Amazon Prime Day isn’t the absolute best time to buy a TV: Most manufacturers released their latest models fairly recently, and the vast majority of those sets will be cheaper as we near Black Friday. Still, if you really want to upgrade today, you can find some decent values during Amazon’s sale, particularly if you grab a good TV from last year before it fully goes out of stock. To make things easier, we’ve sorted through the (many) junky discounts Amazon is advertising and rounded up the best Prime Day TV deals we could find.
Note that you need to subscribe to Prime to see most (but not all) of the discounts below. The sale itself runs through July 17. We’ve thrown in a few good deals on streaming devices as well, and we’ll update this guide if we find more noteworthy deals as the sale goes on.
The 55-inch version of is on sale for $1,097. While that’s not the absolute best price we’ve ever seen, it’s $200 to $300 below the set’s typical going rate. This is a 2023 model, but at this price it’s a nice value if you want the deep contrast, wide viewing angles and fast motion response of a quality OLED panel. It has four HDMI 2.1 ports than can play up to 4K/120Hz with a PlayStation 5 or Xbox, plus it supports Dolby Vision HDR, unlike rival models from Samsung. Its picture quality isn’t absolutely top-of-the-line these days, but it’ll still feel like a massive upgrade if you’re coming to OLED for the first time.
The 2024 version of this set, the , is available now and looks to offer slightly improved HDR brightness and color volume. It can also play up to 144Hz in 4K, though that’s only really useful if you plan to hook up a gaming PC to your TV. Since the 55-inch C4 costs several hundred dollars extra right now, the C3 is a better value while it’s still on sale.
The 65-inch Samsung S90C is down to $1,598 for Prime Day. This is another highly-rated OLED TV from 2023, though it’s broadly considered a step up from the LG C3 thanks to its QD-OLED panel, which combines OLED tech with a layer of quantum dots. We get into this a bit more in our gaming TV buying guide, but the short version is that it helps the S90C deliver higher brightness levels and more vibrant colors than many traditional WOLED TVs, the C3 included. For gamers, there are four HDMI 2.1 ports than can play up to 4K/144Hz. As with all Samsung TVs, however, there’s no support for Dolby Vision HDR. The company’s Tizen software has its share of detractors as well.
If you’ve got more cash to burn, the Samsung S95C has a thinner frame — since it runs all of its ports through an external box — and can get a bit brighter. It’s down to $1,498 for the 55-inch model and $1,798 for the 65-inch version. That’s $100 and $200 below those sets’ respective street prices, but given that the S90C isn’t that much worse and already fairly expensive, we’d recommend most people just get one of those instead.
Samsung has released the S90D OLED TV for 2024, but it’s much more expensive for the time being. The company has also attracted controversy by intermingling QD-OLED and WOLED panels with the new model depending on your region and what size you pick.
A number of Samsung’s The Frame TVs are on sale for Prime Day, including a 50-inch model for $898. The set has gone for a little bit less a couple times before, but this is still about $350 off its average street price in recent months. Other sizes are similarly discounted, including the 55-inch version for $998 (with a color bezel cover thrown in) and the 75-inch model for $1,998.
You’d mainly get a Frame TV for the aesthetic, as the whole thing is designed to mount flush against a wall and hang like a piece of art. You can even use it to display actual artwork and photos when you aren’t watching something. Its image quality is still decent as well, though it’s not on the level of the best LED TVs in this price range, as there’s no mini-LED backlight or local dimming feature to improve its contrast. The 50-inch model has a basic 60Hz refresh rate as well; the larger models bump that up to 120Hz.
The prices above apply to the last-generation Frame TV, which has the model code LS03B. Samsung released a revised model (the LS03D) earlier this year, which gets a bit brighter in HDR according to some reviews and can save a bit more energy when displaying artwork. The older version is a better value while it’s cheaper, but if you must have the latest, bundles that pair the new set with a bezel cover are also on sale. The 43-, 50-, 55- and 65-inch versions there are down to $848, $1,098, $1,198 and $1,698, respectively. All of those are new lows, but we’ll inevitably see them drop further as the year goes on.
Moving onto newer TVs, the recently released Hisense U7N is back down to $748 for a 65-inch model. That technically matches the set’s all-time low, taking $52 off the street price we’ve seen for most of the last few months, but again, it’ll almost certainly drop further in the coming months. Still, if you want a new TV today for less than $1,000, early reviews around the web have called the U7N a strong value. It has a mini-LED backlight with local dimming to help with contrast, it supports Dolby Vision HDR and it can play up to 144Hz in 4K. It still won’t match the colors, contrast or lighting control of a good OLED TV, and its image will wash out much more severely when viewed from an angle. It’s limited to two HDMI 2.1 ports as well. But it should get brighter than something like the LG C3.
Reviews suggest that the U7N isn’t a huge leap over last year’s Hisense U7K, so if you see that older model available for less, it’s worth grabbing instead. As of this writing, however, it appears to be fully out of stock. There’s also the Hisense U6N, a lower-cost model with mini-LEDs and another successor to a well-reviewed TV from last year. That one is also on sale, but there aren’t many reviews for it just yet, so we’re hesitant to highlight it here.
The Hisense U8N, meanwhile, is the next step up from the U7N above. Reviews suggest that it shares many of the same general strengths and weaknesses, but it’s a little better across the board, with brighter highlights, richer colors and deeper black tones. It’s also more expensive, naturally, but now it’s down to $998 for a 65-inch model, $1,400 for a 75-inch set and $1,800 for the 85-inch version. All of those represent all-time lows; the 85-inch set is $200 below its sale price over the past month, while the others are $100 off. Do note, however, that the 75-inch model uses a different panel type (ADS instead of VA), so it should have better viewing angles but worse contrast than the other size options. Some reviews have also noted quirks with the TV getting too bright in HDR.
Last year’s Hisense U8K would still be a better value if you can find it on sale at a reputable retailer, but it appears to be out of stock as we write this. If you need a new TV right now, this deal makes the latest model at least a little cheaper than it’s been since it was released.
For those on a tighter budget, the 55-inch TCL Q6 has dropped to $300 for Prime Day, which is roughly $70 off its average street price in recent months. Outside of a very brief drop to $280 in March, that’s its lowest price to date. The 65-inch variant is also discounted to $400, which is an all-time low.
The Q6 is a lower-tier LED TV from last year. Most reviews we trust say it isn’t the best option in this price range in terms of contrast, colors or brightness. Don’t expect local dimming or any HDMI 2.1 features, either. Instead, it’s worth highlighting because it supports a 120Hz refresh rate, albeit at 1080p or 1440p instead of 4K. If you just want a cheap TV for gaming in the upstairs bedroom or office, that extra fluidity could make the Q6 a decent buy. Just be aware that this model ships with Amazon’s Fire OS, so it’ll work best if you often use Amazon services like Prime Video.
TCL has already released new Q6 TVs for 2024, which are currently on sale for a little bit extra. We haven’t seen any formal reviews for them as of this writing, so we can’t comfortably recommend them here, but they may well be better values.
As its name implies, the TCL Q7 sits just above the Q6 in the company’s lineup, offering up to 4K/144Hz support (on one port), noticeably better contrast and higher brightness according to reviews around the web. It’s still not a premium TV: Its viewing angles are narrow, and you’ll likely need to spend time calibrating it to get an acceptable image. The Hisense U7N should be a better mid-range buy for those who can afford it. But the Q7 is cheaper for Prime Day, with a 55-inch set available for $450, a 65-inch model down to $600 and a 75-inch set on sale for $800. Those are each all-time lows; the 55-inch set is about $50 cheaper than usual, while the larger two variants are roughly $100 off. Note that these models run on the Google TV platform instead of Amazon’s Fire OS. They also support Apple AirPlay, so you can beam videos to them straight from an iPhone.
The Roku Streaming Stick 4K is available for $30, which is $5 more than the lowest price we’ve tracked but still $10 off the device’s average street price as of late. It’s also the best price we’ve seen in 2024.
This is the runner up in our guide to the best streaming devices. It supports most of the major streaming services (Twitch excluded) and HDR formats, it works with Apple AirPlay, and Roku OS, while aesthetically boring, remains easy to navigate. As with all cheap streaming devices, though, you’ll have to deal with ads across the UI. If you aren’t happy with your TV’s built-in platform and want to watch shows in 4K HDR, you could do worse.
Roku’s Express 4K+ dongle is also on sale for $27, but that device doesn’t support Dolby Vision HDR, so most people should spend the extra $3.
The latest Fire TV Stick 4K Max is down to a new low of $35 for Prime Day. That’s $5 below the sale price we’ve seen for much of 2024.
As always, you really have to be into Amazon to truly enjoy a Fire TV Stick: Each model is especially saddled with ads, and none of them are shy about steering you toward Amazon-owned services above everything else. There’s no (native) AirPlay or Google Cast support, either. But the Amazon focus may not be the worst thing if you own a network of Alexa devices, and the 4K Max is still a fast performer that supports all the major apps. I’ve found it to be a flexible little device for retro game emulation, too, plus it recently gained the ability to stream Xbox games over the cloud.
If you want something cheaper, the base Fire TV Stick 4K is available for $25, which matches the low we saw during Black Friday. That one has a slightly slower processor and half the internal storage (8GB), and it doesn’t support Wi-Fi 6E (just Wi-Fi 6) or Amazon’s “Ambient Experience” idle mode. But the broad strokes are the same if you’re just looking to save cash and don’t mind getting something a little less futureproof.
Your Prime Day Shopping Guide: See all of our Prime Day coverage. Shop the best Prime Day deals on Yahoo Life. Follow Engadget for Prime Day tech deals. Hear from Autoblog’s experts on the best Amazon Prime Day deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Prime Day sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.
Source link