The best TVS under £1,000

WIRED Recommends the best TVS under £1,000, including the best OLED TV. Read their artcile below:

You can spend an authentic fortune on a new TV. For example, this Samsung 8K TV is one we looked at recently – oh, it’s a brilliant television and everything, but its price might quite charitably be described as ‘considerable’.

But there is quite a lot of good news for those of us who don’t just want to chuck money at the problem of choosing a new TV. For one thing, TV manufacturers have for some time been engaged in such a violent price-war that there are some authentically outstanding TVs to be had at quite realistic money. And secondly, the industry’s insistence on renewing model ranges every year means that, here in 2020, any number of 2019 models are available at very tempting discounts. And a great 2019 TV hasn’t suddenly become a lemon just because it’s 2020.

Here we’ve rounded up the best half-dozen TVs you can currently buy for under £1,000. Choose from quite modest screen-sizes (49in) to quite significant (65in), choose between competing LCD, OLED and QLED technologies, choose from some of the biggest names in the business. But no matter which of these six screens you decide is best for you, one thing is certain: it is a bargain.

What’s the best TV under £1,000 in 2020?

The Philips 55OLED754 (£989) is the best TV under £1,000 right now. You get vibrant, high-contrast OLED images in a slim set and an operating system that’s easy to get on with.

Prefer LCD? Well then the Hisense H65U8B is the best LCD/LED TV in the 60in+ size. You get a big 65in screen for the money, competitive spec and detailed pictures.

Last up, Samsung’s Samsung QE49Q70R (£749) is the best QLED TV under £1,000. One advantage of QLED over OLED is the fact it’s available in these cheaper, more affordable sizes. Plus you get Samsung’s best-in-class Smart TV system and more than decent sound.

Philips 55OLED754

WIRED Recommends: The Philips 55OLED754 is the best OLED at this price and the best TV under £1,000 full stop

Everything about OLED technology shouts ‘premium’. The staggering slimness of the screens themselves, the extraordinarily deep black and bright white tones they’re capable of generating, the super-low power consumption, the staggering slimness again. There’s a hint of a sci-fi future about OLED TVs that rival technologies can’t compete with.

And for the longest time, OLED TVs came at a premium – and nobody minded, because everyone wanted one. In the last 18 months or so, prices began to dip just a little – but it took a company as intrepid as Philips to drive them down through the psychologically critical £1,000 barrier.

Don’t imagine this price indicates the Philips 55OLED754 (£989) is in any way compromised. It’s as slim as they come, it’s got the gratifyingly deep, detailed black tones and clean, bright whites of OLED TVs costing plenty more than this – and it has Philips’ proprietary Ambilight technology, bringing a unique (and worthwhile) selling point to an already-compelling package.

Add in a very usable operating system, specification that includes all the must-have HDR standards, vibrant and detailed pictures from any source, plus half-decent sound, and the Philips 55OLED754 is something of a steal.

Pros: Vibrant, high-contrast images; every HDR base covered; lovely OLED slimness
Cons: Can take a while to set up just so; input lag will irritate gamers

Price: £989 | Check price on Amazon | Currys | AO

Sony KD-49XG9005

The best 50in LCD/LED under £1,000

The KD-49XG9005 (£829) has almost everything you expect from a Sony TV. It’s flawlessly constructed and built to last, it is a pleasure to use, it has that ineffable Sony covetability. Yes, there is a hole or two in its specification, but the biggest difference between this and some of Sony’s most expensive and high-performance TVs is the price.

The Sony goes without HDR10+ dynamic metadata compatibility, it’s true, but less than £850 buys a good-looking TV with a slick Android-based operating system, a full suite of inputs, a decent remote control and, most importantly, periodically stunning picture quality.

The colour-balance here is impeccably judged, and detail levels are sky-high. Motion is managed without alarms, even in the most trying scenes, and edges are drawn with a steady hand. By the standards of edge-lit LCD/LED TVs the Sony does good work with black levels, and it handles strong contrasts well too. It’s a talented upscaler of less resolution material, and with top-of-the-shop Dolby Vision stuff it’s a thrilling watch. Ignore the rather impoverished sound and check out those pictures instead.

Pros: Great 4K HDR images; good upscaling; Android 8 OS
Cons: No HDR10+; sound is weedy

Price: £829 | Check price on Amazon | Currys | John Lewis

Panasonic TX-58GX800

The best 60in LCD/LED TV under £1,000

This 58in screen size is an eccentric one – although apparently the TV industry seems to think it represents something of a sweet-spot for UK consumers, so Panasonic might have got in on the ground floor with the TX-58GX800 (£648).

Despite there being so much of it for so little money, though, nothing about the Panasonic suggests it’s been built down to a price. Build and finish are spot-on, specification is better than many (every HDR base is covered here), it’s a pleasure to use thanks to the latest version of Panasonic’s My Home Screen interface. And most important of all, it’s a pleasure to watch.

There’s nothing special about the way the TX-58GX800 upscales sub-4K content – Full HD stuff via BBC iPlayer can get a little noisy and soft quite easily. But give it some native 4K HDR stuff to deal with, whether via a Blu-ray disc, Netflix or Amazon, and the Panasonic turns into a confident, accomplished performer. Its images are vivid and detailed, with a colour gamut as wide as the dynamics of its contrasts. Motion is controlled confidently, and picture noise is all-but eliminated.

For a bigger-than-the-norm TV from a big brand without the big price, you need look no further.

Pros: Big, well-made screen; lovely 4K pictures; every HDR standard; good OS
Cons: Not the best upscaler here

Price: £648 | Check price on Amazon | Sevenoaks | John Lewis

Hisense H65U8B

The best 65in TV under £1,000

Sometimes biggest is unarguably best. And if you consider one of those times to be when buying a new TV, you’ll have to go some to make less than £1,000 stretch to more than these 65 inches.

It’s safe to say Hisense isn’t a brand as loaded with cachet as most of the others on this list. And it’s equally safe to say the H65U8B (£849) isn’t the most elegant TV on this list, either. But neither of those things alter the fact that this Hisense is a competitive TV, with a more-than-adequate operating system, a worthwhile specification – and is capable of very agreeable pictures indeed. Great big ones, at that.

Apart from black, which is more of a very, very deep grey here, the H65U8B serves up a wide-ranging and convincing colour palette, and makes the best of contrasts too. Detail levels from 4K material are high, picture noise is low, and only the most rapid and random motion causes the Hisense any trouble. It’s even a very competent upscaler of lower-resolution stuff, and it’s not every 65in TV you can say that about.

Pros: Plenty of screen for the money; competitive spec; stable, detailed pictures
Cons: Can’t deliver true black; no HDR10+

Price: £849 | Check price on Amazon | John Lewis

Samsung QE49Q70R

The best Samsung QLED TV under £1,000

One of the unarguable advantages of Samsung’s proprietary QLED technology over the OLED alternative it seeks to subvert is its availability in smaller, more affordable screen sizes.

That might be enough to put the QE49Q70R (£749) on your radar on its own. But you should also factor in its brief bezel, its best-in-class operating system and Smart TV offering, its half-decent audio quality and, most of all, its brilliantly enjoyable picture-making when weighing up the pros and cons.

‘Cons’, in fact, probably begins and ends with the Samsung’s lack of support for Dolby Vision HDR. In every other respect, it’s ‘pro’ all the way. Deep, textured and detailed black tones, clean and subtle whites, an expansive and naturalistic range of colours, confidently handled motion… you name it (as long as it’s an aspect of picture performance) and the QE49Q70R is very, very good at it. It’s a very competent upscaler of sub-4K stuff too, and by flatscreen TV standards sounds reasonably weighty and expansive.

QLED isn’t able to deliver the crowd-pleasing slimness of OLED, but in every other respect it stands up well as a technology to be reckoned with. As this screen ably demonstrates.

Pros: Confident, expressive and detailed pictures; sound is better than ‘ok’; best operating system around
Cons: No Dolby Vision support; relatively deep chassis

Price: £699 | Check price on Sevenoaks

Samsung QE55Q60R

The best 55in QLED TV under £1,000

The Q60R range is one of the most affordable ways to get into QLED ownership – but it’s not the same as choosing the least expensive car in the range and then finding it doesn’t even have a radio. This QE55Q60R (£749) has pretty everything you might expect in terms of specification (barring Dolby Vision HDR), and there are no giveaways as to its bargainous nature in the way it’s put together, either. And no, nothing about the way it performs is going to make you wish you’d shelled out a bit more.

Pander to the Samsung with some 4K HDR10+ content and the pictures pop from the screen. Contrasts are strong, colours are that perfect vivid-yet-natural, on-screen movement is handled calmly, and the TV delivers plenty of detail in even complicated scenes. Some alternatives in this list will go brighter, most certainly, which can make them more immediately impressive – but the Samsung has out-and-out fidelity on its side.

Having passable sound and the best operating system around just puts the cherry on the top of the very affordable cake. If you fancy a screen of this sort of size, and have this sort of money to spend, we can’t imagine you’ll be anything but delighted with the QE55Q60R.

Pros: Balanced, faithful pictures; outstanding operating system; fine upscaling
Cons: Images could have greater peak brightness; no Dolby Vision

Price: £749 | Check price on Amazon | Very | John Lewis

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