Choose the perfect TV 2024: The best 2023 TV models totally worth buying

Why, look at that! It’s already mid-June, which means that almost all TV manufacturers have now released the vast majority of their new models for 2024 in all major markets, offering consumers a wide range of possible choices in all price segments. In truth, consumers have even more choices at their disposal, though: whoever said that the new TV they are thinking of getting soon just has to be a 2024 model?

Manufacturers and retailers may be focusing on the new, 2024 models because they are sold at their maximum possible price right now, but there’s still ample stock of many top 2023 TV models available. These models are now heavily discounted compared to their original, launch price and can be recommended to anyone looking to save some or a lot of money on a high-quality TV set.

While, traditionally, June or July are not included in the months of a year when we’ve recommended buying a new TV for best value, with the UEFA Euro 2024 football championship already underway and the Summer Olympics up ahead, retailers are running all sorts of offers in order to clear 2023 inventory at the moment.

Which among the best 2023 TV sets now discounted are worth picking up more than others, though? Well, the following five: either flagship-level or well-balanced, they are all excellent choices at the much-reduced price they can now be found at. As a bonus, yours truly also added his favorite TV of the past half-decade or so, which is – amazingly enough – still available despite being three years old by now. Without further ado…

LG C3

The most affordable LG OLED TV line worth its asking price – that obviously excludes the A or B series – is still a very good option in 2024 for all the right reasons: it’s well-made, it offers plenty of ports – notably four HDMI 2.1 ones, all full-speed – and its operating system is highly usable, even if ads and general promotional stuff get in the way more than they once did. Most importantly: the C3 will get consumers to 80% of the picture quality offered by its much costlier sibling, the G3, in most use cases. It’s the LG model that makes the most sense for anyone interested in cinematic picture quality without paying a hefty premium for the remaining 20% the MLA OLED-based G3 is asking for.

Since its initial release in Q2 of 2023, the C3 has received a number of updates that solved the handful of issues initially discovered by consumers, so now it’s pretty much flawless. It’s arguably the highest value OLED TV for gaming, offering not just those four HDMI 2.1 ports but also the most comprehensive support for all the different standards and technologies PC gamers, PS5 gamers and Xbox Series S/X gamers have access to. Its design is rather simplistic, and its built-in sound system is just OK, but the C3 is still the best mainstream choice for an OLED TV today. As with every other TV model, it pays off to make the most of the deep discounts it’s getting right now and buy either the largest possible size (up to 83 inches) or the smallest (42/48-inches).

Sony X95L

A lot of consumers looking for a general-purpose TV might be better served by a quality LED/LCD unit rather than an OLED one, which is why Sony’s best 2023 4K set of this kind is easy to recommend now that it’s offered at a heavily discounted price. The X95L features MiniLED backlighting and the number of individually controllable local dimming zones is considerably higher than before. That, combined with Sony’s consistently superior controlling algorithm, manages to pull off the kind of picture quality few of its peers can match. It can get quite bright too, so it’s capable of working splendidly in all kinds of lighting conditions.

The X95K is built around Google TV, so it offers a fast, responsive and configurable user interface along with the widest selection of apps available. Its built-in sound system is just OK, though, as is its selection of ports: just two HDMI 2.1 ones (the eARC-compatible among them) limiting the number of devices that can be used along with a soundbar. The X95L is surpassed in picture quality terms by its 2024 successor, the Bravia 9, but it’s a great all-rounder to get at the heavily discounted prices all three models (of 65/75/85 inches) go for these days. Fans of the famous “Sony look” in modern TVs will enjoy every moment with this set.

Samsung QN95C

While Sony stuck to its tried and true formula of “a modest number of local dimming zones driven by a superior algorithm” for its top LED/LCD TV in 2023, Samsung went the other way, only slightly adjusting its algorithm and actually increasing the number for MiniLED dimming zones compared to the already high number of those its predecessor, the QN90B, offered. That bet paid off: the QN95C comes fairly close to the perfect blacks of an OLED while maintaining the dazzlingly high brightness that makes HDR content so enjoyable. Blooming around bright objects on black backgrounds is inevitable, but it’s kept to a minimum in most cases. Other than that, the QN95C handles every kind of content beautifully, delivering the kind of confident, detailed picture Samsung is known for.

The QN95C comes with all the bells and whistles of a flagship model: four full-speed HDMI 2.1 ports, fast Wi-Fi connectivity, a well-designed user interface (plus a good selection of apps for it) and a wide range of useful extras. Its built-in speaker system is mediocre, though, so demanding consumers may have to get a quality soundbar for this particular TV at some point if they mean to enjoy its sound as much as its picture. Discounted as deeply as it is right now, though, the QN95C deserves many consumers’ attention. Its 65- and 75-inch versions seem to be the sweet spot in terms of price, which makes sense for 4K.

Sony A95L

The best TV of 2023 for movies or TV shows would probably be included in this list by default, but it also happens to be the best QD-OLED TV built by Sony, so it was bound to stand out. The pure, vibrant colors, increased brightness and wider palette it offers over “traditional” OLEDs — combined with the Japanese manufacturer’s market-leading image processing — make this TV set an absolute joy to watch regardless of content (modern films do show off its strengths in the best possible manner obviously). Sound is clearly a cut above what’s delivered by other OLED televisions and, although gamers may object to the A95L still having only two HDMI 2.1 ports, the picture quality and low latency they get in return largely make up for it.

No TV is perfect, of course, but the A95L comes surprisingly close to that: if all one can complain about is the disappointing performance of its free webcam accessory and its initial high price, then one’s clearly nitpicking: a category-leading product is not supposed to be affordable anyway. The only real drawback regarding the A95L: it’s not yet as heavily discounted as the rest of the TVs recommended in this list. Sony knows it has a winner in its hands and it’s no coincidence that no successor to this particular model has been announced for 2024, so discounts of around 25% on its recommended 2023 street price will probably be the norm.

Panasonic MZ2000

Rounding up these past years’ TVs worth getting in 2024 is Panasonic’s flagship OLED model, which has been extremely well-reviewed when it comes to cinematic picture quality. The Japanese manufacturer is famously focused on Hollywood studio-level color accuracy and the experience of its engineers in that department does make a difference, as the MZ2000 manages to faithfully reproduce even the most challenging film material today. It’s quite bright and, amazingly enough, the only OLED TV to support every single one of the four different HDR formats available in the market today. Its built-in sound system is much better than what OLED TVs usually offer and its gaming-related functionality is solid.

There are a few things to keep in mind regarding the MZ2000, though. First, its “My HomeScreen” Smart TV platform is inadequate to say the least, so a quality media player – e.g. a good UHD player, an Apple TV or an nVidia Shield – is needed in order to get the most out of it. Second, it’s in very short supply in many countries and it does not seem to get as deep discounts as other OLED TVs. Third, it’s not officially available in the United States and it might prove pointlessly expensive to get one (any cost benefit earned from a deep discount might be offset by import taxes). So US consumers should probably be looking at one of the other OLEDs mentioned earlier. For everyone else it’s a great choice… provided they can find one, that is!

Bonus recommendation

Sony A90J

Let’s address the elephant in the room first: yes, it’s pretty unusual to recommend a TV set three full years after it was first released to market – given this category’s yearly product cycle – but this was hands-down the best 4K TV of 2021, the best 2021 OLED TV and the most cinematic one among its peers for a very long time. It’s so great, in fact, that Sony is still including it among its top “traditional” (non-Quantum Dot) OLED TVs despite having already released three other such models in the meantime. It’s still very bright for an OLED TV and it still sports one of the best image processing systems available on a modern TV set, offering accurate colors and the smoothest, clearest motion anyone can ask for.

The A90J is a high-quality TV by 2024 standards in almost all other areas: its built-in sound system is superb, the Google TV operating system is snappy, its Wi-Fi connectivity is fast and reliable. Its only shortcoming is the number of HDMI 2.1 ports: it offers two of those, not four, with one of them being the eARC port – effectively not allowing gamers to connect a PS5, an Xbox Series X and a top soundbar on it all at the same time. Other than that, though, this is a truly outstanding TV set and a no-brainer at current, heavily discounted price. It won’t be around for much longer, though, so consumers intending to use their new television mainly for watching films and TV shows, you’d better hurry!