Best 65-inch 4K TVs 2018: the best big screen TVs for any budget
A 65-inch 4K TVs is the easiest way to get the cinema experience at home. They make even a 50-inch television look small. It's a great time to buy too, as 2018's models are hitting shelves and offer image quality that beats anything we've seen before.
It's an exciting time for TVs.
There is, of course, a natural drawback to these TVs – they’re big. Really big. Get the tape measure out first.
That's the only major worry. All of the best 65-inch TVs now offer TV must-haves like 4K resolution, HDR and smart TV.
What you need to think about is whether to buy OLED or LCD. And consider how much you want to spend.
OLED have unbeatable black levels and contrast, for a cinematic look. LCDs often have higher peak brightness, which helps deliver HDR content with added pop. Sony's latest LCDs also have the best motion handling we've seen.
How do you decide? If you watch in a cinema-style darkened room, OLEDs shine. In a day-lit room, the punch of LCD works well.
With those ideas bubbling away, let's look at our favourite 65-inch TVs of the moment. All these sets have been tested and approved by our expert reviewers.
The Samsung 65Q9FN deserves bold statements. This is the best LCD TV we've ever seen. It might be the best TV to date.
Sure, it may not be perfect but this is the closest you can get to a TV that has it all. Its HDR images are amazing, and its upscaler engine makes content of almost all resolutions look great.
The Samsung 65Q9FN uses direct LED lighting to avoid the halo'ing seen in older LCD TVs while delivering blacks that, in most conditions, don't look too far off those of an OLED TV. Even the sound is the best than we've heard from a Samsung TV in years.
In perfect cinema-style conditions you'll see deeper blacks from an OLED, Sony's latest TVs have more advanced motion handling and image quality does take a hit at an angle. However, you can't do any better if you want ultra-bright HDR images as well as great contrast.
Read the full review: Samsung 65Q9FN
Standing far above the competition and sitting comfortably on the throne is the LG OLED C7, available in a 65-inch and 55-inch varieties. Compared to the previous year's LG C6, the C7 gets rid of the curved screen and leaves out 3D. Becuase apparently no-one cares about 3D anymore.
But what really makes the OLED C7 one of 2017’s most essential TVs is that it is able to deliver cutting edge TV tech at a price that finally makes OLED an affordable alternative to high-end LCD TVs. It's far cheaper than the top-end G7.
There are other OLEDs worth considering this year (see: Sony's A1E OLED or LG's B7 and W7) but when you sit down and think about just how much LG's OLED C7 offers for its price, there's just no TV this year that even comes close.
Read the full review for the 55-inch version: LG OLED C7 (OLED55C7)
- This product is only available in the US and Australia at the time of this writing. UK readers: check out a fine alternative in the LG OLED65C7
2018 series TVs are finally here. The Sony XBR-65X900F is one of the first, taking over from 2017's Sony XBR-65X900E.
Improvements include greater brightness, which improves HDR performance, and even better motion handling. You won't find smoother motion handling.
Image quality is also fantastic, with great black depth and insight. Even SD content looks good. As this is an LCD you don't quite get the perfect blacks of OLED. But it gets close as LCD can.
Like previous Sonys, the Sony XBR-65X900F uses Android TV, which can be frustrating at times. However, it does give you access to masses of apps, games and streaming services. Sound quality has improved too, although this TVs speakers won't, of course, make an action movie's explosions shake your floorboards.
In the UK this TV is known as the KD-65XF9005.
Read the full review: Sony BRAVIA XBR-65X900F
Do you have serious money to spend? No other TV makes the visual impact of the B&O BeoVision Eclipse.
It has a motorised stand that tilts the screen to match your viewing position. And it has an oversize, ultra-loud soundbar built into the frame. The B&O BeoVision Eclipse stands on the floor, not on a TV stand or perched on the wall (wall-mounting is an option, though).
B&O teamed-up with LG to produce this set. You get roughly the same image quality and the same software as one of LG’s top-performing OLEDs. That means stunning contrast and flawless black levels. Sure, a high-end LCD has higher brightness and more powerful-looking HDR, but the cinematic look of OLED is hard to beat.
And the price? At $15,595 (£10,795, $19,990) this is the most expensive TV on our list. It’s not for everyone, but is a piece of striking living room furniture as well as one of the best TVs around.
Read the full review: B&O BeoVision Eclipse
The Panasonic TX-65DX902B is a relatively old model now, but it still worth a buy if you find a refurb deal online.
It was the first Ultra HD Premium-rated TV to land in the UK, and was a real head-turner. We loved the vibrancy of its images, and the native HDR the picture performance bordered on breathtaking. The full array backlight presented problems (don't think we forgot), but we reckon the visual benefits probably outweigh content-specific backlighting issues.
Having Netflix and Amazon 4K on tap is a major plus point, and more good news is that it can also look pretty great with Full HD content, particularly Blu-ray.
Newer models tend to have even greater brightness, but considering how well it performs for its price, it may very well be the screen to convince you that HDR is the next giant quantum leap in image quality we've all been promised.
Read the full review: Panasonic TX-65DX902B
- This product is only available in the UK as of this writing. US and Australian readers: check out a fine alternative in the Sony XBR-65X850E.
If you have the money to bankroll them, the 65A1E – and the A1E OLED series overall – are crowd pleasers in just about every way. Their ‘picture only’ design has been beautifully realized, managing to be simultaneously subtle and dramatic. Their vibrating screen delivers a far more powerful and effective sound performance than we’d ever thought possible.
The real stars of the show here, though, are the A1’s exquisitely detailed, contrast-rich and colorful pictures. These prove emphatically what we’ve long suspected: More brands using OLED technology can only lead to good things.
In 2018 Sony will replace the A1 with the BRAVIA A8F, but the only real difference is the stand design.
Read the full review: Sony Bravia OLED A1E
Samsung was the first brand to introduce an HDR-compatible screen way back in 2015, but it has not rested on its haunches ever since.
It's current flagship, the QN65Q9F (QE65Q9FAM in the UK), is a perfect example of this. It ups the brightness to 1500 nits, 50% higher than the level required for UHD Premium certification, making it one of the brightest TV we've ever tested.
It also comes in sizes up to 88 inches if you have £18,000/$20,000 to spend.
Outside of an impressive-sounding number this brightness has a real impact on the set's image quality. Detail is preserved in even the brightest areas of the image, and colors are exceptionally vivid and bright. That means even non-HDR content looks fantastic thanks to Samsung's SDR upscaling technology.
No TV is perfect, and the Q9F can occasionally suffer from some backlight clouding around bright objects and some settings cause color striping in HDR colors, but in all other respects this is one of the best televisions you can buy.
Read the full review: Samsung Q9F QLED TV
At its launch in 2016 the Sony XBR-65Z9D had an eye-watering price. But nowadays the cost is much less terrifying. It's barely even scary.
In fact, it might just be the holy grail of television for 2016: a TV able to combine the extreme, high dynamic range-friendly brightness of LCD technology with a 600 LED backlight arrangement capable of getting LCD closer than ever before to the stunning light control you get with OLED technology.
If all that wasn't enough, the 65Z9D also sports the ‘X1 Extreme’ video processing system and the latest version of Sony’s reliable Triluminos wide color technology for unlocking the extended color spectrums associated with HDR sources – a must-have if you want to get the most from your movie collection.
Like other top Sonys, viewing angles are somewhat limited. But if your living room is arranged around your TV, that may not be a problem.
Read the full review: Sony XBR-65Z9D
- This product is only available in the US and UK at the time of this writing. Australian readers: check out a fine alternative in the Samsung QE65Q9FAM
LG's 'B' line of OLEDs has consistently offered a great entry point into the display technology without compromising on what makes it so exciting.
And the B7 series is no different.
Contained within the TVs is exactly the same panel and processor that powers the more expensive C7, E7 and yes even the W7 LG televisions, which means an exceptional bump over last year's OLED panels at a much lower price.
So where has LG saved the money? In a word, sound. The B7's downward firing speakers are the worst all the company's OLED TVs.
If you already have your own speaker setup, though, the B7 is a fantastic entryway into a piece of TV tech that still feels futuristic in 2018.
Read the full review of the 55-inch vesion: LG OLED C7 (OLED55C7)
By introducing its exceptional X1 video processor further down its TV range than ever before and being brave enough to dial down the brightness a bit to deliver a more even, immersive backlight experience, Sony's struck mid-range gold with the XBR-65X850E (KD-65XE8596 in the UK).
While not the brightest or most colorful TV on the list, the simple fact is few TVs we’ve seen in recent times have balanced price, contrast, brightness and color quite so all-round effectively as the 65X850E.
All that said, if you're looking for a great TV that doesn't destroy the bank account, Sony's X850E 65-inch star is a clear winner.
Read the full review: Sony XBR-65X850E
- This product is only available in the US and Australia at the time of this writing. UK readers: check out a fine alternative in the Samsung QE65Q9FAM
- If you're looking to optimize your home theater setup, check out our list of the best AV Receivers.
April 19, 2018 at 11:25AM
