Buying a big-screen TV this Black Friday? Here are 3 key features to consider when you're shopping

Know what you're buying this Black Friday

Features By James Davidson published 9 November 2024

Black Friday is the perfect time of year to buy a TV, as retailers will offer ridiculous prices on popular TVs to tempt customers and look to outdo each other by offering the best Black Friday deals.

We track Black Friday TV deals every year here at TechRadar on a range of the best TVs, from budget models having their already low prices slashed even further to the best OLED TVs, which although still premium can receive big enough discounts to make you think, “Yeah, I can afford that”.

One of the most common Black Friday deals is on TVs with larger screen sizes. What you consider a ‘big screen’ may depend completely on your environment. For some with small living rooms, the best 55-inch TVs could be huge, whereas others could fit one of the best 85-inch TVs with no problem. Here, we'll focus on the biggest sizes – 75-100 inches.

When you see a 75-inch TV selling for under $500 / £600 / AU$899 it can be easy to reach for the credit card and eagerly buy away. But, before you get tempted by 75-inch Black Friday TV deals, there are some key specs and features to look out for. Below, I’ve listed three that, as TechRadar’s TV reviewer, I think you should factor into your research before buying a big-screen TV.

1. Panel type

You’ve probably seen loads of different tech terms attached to TVs. Along with LED, there’s QLED, mini-LED and OLED. There are also manufacturer-specific ones such as NanoCell (LG’s term for QLED), Neo QLED (Samsung’s term for mini-LED) and QD-OLED (Samsung’s combination of QLED and OLED tech) to name just a few.

These are all different panel types and they can have a big impact on a TV’s performance. When buying a big-screen TV, it can be tempting to opt for the big, budget LED model with an attractive low price, but as I discovered when comparing the Samsung CU8000 and Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED, some LED TVs are best avoided.

Edge-lit TVs, which use LEDs positioned on the sides of the display’s backlight, tend to suffer from poor black uniformity. This can result in large areas of the screen taking on a gray or blue wash when viewing darker content – something I noted when watching The Batman on the Samsung CU8000.

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