Feast your eyes on the best 4K TVs of 2016
1. Samsung KS9500 range
As well as delivering some of the sharpest 4K pictures yet, the KS9500s also go further than any other TVs to maximise the impact of HDR
65-inch: Samsung UE65KS9500 | 78-inch: Samsung UE78KS9500 | 88-inch: Samsung UE88KS9500
No TVs in 2016 deliver pictures more downright spectacular than Samsung's KS9500s. Partly because no other commercially released TVs have ever delivered as much brightness, but also because Samsung has used a high-end backlighting system and a proprietary take on Quantum Dot colour technology to ensure that the emphatic brightness is joined by excellent contrast and explosively rich but also gorgeously nuanced colours.
Push all this technology to the max with today's highest quality sources - especially, the incredible images you can get from the new Ultra HD Blu-ray format - and you'll witness pictures the like of which just haven't been seen on a TV before.
The KS9500s aren't perfect; the push for such extreme contrast from an LCD screen can sometimes cause backlight clouding around very bright objects, and the most accurate Movie preset can cause colour striping with UHD Blu-ray. There's no 3D support either. So extraordinary are the KS9500s' pictures at their best, though, that their flaws become seriously easy to forgive.
2. LG OLED E6 series
The OLED TV technology so beloved of AV
enthusiasts for the past few years is taken to bold new heights by LG's
groundbreaking OLEDE6 series.
55-inch: LG OLED55E6 | 65-inch: LG OLED65E6For the sort of AV enthusiast who always preferred the contrast and subtlety of now defunct plasma screens to the more brightness focussed charms of LCD, OLED technology has long looked like the next big thing. And LG's stellar OLEDE6 models do nothing to dispel this notion.
This is because it manages to combine OLED's currently unique ability to have every single pixel in its screen produce its own light and colour independent of its neighbours with a substantial leap in brightness versus any previous OLED generation. What's more, this HDR-friendly leap in brightness has been delivered without compromising the remarkable black level reproduction that's OLED's trademark.
LG will need to improve brightness still further if it wants to avoid the loss of detail in really bright HDR areas the OLEDE6 models sometimes fall prey too, but for many AV fans the E6s' freedom from the sort of backlight flaws all LCD TVs suffer with to some extent will prove nigh-on irresistible.
3. Sony KD-75XD9405
When it comes to 4K, size matters. A point this 75-inch Sony monster rams home in emphatic style.
The 75XD9405's huge 75-inch screen serves up a spectacular demonstration of the advantages of having four times as many pixels as you get with an HD TV, adding a sense of scale to 4K's enhanced precision that leaves pictures looking so lifelike it's almost scary. Not that size is by any means the only thing the 75XD9405 has going for it, mind you.
Sony's Triluminos wide colour spectrum technology and a strong contrast performance from its direct (behind the screen) LED lighting system also play their part, delivering both standard and high dynamic range pictures in a balanced and nuanced way that combines with the screen acreage to provide a massively immersive experience.
The 75XD9405 isn't as bright as some rivals and extreme-contrast HDR shots occasionally cause backlight clouding, but if your tastes are more home cinema than TV, the 75XD9405 is currently uniquely qualified for the job.
4. Panasonic DX802 range
A well set up DX802 is a rare thing in
2016: a reasonably affordable TV that's able to do a truly convincing
job with HDR as well as 4K.
50-inch: Panasonic TX-50DX802B | 58-inch: Panasonic TX-58DX802B
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