It’s nearly new TV season in Australia, which means it’s a great time to compare the best models available. There are so many TVs to choose from, many labelled with confusing acronyms and marketing buzzwords, making it tricky to find the best one for you.
It’s also even more confusing when looking up reviews of TVs from big overseas publications. In some cases, the models available in Australia differ from what you see in overseas markets. That’s why it’s so important to test and provide local information so you can make an informed decision.
Listed below are the TVs we’ve tested and recommend across different categories. Everyone’s needs are different, so a Mini LED might suit you better than an OLED, and vice versa. We’ve also included an explanation of common technologies, including OLED, Mini LED, and LED, to help you find the best TV available in Australia. Keep an eye out for updates as we review the latest TVs as they arrive on local shores.
Best TV in Australia
- Best overall
- Best OLED
- Best Mini LED
- Best value TV
- OLED vs Mini LED vs LED: which TV should you choose?
Overall best TV in Australia: LG C3 OLED
Price: from $2,599 via the LG website
Thanks to its mix of features, performance, and price, the LG C3 OLED is the best TV you can get in Australia right now. Sporting the brand’s brighter Evo panel, the C3 shows just how good OLED technology can be.
Sure, you could splash out and get the next model up, but you start entering diminishing returns territory. As it stands, the C3 looks spectacular no matter your preference for movies, TV shows, and video games.
Balancing vibrancy, contrast, and realistic colours is a tough task for any TV, and yet the C3 knocks it out of the park. OLED also has the added benefit of an extremely wide viewing angle, meaning that you’ll get great colour accuracy and detail even when watching from side-on.
Four HDMI 2.1 ports make the LG C3 OLED an excellent gaming TV, too. It supports a 120Hz variable refresh rate, which is perfect for consoles like the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X.
Being an OLED TV, the C3 isn’t the absolute brightest display going around. If you have a bright living room with lots of sunlight filtering through, a Mini LED TV might suit your needs better. Otherwise, the LG C3 OLED is the best TV in Australia amidst strong competition.
Best OLED TV in Australia: LG G3 OLED
Price: from $4,199 via the LG website
If money isn’t an object, the LG G3 OLED is as good as the display technology gets. Its colours are highly realistic, moving away from the overly saturated visuals favoured by some manufacturers, and the TV has stellar contrast levels.
It’s as bright as OLED TVs get, too, which helps if you want to use the TV during the day. This also helps minimise reflections on the panel, so the image stands out even more.
The higher asking price is the only thing preventing the LG G3 OLED from being the best overall TV, especially when the cheaper C3 exists. But if you want the best OLED TV without compromise, the G3 takes the crown
Honourable mention: Samsung S95C QD-OLED
While Samsung may not be the first brand you think of with OLED TVs, it still makes some fantastic panels. A mighty contender to LG’s throne, the Samsung S95C QD-OLED deserves to be mentioned in the best OLED TV conversation.
It was one of our favourite gadgets of 2023, with site owner Valens Quinn praising the TV’s deep blacks and stellar viewing angle. Combining its picture quality and deep vibrancy with Samsung’s SmartHub platform and the decluttering One Connect Box, the S95C QD-OLED is another great pick.
Best Mini LED TV: Samsung QN900C
Price: from $6,495 via JB Hi-Fi
If brightness is high on your priorities list alongside great picture quality, the Samsung QN900C is a safe bet. It’s the best Mini LED TV in Australia, producing a beautifully bright and vibrant picture.
You may baulk at the fact the Samsung QN900C is an 8K TV considering there’s not a lot of 8K content available. Impressively, the TV excels at upscaling, so that even older 1080p footage looks satisfyingly crisp. With almost 2,000 dimming zones, HDR content also shines, minimising any blooming of bright subjects against dark backgrounds.
A great thing about Mini LED TVs is that you don’t need to worry about how bright your living room is. A TV like the QN900C dials up the brightness to combat glare, reflections, and competing light sources, making it a versatile option for any home.
Gamers are also well-served here, thanks to a 144Hz refresh rate, which pairs nicely with either a gaming PC or a modern console. Plus, the quick-access gaming menu makes it easy to change settings on the fly, like reducing brightness when a late-night session becomes an even later-night session. Samsung also supports the Xbox app natively, letting you stream games without the need for a console.
Best value TV: Hisense U7KAU
Price: from $1,195 via JB Hi-Fi
Getting a good TV doesn’t have to mean destroying your savings in the process. Hisense is proof of that, rolling out Mini LED panels across its affordable range in recent years. Smack-bang in the middle of its TV range, the Hisense U7KAU is well-priced and ideal for a wide range of living rooms.
Often found for well below $2,000, the U7KAU is an easy choice for anyone wanting a good TV while keeping within budget. Its picture comes out of the box a little over-saturated, which is an acquired taste, albeit easily fixed by tinkering with the settings.
Other than its reasonable price, the Hisense U7KAU is a decent all-rounder. Its VIDAA software includes many of the most popular streaming apps and native AirPlay comes included (sorry, Android folks). Gaming runs smoothly on the 144Hz variable refresh rate panel, and the bright Mini LED backlights make daytime sports viewing easy – even with the bright afternoon sun filling your living room.
At this price point, the main sacrifice is that of the four HDMI ports, only two are 2.1 144Hz compatible. That, and you’ll notice the blooming when watching movies at night. Regardless, the Hisense U7KAU is a great TV that’s competitively priced, making it the best value option in Australia.
Honourable mention: TCL C845
While we didn’t get the chance to test out the TCL C845, it’s well-regarded as an affordable Mini LED TV. Like its Hisense competitor, it’s very bright. So bright, that open-plan living rooms with lots of light and glare shouldn’t be an issue.
Similarly, it’s a more-than-capable gaming TV, supporting a 144Hz variable refresh rate. Previously, you had to fork out thousands of dollars for a high refresh rate TV.
Between the Hisense and the TCL models, there are plenty of great deals throughout the year. If your budget doesn’t stretch as far as the premium TVs, these are still very good options.
OLED vs Mini LED vs LED: which TV to choose?
With so many buzzwords, acronyms, and tech-heavy jargon to sift through, choosing a TV isn’t easy. One of the biggest points of difference to look out for is a panel’s backlight technology. To help demystify things a bit, let’s explain three of the most prominent TV technologies currently available.
Starting with LED, or light emitting diode, TVs with this type of backlight tend to be the most affordable. They’re cheaper to manufacture and therefore get used in most entry-level models.
There tends to be two main types of LED TVs: edge-lit, and full-array. Edge-lit, as the phrase suggests, sees the LED backlights positioned around the edges of the display.
TVs like the LG QNED81 use this technology, which helps keep the cost down. It does mean you encounter blooming, where a halo-like effect appears around a bright subject against a dark background. Meanwhile, full-array LEDs are spread more evenly across the panel, producing a more consistently lit picture.
Mini LED
Mini LED is the next step up, and is currently the brightest mass-market TV technology. Mini LED TVs use thousands of rice-grain-sized backlights to produce an image. This creates a greater level of control based on the number of dimming zones a panel has.
Generally speaking, the more premium a TV is, the more dimming zones it’ll have, minimising blooming in the process. Mini LED’s brightness makes it the perfect option for living rooms with lots of natural light and glare, particularly during daytime viewing.
OLED
At the top end is OLED, short for organic light emitting diode. Unlike other technologies, OLED doesn’t rely on dimming zones or individual backlights. This is because it lights up on a per-pixel basis, producing the most precise image of any mainstream TV. There’s little to no blooming on an OLED TV because it can switch pixels on and off as needed.
The drawback is that OLED is more expensive than other types of TVs. It’s also not as bright as Mini LED, which can make things tricky in a well-lit room. Once upon a time, there were fears about OLED burn-in, or image retention issues, where visible image artifacts remained on the screen after prolonged use. These days, the technology has progressed to imperceptibly shift the lit pixels regularly, so it’s only a risk in extreme edge cases.
OLED TVs also consistently have the best contrast, colour representation, and viewing angle. If you want to watch something as the director intended, you’ll likely get the closest depiction on an OLED. On some other TVs, if you missed out on the best seat and watch from an angle, you’ll likely notice a loss of colour and distorted lighting. OLED, on the other, hand produces an almost identical picture no matter where you’re sitting.
With all that in mind, there’s no ‘correct’ TV to choose. Each one has its own set of benefits and drawbacks. Above all else, the two most important things to consider are price and what your main use will be. Keep these factors in mind and you’ll be happy with whichever TV you pick.
Without reading this article…
I can already see that you are basing your results on the hardware and picture.
Please do another article comparing the smart tv platforms each of these TV’s run, how the platforms get updated each year and what apps are available on each platform and how apps no longer work as the platforms get updated for new TV’s, running on older TV’s.
Hi Joshua, thanks for the feedback! It’s a good idea, and one worth revisiting once all of the 2024 TVs are out.
As a general rule of thumb, I’d recommend choosing a TV primarily on its hardware performance. There are plenty of cost-effective devices that can address any TV OS shortcomings (Fire TV, Chromecast, Fetch, etc.). But as the major TV brands place more emphasis on software, it’s important to critique the platforms too.