When it comes to build quality, picture quality, and features, the best Samsung TVs are at the top of the list. But it’s important to remember that the best Samsung TV for you isn’t always the most expensive one. There are a lot more options.
For example, we like the Samsung QN900B 8K QLED TV a lot, and it has a high spot here and in our best TVs guide. However, Samsung makes a lot of different TVs. Even though the biggest, most high-tech sets are fun, not every living room or budget can handle them.
Over the years, we’ve tested hundreds of TVs from all the major brands, so we know how the best Samsung TVs stack up against the competition and against each other. You can find every kind of Samsung TV in our guide, from the cheapest 4K TVs to the biggest mini-LEDs with the biggest screens and the newest OLED TVs.
1. Samsung QN900B Neo QLED 8K
8K is too much TV for many living rooms, but if you have the space and money, there’s no doubt that the Samsung QN900B Neo QLED 8K TV takes home entertainment to a whole new level. The QN900B Neo QLED 8K TV from Samsung has a Mini LED and has great picture quality, great color and brightness, great sound, and great black levels. Even when it’s turned off, it looks pretty good.
Samsung’s “Quantum” Mini LED is the technology inside the screen of this TV. These LEDs are 1/40th as thick as a regular LED. This means that thousands of smaller LEDs can be packed together more closely than in other LED TVs. This means that the Samsung can dim more accurately, giving us black levels that are almost indistinguishable from those of an OLED screen.
This is because smaller LEDs are also more accurate and less likely to “bloom,” which is when light goes where you don’t want it to. With this TV, bright spots won’t blend into darker ones in a way that doesn’t make sense. And because it has Samsung’s Multi-Intelligence AI upscaling, the QN900A can show images that look much better than their source.
So why did we take half a star away from it? In short, it’s the software. The new Smart Hub UI from Samsung feels like a step backwards because it makes changes that used to be quick and easy more time-consuming and complicated. Even though the TV is great, the Smart Hub isn’t. But that’s not a big deal, and we still think this is the best Samsung TV you can buy in 2023 so far.
2. Samsung BU8500
The Samsung BU8500 is made to offer up-to-date features, a sleek design, and a rock-solid build at a price that most of us won’t be too shocked by. And it does that very well. It has an impressive 4K HDR LED display with good HDR (but, as usual with Samsung, no Dolby Vision HDR), three HDMIs, voice control, two remotes, and a Tizen smart TV interface with all the streaming apps you could want. It’s one of the best TVs you can buy for less than £1,000.
This TV is very cheap, but Samsung hasn’t cut any important corners to make it so. The Crystal 4K processor does a good job of upscaling, though not as well as the processors in Samsung’s best TVs. The backlighting is accurate and has good brightness and contrast. During our tests, we found that the sound quality isn’t great, but most TVs these days need a soundbar.
The BU8500 has three HDMI 2.0 inputs, one of which is for a soundbar and has eARC. It works with the ALLM and HGiG parts of the next-gen games console specification, but it doesn’t support AMD FreeSync, which is a step back from the Samsung AU9000 of 2021.
Samsung has made a very good TV for a very good price. It’s not one of the company’s best TVs, but it does a lot more than you’d expect for the price. If you want a cheaper 4K TV, this one should be at the top of your list.
3. Samsung QN95B Neo QLED
The design of the Samsung QN95B Neo QLED picks up on the “Infinity” theme of its praised predecessor, the Samsung QN95A. It has a thin frame around the screen and a slim, flat back, making it look like one solid piece. During our tests, we found that all of these design elements make the QN95B look like a good-quality phone.
The quality of the picture is great. Improved processing and backlight controls make the QN95A Mini LED’s already impressive picture even better in most ways. Less blooming, more brightness, and better shadow detail are some of the things that stand out. In our review of the Samsung QN95B, we said, “With its high brightness and bright Quantum Dot color system, the QN95B is a stunning example of how much HDR can improve picture quality.”
This year, the picture quality is the same in both games and videos. Even though the sound isn’t as good as the pictures, the Object Tracking Sound technology makes the sound a good match for the great pictures.
Worse news? Samsung’s redesign of its Tizen smart system was a mistake. It made the system more complicated than it needed to be and made some bad design choices. Overall, though, the picture improvements are so appealing that a little pain on the smarts front and even a lot of pain on the wallet front can’t take away from its brilliance.
4. Samsung S95B
After making fun of the technology for years, Samsung finally came out with an OLED TV. Almost. Even though Samsung says that the S95B is just another OLED, it’s actually more than that. Its screen hides a whole new type of OLED technology that combines the famous self-emitting properties of OLED with the brightness and color range potential of QLED.
This new technology can compete with the best OLED TVs on a platform that is almost too cutting-edge. This is because the back of the screen is only as deep as a typical drinks coaster. We’re looking at a TV that has everything: Samsung’s latest AI-inspired picture processor, a massively comprehensive and re-designed Tizen-based smart system, the latest gaming features, and even, despite its ultra-slim design, a smart object tracking sound audio system.
The Samsung S95B has a lot of different features, but the picture quality is without a doubt the best thing about it. Samsung’s eagerness to show off what its new technology can do makes some of the picture presets not work as well as they could. However, with a little tweaking, we can get a combination of brightness, black depth, contrast, and color that we haven’t seen on a consumer TV before. It’s a unique thing.
5. Samsung QN85B
Samsung has a TV for you if you want the brightness of an LED TV and something close to the picture quality of an OLED TV. The QN85B uses a ridiculously bright mini-LED panel to deliver very good HDR and great gaming performance. It can’t match the deepest blacks of an OLED set, but you might be surprised by how close it comes.
This is a good option for gamers because all of its HDMI ports support HDMI 2.1. It also has six speakers, so even if you don’t have the best soundbar, you can still get a good sense of space in the sound.
Once you get away from Samsung’s overly bright and overly processed display presets, the visuals here are very, very good. We found that Movie mode is almost as accurate as Filmmaker Mode, but it doesn’t require you to give up too much brightness for accurate visuals.
There are the usual Samsung flaws, like the lack of Dolby Vision HDR and a redesigned Tizen Smart TV interface that is slightly more annoying than its predecessor. You can also choose between a simple solar remote or a horrible plastic one with all the features. However, this is a very fast, responsive, and bright TV that is great for watching in daylight, making it a great choice for gaming, sports, or just watching with friends.
All View
With so many models to choose from, it’s not always easy to find the best Samsung TV for you. But before you get into the specifics of each model, we think there are a few important things you should think about.
The first thing is money. You might be able to spend a little more if you find the perfect TV or a great deal during the Black Friday sales, but it’s a good idea to set a limit from the start so you don’t fall in love with a TV that’s way out of your price range.
