TV winners and losers 2025: OLEDs got even brighter, and 8K (still) strained for relevance

TV winners and losers 2025: OLEDs got even brighter, and 8K (still) strained for relevance Features (Image credit: Future) (Image credit: Future) (Image credit: Future) (Image credit: Future) (Image credit: Future) (Image credit: Future) Dave Meikleham published OLED continues to light the way, but other TVs have stumbled It’s no surprise that 2025 has proven to be yet another fantastic year for fans of the best TVs . OLED deservedly continues to dominate the high-end AV market, yet it’s also heartening to see the strides mini-LED has made for those who can’t afford to remortgage their house in order to own an eye-catching OLED display. During the past calendar year we’ve seen fantastic TVs from not only heavyweights like LG , but also budget-conscious brands like TCL . But if we had to pick an overall, undisputed champ in 2025, it’s super-tough to look past Samsung . Thanks to its investment in QD-LED tech, the likes of the Samsung S95F OLED have set new viewing heights. It’s not all been plain sailing, though. Amazon has regressed with its affordable Fire TVs in the last 365 days due to some head-scratching drawbacks, while the purists who love physical 4K Blu-rays may find their beloved medium coming to a sad end. Cheerfully, there have been more TV winners in 2025 than losers, so sit back and let’s try to focus on the positives while also acknowledging the odd bumpy AV roadblock. Winner: OLEDs got brighter...and overall better Yet again, this last year has been the year of OLED. Heck, the premium form of display has been the undisputed ruler of TV tech for well over a decade. What has really impressed this year is both the forward-looking investments made by LG Display and Samsung Display, yet also the bewildering brightness OLED can now achieve. It’s a doubly impressive feat considering they’re the only display tech that can entirely self-dim their pixels. Skip back only a few years, and even the best OLED TVs would struggle to crack 1,000 nits of brightness. Now, though? You only need look at the class-leasing LG G5 and its four-stack panel that is capable of producing a cornea-scorching 2,268 nits in Filmmaker Mode. That’s eyeball-tanning territory. Yet LG has in no way hogged the luxurious limelight in the OLED space this year, despite the G5’s undoubted excellence. The Panasonic Z95B also knocked our collective socks off, thanks to its supremely detailed pictures and high-calibre sound. There’s also no sleeping on the superlative Samsung S95F (more on that in a minute) that shows the future of the best TVs lies with QD-OLEDs. Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. We also can’t forget the Sony Bravia II OLED ; a stunningly bright, gamer-friendly set that pushes the high bar the iconic Japanese manufacturer has established all the loftier. OLED as a technology has been operating in a league of its own for several generations at this point. When it comes to color accuracy,...

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