CES 2022 has been a strange year for the international technological convention: it is in person, but according to the photographs, there are not enough people there. In the same way, televisions have been announced, but you will not find them anywhere in the living room or at any of the keynote addresses.
However, none of these drawbacks prevented major manufacturers from entering TV technology at CES 2022; they just did it in an unusual way by showing it to handpicked chroniclers.
While we haven't seen each and every TV on this list in person yet, we did take briefings with each of them from the manufacturers and were able to ask questions about their specs, quirks, performance, and ultimately what's going on with them. to give the benefit to become the best two thousand twenty-two televisions.
Below are our top picks from those interviews and our top prospects from the show.
The best televisions of CES two thousand twenty-two
1.Sony A95K QD-OLED (TV XR-65A95K teacher series)
As far as we're concerned, Sony introduced one of the only truly next-gen TVs at CES in the way of the A95K QD-OLED TV. This is the first QD-OLED introduced by an essential manufacturer and, in accordance with the specifications we have seen, it will offer everything we expected from the latest and the best in panel technology.
QD-OLED, for those who are finished perceiving on it, combines the self-emitting organic light transmitting diodes that give the OLED its perfect black levels with the color saturation of quantum dots. The result is a screen that has two hundred% of the color saturation of a traditional LED-LCD screen, with a higher maximum brightness and wider viewing angles than an OLED screen.
We still have to test it in our homes before we can say hello, but for all we know about the A95K, it is the evolution of OLED that we have been waiting for.
There was no shortage of mini-led displays announced at CES 9 this year. Samsung and LG have announced many of, as have Hisense and TCL. However, of all, we are most delighted with the Sony Z8K, not only for its new mini-led backlighting or XNUMXK resolution, but also for the return of the incredible XR Backlight Master Drive technology.
For those who don't remember, Backlight Master Drive is what transformed the Sony Z9D Master Series TV into one of the best TVs of the decade, and now it's a mini-led model with an Absolute canister that loads more contrast control areas. to work. .
We hope that the result is the best backlight control of any TV in two thousand twenty-two, as well as the extreme brightness of a LED-LCD TV. Add to that Sony's unusual work on motion processing and natural color reproduction, and Samsung could have a real fight on its hands to keep the 8K TV market going.
3. Samsung QN900B 8K Neo QLED TV (QN85QN900B)
While Sony is our top pick for a mini-led at CES 900, it's not the only mini-led vying for a designated spot. One of the others is the new Samsung QN8B 900K Neo QLED TV, the successor to last year's award-winning Samsung QNXNUMXA QLED TV, the best TV in LaComparison of two thousand twenty-one.
Big changes for this year are a new feature called Adaptive Light Control in a way that lets the TV have better control over bloom and an upgrade to 14-bit backlighting for more luminance points. It may not sound all that stunning, but keeping in mind how bright this TV is, having a few thousand auxiliary luminance points will go a long way.
Inside the TV is Samsung's Neo Quantum processor with an object depth enhancement feature that will better separate foreground and background objects and the new TV UI Updated Home Screen featuring a number of changes which include... um, an NFT store for some reason. We could live without the last part, sure, but you can't blame Samsung for wanting to enter the fierce NFT market.
4. Forty-two-inch LG OLED 4K TV (OLED42C2)
LG came out on top for CES 8 by announcing a series of 4K and 4K OLEDs, several new QNED mini-LED TVs, and even a MicroLED TV to compete with Samsung. Most of these screens are always going to be out of our budget... with the only exception being the XNUMX-inch LG OLED XNUMXK.
In 2, LG will launch its C-series OLED in an even smaller and more accessible size. And while we were concerned that downsizing could represent a reduction in specifications, that has generally not been the case here. The smaller OLED C9 will continue to have the Alpha a4 Gen. 120 processor as its pricier siblings and will accept 1K / XNUMXHz via two HDMI ports.XNUMX.
The only downside is that while most of the larger C2 OLEDs will employ LG's OLED evo panels, which can become somewhat brighter than older OLED displays, the smaller C2 sticks with last year's panel. . It's not a complete disappointment estimating that the cost can start at less than € 1 million, but it kept the desktop-compatible C2 from reaching a higher spot on our list.
5. Panasonic LZ2000 OLED TV
While Pana hasn't rolled out the red carpet for a QD-OLED or announced a new mini-led model this year, it has announced a sound-focused OLED that is undoubtedly going to score points with each and every audiophile.
The new Panasonic LZ2000 builds on the audio evolution of last year's model, which added side speakers for three-dimensional sound, such as support for Dolby Atmos, a pilot-tuned audio system, and upward and forward firing techniques. , to create an all-in-one home theater system unmatched by other displays.
For the first time, Panasonic is going to sell a seventy-seven-inch OLED screen, which means the LZ2000 could be the home theater screen you've been waiting for.
6. Samsung MicroLED TV
Samsung didn't mince words when it announced the latest version of its MicroLED TV, calling it "the pinnacle of TV technology."
Thanks to its twenty-five million micrometer-sized LEDs, it could well be this way, plus given the exorbitant costs of its predecessors, we don't know who will be able to afford one to take advantage of the technology.
Hoping to create something that the upper-middle class can pay for, Samsung has announced 3 more manageable screen sizes for its 2022 models: one hundred and ten, one hundred and eighty-nine inches. Obviously, it's not going to be for everyone, but it's a bit more manageable than the monstrous one hundred and forty-six-inch and two-hundred-ninety-two-inch iterations we've seen previously.
7.Hisense U7H ULED TV
It may not have a mini-led, MicroLED or OLED panel, but the Hisense U7H has something much better: an affordable label cost.
Announced in a number of new models from Chinese TV maker Hisense, the U7H offers a host of fabulous quirks like 4K / 120Hz support for game consoles like Xbox Series X and PS5, as well as a host of cutting-edge imaging technologies. such as enhanced IMAX format, FilmMaker mode, Dolby Vision IQ, HDR 10 and 10+ support, FreeSync VRR, and a built-in ATSC 0 tuner.
It already seems like a sensational value and could easily win the TCL Six series crown as one of the best televisions for less than € one with zero if Hisense were to pursue a cost strategy akin to last year's 7-inch UXNUMXG model. , which sells for € eight hundred and forty-nine in the USA. .
8. LG G2 OLED and Sony A90K OLED
By agreement, this is a bit strange since they are 2 models from 2 different manufacturers, but we are going to bring them together due to their level of performance and total lack of innovation.
While LG and Sony would claim that their upcoming high-end OLEDs are packed with the latest technology, the biggest innovation in both cases is the new processors and / or scaling algorithms. Under the hood, they both use the exact same panels as last year and aren't going to have a lot of new hardware-specific quirks.
That said, while they aren't packed with new technology, we'd expect them to be great televisions, while their forerunners made our twenty-one best televisions list. Not each and every television must necessarily be the most advanced model. on the market, after all, and we don't blame Sony or LG for not fixing something that wasn't broken.