Best gaming TV game guide: Welcome to TechRadar's summary of the best 4K TVs for PS4 and Xbox that you can buy for any budget in 2018.
If you're a console player, finding the right TV can be a nuisance PC players have it easy: all they need to do is find a monitor with a 4K resolution and an incredibly fast update speed and press the Buy button. We console players have it more difficult.
That said, nothing is impossible. No high score is too high and no achievement is blocked forever. Like any other challenge, you can conquer this too.
The good news is that you have an ally on the battlefield: us! We are here to help you choose the best 4K HDR TV that works well with all your consoles, whether you are a PlayStation Nation member with a PS4 and PS4 Pro, or an Xbox Elite and have the Xbox One X or Xbox. The players of the console of One S. Us must remain united.
Specified that he would win
So, what does a television need to be able to unlock its game potential at this time? Let's start with possibly the most basic requirement: 4 K.
Resolution Revolution: The Xbox One S broadcasts all its games in 4K, achieved through a surprisingly good built-in scalability.
The PS4 Pro produces games in 4K as well, using a combination of improvement and improvement of the game. Meanwhile, the Xbox One X has been designed with enough power to drive more games than ever with native 4K support built into the game engine. Yes, you can still get 4K Xbox One and PS4 consoles, and Nintendo Switch is not interested in 4K either. And yes, non-4K games will have to be updated by a 4K TV, so they will not be totally & # 39; pure. & # 39; However, the scaling is remarkably good on the best 4K TVs now, and it can be done without adding a significant delay while taking a TV to make pictures.
The 4K resolution can be transformative, especially on large screens. And, basically, 4K is the way everything is happening now (both in the world of games and in the world of video games), so it does not make sense to configure your new television.
[19659004] Change your range: Sitting next to 4K in today's video world, you will find high dynamic range (HDR) technology. This offers images with a much wider range of light than the standard dynamic range images that we've been living with for decades in an attempt to get the images we're seeing on our screens more closely to the way our eyes see The real world. 19659004] Xbox One S supports HDR in some of its games and in some of its streaming applications. The same situation applies to both PS4 and PS4 Pro, and naturally the Xbox One X will also deliver HDR. Most people would say that HDR done well produces more impact than 4K, especially on small screens.
The only problem is that HDR exerts a lot of pressure on a TV, as it demands both higher brightness than SDR, and better contrast so that extra brightness and deeper blacks can share the screen simultaneously. In fact, HDR done poorly can look worse than SDR done decently well; Something to think about if you are considering buying a very cheap TV.
Let there be light! One of the most important elements of a good HDR performance is brightness. Many movies and games aim for 1000 or so nits for their brightest elements, so if you have a less bright TV that will not unlock the full potential of HDR. Especially in a videogame environment, where graphics can be sharper in terms of contrast than what "real life" is like. It tends to be.
It is perfectly possible for televisions to deliver excellent HDR images without reaching 1000 nits and more brightness. This is particularly true with OLED displays, for example. But the darker a screen is, the more difficult it will be to process it to try to resolve how to resolve image information in HDR areas beyond its capabilities.
Change your range: Sitting next to 4K in today's video world is high dynamic range (HDR) technology. This offers images with a much wider range of light than the standard dynamic range images that we've been living with for decades in an attempt to get the images we're seeing on our screens more closely to the way our eyes see The real world. 19659004] Xbox One S supports HDR in some of its games and in some of its streaming applications. The same situation applies to both PS4 and PS4 Pro, and naturally the Xbox One X will also deliver HDR. Most people would say that HDR done well produces more impact than 4K, especially on small screens.
The only problem is that HDR exerts a lot of pressure on a TV, as it demands both higher brightness than SDR, and better contrast so that extra brightness and deeper blacks can share the screen simultaneously. In fact, HDR done poorly can look worse than SDR done decently well; Something to think about if you are considering buying a very cheap TV.
Let there be light! One of the most important elements of a good HDR performance is brightness. Many movies and games aim for 1000 or so nits for their brightest elements, so if you have a less bright TV that will not unlock the full potential of HDR. Especially in a videogame environment, where graphics can be sharper in terms of contrast than what "real life" is like. It tends to be.
It is perfectly possible for televisions to deliver excellent HDR images without reaching 1000 nits and more brightness. This is particularly true with OLED displays, for example. But the darker a screen is, the harder it will be to work with its processing to try to resolve how to resolve the image information in HDR areas beyond its capabilities.
The chosen ones
OK, now that the purchase advice is essential fact and you are an AV expert, we will choose our selection of the best gaming televisions you can currently buy, considering a price combination and pure quality.
1. Samsung Q9F QLED TV Series
Low input delay, native UHD resolution, great HDR compatibility: the Samsung Q9F has it all.
65 inches: Samsung QN65Q9F | 55-inch: Samsung QN55Q9F
Excellent 4K HDR photos
Insanely bright!
Some problems of backlight dimming
This Samsung 65-inch high-end has a number of exclusive advantages for games. To begin with, unique screen filters mean that the images are almost unaffected by ambient light. And trust us: being able to play in the light of day and enjoy images that look as intense, bright and rich in contrast as they do in a dark room is nothing less than a revelation. The set also majestically resolves 4K resolutions, while its high build quality allows it to produce a fairly powerful and distortion-free audio performance (although it apparently does not have visible speakers). If all that were not exciting enough, the QN65Q9FAM outperforms the competition with an exceptionally low entry delay of 12 ms when using its Game mode. That said, the QN65Q9FAM may suffer with some soft and gentle light problems during very high contrast HDR sequences, and it is also, unfortunately, extremely expensive.
Read the review: Samsung Q9F QLED TV
2. LG E7 OLED Series
The E7 is LG's highest rated OLED
75 inches: Sony XBR-75X940D
Beautiful and rich contrast images
Built-in sound bar is excellent
] The B7 has the same panel!
While the OLED55E7 does not have nearly as much HDR-friendly brightness as the Samsung Q9F range, it's impressive when it comes to the other end of the glitter story, offering incredibly rich black colors, completely free of the kind of clouding problems that suffer the LCD TVs. In addition, although OLED still can not be as bright as LCD, the way in which the darkest pixel of an OLED image can sit next to the brightest without contamination between the two gives the OLED55E7 images a lovely luminous quality that is Particularly effective during dark game settings.
It's great to see that LG has an entry delay of only 22ms in all font types (using its game preset).
A last big attraction of the OLED55E7 is its built-in soundbar function. You can soon manage Dolby Atmos from the Xbox One S and Xbox One X consoles, and can produce a huge wall of rich sound (as long as you play it LOUD) that works brilliantly for games without the need for external audio. system.
Read the review: LG OLED E7
3. Samsung NU8000 Series
With beautiful colors and fast response times, the NU8000 is a real gaming TV
65-inch: Samsung UN65NU8000 | 55-inch: Samsung UN55NU8000 | 49-inch: Samsung UN49NU8000
HDR + mode
Bright and beautiful colors
Motion problems
Bixby hurts more than help
Everyone likes a TV high-end LG's latest OLED, Samsung's spectacularly bright QLED and Sony's phenomenal LED-LCDs are applauded all year round for their incredible performance, imaging technologies and technical dexterity.
Too bad these are not the TVs that most people buy.
If you are looking for a mid-range TV that has all the tools to play in 4K HDR without skimping on the images, check out the Samsung NU8000 series. It may not be as bright as some of the competitions on this page, but give your HDR + mode a try, and you'd be surprised what this underdog can do.
Read the full review: Samsung NU8000
4. Sony XBR-X850E Series
Powerful 4K images and smart features adjust to aggressive pricing in this versatile and enjoyable range of TVs and games
55 inches: Sony XBR-55X850E | 65 inches: Sony XBR-65X850E
Strong image quality
Attractive design
Fight for brightness
Entry delay can drop to 50ms
One of penultimate recommendation for a game television is another great one. This gives us the opportunity to pose a final problem about the games on the consoles and PCs of today compared to previous generations: that you really have to think big if you get something like the best gaming experience.
This is partly because you need a relatively large screen to get the most out of the 4K resolutions, but also because the major TV brands are building more and more truly friendly color, contrast and brightness features with HDR in their relatively large televisions and, unfortunately, expensive. [19659004] Even a 55-inch Sony model struggles for a bit of brightness in its attempt to make 4K HDR images relatively affordable. However, it does a great job with colors within that limitation of brightness thanks to Sony's Triluminos processing engine, while its black-level performance is outstanding for an affordable and illuminated LCD model. It also only suffers with an average of 21 ms of input delay, although strangely, the delay slips to about 50 ms for a frame or two.
Read the full review: Sony XBR-X850E
A little more shopping advice for the way …
If you want more information on how to buy gaming sets, we have added A little more information below. Keep reading to level up your AV skills of knowledge!
Bits and B.O.B.s: Connected to the HDR point, you may want to think about the bit depth of your TV for games. The best HDR experience requires a 10-bit screen capable of supporting 1024 values of each RGB color; otherwise, you will get a lower color rendering, which possibly includes color strips where you should see subtle blends. Most premium HDR televisions these days are 10-bit, but it is far from being a relatively affordable price in the television market.
The Xbox One S and PS4 consoles automatically evaluate the bit depth of your TV and select the best HDR video output accordingly. The Xbox One S even provides a description of the capabilities of your TV in 4K TV Details in its Advanced Video Settings menu. The Xbox One X will presumably do the same.
To be clear, it is entirely possible for an 8-bit TV to deliver good HDR color performance if they have a powerful video processing engine. But 10-bit panels certainly have an immediate advantage.
Another point that should be added here is that some TVs, including high-end Samsung models, actually support 12-bit color management / processing, although their panels are only natively 10-bit. The Xbox One S and presumably Xbox One X provide color depth boxes in your video fidelity settings that allow you to select the maximum bit performance for your particular TV.
Color purity: Other advanced but important settings To take into account the best visual effects of the game, it is the subsampling of chroma.
This video compression term refers to the color purity of a television, and is generally written in terms such as 4: 4: 4 and 4: 2: 0. These numbers reveal how many pixels the color is displayed in. the upper and lower rows for every two rows of four pixels. Then, with 4: 2: 0, for example, the color is displayed from two pixels in the top row and there are no pixels in the bottom row.
It follows that the higher the numbers, the purer the performance of the color will be, since there is less "divination". of how colors should be. The problem is that full color support 4: 4: 4 requires a large amount of additional image data, so it can not be handled by HDMI connections or processing of all TVs.
In truth, the differences in the quality of the image between 4: 4: 4 and 4: 2: 2 and even 4: 2: 0 are not usually huge. However, they can be more pronounced with the game graphics than with the videos, so it's worth trying to verify what a TV you're thinking of buying can admit, even if it's not information that is regularly broadcast on the playlists. TV specifications. The latest consoles are good enough to detect the optimal chromatic sub-sampling that a TV can support, automatically adjusting its outputs accordingly.
However, it is something that can cause annoying "handshake" problems with some TVs, both the Xbox One S and the PS4 Pro now offer "limiter" options. of sub-sampling in its video output menus (& # 39; Enable 4: 2: 2 & # 39; on the Xbox One S, and 2160 YUV4: 2: 0 on the PS4 Pro).
Frame rate management: Now that the Xbox One X is here and promises native 4K resolution games running at 60 frames per second, make sure any TV you buy has the connectors HDMI of last specification. If you do not have at least one HDMI jack built according to the v2.0a specification, you can not receive a 4K resolution at more than 30 frames per second.
Fortunately, many of this year's 4K TVs do have HDMI 2.0a sockets than in previous years, but it's still worth checking out, especially if you're buying a particularly inexpensive TV.
Now you know everything there is to know about game TVs!
