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The 4 Best 4k TVs for Watching Sports
Reviews

Best TVs for watching sports

Different TVs can have a big impact on the quality your sports watching experience. It needs to be bright, uniform, and handle fast motion well. Some might even prefer TVs with wider viewing angles if they often have friends over that might be watching from the sides. While some manufacturers introduced new models at CES, it's unlikely for them to be available at reasonable prices until much later in the year, so if you want a good TV for the Super Bowl, it's a good idea to make use of the sales that precedes it.

Best TV for Watching Sports: LG B7A

LG B7A Design
LG B7A
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Amazon.com
Usage Ratings - Version 1.2
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✕

Test Benches:

  • 1.2: Winter 2018
  • 1.1: Summer 2017
  • 1.0: Winter 2015
  • 0.9: Winter 2014
  • 0.8: Winter 2013
See changelog and how ratings work
8.3
Sports
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What it is Sports in a living room. The TV will be used to watch sports during the day, like football or hockey. Usually watched with a group, so from multiple viewing position.
Score components:
See our best recommendations
55" 65"

The best TV for watching sports is the LG B7A OLED TV. Its handling of the fast motion common with sports is unparalleled, and its picture quality is also as good as it gets.

OLEDs tend to produce a very uniform picture, generally free of blotches, grain or banding that can occur on LCD TVs (although they can produce banding in darker tones, this is less of an issue with sports broadcasts). This is important since darker spots on your screen can make the green fields of football or white ice rinks very distracting.

OLEDs also produce a very wide viewing angle, which is perfect for big game days with lots of guests. While they're not the brightest TVs around, they do still get bright enough for most environments. We don't expect the newly announced LG B8 to be very different, so the LG B7 is quite a safe pick. However, OLED TVs suffer from image retention, so if you think this is an issue you might encounter, it might be best to consider alternatives.

See our review

Best Mid-Range TV for Watching Sports: Sony X900E

Sony X900E Design
Sony X900E
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Amazon.com
Usage Ratings - Version 1.2
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Test Benches:

  • 1.2: Winter 2018
  • 1.1: Summer 2017
  • 1.0: Winter 2015
  • 0.9: Winter 2014
  • 0.8: Winter 2013
See changelog and how ratings work
8.0
Sports
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What it is Sports in a living room. The TV will be used to watch sports during the day, like football or hockey. Usually watched with a group, so from multiple viewing position.
Score components:
See our best recommendations
49" 55" 65" 75"

If the LG B7 is out of your budget or if you'd like to avoid the risk of image retention, we recommend the Sony X900E 4k LED TV. It gets bright and handles fast motion well, albeit without the wide viewing angle found on the LG. Its screen is uniform as well and although its motion blur isn't quite as good as what's found on OLED TVs, the Sony X900E remains one of the best LED TVs for watching sports. 

It's a better fit for evening games since it's not the best at handling direct reflections, but the X900E's advantages help keep that a minor issue. We don't expect its replacement, the X900F, to offer a large upgrade, so if you're looking for a mid-range TV to watch the Big Game, go with the X900E.

See our review

Best Budget TV for Watching Sports: Sony X720E

Sony X720E Design
Sony X720E
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Amazon.com
Usage Ratings - Version 1.2
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Test Benches:

  • 1.2: Winter 2018
  • 1.1: Summer 2017
  • 1.0: Winter 2015
  • 0.9: Winter 2014
  • 0.8: Winter 2013
See changelog and how ratings work
7.4
Sports
Show Help
✕
What it is Sports in a living room. The TV will be used to watch sports during the day, like football or hockey. Usually watched with a group, so from multiple viewing position.
Score components:
See our best recommendations
43" 49" 55"

If wide angles are an important focus for you, or if you're simply looking for an affordable option, the Sony X720E 4k LED TV is as good as it gets when it comes to budget TVs for sports.

It handles fast motion excellently and gets quite bright. Overall, it's less versatile as a TV than the Sony X900E, but it performs quite close when the usage is centered around watching sports. However, it won't have the same picture quality in a dark room. If your usage is centered around sports, there's hardly a better pick than the X720E for most people.

See our review

Larger Alternative: Sony X690E

Sony X690E Design
Sony X690E
SEE PRICE
Amazon.com
50" 60" 70"

For something bigger than the 55 inches found with the Sony X720E, the Sony X690E is a good alternative. It won't have the same wide viewing angle featured on the former, but it still provides good motion performance and brightness that are a requirement for sports watchers.

See our review

Notable Mentions

  • Sony X930E. Great choice for watching sports, but doesn't offer much over the Sony X900E for the money. See our review
  • Samsung Q9F. Great TV for watching sports, but oddly priced for the performance it delivers. See our review
  • Samsung Q7F. Very good TV for watching sports, but the LG B7 performs better for a similar price. See our review
  • TCL P607. Decent TV for watching sports, but not any better than the Sony X720E. See our review
  • LG UJ7700. Good TV for sports watching, but not much better than the Sony X720E for twice as much money. See our review
  • Samsung MU8000. Good TV overall, but the Sony X900E is worth the slight price bump. See our review
  • Sony A1E. Excellent TV for watching sports, but the LG B7 performs the same for cheaper. See our review
  • LG C7. Great OLED TV, but almost identical to the cheaper B7. See our review

All Reviews

Our recommendations above are what we think are currently the best TVs to watch sports for most people in each price range. We factor in the price (a cheaper TV wins over a pricier one if the difference isn't worth it), feedback from our visitors and availability (no TVs that are difficult to find or almost out of stock everywhere).

If you would like to do the work of choosing yourself, here is the list of all our reviews of TVs. Be careful not to get too caught up in the details. While no TV is perfect, most TVs are great enough to please almost everyone, and the differences are often not noticeable unless you really look for them. 

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Questions & Answers

8 ANSWERED QUESTIONS
43
What's the best option for 50" around $1,000 that's best for sports, games, and movies.
The best option is the Samsung UN50J6300. It has good contrast and uniformity, minimal motion blur, and average input lag, so everything will look good and play well.
Jul 20, 2015 Report Error
23
Looking to spend about $2,000. Main sports watched are football & basketball. Plan to get SONOS for sound, and I just want the best picture quality, mainly for sports. Looking for a 60" - 65", as I will be generally about 10-12 feet away from screen. I have always heard good things about Sony in the past, but I hear good things about Vizio now, too.
Either brand would make a good choice. The Sony X850C has less blur and is better for watching TV (including sports), but it's much more expensive than the best Vizio option, the M-series, and we don't expect the M's blur to be an issue with sports.
Given that the 65" X850C is over your budget, the M-series is the better choice.
Oct 19, 2015 Report Error
13
Vizio M70-C3 for sports? Looking for a TV in the 70-75" range, and the main focus is sports. The price is nice and the reviews seem positive for a budget TV, but the motion blur is making me second guess that decision. This will be to replace a 72" Mitsubishi DLP 1080p set with a burnt-out light bar.
The M-series' blur is really only an issue for gaming. It's a fine TV for sports, so you should go for it if you're looking for a budget TV.
Aug 12, 2015 Report Error
9
I'm torn between your sports runner up JU6500 and the JU7100. My main sport is hockey, and that's a long season, so great hockey viewing is really most important. Football and baseball are secondary.
I will also watch a few non-sport HD channels on my Dish lineup, but almost never DVD/Blu-ray. Which of these two models do you think would be best for me? Oh, did I say great hockey viewing is my top concern? ;-)
Secondly 50" or 55"? My primary seating is split recliner 7-8 feet (depending on degree of recline) from the TV.
Get the JU6500. If you almost never watch DVDs/Blu-rays, there's no reason to pay more for the JU7100. And at that distance, you should get the 55" version.
Sep 03, 2015 Report Error
8
Which TV would fit our needs the best? The TV will be outside under an awning. I am concerned about the glare. Size wise I would like a 43 or 48, 4 people will be sitting 5' and 7' away. Sports and TV/cable will be the primary viewing. No need for smart TV since our WiFi is poor here. Price range is $500 more or less pending on the value received or settle for. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. Ed from Ohio. GO BUCKS!
The LG UH6100 would be a good choice for you and it is available in 43" and 49". It is bright enough for a well light environment and it is pretty good to fight glare with is semi-gloss finish. It has a good rating for sport, has wide viewing angle and is has a good upscaling of lower resolution content like cable TV.
Jul 28, 2016 Report Error
7
I'm torn between the JU6500 and the JS8500 at 65" -- mostly for hockey. Will I really notice the difference if I pay an extra $1K? I never watch DVDs and don't have a streaming service. Thanks!
Probably not. The main benefit you would see with the JS8500 is that there are fewer dark patches on the screen, which is good for sports. But that's not worth $1,000, and the other benefits (120 hz panel, wide color gamut) aren't so important for you. Get the JU6500.
Oct 06, 2015 Report Error
6
I'm a big football fan and that's my main thought when buying a new TV, but I watch a lot of movies and play games often. I want a 4k and I'm leaning toward the Samsung line, but I'm open to ideas. Question: Are the curved TVs any better in quality when it comes to sports, movies and games than the flat screen? And which TV should I go with?
The curve itself doesn't add anything to the picture, but some curved TVs are a bit better just because of the quality of the panel that is used.
In terms of performance, you won't beat the Samsung JS8500 for picture with sports, so that's what we recommend. Hardly any darker patches on the screen, and very minimal blur.
Nov 03, 2015 Report Error
6
Just looking at the scores, I find myself wondering what prevents the Sony X810C from not even making the honorable mention list for best sports TVs. Can you comment on that?
We reviewed the X810C quite recently, and have not updated the sports TVs article since. We agree that it is a great choice for watching sports, and we'll be keeping it in mind when finalizing that article for the year.
Nov 06, 2015 Report Error
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