These days, the best TVs for gaming aren’t much different from the best TVs you can buy as a whole. But if you’re hoping to make your PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X games look their best, there are a few key features to keep in mind. To help you get the most from your living room setup, we’ve broken down a few tips for buying a good gaming TV and picked out a few well-reviewed options from across the price spectrum.
What to look for in a gaming TV
Whether you use it for gaming or not, all good TVs are built on the same foundations. You want a 4K resolution, enough brightness to overcome glare, a relatively high contrast ratio with deep and uniform black tones, wide viewing angles and colors that find the right balance between accuracy and saturation. For video games specifically, the ideal TV has a 120Hz refresh rate (or higher), VRR support, minimal input lag and fast motion response, with no blur or other unwanted artifacts behind quick-moving objects. Of course, finding a set that does all of this well and fits into your budget can be tricky.
OLED and LCD
For now, top OLED TVs generally offer the best picture quality for gaming or otherwise. But good OLED sets usually cost more than their LCD counterparts, and some models may not get bright enough for those who have their TV set in a particularly bright room.
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More specifically, modern OLED TVs may utilize different types of OLED display tech: WOLED (i.e., “White OLED”) or the newer QD-OLED. We won’t dig too deep into how the two diverge in panel composition and subpixel structure, but the simplified version is that QD-OLED displays use a layer of quantum dots (hence the “QD”) to deliver a wider gamut of more vibrant colors than traditional WOLED sets.
This doesn’t mean all QD-OLED TVs are inherently better: How well an individual set performs is more important than the panel it uses, and some premium WOLED TVs like the LG G5 use a new "four-stack" structure to improve color purity and brightness. (Other models have used a display tech called Micro Lens Array (MLA) to greatly boost brightness as well.) Certain WOLED TVs may also handle reflections better or retain deeper black tones in a bright room. And either way, virtually all OLED TVs share the same core strengths.
If you opt for an LCD TV — whether to save cash or stick in room with poor light control — an advanced backlight with smaller and more precise mini LEDs and effective full-array local dimming will usually improve contrast and lighting detail. Many of these TVs, including some budget-level models, also use quantum dots to enhance colors (and are labeled as "QLED" TVs). They usually aren’t as vivid or fast in motion as the top OLED sets, but they’re often brighter and more affordable, and the best can still produce an excellent image in their own right.
HDMI 2.1
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