Tom's Guide Awards 2024: Our favorite TVs from OLEDs to QLEDs

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Another year, another crop of award-winning TVs from the likes of Samsung, Sony, Hisense and Sony. Perhaps unlike some previous years, this year's class of top TVs have some real innovation behind them: Samsung's anti-glare OLED coating will change TVs for years to come, and Sony's class-leading Mini-LED sets a new bar for what LED-LCD screens can do.

Given how much competition there is, picking the best TV of 2024, honestly, proved to be a real challenge. While we eventually landed on the Sony Bravia 9 as the Best Overall TV of 2024, one could make the case that the LG G4 OLED, Hisense U8N and Samsung QN900D 8K all have what it takes to be #1.

The good news? Each of these TVs earns itself an award for its own particular achievements, and there's enough accolades to celebrate every amazing TV we've seen so far in 2024.

Best TV

Best TV: Sony Bravia 9

Winning TV of the Year from Tom’s Guide is a tremendous achievement considering how many displays come in and out of our testing lab each year. But this year, the honor belongs to the Sony Bravia 9, Sony’s flagship Mini-LED that goes up against the likes of the LG G4 OLED and Samsung S95D OLED and bests them at every turn. Its intense brightness is a key factor in that decision, yes, but so are its top-notch motion processing and upscaling technologies.

The Bravia 9 not only supports all the latest and greatest formats like Dolby Vision and Atmos, but it also comes with an ATSC 3.0 tuner for NextGen TV support. There are better values out there — see the Hisense U8N below for a great example of that — but if you want a premium Mini-LED TV, there are no better options in 2024 than the Sony Bravia 9.

Best OLED TV

Best OLED TV: LG G4 OLED

Mini-LED TVs might be encroaching on OLED’s territory, but the LG G4 shows why we’re still obsessed with OLED. Using the latest MLA META Gen 2 panel from LG Display, the G4 OLED delivers higher brightness levels than almost any other OLED TV while still keeping contrast high and colors looking vivid.

In terms of design, the LG G4 OLED is nearly unparalleled as its half-an-inch-thick frame and newly designed stand give the TV a more refined look when it’s sitting on an entertainment center. Should you choose to wall-mount it, LG’s no-gap wall-mount helps the G4 sit perfectly flush to give it an almost artwork-like aesthetic. Using the cutting-edge α11 AI Processor 4K, the G4 delivers sumptuous images without straying too far from the creator’s original intent. It might be lacking Samsung’s new anti-glare filter, but even without it the G4 is still the best OLED TV to date in 2024.

Best QLED TV

Best QLED TV: Hisense U8N Mini-LED

Samsung’s the name you might think of first when you hear “QLED” but Hisense is really the one making the most of the technology in 2024. Case in point? The Hisense U8N Mini-LED TV that uses QLED technology to boast a peak brightness above 3,000 nits and a vast color volume that blows past all of the competition.

On top of its strong specs sheet is an irresistible price tag — the 65-inch version of the U8N can be found for around $1,000 with the 55-inch version selling for under $800. The 55-inch model doesn’t quite have the same brightness output as its larger stablemates, but it’s still easily considered one of the best TVs under $1,000 and, in our humble opinion, the best QLED TV with a 2024 release date.

Best TV design

Best TV design: Samsung The Frame (2024)

Normally there isn’t too much to say about a TV’s design. You can talk about how small the bezels are or how thin the screen is, but most times, there’s not a whole lot to say. That isn’t the case from Samsung’s The Frame (2024) — for the better part of the last decade it has been one of the most beautifully designed TVs on the market. It’s earned this title because Samsung has given the utmost care to making The Frame blend into any living room aesthetic. There are a number of interchangeable frames that can match the style of the décor already in your room, and when the TV goes into sleep mode it can either display a calming ambient screensaver or one of several thousand pieces of art scanned directly from galleries around the world.

What makes this year’s TV different? For 2024, a new Pantone certification backs up Samsung’s color accuracy claims while an ambient light sensor adjusts screen brightness. These are small design tweaks, but they ultimately service Samsung’s goal of making The Frame the best TV for designers, made by designers.

Best TV innovation

Best TV innovation: Samsung S95D OLED

Stay in this industry long enough and you’ll notice some trends: For example, when hyping up a new TV, most companies emphasize how many local dimming zones they’ve added or how brightness in a 10% window has grown since last year’s iteration. These small upticks in specs are nice, sure, but they can feel like iteration rather than innovation.

Samsung’s new anti-glare coating for its S95D OLED is the real deal — it eliminates one of the biggest issues we’ve had with OLED TVs once and for all with no major downsides. That doesn’t mean we don’t have a few nitpicks here and there (the lack of an ATSC 3.0 tuner chief among them) but you can’t deny the level of innovation the S95D brings to the table.

Best 8K TV

Best 8K TV: Samsung QN900D Neo QLED 8K

Let’s be honest, there’s not a huge appetite for 8K TVs in 2024. Yes, they’re some of the most capable TVs on the planet with their advanced image processors and blinding peak brightnesses, but they’re also a tad overkill given the lack of native 8K content. That being said, if there’s any TV worth going overboard for, it’s the Samsung QN900D Neo QLED 8K.

One of the only TVs this year to receive a perfect 5-star rating from us, the QN900D comes loaded with features like the new NQ8 AI Gen 3 Processor that takes AI upscaling to new heights, as well as a 6.2.4-channel system audio system with AI-boosted dialogue. The TV looks great in action — and sounds great — all because Samsung pulled out all the stops on what is easily the best 8K TV of 2024.

Best gaming TV

Best gaming TV: LG C4 OLED

OLED TVs have long been heralded as some of the best gaming TVs but, thanks to some brand-new features like 144Hz support and four full-spec HDMI 2.1 ports, the LG C4 goes above and beyond any of its predecessors. This is the first TV to be certified for 144Hz gaming by Nvidia, and it supports both Nvidia G-Sync and AMD FreeSync Pro. All that would have made the C4 a top contender, but add to that LG’s bespoke Game Bar that senses what kind of game is playing and maximizes the settings to match, and you’ve got a TV fit for the top eSports stars.

Don’t have a console? Don’t worry about it. The LG C4 supports game streaming via Nvidia GeForce Now and Amazon Luna, though you’ll have to opt for a Samsung screen if you want to play Xbox Game Pass without an Xbox Series X. For console and PC gamers alike, the C4 offers an alternative to monitors that doubles as a living room TV after you’re done climbing the leaderboards at the end of the day. As far as gaming TVs go, what more could you ask for?

Best big-screen TV

Best big-screen TV: TCL 115-inch QM89 QD-Mini-LED TV

The dream of owning a 100-inch TV is closer than ever in 2024. Prices on these monstrous tellies have dropped precipitously in the last year, all thanks to investment in large panel factories overseas. The result of this effort are screens like the TCL QM89 QD-Mini-LED TV — a 115-inch beast that can reach a peak brightness of around 5,000 nits and uses 20,000 local dimming zones. With specs that will make any cinephile cry, the TCL QM89 is a dream screen for home theater enthusiasts.

Unfortunately, however, big-screen TVs as wonderful as this don’t come cheap — and with a sticker price of $19,999 the QM89 isn’t what we’d consider affordable by any stretch of the imagination. Still, if you’ve got a whole wall to fill and a budget to match, then there should be nothing stopping you from going for the QM89.

Best projector

Best projector: JMGO N1 Ultra

The JMGO N1 Ultra deviates quite a bit from traditional home theater projectors — it doesn’t have a boxy shape and its port selection is rather limited compared to what you’d find on top-of-the-line Epson or Optoma beamers. And yet, it’s this deviation from tradition that makes the JMGO N1 Ultra so great. Instead of a boxy design, the JMGO uses a pedestal that makes it easy to shift to get the perfect distance and angle for the screen. Its ports may be few, but it’s rocking two HDMI 2.1 ports. It comes with Android TV built-in and, most importantly, it makes all of the content played on it look great.

In our lab tests, the JMGO N1 Ultra put out 2143 lumens (more than almost any projector we’ve tested) while still maintaining a 1577:1 contrast ratio and covering 96% of the DCI-P3 color spectrum. These numbers blow traditional projectors like the Optoma GT2100HDR and BenQ HT2060 out of the water. It might not be the projector you picture when shopping for your new home theater, but the JMGO N1 Ultra doesn’t disappoint.