The 8 Best 4K TVs In 2023 – Top Picks & Buying Guide

Choosing a 4k tv is only the first step. The most recent televisions are increasingly sophisticated and refined products, with very different characteristics, prices, and destinations.

In this guide to choosing the best 4k TV, we have tried to provide some criteria for finding your way in a large and complex market.

We must think that a TV today must dialogue with other devices, connect to the Internet, store apps, and other digital content. All this must be considered before deciding which 4k TV to buy.

Here we had listed out the best 4k TVs that are present below.

How to Choose 4k Tv?

Is Oled Better?

The resolution of a screen indicates the number of pixels, i.e., the number of luminous points that make up the image, like a mosaic. The higher the number, the greater the definition, therefore the detail.

In cinemas, the 4k resolution corresponds to 4096 × 2160 pixels, but on TV screens, the 3840 × 2160 pixel resolution is more frequent.

However, other aspects determine the quality of viewing on a 4k TV: contrast and color rendering, for example, not to mention the audio.

Remaining in the image much depends on the technology adopted for the construction of the display.

In the current market, there are two substantial alternatives to choose from LCD (liquid crystal) screens and OLED screens.

The pixels of the TVs with OLED screens are made up of self-illuminating organic diodes. It is a bit as if every single pixel were an autonomous light bulb, which can be turned on and off individually.

For this reason, the rendering of blacks is particularly effective, and the shadows are etched and deep. The contrast values ​​are, on average, higher, which means, in essence, whiter whites and blacker blacks.

From a technical point of view, OLED screens allow the construction of luminaires with a thickness of fewer than 4 millimeters, with all the advantages that follow.

Liquid Crystal Displays (LCD)

LCD screens have improved a lot lately, and thanks to the LED backlight, they last longer and consume less energy.

They have the advantage of costing less than the Oled models and of guaranteeing excellent overall quality if well constructed.

Halfway between the two, a “third way” has recently appeared. They are called Qled screens, abbreviations, which means Quantum Led.

Despite the assonance with the abbreviation OLED (not accidental, the negative ones claim), these are LCD screens, mainly used on Samsung televisions, which also have a filtering apparatus made up of nanoparticles of quantum dots.

The result translates into a color range that can theoretically be even higher than that of OLEDs, but much depends on the technology that supports the device.

If it is true that the LCD screens do not allow the switching off of the single pixels as happens on the Oled screens, the displays that are backlit with LEDs partially remedy the gap thanks to the “local dimming.”

A liquid crystal screen is structured in such a way as to allow still the light placed behind the panel to filter, although the crystals have “positioned” so as not to let it pass to offer a dark image.

If there is the possibility of completely turning off the LEDs, it is quite clear that this defect can be remedied. It is a subtlety, which many viewers may not be interested in. In any case, not all Led TV sets offer this control tool.

Not only that: even if present, local dimming does not always cover all areas of the screen. In some cases, it is limited to the lateral bands or the lower and upper ones.

The Right Size

The dimensions of television screens are traditionally indicated in inches, where one inch corresponds to about 2.5 cm.

The measure refers to the diagonal of the viewing rectangle: a 40-inch TV, for example, has a diagonal of one meter, and can already be considered a good measure.

Between a 40-inch display and a 50-inch display, there can be several hundred euros of difference in price. If the budget and available spaces allow it, we recommend not to go below 43 “.

In this slice of the market, there is a wide variety of products, even sold online, and the price difference is generally not too expensive.

A 55-inch screen comes much closer to a cinematic experience, mainly if you can position yourself between three and five meters away.

Although they do not appear in our fifty, some models exceed 60 inches. To buy them, however, you must prepare to spend a little less than two thousand euros, for the best products, but some offers slightly exceed the thousand euros.

From this point of view, the Network is the best place to buy, but be careful not to receive at home models that are inadequate for the Italian or, at least, European market: you may have problems with channel tuning and automatic numbering.

How to Use a 4k Tv

In our showcase dedicated to the best 4k TVs, we have tried to combine savings and quality, alternating products at low prices (relatively), but of excellent artistry, with others less cheap and technically superior.

But once you understand how to choose an excellent 4k TV, it is useful to know how to exploit its potential fully.

Change System

Whatever 4k TV you have chosen, it is undoubtedly a Smart TV. Your appliance is, therefore, able to connect to the home network via Wi-Fi or Ethernet cable.

It allows you to surf the Net and, depending on the operating system installed on the TV, to download the most popular apps dedicated to video streaming.

The best known are Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, TimVision, Chili, NowTV, Dazn (for sports), Infinity and, of course, YouTube, Rai Play, and Mediaset Play.

The televisions, therefore, also differ in the operating system, that is to say in the software, which will allow you to do all these things. Android TV is the TV version of the world’s most popular mobile operating system.

For obvious reasons, it is the one predisposed to communicate better with Android devices, from smartphones to tablets. It is often found on Sony, Sharp, and Philips devices.

Samsung televisions, on the other hand, are usually equipped with Samsung Smart Hub or Tizen. In our opinion, the latter is richer and more functional.

If supported by an adequate processor, it proves to be reactive and flexible and can boast an arsenal of applications that has little or nothing to envy to Android TV.

Even Samsung Smart Hub, however, guarantees an exciting collection of apps and can communicate without problems with mobile phones and other Samsung devices.

Where Can I Find 4k Programs?

On so-called generalist TVs (the historic Rai and Mediaset channels) in 4k, there is little or nothing. There is a 4k Rai channel, broadcast by Tivùsat, which needs, however, an appropriate decoder and a satellite dish.

The decoder may not be necessary, as long as the TV in our possession has some characteristics. It must have a dual tuner, support the DVB-S2 television standard, and the HEVC codec and be certified for viewing the 4K UHD channels of the tivùsat platform.

To find satisfaction with your thirst for Ultra HD content, you probably have to spend a few euros. The new Sky Q platform and Mediaset Premium, for example, have a decent archive of films and other 4k content.

Netflix, the platform for watching movies and streaming TV series, also includes a nice bundle of 4k movies and TV series in its subscription package.

Amazon Prime Video, the platform that free subscribers to the Prime free delivery service offer, offers some titles with Ultra HD definition. The app is downloadable or preloaded on numerous 4k TVs and is accessible from Apple TV.

What Is 4 K Hdr

When scrolling through a list of 4k video content, the acronym HDR is also often found, i.e., High Dynamic Range.

Translated, it means an extended dynamic range and is practically a technology that guarantees a broader range of colors and brightness.

The resolution of an image is obtained by increasing the number of pixels that compose it, while HDR is concerned with improving the quality of individual pixels.

The result should return brighter whites and darker and deeper blacks.

Theoretically, HDR offers a 10-bit color range, which can return about a billion different shades. It is expected to be able to reproduce between 54% and 76% of the colors perceived by the human eye in nature.

The current standard, so to speak, is 8-bit Blu-Ray, which translates into 16 million colors, 35% of those visible.

To ensure that a TV supports this type of technology, and therefore you can fully enjoy HDR video content, the certification found on the labels should suffice, but this is not precisely the case.

HDR is still settling on the market and, for technical reasons that it would be long and complicated to delve into here, it is not said that we can perceive the full potential of an HDR image.

Much still depends on the quality of the screen, and there is also a small war between different standards.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is It True that 8k Tvs Exist?

They exist, it is true, and they are already on the market. However, this does not mean that it is advisable to buy them. It is a challenge to the limit of the impossible to find an 8k television that costs less than 4,000 euros.

Assuming that you have no budget problems, you must consider that the contents compatible with such a high resolution are currently unavailable. Of course, you could generate them yourself with an (equally expensive) 8k video camera, and you can always hope for a rapid spread of this format.

Let’s not forget that TV content still travels on a double track, in high definition, and low sensitivity. At the moment, the money spent on an 8k TV would seem frankly “wasted.”

What Is 4k Upscaling?

The term upscaling indicates, in general, the possibility of improving the definition of an image compared to its native resolution.

Let’s explain better. We have a 4k TV, but there are still very few Ultra HD contents. Instead, Full HD ones abound.

Some TV sets (and not only) allow you to transform a Full HD resolution into a 4K one with a gimmick. With what results? It depends on the appliance.

Likewise, upscaling for HDR technology is possible. Also, in this case, the final result is far from that of an image created with this technology.

Are There 4k Blu-Ray Players and 4k Blu-Ray Discs?

Of course, yes. They are, indeed, one of the main sources of very high-resolution content currently available.

The production companies focus on the temporary lack or scarcity of Ultra HD content on the streaming platforms to sell their most popular titles to a user who can not wait to take advantage of his brand new 4k TV.

You can already buy the new Star Wars saga, the Endgame blockbuster of the Avengers series, the cult movie Blade Runner and its recent sequel Blade Runner 2049, and many other titles, often available in HDR version.

To be able to see them, however, you need a compatible Blu-Ray player, and even in this case, the offer is not lacking.

Can I Record from Tv on A Digital Medium?

Some TV sets allow you to record on the internal memory, and others have a function that users do not always notice: the ability to write content from the TV on a Pendrive or external hard disk. A USB port is required for this to be possible, but it is not enough.

Next to the door, you should find a label that specifies whether you can record from there: HDD Rec and PVR (Personal Video Recorder) are the most frequent indications, but often you can read USB Rec / Play, USB Recording, or DVR (Digital Video Recorder).

The TV manuals should dispel any doubts. Know that after connecting your external memory unit, it will undergo a new format. Therefore any previously stored content could be deleted. The new format will make the Pendrive or the disc readable only by your TV.