Buying a TV in 2026: What Matters, What Doesn’t, and Is OLED vs. QLED Still a Thing?

Motion Accelerator, Mega Contrast, Crystal Processor – these are three words that I saw at a glance on the page of Samsung TVs. Then, if you look at the same page from LG, you’ll see words like AI processor, ThinQ, and game optimizer. Go to Sony TV and you will encounter XR Motion Clarity, XR Backlight Master Drive, Cognitive Processor XR. Look at any television on the market and you’ll be bombarded with similar words and phrases, no matter what brand. Ignore all that.

The way TVs are sold these days in stores like Croma and Reliance, or the way their respective brands talk about them in their promotional material, doesn’t help consumers at all. This talk full of jargon and unnecessary details is only designed to confuse the buyer. A better way to buy a television is to look at its basics. Remove all the talk about accelerators and AI and just focus on what matters.

So, what matters? Or rather, what matters now in 2025 and (soon) 2026? Here’s a useful list with some quick comments.

Screen quality, screen technology and size

When you’re buying a TV, you’re essentially buying a screen. The display is the most important part of the machine. This will determine your experience with the TV more than anything else. And in performance, there are broadly three things you should keep in mind:

1- Size: Bigger is better. But with a limitation. That limit is determined by the distance between where you’ll sit while watching TV. Assuming the resolution is 4K, you should consider a TV smaller than 50 inches if the viewing distance is going to be less than 5 feet. If the resolution is FullHD, you can do this even if the distance is around 5-7 feet. A distance of 5-7 feet also works well with a 55-inch TV with 4K resolution.

Once you move beyond 8 feet in viewing distance, you should consider at least a 65-inch TV, with the screen size increasing with every 2-3 feet increase in viewing distance.

Again, different buyers will have different factors when it comes to TV size. But in general, the rule of thumb is to divide the viewing distance (in inches) by 1.6. And then round up to the available TV size. For example, if the number is 42, you can manage just fine with a 43-inch TV.

2- Screen Technology: Again, I’m going to be a little detailed. But overall what I am mentioning here is based on what I see in the market. When it comes to screen technology, now all TV screen technologies will be mature in 2025 and 2026. You will mainly see four types of screens in TV: OLED, MiniLED, QLED and LED. Of these, OLED is the best for colors and contrast. Therefore, you will find it in high-end TVs. In general, even the cheapest OLED TV will be better than the most expensive MiniLED or QLED TV when it comes to picture quality.

MiniLED is a refined form of QLED and hence you will also see it in premium or ultra premium TVs. The difference is mainly in brightness and color fidelity. QLED is a step down from that, and ultimately LED is what you’ll find in TVs priced below Rs 50,000 to Rs 60,000.

Don’t pay attention to all the buzzwords when evaluating photo quality. Just focus on the underlying technology. The hierarchy in TV is clear. In 99 percent of cases, OLED will be better than everything else. And in 99 percent cases MiniLED will be better than QLED in its price range. This is regardless of what brand the TV is or what picture engine or other fancy stuff it uses.

On the screen part, there are two more bits I want to highlight. One, Dolby Vision and HDR 10+. This certification is no less important than the underlying display technology. For example, a MiniLED without Dolby Vision – for example, no Samsung TVs support Dolby Vision – will be better than an LED TV that has Dolby Vision. Similarly a top-end Samsung OLED, which doesn’t support Dolby Vision because of Samsung, will still be much better than a QLED TV that does support Dolby Vision.

And two, unless you’re going to connect the TV to a gaming console like PlayStation or Xbox, ignore the display refresh rate. And yet if you want to future proof you don’t really need anything above 120Hz, or maybe even 165Hz. If you don’t intend to play games on the TV, you can safely ignore the higher or lower refresh rate.

Screen brightness and contrast

I want to talk about this aspect away from the screen. Because brightness and contrast are everything in TV. You should almost always choose a TV that is brighter. The only exception is OLED TVs. This is because OLED has low brightness, but because it can turn its pixels completely off, very high levels of contrast. That’s why even the brightest OLED can show impressive color and picture quality.

But in general, choose the brightest TV you can find. Even some of the newer and brighter TVs in OLED — like the LG G5 and Samsung and Sony TVs using QD-OLED panels — look better than TVs that are still using the dimmer OLED technology from a few years ago.

You should also look at TV brightness for another reason: the lighting in your room. If you have a very well-lit room with sunlight filtering in from outside, you should seriously consider QLED and MiniLED TVs. In these instances, they may even – if only for daytime viewing – be better than OLED TVs.

Along with the brightness, also look at the cooling of the TV. The brightness on the screen increases heat rapidly. This will cause auto dimming of the display. The TVs that manage heat better (see the point below about TV cost), are better. And finally, take care of the coating on the screen. TVs that have anti-reflective coating so that they have a matte or semi-matte display are better.

Software that runs inside a TV

When you go to buy a TV you might hear some tall tales about its super-fast processor and all that jazz. Don’t pay attention to that. In my opinion, a more important factor is software. TVs running Android TV OS are better because they have potential access to a larger number of apps. It is more flexible than Samsung TizenOS or LG WebOS. However if you’re going to connect the TV to a set-top box, or something like an Apple TV or Amazon Fire TV, this shouldn’t matter.

and no processor

As I said, processor or chipset won’t matter in 2025 or 2026. This is because almost all TV chipsets nowadays, even the lower end ones, are fast enough to run TV software. Even TVs in the Rs 30,000-40,000 segment have dual-core chips and plenty of RAM and storage. Similarly, this AI stuff that TV companies have started talking about doesn’t make sense at the moment. It’s a gimmick and will remain so on TV for the next 12 to 18 months.

other things that matter

– Take a good look at the TV stand. TVs that have a wide stand, one on the left end and one on the right, also require a larger table if you don’t want to mount them on the wall. TVs with a center stand are better for placing the TV on a table or console.

, HDMI eARC is important if you’re connecting an external soundbar or speakers to a TV. However, most TVs now come with it.

, Where ports are located is important. Ideally, TV ports like USB C and HDMI etc. should be easily accessible.

—What is the WiFi protocol that is supported. Ideally, you’ll want a TV that supports the latest WiFi protocols or at least WiFi 5GHz.

— Look for support for AuraCast if you intend to use headphones while watching TV. Auracast will allow you to connect two pairs of headphones without using an external dongle. However, this is a new standard and not many TVs support it at the moment.

—The quality of the plastic used to make the TV and its remote is important. It should feel sturdy and well constructed.

Sound Matters Less Than You Might Believe

During this time I have not talked about the sound quality of the TV. This is because it does not make much difference. However, TV companies love to promote and talk about the sound in their products. The reality is that all TVs have stereo sound, and even budget TVs nowadays come with Dolby Audio certification. But the big reason I say that sound doesn’t matter that much is because unlike image quality, which we can easily understand, the difference between quite good, above average and great on sound is not that much.

Nowadays almost all TVs look the same. These are slim gadgets, made up of just a screen and a few bumps here and there. Speakers placed in such tight spaces can only do so much. There can be differences in how loud the speakers are between different TVs, but overall, whether a TV has a 20W speaker or a 50W setup, they all sound somewhat similar. This is also because living in a condo, you won’t be able to run your TV at full volume, sound levels where the differences are more pronounced.

Instead, if you’re really particularly concerned about the sound from your TV, don’t count on the inbuilt speakers. And invest in a soundbar. It could also be an entry-level soundbar. But it will give you much better sound quality.

More money in TV really does equate to much better quality

Finally, I want to highlight the value aspect of the TV. In the world of tech, price is no guarantee of quality in many categories. But price remains an indicator of quality for TVs. That’s because the best TVs aren’t the best just because of their screen or this feature or that thing. They are the best because of the type of components they are using and how those components are put together. For example, a TV may have the best OLED panel inside, but if the company that makes it saved money on a heatsink, it won’t be very bright.

Furthermore, the latest and most well-designed TV components and technologies remain expensive. This means that if you are looking for a TV with WiFi 7 support, you will not find it in the budget market. Or if you’re looking for a TV that uses the latest OLED layering technology, you won’t find it at a lower price. Keep this in mind next time you go to buy a TV.