It was no surprise that CES 2024 was full of cool TVs – it always is! It's basically the TV demo show for the rest of the year, and we had new sets from the likes of Samsung, LG, TCL, Hisense, and more out in force.
I went hunting around the show for TVs, and these are my favorites that I saw, in the order that I tend to list them when people ask me what I thought was most exciting at the show. These are all TVs coming out this year – no concepts or anything unconfirmed (with one sort of exception at the end, but that's a bonus).
If the list doesn't seem to make any sense to you, trust that it was produced across two different bouts of jet lag, and so you may well be right to think that. But it's my truth, and here it is.
1. LG Signature OLED T
We gave this one of our Best of CES 2024 awards, so it was always going to be top of this list. Transparent OLEDs have been a CES staple for years, but always as concepts. This is the first time it's been an actual practical product that LG says will be available to buy later in 2024 (for an as-yet unspecified price that I have to assume will be five figures).
It's a 77-inch clear 4K OLED TV that's built into a set of shelves, basically, which is a smart way to emphasize the fun of the panel being clear. It has a built-in sound system underneath the screen, but there two big tech advancements that made it possible: a black panel that rolls up behind the screen if you want to watch something properly, which creates the contrast OLED is known for (instead of light coming through and washing it out); and a wireless connection box, which transmits 4K 120Hz video over to the screen, and means your untidy HDMI cables and so on can be in a different part of the room. It means the TV unit itself stands pristine; no one will know what it is until you fire up the many cool transparency-friendly videos LG has on it, or if you switch into full TV viewing mode. I absolutely loved the LG transparent OLED when I saw it in practice, no matter how ridiculous it may seem.
2. LG C4
Okay, of the TVs that we expect to be affordable to regular folks, this is the one I'm most excited about because it looks like the jump forward in brightness and contrast that I was hoping last year's LG C3 would bring. In my initial eyes on LG C4 test at the show, it's clear there's a major change in its HDR capabilities compared to the LG C3, with colors looking more vibrant and white highlights lifting out of the image to an even more dazzling effect.
We don't know exactly how much brightness to expect from it, but the improvement seems to be in the 20% range based on my experience and what LG has said so far. It doesn't have a new screen, it's all down to more advanced processing and better power management. I didn't have enough time to make any judgment about the processing improvements to detail and other areas of the picture, but one thing I'm also excited about is the wireless lossless sound transmission to certain LG soundbars, meaning you get to keep all your HDMI ports open for your multiple gaming consoles, 4K Blu-ray player, streaming boxes and so on.
3. Samsung QN900D
Now, I admit that we had a few mixed feelings on the TechRadar team about this TV. Well, more specifically, the latest version of Samsung's 8K AI upscaling, which I think leans too far into the weird uncanny valley look of AI-generated images, as I mention in the video below.
However, not every TV journalist I've spoken to agrees with me on this, and even then you can step back to less extreme processing and just enjoy the other areas where this is an image-quality knock-out. Samsung's latest mini-LED panels, a new thinner design, and better motion handling that tweaks itself depending on what kind of sport is being played (as detected by AI, naturally).
So the QN900D remains near the top of our hot list, because we need to see more of its 8K AI magic to make a final verdict, but in every other way it looks like a knock-out.
4. TCL QM89 115-inch
TCL really wowed CES with its gigantic 115-inch mini-LED TV featuring seriously high-end tech, and, having seen it in person, that includes me. It's strange to see something the size of a projector screen, but that has brightness and contrast a projector can only dream of when the lights are on – and I saw it on a convention show floor, which is basically the worst environment you can view a screen in, but still it was dazzling.
A claimed 5,000 nits of brightness combines with 20,000 dimming zones (though we don't know how many of those can be individually controlled) to offer seriously stunning images. In something like live sports, where brightness across the whole screen can make the pitch come alive and feel more like you're there, this thing absolutely shines. Black tones are very good for a non-OLED set too. Obviously, this leaves an impression due to size alone, but it wouldn't matter if the picture quality wasn't up to scratch, and this looks great.
4. Panasonic Z95A
Panasonic's high-end TVs are always unimpeachable when it comes to image quality – just look at how we raved about it in our Panasonic MZ2000 review – but we really struggled with how Panasonic's smart TV software held back its TVs. Well, our begging did not fall on deaf ears, because in the new high-end Panasonic OLED TVs for 2024, they're getting Amazon's Fire TV software.
The Panasonic Z95A is the new flagship, and it features a new brighter OLED panel along with Fire TV. Considering the MZ2000 was already marginally the brightest OLED we tested, its replacement is shaping up to be dazzling – it certainly came across that way in our early eyes on Panasonic Z95A test. It comes in 55-inch and 65-inch sizes, with a 77-inch Panasonic Z93A also available that's less bright. The Z95A looks beautiful from what we've seen so far, and it continues Panasonic's trend of offering much better audio than basically anything else out there – although it sadly also continues the trend of not being available in the US.
5. Samsung S95D
While the new high-end OLED TV from Samsung promises 20% better brightness than its predecessor (which was already top-class in this regard), it was the Samsung S95D's new anti-reflective screen that stood out to me when I saw it side-by-side with the Samsung S95C from last year.
The way it softens and blurs reflections means they're much harder to discern, so they're not as distracting because our eyes work best when there's clear contrast. It will help to make the Samsung S95D work even better in brightly lit rooms, making it all the more tempting to more people.
6. Hisense ULED X 110-inch
Hisense's competitor to the TCL 115-inch model might have a little less real estate, but Hisense is saying that it can reach as high as 10,000 nits of brightness and 40,000 dimming zones – both double what TCL is claiming. Now, we suspect those brightness claims won't exactly be easy to hit in normal use, and won't last for very long, and who knows how many individual dimming zones there are in that 40,000 count (I asked, Hisense didn't tell me)… but it's a good-looking TV, I can tell you that.
It tops Hisense's new 2024 mini-LED range of TVs and comes with a classy mid-century-style pedestal with a built-in speaker system, which I like. But mostly I was engrossed by the very bright, very punchy colors and impressive highlights.
7. Samsung S90D
This is number one in a duo of "This will absolutely be one of the best TVs of the year, but it wasn't a super-cool or crazy upgrade, so it's not at the top of this list" sets. The Samsung S90D is the successor to our TV of the year for 2023, the Samsung S90C – so I have extremely high hopes for it. And with the new QD-OLED panel promised to be 20% brighter than last year (which was already exciting for how much brighter it was than the competition), it's looking like it'll be excellent value.
I saw it at a Samsung demo event, and it's exactly what you expect: bright, richly colored, excellently detailed. The only real wrinkle was that Samsung added two new S90D smaller sizes that use a different type of screen, making it a very confusing model.
8. LG G4
The second in my "Boringly excellent upgrades" pair is the LG G4 OLED TV, which promises an even brighter panel than the very bright LG G3 from 2023, along with LG's most advanced image processor ever (something it won't share with the LG C4). We're probably looking at LG's most contrast-rich, well-defined images ever here, and that's saying something.
And unlike the LG G3, it'll come with a stand in some regions, rather than just a wall-mount bracket. In the US, that'll be the case with the 55-inch and 65-inch sizes, but we're waiting on confirmation in other countries. It's looking likely to be a fantastic TV, the only question is whether the equivalent Samsung will still beat it on value this year, as it did last year.
9. Samsung Micro LED 76-inch
Micro-LEDs are the next huge thing in TVs but with the emphasis very much on 'next'. They've only been available in massive sizes, with even more massive price tags – TCL told me that it estimates 5-10 years for them to be commercially viable in a meaningful way. However, Samsung is doing its bit to help with this 76-inch model that can fit in a reasonable living room. However, while the massive size may have been reduced, the price will still be many times what you'd pay for a mini-LED TV of the same size.
The excitement of micro-LED tech is that it works like OLED in that each pixel generates its own light to give you the ultimate in precise contrast, but it can go much, much brighter while still getting down to true black levels. And you can certainly see the more lifelike nature of this combination of brightness and contrast when you see these TVs in person – I hope we'll be able to review this one this year, even if only oligarchs and self-flagellating home theater fans never read it.
Bonus! Sony's secret prototype
This isn't in an actual set (yet), so I can't really count it, but Sony showed me a prototype of its next-gen mini-LED screen that it promises will deliver more precise local dimming as well as extreme brightness, thanks to better control of groups of LEDS for local dimming. It showed me the tech compared to the competition (ie, last year's Samsung TVs) in a view where I could see only what the backlights were doing, the difference is certainly very obvious there. Sony also says that it will help advance its own goals to deliver super-accurate and true-to-the-source images, which is a worthy thing for cineasts to note.
Will this translate into a good-value TV that we like more than the hot competition here? Well, we guess Samsung will announce an actual set at some point later, so we'll see.
Bonus TV that wasn't there! LG B4
Why am I including a TV I didn't actually see? Because the LG B4 was already one of our most-anticipated sets of the year, and I got a sliver of information about it at CES that made it even more exciting. Not content with upgrading the processing with most of the AI powers that the LG C3 had last year, not even content with adding two extra HDMI ports to make it a serious contender for the best gaming TVs, not even content with adding a new 48-inch size that will make it even more affordable… LG told me that it'll be brighter too, and while the company wouldn't say by how much, the intimation was that it'd be close to the brightness of the LG C3 last year.
In our LG B3 review, we measured around 650 nits, so if LG can boost that to the 800 nits we measured for LG C3, and keep the same price, we're going to have the mid-range bargain TV of the year, almost certainly.
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