Posted by New OLED TVs announced by LG, Sony, Panasonic, and Skyworth at CES 2022. Check out What to look forward to for more details
If you want the best-looking TV image that money can buy, choose an OLED TV. With perfect blacks, superior viewing angles, infinite contrast ratios, and better motion quality than you can find on other TVs, OLED displays outperform even the best LCD options—but they usually cost more (though the difference is shrinking). We recommend the LG C1 because it strikes a great balance between price and performance and is loaded with all the latest features.
The LG C1 4K OLED TV offers superb image quality with both HD and 4K sources, including video games. It supports the leading high dynamic range standards, so you get the best picture possible from HDR sources, and it has all the HDMI 2.1 features you need for improved sound quality and game play. (Check out TV features, defined for more information on the technical terms we use here).
The WebOS smart-TV platform is easy to use and provides all the major video and audio streaming services. The C1 is available in screen sizes from 48 to 83 inches and has an extremely thin and attractive design, and the TV’s Filmmaker Mode makes it easy for anyone to get a highly accurate image. In addition to being brighter than last year’s CX (our former top pick), the C1 has a new Game Optimizer mode, which groups all the gaming controls and updated features together to improve the gaming experience. More expensive OLED models from LG and Sony offer improvements in image brightness and video processing, but those improvements may not be worth the price increase for most people.
The Sony Bravia XR Master Series A90J offers the best image we’ve seen from an OLED TV, or any other TV, to date. Sony added an aluminum sheet to the OLED panel to dissipate heat more effectively, a design change that allowed the company to increase the panel’s brightness. As a result, the A90J produces brighter highlights than any other OLED TV we’ve tested, so images really pop off the screen.
This extra brightness also allows the A90J to display more highlight details than other OLEDs can show, so clouds, mountains, and other bright picture elements in HDR video look more realistic. The A90J is available in three screen sizes (55, 65, and 83 inches) and has two full-bandwidth HDMI 2.1 ports for use with the newest video game systems.
Sony has also updated the user interface to the new Google TV platform (our favorite streaming media platform), in place of Android TV. But the Sony A90J is significantly more expensive than the LG C1, and the step up in performance may not justify the price increase for anyone but the most ardent videophile.