The 5 Best 80-82-85 Inch TVs - Summer 2020
Reviews

The best 82 inch TV we've tested so far is the Samsung QN82Q80RAFXZA. It's a high-end QLED TV that delivers an outstanding picture quality. It has a great contrast ratio and amazing black uniformity, and there's a local dimming feature to further deepen any blacks, so it's an excellent choice to watch movies in dark rooms.

VA panels, like on this TV, usually don't have good viewing angles, but Samsung added an 'Ultra Viewing Angle', so you won't lose as much image accuracy as you would normally expect when viewing from the side. It supports HDR10 and HDR10+, it displays a wide color gamut, has good color volume, and has excellent HDR peak brightness, displaying rich, vivid colors in HDR. It can get extremely bright with regular content and has outstanding reflection handling, so it's a great choice to place in really bright rooms.

Unfortunately, the gray uniformity is only decent and the screen is visibly darker around the edges, which is noticeable during panning shots. On the upside, gamers will love the excellent response time and the support for FreeSync variable refresh rate (VRR) technology. The Samsung Q90/Q90R QLED is a higher-end model of this TV with more local dimming zones, but the two TVs perform similarly. The Q80R is cheaper, making it the best 82 inch TV we've tested so far.

The best 85 inch TV for gaming we've tested so far is the Samsung QN85Q80TAFXZC. This is one of Samsung's high-performance QLED TVs that seems to do everything well. Its VA panel has a high contrast ratio that's enhanced by full-array local dimming, producing deep and inky blacks for a great dark room gaming experience. It performs equally well in bright lighting conditions thanks to its impressive peak brightness and exceptional reflection handling. Viewing angles are decent with the help of Samsung's 'Ultra Viewing Angle' layer, although it comes at the expense of lower contrast.

When it comes to gaming, this TV has nearly everything to satisfy even the most hardcore gamers. It has an excellent response time that results in very little motion blur, and it has an optional black frame insertion feature. It has a 120Hz refresh rate, an outstandingly low input lag, and it even comes with support for FreeSync and HDMI Forum's VRR to minimize screen tearing in-game. Low-resolution games are upscaled well and for those who are on a PC, it can display proper chroma 4:4:4. If you enjoy gaming in HDR, this TV can deliver a good experience as well, as it has an impressive wide color gamut and it gets bright enough to make highlights pop.

Unfortunately, gray uniformity is only decent, as the corners look darker and there's a bit of dirty screen effect than can be distracting. However, this can vary per unit, so your experience may vary. Tizen OS is a great platform that runs smoothly and there are tons of streaming services available through the app store. All in all, this TV is worth a look.

The best budget 82 inch TV we've tested so far is the Samsung UN82RU8000FXZA. It's a decent TV for most types of content, and it has great gaming performance and features to satisfy most people. Like most Samsung TVs, it uses a VA panel with a high contrast ratio, which is great for dark room viewing. It gets decently bright, but it's not quite enough to overcome glare in very bright settings and its reflection handling is only decent, so it's best to avoid placing it in a sunny room. Unfortunately, it has poor viewing angles, making it less suitable for wide seating arrangements.

For a budget TV, motion handling is great. The response time is fast, it has a 120Hz refresh rate, and it has an optional black frame insertion feature to further reduce motion blur. It can also interpolate lower frame rate content if you like the soap opera effect, and it can remove judder from all sources. For gaming, it has excellent low input lag and it supports FreeSync variable refresh rate. Although it supports HDR and it can display a wide color gamut, it can't get bright enough to make highlights pop and there's no local dimming, which is rather disappointing.

This TV has pretty decent color accuracy out of the box, but images tend to be over-brightened. There's very little dirty screen effect on our unit; however, the sides of the screen appear darker. Screen uniformity can vary per unit, though, so your mileage may vary. Samsung's Tizen OS is very easy to use and runs smoothly, and the app store has a large selection of streaming apps available for download. Overall, if you want a large TV without spending a fortune, you should take a look at this one.