The 5 Best TVs For Watching Sports - Spring 2023 Reviews

The best TV for sports we've tested is the Samsung S95B OLED. It has an incredibly wide viewing angle, making it a perfect choice for watching the big game with a large group of friends in a wide seating arrangement, as everyone will see the same thing. No more fighting over the best spot on the couch, as the image remains consistent even at a very wide angle. In addition to the wide viewing angle, the S95B has a near-instantaneous response time, so fast-moving players and balls are crystal-clear, with no distracting motion blur behind them.

This TV has superb reflection handling, so you don't have to worry too much about the glare on a sunny day. However, it's still not that bright, so glare can be distracting in a bright living room. It upscales lower-resolution content well, which is great as most sporting events are broadcast at a lower resolution. If you don't have cable, the Tizen OS interface has a great selection of streaming apps, and you can easily find your favorite sports channels.

If you're in a bright room and don't care about deep blacks, a premium TV with an LED backlight like the Samsung QN90B QLED is a better choice than the Samsung S95B OLED. It gets significantly brighter than the other Samsung, so it's a better choice in a bright living room or outdoors. It also has a very wide viewing angle, making it a great choice for watching the big game with lots of friends.

The user-friendly Tizen OS platform has a large selection of streaming apps, including the most popular sports apps, meaning you can stream the big game without an external streaming box. It also upscales lower-resolution content like from cable boxes well, with no noticeable issues. It has a great response time, ensuring you can clearly see the action, and it has decent gray uniformity, with just a bit of dirty screen effect in the center.

If you want something cheaper than the Samsung QN90B QLED that still delivers great picture quality, a mid-range TV like the Hisense U8H is a great choice for sports fans. It gets exceptionally bright, and combined with its excellent reflection handling, can easily overcome glare in a bright room. It has excellent motion handling, so it's easy to make out the fine details in the game, and it has great gray uniformity ensuring the playing field looks uniform.

It has an okay frequency response and gets decently loud, so you don't necessarily need an external sound system if you're throwing a party. On the other hand, it has a narrow viewing angle, so if you are throwing a party, it's best to sit directly in front of it. Those watching from the sides will see a faded and washed-out image, so it's a bit worse than the Samsung QN90B QLED. It also doesn't upscale lower-resolution cable sports channels as well as more expensive models, and motion isn't as fluid. As long as you're watching from a high-quality source, you won't have any issues.

The best LED TV we've tested in the budget category is the TCL 5 Series/S555 2022 QLED. It's a good TV for watching sports, with good picture quality and high peak brightness. It can handle moderate glare in a bright room but has worse reflection handling than the Hisense U8H, so it's not as good in a bright room. Uniform areas like the playing field look good thanks to its decent gray uniformity, and it has a quick response time, so fast-moving objects (like the players) are clear and easy to make out.

Unlike more expensive TVs on this list, like the Samsung QN90B QLED, it has poor audio quality and can't get very loud, so you'll need a soundbar or audio receiver if you're planning on hosting a large party. It also has narrow viewing angles, so it's not a good choice for a wide seating arrangement. If you mainly watch sports with the family and sit directly in front of the TV, this won't be an issue, and it's good for sports.

The LG UP8000 is the best budget TV for sports if you have a wide seating area. Most variants have an IPS-type panel with a wide viewing angle, so unlike the TCL 5 Series/S555 2022 QLED, the image remains consistent when viewed from the side. It makes it a better choice for watching the big game with a large group of people, as you don't have to fight over the best spot in the house. However, the 50, 60, and 70-inch models use a different panel type with a worse viewing angle, meaning they perform differently.

It has an easy-to-use interface and comes with LG's Magic Remote, which has a point-and-press feature, making it even easier to play your favorite apps in just a few seconds. It has good motion handling thanks to the quick response time and a motion interpolation feature to smooth out low-frame-rate content. However, its backlight flickers at 120Hz, which causes image duplication with 60 fps content. It doesn't have any trouble upscaling lower-resolution content like cable box channels.