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There are lots of good deals on offer at major retailers right now, but one of the most popular categories for savings is TV sets. We’re seeing pretty solid discounts on sets of all sizes, with sturdy build quality and beautiful pictures. Screens are getting flatter, lighter, and sharper, with non-reflective glass, deep contrast, and incredible color accuracy. We’ve got deep discounts on TV sets from Sony, Samsung, TCL, and more right now.
The Hottest TV Deals For August 2024
The Best Small Screen TV Deals
If you’re working with a tight space or just want a screen that doesn’t dominate a room, these are the TV deals to go to. Measuring under 50 inches on the diagonal, they still deliver solid picture quality and brightness. This is also where the crazy cheap prices hang out—imagine paying under a hundred bucks for a flat screen just 10 years ago.
Credit: Amazon
Hisense U6 50″ 4K Smart TV
We’re big proponents of the U6 line from Hisense, which combines budget pricing with surprisingly solid picture quality and features. Right now, Amazon has a nice discount on the 50″ model with the included Fire TV platform. PCMag gave this line its Editors’ Choice award and, in its review, commented that “for the price, you’ll have a hard time finding a television with a better picture or more features.” Improved black density coupled with bright, vivid colors and a 60Hz native refresh rate that boosts to Motion Rate 240 makes it great for sports, gaming, and more. The unit also supports Dolby Vision HDR, HDR10, and HDR10 plus, and taking 23% off drops it down in price even more.
Credit: Amazon
Amazon Fire TV 43″ Omni 4K Smart TV
The Omni was Amazon’s first go at making their own TV sets, and they did a pretty solid job right out of the gate. PCMag reviewed the unit and said that it “offers an impressive range of features for the price,” and while the picture quality isn’t as great as some of the competition, it’s certainly more than worth your time. With support for 4K Ultra HD, HDR 10, HLG, and Dolby Digital Plus, images look good and move smoothly. The onboard Fire TV platform gives you access to all the major streaming services, and a trio of HDMI inputs lets you hook up consoles, laptops, and more.
Credit: Amazon
Insignia 32″ F20 Smart HD Fire TV
This is obviously a budget set, with only 720p resolution. But for eighty bucks, you’re getting a surprising amount of performance here. This is the Fire Edition of Insignia’s entry-level line, so it uses Amazon’s smart platform to give you easy access to Prime Video’s massive library and dozens of other streaming services. The back panel is a little thicker than you would expect, but it has tons of useful ports, and the hardware is easy to set up. The F20 is a really good choice for a kitchen, garage, or any place you want a second screen that won’t dominate a room.
The Best Midsize Screen TV Deals
Need a little more size in your display? Midsize TVs, from 50″ to 70″, are where you can get the most bang for your buck. These are typically optimized for home theater use and come with advanced image processing, modern LED types like QLED, reduced glare, and other cool stuff. This month brought more price drops, so shop fast and shop hard.
Credit: Samsung
Samsung 65″ Neo QLED 8K Smart TV
Even with a $1,300 discount, this Samsung set still costs a pretty penny. But if you’re a resolution-obsessed cinephile who needs the absolute best the industry has to offer, there’s just no beating an 8K set at this point in time. Featuring Quantum Matrix Pro technology powered by an array of mini LEDs, the display boasts 100% color volume, terrific contrast courtesy of multiple local dimming zones, and smart image upscaling to make content look great no matter the source. While there isn’t a ton of 8K content on the market right now, it’s only a matter of time, so invest in a TV that can handle it early.
Credit: Amazon
Amazon Fire TV 55″ 4K UHD Smart TV
Here’s a significant 29% discount on Amazon’s house brand smart TV, and for a spacious 55″ 4K screen it’s a really viable deal. The 4-series is the budget line of Fire TVs, but it delivers impressive picture quality and a lot of easy-to-use features for the price. It’s a very Alexa-centric display, with an included voice remote for hands-free control of the streaming platform. While brightness isn’t spectacular, it will work very well for a darker room, and setup is very simple. 1-year limited warranty and service included.
Credit: Amazon
LG 65″ OLED evo C4 Series Smart TV
This is a costly number, but being able to get a 22% discount puts it in a more reasonable price bracket. It’s the larger version of the 48″ set we spotlighted up above, and has the same incredible picture quality and functionality. It’s great for gamers with a 120Hz refresh rate and support for NVidia GSync and AMD FreeSync. Live sports look incredible thanks to AI-powered upscaling and smooth motion, and it hooks up to your streaming services and local servers with ease.
The Best Large Screen TV Deals
At the top end of the TV market are these huge displays, big enough to be used for spacious home theaters or man caves. These screens typically support 4K resolution with nigh-perfect color quality and brightness and have wide viewing angles for group enjoyment. Yes, the price tag is higher, but these discounts will take some of the sting off.
Credit: Amazon
TCL S5 75″ 4K LED Smart TV
TCL’s S5 line is the company’s budget model, but sometimes prices drop even lower, and snagging a 75-inch screen for five hundred bucks is an unprecedented deal. Even though this set doesn’t boast the brightest output, it’s still more than capable of anchoring a home theater thanks to its exceptional black uniformity, especially if you keep the blinds closed. It’s also good for bringing your gaming to the big screen with a variable refresh rate of up to 120Hz. The display supports a wide variety of next-gen image formats, including HDR PRO+ with Dolby Vision, HDR10+, HDR10, & HLG.
Credit: Amazon
Sony X77L 85″ 4K LED Smart TV
Sony is well-known for high-quality consumer electronics, and this juicy big screen is no exception. The X77L Smart TV comes equipped with the 4K Processor X1 for expert upscaling and high-resolution streaming that looks natural. The included Google TV app is one of our favorite smart platforms, giving you quick and responsive access to all the major streaming services as well as casting from your computer or mobile device. While the contrast ratio isn’t the best on the market, it’s still fine for a dark room and works well for gaming. Overall, this is a solid price for an 85″ screen.
Credit: Amazon
Hisense 100″ U7 ULED Smart TV
Let’s close this out with a serious splurge that just got a tremendous 54% price cut at Amazon. The Hisense U7 boasts a massive 100″ corner-to-corner screen that delivers rock-solid 4K performance and upscales well. This is obviously a set for a home theater or larger room, but it has a sleek minimalist design and definitely blends in well when it’s not powered on. Featuring proprietary ULED technology that boosts color, contrast, brightness, and motion combined with QLED pixels, it’s at the cutting edge of home TV tech. A 144Hz native refresh rate also makes it great for big-screen console or PC gaming. Built-in Google Assistant lets you integrate it seamlessly into your smart home.
TV Buying Guide
Shopping for a new display? Here are some important things to keep in mind.
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Resolution keeps on rising, and as games and media push higher pixel rates, your TV will need to follow along. At this point, going for anything less than 4K on a midsize or large TV is a mistake. Full HD is typically fine for a smaller screen unless you’re going to be right up next to it, and 8K is probably not a good investment yet.
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Consider external audio. Because screens are thinner and lighter than ever before, there’s less room in most modern TVs for good speakers. Investing in a soundbar is an inexpensive way to take advantage of the powerful multichannel audio that most media comes with these days.
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Pay attention to the refresh rate. The base refresh rate—60Hz—is perfectly decent, but once you make the jump to 120Hz, you’ll never go back. It makes motion smoother and more impactful and removes blur and jitter—something prized in gaming on the latest consoles but less so for television viewing.
Frequently Asked TV Questions
What Is the Difference Between a $500 TV and a $2,000 TV?
If you browse the deals above, you probably notice a massive range in prices. The cheapest on the list came in under $100, and the most expensive has a base retail price of $5,000. Why wouldn’t you just buy 50 $100 sets and glue them together? The key difference is in the screen technology. Cheaper sets typically use basic LEDs for their displays, which are perfectly capable but suffer in direct light and have less vivid colors. More luxe models use OLED or Quantum LED, which ensures smoother transitions, more vibrant hues, and deeper blacks. That picture quality is going to be the main difference.
When Are the Best TV deals?
Although online retailers offer discounts throughout the year, there are three essential times for TV shopping. The first is in January or February when people flock to the stores to get a new screen for the big game. In the Spring, manufacturers typically release their new models, so you’ll find stores putting the older ones on sale to clear out inventory. Finally, Black Friday after Thanksgiving is dependably the best time for deals on just about everything, television sets included.
What Is the Difference Between LED and OLED TVs?
LEDs, or light-emitting diodes, have been around for decades. A traditional LED screen’s image is created by a transparent LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) panel. An array of LED lights behind and around it provides the brightness. The more precise that array is, the more accurate the image will be. OLED or Organic LED screens allow the individual LED lights to serve as color and brightness-changing pixels. These sets typically pull more power and deliver deeper blacks but have slower refresh rates.
Which Is Better: OLED or QLED?
Organic LED and Quantum LED technology are the two most common next-generation picture-making methods on the market. They’re both capable of creating bright, colorful images with solid contrast. OLED screens are thinner because they require no backlight, and you won’t see the distracting bloom effect around bright objects. They’re also more expensive than QLED screens. In comparison, QLEDs typically have brighter screens, which makes them work better in well-lit rooms. In general, we’d opt for OLED for most home theaters, but they’re very close in quality.
What Is the Best Resolution for a Smart TV?
If you can afford it, opt for a 4K television. The vast majority of content is going to be optimized for that moving forward, and a 4K TV can upscale lower-resolution programming a lot better than a 1080p TV can downscale higher-resolution stuff. The price differential in between resolutions is getting thinner all the time, so if you can afford 4K that’s definitively the way to go.
What Is the Best Smart TV Refresh Rate?
The refresh rate determines how many times per second the display can update the image. This is measured in hertz, with the number directly corresponding — so a 60Hz TV updates 60 times a second. 60 is the general baseline refresh rate for most TVs on the market, but more advanced models are pushing that higher, to 120 or more. While you won’t notice a difference on most content, for things like console gaming and high framerate video you’ll see smoother motion and less blurring.
What Is the Difference Between a Smart TV and an HD Smart TV?
A smart TV is a set with Wi-Fi connectivity included, allowing it to connect to your home network and stream programming from the outside world. That content can come in a variety of resolutions. Standard smart TVs operate on the 720p or 1080p resolution, while HD smart TVs are higher, up to 4K resolution. Most modern content streams at higher resolutions, but many people may not notice the difference.
How Do I Know What Size Smart TV to Get?
The ideal screen size for most people is a matter of personal preference, but there is a mathematical calculation that can give you a good place to start. Measure from the place you sit the most often to the location of the screen in inches. Multiply that by 0.84 and you’ll have a rough estimate of the ideal screen size. For instance, if you’re sitting seven feet (84 inches) from the screen, that equation comes out to 68 inches, so either a 65″ or 70″ set will give you the best experience.