Best 65 inch TV 2022: top buys for a premium viewing experience

We compare the best 65 inch TV for the best viewing experience

 LG OLED65GX6LA
(Image credit: LG)

Looking for a TV for the family to gather around? The best 65-inch TV will do the trick. This range is where most TV flagships sit, proudly showing off the best tech each manufacturer has to offer. 

While many pricey TVs of this size are available, there are also a few budget sets available. In this guide, we've narrowed down the options available to just six top sets which we believe are well worth the investment. We've thought about the picture quality, audio definitions, smart capabilities, and price (all the essential factors), so we've, essentially, researched for you.

Keep scrolling to see our suggestions, then consider heading over to our best 75 inch TV guide, where not only some of our featured models are displayed, too, but with larger sizes to consider.

The best 65 inch TVs in 2022

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Samsung QE65Q90R

(Image credit: John Lewis & Partners)

1. Samsung QE65Q90R QLED TV (2019)

Best 65 inch TV overall

Specifications

Resolution: Ultra HD
Panel type: QLED
Smart TV: Yes (Samsung Smart Hub)
HDR: Yes(HDR 2000)

Reasons to buy

+
Superb picture quality
+
Attractive design
+
Voice assistant
+
Wider viewing angles
+
Well built

Reasons to avoid

-
No Dolby Vision support
-
No Dolby Atmos speakers

This screen has got our vote for the best 65-inch TV you can buy, and the #1 slot for the best TV overall, too, so it must be good! 

It's got a fab picture quality (even for a 2019 model) – it wouldn't be on this list if it didn't have that – and it's got the best user interface and smart TV platform in the business, too. From Netflix to iPlayer, Tidal to Apple TV, it has every piece of software you could want and is easy to navigate.

The icing on the cake is the inspired Samsung One Connect box that comes with it. It's an external block of kit where you plug in all your HDMI devices, power cables, and audio cables. Then it sends one small cable with all that information to the TV panel itself. That way, you can keep your TV area tidy and all the junky wires in the cupboard, with the One Connect, out of sight. Glorious.

LG GX

(Image credit: LG)

2. LG OLED65GX6LA (2020) OLED Series

Best 65 inch TV with an OLED screen

Specifications

Resolution: Ultra HD
Panel type: OLED
Smart TV: WebOS
HDR: Dolby Vision IQ / HDR10 / Hybrid Log-Gamma (HLG)

Reasons to buy

+
Minimalist aesthetic
+
Gallery design
+
Decent audio

Reasons to avoid

-
A little pricey (could be worth it, though!)

The LG OLED65GX6LA is NEW IN for 2020 and is a piece of artwork. It will display your favorite entertainment with beautiful detail and clarity. It's in our second spot, rather than first, just because of the heavy price tag, but if you want the latest screen, this is an excellent option.

The OLED screen offers a unique minimalist aesthetic with perfect blacks, intense color, and infinite contrast when it's switched on with your entertainment. This one is stunning, on or off. It's a winner of the iF Design Award and Red Dot Design Award 2020 best of the best, so you don't just need to take our word for it.

LG OLED TVs now all feature the all-new Filmmaker Mode. This disables special effects such as motion smoothing and image sharpening to preserve the original, just as the director intended. This can be easily activated through the TV menu or the LG smart remote in-built voice control. Add this to the LG webOS smart suite and movie marathons, and box-set binging will never be the same.

Samsung Q950R

(Image credit: Amazon)

3. Samsung QE65Q950R QLED TV (2019)

Best 65 inch TV with 8K

Specifications

Resolution: Ultra HD
Panel type: QLED
Smart TV: Yes(Samsung Smart Hub)
HDR: HDR 2000

Reasons to buy

+
Incredible detailing
+
Impressive up-scaling

Reasons to avoid

-
Predictably pricey
-
Limited 8K content
-
No Dolby Vision or Atmos
-
Available on mega large screens, only

The Samsung QE65Q950R is the best example of an 8K screen. It may well be one of the first 8K TVs to market, but it does usher in a new era of TV picture quality that could be worth investing in for the future.

With four times the resolution of 4K (never did we think we'd see the day!), this image quality – free of pixels – cannot be beaten. Moreover, it's designed to bring you the best sound and picture. The Samsung Q950R automatically adapts whatever you're watching to ensure consistently high quality. From every angle, the Samsung Q950R also guarantees a perfect picture from every angle, which is great if you're planning on hosting the movie nights this super screen deserves.

And when your TV is turned off, you won't have to worry about it being too much of an eyesore. Instead, you can watch your TV blend seamlessly into your interior scheme with ambient mode. Or, project your favorite photos, artworks, and more.

Panasonic TX-55GZ2000B OLED TV

(Image credit: Panasonic)

4. Panasonic TX-65GZ2000B OLED TV (2019)

Best 65 inch TV for sound quality

Specifications

Resolution: Ultra HD
Panel type: OLED
Smart TV: Yes(My Home Screen)
HDR: Yes

Reasons to buy

+
Superb dark details
+
Vivid, realistic colours
+
Excellent sound

Reasons to avoid

-
Poor app support

Offering something that many TVs of today's selection do not is sound. Sure it's not the prettiest box to put on your wall, but this range of television comes with an integrated soundbar at the bottom of the picture and upward-firing Dolby Atmos speakers on the back, which makes for the best TV audio you'll hear anywhere.

Picture-wise, the Panasonic GZ2000 is right up there with the sound. But the downside to all this brilliance is that it costs a lot more than the LG TVs. So to distinguish the GZ2000 from its older, cheaper models, Panasonic has embedded a custom-made OLED panel in the range to elevate the picture quality above and beyond the (already impressive) GZ1500 and GZ1000 models.

It's a smart choice, too. Panasonic uses its own MyHomeScreen smart TV platform, which, unlike other TV platforms, doesn't mute or pause the action when you call up the Home menu. But, and it is a big but, the smart platform is based on Firefox OS (which is getting on a bit now) and has struggled to recruit more apps to the scene which are beyond the major players (Netflix, Amazon Prime, YouTube, and Freeview Play), so it is losing a point from us, although still being a top choice.

LG OLED55B9PLA OLED TV

(Image credit: LG)

5. LG OLED65B9PLA OLED TV (2019)

Best 65 inch TV for those on a budget

Specifications

Resolution: Ultra HD
Panel type: OLED
Smart TV: Yes(My Home Screen)
HDR: Dolby Vision, HLG

Reasons to buy

+
Lovely colour production
+
Fantastic price
+
Strong smart platform

Reasons to avoid

-
Dark details lacking

The LG OLED65B9PLA is the most affordable OLED you can buy right now. It's also very, very good. 

With a similar display to the LG OLED65GX6LA, which is higher on our list, you'll still experience the gorgeous deep blacks, vivid but natural colors, and all the features and apps you can expect in the top-end models. This includes Dolby Vision and arguably the best OS you can find on an OLED TV anywhere.

The B9 comes with LG's Magic Remote gesture controller, which offers a compact and easy way to navigate the menus and settings. So naturally, the system is fitted with all the obvious apps like Prime Video, Netflix, and catch-up services. Still, there are also the tricky but important ones to find, like Now TV for pay-per-view access to all of Sky's content and the Apple TV+ app for Apple's huge 4K HDR film and TV library.

Sony KD65XH9005

6. Sony KD65XH9005 (2020) LED HDR 4K Ultra HD Smart Android TV

Best LED 65 inch TV

Specifications

Resolution: Ultra HD
Panel type: LED
Smart TV: Android TV
HDR: HDR10

Reasons to buy

+
Accomplished backlight is great for HDR
+
Decent audio abilities

Reasons to avoid

-
HDR could be brighter

If you're not on board with the amount of money you'd have to spend on an OLED, then there are still many LED TVs worth considering. 

Our pick of the bunch is Sony's XE90. Unlike an OLED, it's unable to turn its light off on a pixel-by-pixel basis, so to create contrast between light and dark parts of an image, it instead uses an LED backlight. In addition, this backlight can turn off behind certain parts of the image to allow for variation in brightness levels. The resulting HDR images speak for themselves and mean that you'll be able to enjoy the benefits of LED over OLEDs, namely much higher peak brightness levels.

Further up Sony's LED lineup, you can get much brighter TVs, but we think the XE90 sits at a significant intersection of price and performance, making it one of our top 65-inch TVs you can buy today.

How to choose the best 65 inch TV for your home

Choosing a TV and not sure where to start? The single most significant decision you'll have to make is buying a conventional LCD TV (also occasionally referred to as LED TVs) and an OLED TV

OLED TVs are more expensive, but they benefit from absolutely astonishing levels of contrast thanks to the fact that they're able to turn off individual pixels to create 'perfect' black levels.

That said, they can't quite get as bright as LCD TVs meaning they can be a little harder to watch in bright living rooms. You also don't get quite as much sparkle in brighter parts of an image. 

Beyond panel type, your decision will come down to the strengths and weaknesses of each TV in particular, and we'll get into each of these as we dive into our guide to the best 65-inch TVs of 2018. 

What is the best 65 inch TV?

The best 65-inch TV you can buy (in our opinion) is the Samsung QE65Q90R. It may well be a model from 2019, BUT it's still got our vote for the best 4K TV, and it's still available from retailers, which says something. It's got fab everything, and a screen of this size would be most suitable for family homes.

Got your heart set on an OLED? Fair enough: we love them, too. The best around right now is the LG OLED65GX6LA. It has everything you could need from a TV with this spec. However, it has a slightly heavier price tag than the jazzy LED screens.

Jon was previously TechRadar's home technology expert, specialising in audio-visual buying advice. He now writes for Trusted Reviews, covering a wider range of technology content

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