or off, brightened or dimmed.
That pixel-level control of brightness lets OLED offer the best contrast of any display technology, with neighboring pixels delivering everything from intense brightness to true black, and every color imaginable.
As a result, OLED TVs consistently outperform the majority of LED-lit LCD TVs, whether they use standard LCD panels or boost the picture quality with enhancements like quantum dots (also known as QLED) or discrete dimming zones.
That said, some LED technologies are starting to catch up, like the excellent Samsung Q90A for example. But as far as picture quality is concerned, OLED remains the TV tech you can rely on.
Are OLED TVs worth buying?
If you want a truly excellent TV, OLED is absolutely worth considering. It offers better picture quality than standard LCD TVs can match, and with prices coming down every year, they’re no longer prohibitively expensive either. In testing and reviews, OLED TVs have consistently offered some of the best picture quality available.
There are areas of performance where LCDs offer better performance. Brightness on OLED TVs is no match for the greater intensity you can produce with an LED backlight, and LCD sets don’t have the same risk of burn-in or color drift that OLEDs have to contend with long-term. But in virtually every other area, from viewing angles to color accuracy, OLED sets match or beat LCD-based competitors hands down.
But there is some question of whether that improved quality is worth the added expense. When there are 4K models selling for under $500, why spend $1,000 or more on an OLED set? There is definitely a case to be made for spending less for quality that is comparable, if not exactly the same.
But if you want the best color, contrast and overall quality you can get from a TV today, OLED is the way to go.
How to choose the best OLED TV
How to choose the best OLED TVs for you
Firstly, there’s the more affordable models that come in for less than $1,500 (and even less than $1,000), such as the Vizio OLED TV, as well as the smallest screen size of the 48-inch LG C1 OLED (and watch out for the new 42-inch version of the LG C2, coming later in 2022).
More mainstream OLED TVs fall between $1,500 and $2,000, which will let you get a solid 55- or 65-inch model. More premium models will cost more than $2,000 and larger screen sizes will range even higher.
But other differences include physical designs, from the slim pedestal base looks of the Vizio OLED TV or the LG C1, to the ultra-slim wall-hanging design of the LG G1 OLED.
Smart features are also a differentiator. LG sets offer a pretty consistent experience across all of its models thanks to the webOS platform, but Sony’s Android TV and Vizio SmartCast sets have strengths and weaknesses of their own.
Sony’s OLED sets use Android TV, which offers both a rich selection of apps and services along with Google-powered capabilities like Google Assistant voice control and built-in Chromecast functionality. The Vizio OLED TV, on the other hand, also has a Chromecast built-in, but offers a more limited selection of apps and more basic functionality.
Interested in a specific TV brand, price range or screen size? Check out our picks for the best TVs in each.
Best TVs | Best 4K TVs | Best smart TVs for streaming | Best TVs for gaming
The best TVs under $1000 | The best TVs under $500
Best TV brands | Best Samsung TVs | Best TCL TVs | Best LG TVs | Best Roku TVs | Best QLED TVs | Best 8K TVs
The smallest smart TVs | Best 43-inch TVs | Best 50-inch TVs | Best 55-inch TVs | Best 65-inch TVs | Best 70-inch TVs | Best 75-inch TVs | Best 85-inch TVs
How we test the best OLED TVs
How we test OLED TVs
Every OLED TV we review goes through a thorough testing and evaluation process, starting with rigorous lab testing and finishing with eyes-on evaluation by our reviewers. There’s a lot more to it than just putting on a couple of 4K Blu-ray movies or hooking up a game console.
In our TV test space, we submit every TV to a number of lab tests, using industry-standard equipment, such as a calibrated spectrophotometer, calibration software and a dedicated test pattern generator. We measure for several indicators of picture quality, but these are the main metrics used in all of our reviews:
Color gamut, which measures how much color a given TV can produce. Expressed as a percentage rating, most OLED TVs meet or exceed 100% of the Rec709 color space.
Color accuracy, which measures the average deviation from perfect accuracy, expressed as a number (Delta-E), with higher numbers indicating less accurate color.
Contrast, measuring the difference between the darkest darks and brightest brights that a TV can produce, which is expressed as a ratio.
Brightness, measuring the peak luminance of a panel or display. This measure is reported in nits, an industry term for candela per square meter (cd/m2).
Lag time is the interval between a signal, such as button press on a game console, and the subsequent change registering on-screen. Measured with a Leo Bodnar Video Signal Input Lag Tester, this is measured in milliseconds, and provides a good indicator of how well-suited a TV is to modern gaming.
We pair this lab testing with hands-on time, viewing video samples and movies to see how these numbers translate into real-world performance. With that information, we can tell you which TVs look best, sound best and offer the best viewing experience.
Finally, we also evaluate the smart TV software and menus, getting a feel for the navigation and functions of each TV. We look at everything from the remote control design to the voice interaction to let us meaningfully talk about the smart features and overall ease-of-use for a smart TV.
