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Best TV for PS5 and Xbox Series X, Series S for 2024: LG OLED, Samsung QLED, Vizio – CNET

Updated Jan. 1, 2024 5:00 p.m. PT

headshots_Geoffrey_Morrison_140x100.jpg Geoffrey Morrison
Our expert, award-winning staff selects the products we cover and rigorously researches and tests our top picks. If you buy through our links, we may get a commission. Reviews ethics statement
headshots_Geoffrey_Morrison_140x100.jpg Geoffrey Morrison Contributor

Geoffrey Morrison is a writer/photographer about tech and travel for CNET, The New York Times, and other web and print publications. He’s also the Editor-at-Large for The Wirecutter. He has written for Sound&Vision magazine, Home Theater magazine, and was the Editor-in-Chief of Home Entertainment magazine. He is NIST and ISF trained, and has a degree in Television/Radio from Ithaca College. His bestselling novel, Undersea, and its sequel, Undersea Atrophia, are available in paperback and digitally on Amazon. He spends most of the year as a digital nomad, living and working while traveling around the world. You can follow his travels at BaldNomad.com and on his YouTube channel.

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$898 at Walmart

Hisense U8H 2022 Google TV

Second-best value gaming TV

Hisense U8H series

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TVs are no longer used just for watching movies or TV shows. The use cases of TVs have changed over the years, and most people purchasing a new TV these days will have several other factors to consider These include things like whether the new TV will be compatible with their gaming setup. These TVs usually boast a number of great gaming features, such as HDMI 2.1’s 120Hz and low-latency support. Any TV with an HDMI port will be compatible with a PS5, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S console, but it won’t be able to take advantage of the full potential of any of these modern consoles.

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LG C2 OLED TV in a bright room on a wooden TV stand LG C2 OLED TV in a bright room on a wooden TV stand

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Our favorite TV overall for the money happens to be an excellent gaming TV as well. This TCL supports all the high-end gaming extras you expect, including 4K, 120Hz input and variable refresh rate. Our tests of its gaming picture revealed excellent overall quality, in particular shadow detail.

This TV has an excellent image thanks to mini-LED tech and well-implemented full-array local dimming that helps it run circles around just about any other TV at this price. It improves upon the previous R635 series with improved gaming extras and a new center-mount stand that you can elevate to make room for a soundbar, although the new 85-inch size has standard legs. And finally, the Roku TV operating system is our hands-down favorite.

Pros:

  • Relatively affordable
  • Excellent overall image quality
  • Roku smart TV is simple, capable
  • Improved design with central stand

Cons:

  • Some competing mini-LED TVs can get brighter

Note that in addition to the R635, which this TV replaces, other versions of the 6-Series were released in 2021 and remain on sale. The R646 series uses the Google TV operating system but otherwise has similar specifications to the R655 models reviewed here. The R648 series has 8K resolution and is significantly more expensive. 

TCL 6-Series TV R6 2022 TCL 6-Series TV R6 2022

<div content="LIST ITEM" superlative="Second-best value gaming TV" description="

In our review of the Hisense we rated its overall image quality nearly as good as the TCL, and we actually liked its gaming picture a bit better, thanks to punchier highlights. It comes in second to the TCL with worse lag, but most people won’t notice the extra 5 milliseconds. Gamers can’t go wrong with either one.

&nbsp;Its excellent image quality is anchored by best-in-class brightness that improves its bright-room picture quality and makes HDR TV movies, shows and games really pop. It’s actually brighter than the TCL with better contrast, but the TCL’s slightly more accurate image gave it the edge overall. The Hisense uses Google TV instead of Roku, and unlike the TCL, the U8H includes an&nbsp;ATSC 3.0 tuner. Frankly, you can’t go wrong with either one.

Pros:

  • Relatively affordable
  • Excellent overall image quality
  • Best-in-class bright room picture
  • Capable Google TV system

Cons:

  • Slightly less refined image than some competitors
  • "Theater" picture modes engage motion smoothing by default

This is a 2022 model, but the 2023 version, the U8K series, looks largely similar aside from the addition of a 75-inch option. We haven’t reviewed it yet. It’s currently a couple of hundred dollars more expensive than the U8H.

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Hisense U8H 2022 Google TV Hisense U8H 2022 Google TV

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The Vizio V-Series costs hundreds less than any of the TVs above, its image quality can’t compete, and it lacks 4K, 120Hz input, but for a budget model its gaming chops are top-notch. It’s the only budget TV we’ve seen that supports variable refresh rate, and its overall image quality was a cut above similarly priced models from TCL, Hisense and others.

Pros:

  • Solid image quality for en entry-level TV
  • Lots of features including VRR and Wi-Fi 6E

Cons:

  • Poor built-in smart TV system

The price shown below is for the 65-inch size.

Vizio V-Series on a stand. Vizio V-Series on a stand.

<div content="LIST ITEM" superlative="Affordable option with 4K 120Hz and VRR" description="

With a price generally lower than any of the TVs above, this Vizio’s image quality and gaming features aren’t quite as good, but it’s still a solid step above budget gaming TVs. Local dimming achieves solid contrast and the MQX has both 4K/120Hz input capability and VRR, which are rare at this price.

Pros:

  • Affordable
  • Excellent picture quality
  • Game-friendly extras like variable refresh rate and 4K/120Hz input

Cons:

  • Weak smart TV system
  • Slightly more-expensive TVs perform better

Unlike the M7 from 2021, the MQX has a&nbsp;true 120Hz refresh rate, which allows compatibility with 4K/120Hz signals from game consoles like the&nbsp;Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5, and it worked well in our tests. Vizio supports&nbsp;both major HDR formats, HDR10 and Dolby Vision, in the M-Series. If you can’t save up for the TCL or the Hisense but want a better picture than the TCL 4-Series or Vizio V-series, the Vizio MQX is an excellent happy medium.

Vizio hasn’t announced a 2023 version of this TV.

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Vizio MQX Series 2022 TV Vizio MQX Series 2022 TV

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TV Brightest mode (HDR) Accurate mode (HDR) Brightest mode (SDR) Accurate mode (SDR) Samsung QN65Q90B 3,316 1,981 2,625 974 Hisense U8H 1,867 1,867 1,605 1,605 TCL 65R655 1,387 1,194 1,292 624 Vizio M65QXM-K03 939 742 958 608 LG OLED65C2 812 759 413 389 Roku TV Plus (65-inch) 514 455 579 404

Check out How We Test TVs for more details.

With all of the TVs available today, and all of the technical terms and jargon associated with television technology, it can be tough to figure out what’s important. Here’s a quick guide to help cut through the confusion.

Price: TVs range in price from $100 to more than $2,000. Smaller screens are cheaper, well-known brands are more expensive and spending more money can also get you better image quality. Most entry-level TVs have a good enough picture for most people, but TVs last a long time, so it might be worth spending more to get a better picture. It’s also best to shop for a TV in the fall, when prices are lower.

Screen size: Bigger is better in our book. We recommend a size of at least 43 inches for a bedroom TV and at least 55 inches for a living room or main TV — and 65 inches or larger is best. More than any other “feature,” stepping up in TV screen size is the best use of your money. One of the most common post-TV-purchase complaints we’ve heard is from people who didn’t go big enough. And we almost never hear people complain that their TV is too large.

Capability: Among entry-level TVs the most important feature is what kind of smart TV system the TV uses. Among midrange models, look for a feature including full-array local dimming, mini-LED and 120Hz refresh rate, which (unlike some other extras) do help improve the picture in our experience. And among high-end TVs, OLED technology is your best bet.

For more TV buying advice check out How to Buy a TV.

All the advanced gaming features we’ve mentioned– 120Hz input and VRR, as well as the more common Auto Low Latency Mode, aka Auto Game Mode, and eARC — are roughly grouped under the HDMI 2.1 standard, but not all of the TVs in the charts below include every feature, nor deliver the full video and audio bandwidth that’s possible with HDMI 2.1.

Even more confusing, input capability can vary on the same TV. Behind the physical connection where you plug an HDMI cable is a subsection of the TV’s processing, namely a chip. These chips cost money, like everything else. In order to keep costs down, not every input on the TV is fully capable of all the latest features and frame rates. To put it another way, every road on Earth could be capable of highway speeds, but building them all that way would be expensive and rather pointless.

For example, one HDMI input might be capable of eARC, but not be able to handle 4K at 120Hz. Just something to keep in mind as you peruse the charts below. Also, there are some important brand and model specifics that didn’t fit in the chart; please check the bullet points below for details.

Despite TVs being capable of 120Hz refresh for well over a decade, the ability to input 120Hz is a far more recent development. This is largely due to the fact that other than a fairly beefy gaming PC, there just haven’t been any 120Hz sources. That all changes with the PS5 and Series X. Some of the TVs on our list can accept 4K at 120Hz on all HDMI inputs. Others can only do so on select inputs and one, the TCL 6-Series, can only accept 120Hz at lower-than-4K resolution (1440p).

The Xbox Series S can also output 4K at 120Hz, but internally the game is rendered at a lower resolution (1440p) and upscaled before it’s sent to your TV. 

For more info, check out the truth about 4K TV refresh rates — and beware fake 120Hz refresh rates on 4K TVs.

VRR, or variable refresh rate, is a new TV feature that you’d probably be surprised wasn’t already a thing. All modern TVs have a fixed refresh rate. A 60Hz TV is going to refresh, or create, a new image 60 times a second. The problem is a new console might not be ready to send a new image. 

Let’s say you’re in the middle of a huge boss battle, with lots of enemies and explosions. The console struggles to render everything in the allotted time. The TV still needs something so the console might send a duplicate of the previous image, creating juddering on screen, or it might send a partially new image, resulting in the image looking like someone tore a page off the top and revealed the new page below.

VRR gives the TV some flexibility to wait for the new frame from the console. This will result in better gaming performance with smoother action and less tearing.

Game mode turns off most of the image-enhancing features of the TV, reducing input lag. We’ll discuss input lag below, but the specific feature to look for is called either Auto Low Latency Mode or Auto Game Mode. Different manufacturers call it one or the other, but the basic idea is the same. Sensing a signal from the console, the TV switches on game mode automatically. This means you don’t need to find your TV’s remote to enable game mode. Not a huge deal, but convenient. All the TVs listed above have, or will have, one or the other.

Input lag describes how long in milliseconds it takes for the TV to create an image. If this is too high, there’s a delay between when you press a button on the controller and when that action appears on screen. In many games, like shooters or platformers, timing is crucial and a TV with high input lag could hurt your performance. 

As a longtime console gamer myself, I can easily notice the difference between high (greater than 100ms) and low input lag (sub-30ms). The good news is, most modern TVs have input lag that’s low enough that most people won’t notice it. Largely gone are the days of 100-plus-millisecond input lags… at least when you enable game mode.

So as long as the TV has a game mode, you’re probably fine, though it’s worth checking CNET’s reviews for the exact numbers to see if it has low input lag. Lower, in this case, is always better.

While not a console feature, eARC is a next-gen TV feature to keep in mind. It’s the evolution of ARC, or Audio Return Channel. This sends audio from a TV’s internal apps (such as Netflix or Vudu), back down the HDMI cable to a receiver or soundbar. With eARC, newer formats like Dolby Atmos can be transmitted as well.

The issue is in many cases, eARC often precludes higher resolutions or frame rates on the same input. So if you’ve connected your PS5 to your receiver and the receiver to the TV, you can have eARC audio back from the TV or 4K120, but usually not both. This is only important if you plan on using the internal apps in a TV (as in, not a Roku or Amazon streaming stick) and you want to use the new audio formats via eARC.

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