Two OLED TV showdowns, very different results - here's what our causal viewers thought compared to TV experts

2025 is shaping up to be an excellent year for OLED TVs, with new models from LG, Samsung, Sony and Panasonic delivering strong performance across the board.

We recently gathered four of the best OLED TVs of 2025, the LG G5, the Samsung S95F, the Sony Bravia 8 II and the Panasonic Z95B, with the intent of having a blind TV showdown. For our showdown, we opted to use a casual, non-TV expert audience.

Mere weeks before we published our showdown results, Value Electronics, a New York-based AV retailer, held its own annual OLED TV shootout using the same four models, but with TV experts making up the judging panel. Needless to say, both shootouts yielded very different results, which I’ll detail below.

The setups

Before we get into the results, it’s important to differentiate the setups used for these two showdowns.

For TechRadar’s OLED TV showdown, the TVs were compared using the out-of-the-box settings, with only automatic brightness optimization turned off. We intended to present the TVs in the same manner as if you’d just bought them from a store.

For content, we asked our panel to judge the TVs on five categories: dark movies/viewing, color, action, upscaling, and sports/motion. The TVs were set to their respective Cinema/Movie modes for all of the tests except for sports, where they were switched to Standard mode. We then asked each person to vote for their favorite TV for each category.

In the Value Electronics (VE) shootout, each TV was professionally calibrated to get an optimized picture. A combination of ‘real world’ content and test patterns was used for the evaluation. Also, two of Sony’s BVM-HX3110 professional mastering monitors were used so experts could compare each TV to a reference display.

The categories for the VE shootout were divided into SDR and HDR, and they consisted of the following: contrast/grayscale for SDR, Dynamic Range/EOTF accuracy for HDR, color, processing, and bright living room viewing. Each judge gave a score from one to five for each TV in each category, and the average of all scores was used for the final total.

So, here you have two different setups with two different methodologies. TechRadar’s shootout focused on what casual viewers found appealing, while VE’s shootout involved TV experts gauging picture accuracy against a professional reference monitor.

The results

Below are the results for the two shootouts, with TechRadar’s on top and VE’s SDR results second and HDR results third:

For our panel, the joint winners were the Samsung S95F and LG G5, with the G5 receiving a strong boost in points via its dominance in the upscaling category, where it received all 12 votes. Third overall was the Panasonic Z95B, and in last place was the Sony Bravia 8 II.

In VE’s shootout, the Sony Bravia 8 II was the overall winner. It picked up three wins in SDR, and although it didn’t win any HDR categories, it scored highly in them. Adding up the scores, the Samsung S95F took second place, the Panasonic Z95B (the overall winner of the HDR categories) came in third, and the LG G5 came in last place by some margin. Here's a link to a PDF version of VE's shootout results.

Differences of opinion

The most obvious difference between the two shootouts is that the Sony Bravia 8 II came in last in ours, whereas it came in first in VE’s test. The Bravia 8 II scored highly for its accuracy in all categories in the expert shootout, but in our out-of-the-box test, the Bravia 8 II had a noticeably dimmer and, as a result, ‘flatter’ looking picture than its much brighter rivals.

In our testing of the Bravia 8 II, we found its HDR peak brightness was notably lower than the LG G5 and S95F, with the Bravia 8 II hitting 1,439 nits to the G5’s 2,268 nits and the S95F’s 2,132 nits (with measurements made in each TV’s most accurate picture mode). This brightness deficit likely affected its chances in all of our tests.

The other big difference between the two showdowns is the G5’s placement. In our test, it was a joint winner, while in VE’s showdown, it came in dead last. I’ve mentioned how the G5 received a real boost from the upscaling test, but taking this out, the G5 still received top votes in all the other categories, especially in color and sports, where it received 5 and 4, respectively. In VE’s shootout, it didn’t win in any category, although it did well in bright room viewing and SDR color. Again, could this have been down to the G5’s high brightness giving it that eye-catching edge?

The similarities

Despite big differences in the placement of the TVs in the two shootouts, there were also some similarities. The Samsung S95F performed the best in three out of our five test categories (color, dark movies, and action) and was the strongest overall TV. While the S95F didn’t win overall in SDR or HDR in the VE shootout, it did score highly for both SDR and HDR color. So it seems both experts and casual audiences alike agree that the S95F has the best color display.

The S95F also performed well in the VE shootout for HDR bright room viewing – unsurprising given its effective Glare Free screen. Although this wasn’t an official category for us, we did view The Batman, our dark room reference scene, in a fully lit room as well as in dimmed lighting conditions, and it was obvious to our panel that the S95F did best here of the four TVs.

The Panasonic Z95B didn’t receive many winning votes in our tests, but it did receive praise during dark scenes, earning compliments for its accuracy. In the VE shootout, the Z95B won for HDR EOTF, which is essentially brightness accuracy. Accurate EOTF tracking on a TV will help to reveal shadow details in a contrast-rich movie like The Batman, and it seems our panel also appreciated the Z95B’s accuracy.

Final thoughts

While VE and other TV expert shootouts are vital for determining which TVs most closely adhere to industry standards and can also show what a TV is really capable of when professionally calibrated, we wanted to offer an alternative take. Not every TV owner will have the resources to have their set calibrated, and some will just want a plug-and-play experience. Our showdown was formulated with the latter audience in mind.

It’s worth noting that, while the results for these two shootouts are very different, 2025 has produced some exceptional TVs, and each of these OLEDs has its strengths. If you’re torn on which one to buy, check out all the opinions and resources available, and if you can, go view them in stores for yourself!

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