Short answer: Start with the room and the use. For a dark room and movies, OLED's perfect blacks are hard to beat; for a bright room or sports, a high-brightness Mini-LED wins. Gamers should insist on HDMI 2.1 with 120Hz and VRR. Get size and panel right first — the smart platform and speakers matter far less and can be fixed cheaply later.
A TV is a 5–8 year purchase, so the panel matters more than the feature list. Here's what each spec actually does, how much it moves our 0–100 score, and what's normal across the sets we track. As ever, our medians reflect our catalogue — which leans toward mid-range and premium models — not the whole market.
Torn between the top two? See our head-to-head: LG OLED evo G5 65 vs LG OLED evo G6 65 →
This is the choice that defines the picture. OLED (58% of the sets we track) gives perfect blacks, infinite contrast and superb viewing angles — ideal for dark-room movie nights — but tops out lower on brightness and needs some care around static logos. LED/LCD, especially Mini-LED with many local-dimming zones, goes far brighter for sunny rooms and HDR highlights, at the cost of some blooming around bright objects. Match the panel to your room's light, not to the brand on the box.
Brightness is what makes HDR pop and beats glare in a bright room. Our tracked sets hit a median 1,500 nits peak, but the number to weigh is real, measured brightness on a meaningful window size — box "peak nits" are a best case. Contrast and local dimming decide black levels on LCDs; on OLED they're a non-issue. Resolution is the least of it: 4K is standard, and 8K makes almost no visible difference at normal seating distances, so don't pay up for it.
If you game, this section outranks smart features entirely. You want HDMI 2.1 for 4K/120Hz — 100% of the sets we track have at least one 2.1 port, and 100% can do 120Hz gaming — plus VRR to stop tearing and ALLM to switch to game mode automatically. Low input lag is the other half of "feels responsive." A current console can't use more than a couple of 2.1 ports, but if you also plug in a soundbar, port count starts to matter.
HDR adds the range between deep shadow and bright highlight, and the format matters: Dolby Vision (on 74% of ours) and HDR10+ add scene-by-scene tuning over baseline HDR10, and Dolby Vision has the wider content support on streaming and disc. A set that reads the format is only half the job — it still needs the brightness and dimming to show it. Don't let a long list of supported formats distract from whether the panel can actually deliver them.
The built-in OS (Google TV, webOS, Tizen, Roku, Fire TV) shapes day-to-day use, but it's the most replaceable part of the TV — a $40 streaming stick upgrades a clunky one instantly. Built-in speakers are almost always the weak link; budget for a soundbar if audio matters, and check the set has eARC to pass lossless audio over one HDMI cable. In short: don't let the smart platform or speakers override a better panel.
Every figure above is computed from our own catalogue. These independent references — including non-English outlets — back the general technical claims, so you can verify them yourself.
The figures in this guide are computed live from the 31 tvsin our catalogue and update as it grows — analysis by the Let’s Compare Data Engine.