Super Bowl 2025 is scheduled to happen on Sunday, February 9, 2025, and as a fan of a team that’s made it to the conference championships, I have my fingers tightly crossed. (Go Bills!)
Whether your team makes it to the Super Bowl or not, watching football on as big a screen as possible is fun, so you may want to consider upgrading to one of the best TVs before game day. Fortunately, fierce competition in the TV market means that recent TVs have come down dramatically in price since their release last year – you can score one of the best mini-LED TVs in a 65-inch size for under $900, and even the best OLED TVs are now selling for much less than they did upon launch. Retailers know that football fans splurge on new TVs right before the big game, so you’ll find many recent models now selling at or near their Black Friday price.
I’ve listed below four TVs that TechRadar tested in 2024 that are excellent for sports viewing. The list includes a pair of mid-range mini-LED models, a high-end mini-LED, and an OLED that we selected as the best TV in the TechRadar Choice Awards 2024.
While none of these TVs are exactly cheap, they all offer excellent performance for the money, and we’re sure you’ll be pleased with how good the picture looks when you fire up your new big screen set on Super Bowl Sunday.
Hisense U8N
Picture brightness matters if you’re watching TV in a bright room – something often done for sports – and the Hisense U8N happens to be one of the brightest TVs TechRadar has ever tested. Powerful local dimming also lets it deliver pictures with strong contrast, which will make picture highlights such as stadium lights gleaming on a player’s helmet pop and colors look more robust.
The Hisense U8N’s Google TV smart interface with voice control will help you quickly find the game if you’re streaming it, and a built-in ATSC 3.0 tuner will let you tune into a “Next-Gen TV” broadcast if your local FOX network station supports it. Last year, the Super Bowl was shown in 4K with Dolby Vision HDR from some sources, and we’re hoping for a repeat of that situation at Super Bowl LIX.
TCL QM851G
The TCL QM851G is the company’s top mini-LED series, and its performance closely tracks that of the Hisense U8N. Like the Hisense, it offers an extremely bright picture with powerful local dimming, uses the Google TV smart interface for streaming, and has a built-in ATSC 3.0 tuner.
The QM851G series starts at a 65-inch screen size and extends up to 98 inches. If 98 inches isn’t big enough for your Super Bowl party, TCL also has a 115-inch model, the QM89, that’s now selling for just under $15,000 – a 25% discount.
Samsung QN90D
The Samsung QN90D currently ranks as the best TV for sports in our best TVs guide, and for good reason. It has a very bright picture, which is helped by an anti-reflection coating that resists screen glare when viewing in bright rooms. Two areas where the QN90D shows advantages over the Hisense and TCL models above are off-center viewing and motion handling. Pictures retain color richness and contrast even when viewing at far off-center seats with the QN90D – something that’s important when viewing with a Super Bowl party crowd.
Samsung’s excellent motion handling lets it easily keep pace with fast-moving sports and also works magic with movies and games. Most Samsung TVs feature a built-in ATSC 3.0 tuner, and the QN90D is no exception.
Samsung S95D
The Samsung S95D is the only OLED TV included in this list, and there are several reasons why that’s the case. The S95D is the brightest OLED TV we’ve ever tested, exceeding other OLEDs by a fairly wide margin when it comes to that parameter and even matching many mini-LEDs, which are known for high brightness.
Equally as important, the S95D features Glare Free tech that’s incredibly effective at eliminating screen reflections from indoor light sources like overhead lights or lamps and, as with other OLED TVs, retains color richness and contrast when viewing from off-center seats, plus has excellent motion handling. Of course, a built-in ATSC 3.0 tuner is onboard for Next-Gen TV broadcasts.
All TVs listed above provide capable built-in speakers, but if you’re also looking to take your audio to the next level, check out our guide to the best soundbars.
Need an antenna to tune in the Super Bowl on broadcast TV? Here’s our guide to the best indoor antennas.
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al.griffin@futurenet.com (Al Griffin)
