Hello one and all.
My 10 year old LCD has served me well, but I decided to upgrade to a next gen TV that's good enough for the PS5.
I've done a lot of digging and I've narrowed it down to few options.
I know people will recommend the TCL, but the TCLs here are locally manufactured and aren't as good as what you get in the US.
The LG OLEDs are very expensive and I'm not risking burn in.
My best bet are the Samsung QLED range. My number one option is the Q70R, but I'm struggling to find one. The Q60R and Q70T are easily found, but both don't have local dimming.
My question is, how necessary is local dimming? The Q70T has advantages over the 70R like HDMI 2.1 support.
Now, note that I'm coming from an ancient LCD TV so ignorance is a bliss.
Is there any other option I'm missing?
Dont bother with the Q70T. It has trash HDR capabilities. Not something you want going forward.
The Q70R is great. It's only weaknesses imo? Just good but not great HDR brightness, and no Dolby Vision HDR support. Dolby Vision HDR is getting more support then HDR10+ that the Q70R supports. The Q70R does have basic HDR to be clear, but Dolby Vision and HDR10+ are both 'next gen' HDR.
How helpful local dimming is depends on the TV. Some TVs might see a small 5% increase in contrast with local dimming, but the best local dimming TVs, like Vizio's Quantum X panels, can triple the contrast ratio with local dimming. The Q70R local dimming boosts contrast about 10% which is just average. But the base contrast ratio of the Q70R is so good it doesnt need its local dimming to be super great.
I just happened to be doing ALOT of TV research myself recently. I narrowed it down to the Samsung Q70R or the Sony 950G for my price range. Both TVs are similar in performance with the Sony running about 15% more in price.
Since you are looking for a TV, get familiar with the website rtngs.com. This takes all the guess work out of TV buying.
For example, here is rtngs side by side comparision of the Q70R vs the Q70T
https://www.rtings.com/tv/tools/compare/samsung-q70r-vs-samsung-q70t/782/1818
Or the Q70R vs the Sony 950G
https://www.rtings.com/tv/tools/compare/samsung-q70r-vs-sony-x950g/782/764?usage=11114&threshold=0.1
If input lag while gaming isnt a big concern for you the Sony 900F is a cheaper Sony option.
Look through the stats of the TVs and find out what is important to you.
For me these are important
Contrast Ratio
The better (higher) this is the more detail you can see in darker areas, which increases the picture quality/detail. Look for around 4000+ minimum.
Gradient
Color Banding. If a TV has poor gradient handling of color you will see jarring transitions in solid colors instead of smooth transitions. This >
LINK< is an extreme example but it shows what gradient is about.
HDR Peak Brightness
The brighter the HDR brightness, the more lifelike and realistic lighting will look in HDR movies and games. If you want the headlights in a HDR Gran Turismo game to be blindingly bright or a glare off a metallic surface in a movie to look like real life, get a TV with peak HDR brightness near or exceeding 1000 nits/cdm
Response Time
Basically the delay between your controller inputs to seeing them make a difference on screen.
I'm passing on the TCL because of quality control issues and I'm passing on the Vizio Quantum X TVs because of the Color Banding/Gradient weakness.