The 5 Best 4k HDR TVs - Black Friday 2021 Reviews

The Sony A90J OLED is the best 4k HDR TV that we've tested with an OLED panel. It's a flagship 4k model from Sony's 2021 lineup, and although most OLEDs deliver similar picture quality, this one stands out with HDR content. It's very well-built with a sleek design that should look nice in any setup, and you can raise the stand to accommodate soundbars.

Like any OLED, it can turn off individual pixels, resulting in a near-infinite contrast ratio with perfect blacks and no visible blooming around bright objects. Speaking about brightness, this TV gets brighter than most OLEDs, allowing highlights to stand out in HDR, and it displays a wide color gamut for an amazing HDR experience. It has excellent out-of-the-box accuracy, and even though this can vary between units, Sony TVs are known for their great accuracy. Lastly, it has fantastic gradient handling, so you shouldn't notice any banding in scenes with shades of the same color, like in a sunset.

Unfortunately, if you also want to game with it, it doesn't have support for variable refresh rate (VRR) technologies yet, but Sony has said that will come in a future firmware update. Even at that, it has higher input lag than other premium TVs. Also, OLEDs run the risk of permanent burn-in if constantly exposed to the same static elements, but we don't expect it to be an issue for most people. Overall, it's the best HDR TV in the OLED category.

The best HDR TV in the LED category is the Samsung QN90A QLED. It's a high-end model that's packed with a ton of features and delivers excellent picture quality no matter what you're watching. The built-in Tizen OS offers lots of apps you can download, and it's easy to use. Our unit has fantastic accuracy before any sort of calibration, but keep in mind that this can vary between units.

The TV uses Mini LED backlighting, allowing it to get extremely bright in HDR, so small highlights pop the way the creator intended, more than OLEDs. It displays a wide color gamut thanks to its quantum dot technology, with good coverage of the wider Rec. 2020 color space. It has a VA panel with a great native contrast, but it's lower than most VA panel TVs because Samsung added their 'Ultra Viewing Angle' technology to improve the viewing angles. Still, the full-array local dimming feature does a great job at improving the black levels.

Unfortunately, it only supports HDR10 and HDR10+, and not Dolby Vision. This means that some HDR content from streaming apps like Netflix will be limited to the HDR10 format instead of taking full advantage of the Dolby Vision format. The local dimming also performs worse in Game Mode than outside because it raises the black levels, so HDR picture quality isn't as good while gaming. Still, this is one of the best 4k HDR TVs with an LED panel that we've tested.

If you're looking for something on a budget, then the Hisense U6G is the best HDR TV we've tested for your needs. It's great for watching HDR movies, and it delivers excellent picture quality that rivals some more expensive options. Its built-in smart interface is Android TV, which has a ton of apps available to download, making it easy to stream your favorite HDR movies, and it supports HDR10, HDR10+, and Dolby Vision formats.

Our unit has decent out-of-the-box accuracy and displays a wide color gamut with fantastic coverage of the DCI P3 color space used in most HDR content. It has great gradient handling, but there's some banding with darker shades that you might notice in scenes like sunsets. It displays deep blacks in dark rooms thanks to the VA panel's high native contrast ratio, and the full-array local dimming feature does a decent job at improving the contrast in dark scenes, and there's minimal blooming. Its HDR brightness is okay, but some highlights don't pop the way they should.

If you're looking for the best HDR TV for gaming, this one doesn't have any extra gaming features like HDMI 2.1 or variable refresh rate support. Still, gamers should enjoy the low input lag and quick response time for a responsive gaming experience. It also has narrow viewing angles, so it's not a good choice if you have a wide seating arrangement. Regardless, it's the best HDR TV we've tested in the budget category.