The 6 Best 4k TVs For Watching Sports - Summer 2020
Reviews

The best TV for watching sports we've tested so far is the LG B9 OLED. Like most OLED TVs, it delivers excellent picture quality with its infinite contrast ratio, producing deep and inky blacks. It gets bright enough for use in well-lit rooms and it handles reflections exceptionally well. Its wide viewing angles ensure that images remain accurate when viewed from the side, making it a good choice for watching a big game with a group of friends. Also, its gray uniformity is excellent, so you won't get distracted by any dirty screen effects.

The response time on this TV is near-instantaneous, which results in clear motion with almost no visible blur trail in fast-moving scenes. There's also an optional black frame insertion feature to improve motion clarity, and it can interpolate lower frame rate content up to 120Hz to make motion look silky smooth. If you want to do some gaming on the side, the input lag is excellent and it supports FreeSync and G-SYNC for a nearly tear-free gaming experience.

Unfortunately, there's a risk of permanent burn-in with all OLED TVs. It can result from constant exposure to static displays, such as a display scoreboard or the logo of a particular channel. That said, it shouldn't be an issue if you watch varied content. HDR is supported, but the overall experience is a bit middling due to its mediocre HDR peak brightness. Nonetheless, this is an all-around excellent TV that should satisfy most sports fans.

The best LED TV for watching cable sports is the Samsung Q80T. It's a mid-range TV from Samsung's QLED lineup that has impressive performance for any type of content. It has a VA panel with a high contrast ratio, which is further improved by its full-array local dimming, allowing it to produce deep blacks. Its peak brightness is high enough to easily overcome glare and it has exceptional reflection handling. Its viewing angles are decent thanks to Samsung's 'Ultra Viewing Angle' layer; so you can get good picture quality no matter where you sit.

The response time is excellent, and there's an optional black frame insertion feature to further reduce the appearance of motion blur, which is great for fast-action sports. It has a 120Hz panel and it can interpolate lower frame rate content for fans of the 'Soap Opera Effect'. Unfortunately, there's a bit of dirty screen effect; however, this can vary per unit. It upscales lower resolution content such as cable sports well, and the speakers can get very loud, making it a good choice for watching the game with a big group of people.

On top of being a great TV for watching sports, it can deliver a good HDR experience and is excellent for gaming. It has an extremely low input lag and it supports FreeSync variable refresh rate technology to reduce screen tearing. It runs on Samsung's Tizen OS, which is a user-friendly platform with plenty of streaming services available. All in all, this is a great TV regardless of the content that you watch.

The best budget TV for watching sports we've tested so far is the LG UM7300. It's a TV that delivers good picture quality for a wallet-friendly price. It has an IPS panel with decent viewing angles, so the image doesn't degrade too much if you're viewing from the side. It has great reflection handling, but its peak brightness is just okay and may not be able to fight glare in very bright environments.

This TV has a good response time that results in very little blur trail behind fast-moving objects. However, there's some duplication of the image, which is caused by the backlight's 120Hz flicker frequency. The refresh rate is limited to 60Hz and there's no black frame insertion feature to improve motion clarity. Unfortunately, it doesn't perform all that well in dark rooms, as it has a low contrast ratio that makes blacks look grayish.

There's HDR support on this TV, but the overall experience is rather sub-par. It can't display a wide color gamut, it doesn't have local dimming, and it can't get nearly bright enough to make highlights pop in HDR content. It has an excellent low input lag if you want to game on the side, but sadly, there's no VRR support of any kind. It does have an 'Auto Low Latency Mode', though, so you don't have to change the picture mode each time to get the lowest input lag. On the whole, it's an overall decent TV that won't break the bank.