A few years after the main television manufacturers have made large promises of around 8,000 televisions, almost all of them are either continuous models from previous years, or a completely 8K drop. In 2025, Only Samsung announced new models, and they are all too expensive for what they offer. This is why we do not recommend 8K televisions this year.
It may seem strange because it would be easy to assume, depending on their price and resolution, that 8K televisions are high -end televisions. How do we not recommend the “best” televisions on our list of the best televisions? The fact is that, although the 8K televisions that we tested have generally been good, they have largely surpassed the models with a technology that has a more important effect on image quality, like OLED and MINI-LED, while being cheaper by screen inch.
The failed promise of 8K
If we take a step back, it is not too surprising to see how we arrived here. The 8K televisions held the promise of even more detailed and sharper images, but they have rarely been able to make this promise. Despite the quarters as many pixels as a 4K TV, 8K televisions were limited in their potential because there is very little 8K content. Without real content 8K, everything you could show about these televisions is the 4K content converted upwards. And although the positive conversion has become quite well, it is not the same thing that it does not seem as detailed as the real 8K content.
It is undoubtedly the old chicken and egg scenario. Why make 8K televisions when there is no 8K content? But why do 8K content when there are no 8K televisions? It was the same problem with the start of 4K, and if we come back far back, even early HDTV. With the latter, there was a strong push in several industries to keep everyone away from their old standard definition televisions.
There was a similar push with 4K because it allowed much larger screen sizes, and above all, the majority of the inherited content could benefit from additional resolution. This is because most movies and television shows were historically captured on the film. Without going too far in a rabbit burrow and in general, the 35 mm film has more details than what is possible to capture with HD and is often similar to what you can get with 4K. It is a super wide statement, but for our ends, the biggest problem is that the same thing cannot be said about 8K.
Hisense’s 8k, from 2023.
Of course, perhaps a few 35 mm negative points, and probably the biggest negatives of 70 mm of a handful of large budget films, could be more beautiful in 8K against 4K, but this is only a fraction of the total number of films and television shows. While many programs and films now use at least 4K cameras, almost none uses 8K. Even productions that use cameras higher than 4K higher rarely release this high resolution content. It is at best 4K.
The other problem is where you even get 8K content, even if more was available? The consumer streaming services are configured for 4K and could theoretically offer 8K content on selected devices (once again, chicken and egg). The cable and satellite often find it difficult to offer 4K content in many areas. This is to say that 8K televisions are racing cars without track to run and badly drive on the street.
Where did 8K televisions go?
Scott Ramirez, vice-president of marketing and development of TCL products for Home Theater, had an overview during a wider conversation with CNET:
“I don’t think I don’t think 8k will be very important in the near future. [for] The quality of the image has increased contrast, increasing the purity of colors, the range of colors, increasing the brightness, [and] The overall impact of HDR. These things seem to have much more impact for the consumer than going from 4K to 8k. “”
Hisense adopts a more awaited approach, according to Ondre Clarke, Director of TV product marketing:
“Hissense has led the change to larger and high performance televisions, which makes large superior quality screens more accessible than ever. We have seen incredible growth in this space, and we continue to push the limits of performance and quality and the features that count the most to viewers today. At the same time, we have actively developed the time of 8K and that American demand is not yet. 8K in our range when the moment is ”
LG also sees the potential of 8K while recognizing reality. David Park, responsible for media solutions, activation of customer value, told us:
“There is an element of” the future test “when buying an 8K TV, but due to the lack of 8K content available, the 8K adoption among consumers is extremely slow. In the mind, LG is currently focusing on the supply of the best experience and visualization on our 4K OLED, QNED and UHD televisions.”
The numbers
What do we mean by “dear”? Let’s take a look at the Samsung 2025 range, compared to his (excellent) Qd-oled models, as well as other options. The cheapest 8K model is the 65 -inch Qn900F, which has a suggested retail price of $ 3,299. His 65 -inch OLED S95D, which we described as “best versatile image quality that we have ever tested”, is $ 2,000. There is no magic sauce, especially no IA sauce as shown in its new models, which will make an 8K LCD screen better than a QD-Oled.
But let’s say you want to go bigger. The 77 -inch S90D OLED is currently $ 2,100. The 75 inch Qn900F 8K? $ 4,299. The comparison bows even more in favor of the OLED than the high -end 8K -range models, the QN990F line. Then, it’s $ 5,499 for the 65 inch and $ 6,499 for the 75 inch.
If you want to go Really Big, and you would need it if you want to get a return on investment for all these pixels, there is a 98 -inch Qn990F which is a $ 3999 Blister. You can currently get a 100 inches hoissense For 5% of that. Of course, it’s “just 4K”, but since there are no 8K content, the smallest pixels will be wasted unless you really sit, very close.
Are the above comparisons biased because these are mainly models from last year? Well, they are for sale to date, so I would say no. In addition, if they are replaced by new models, they will always be cheaper than 8K televisions.
Ahead
Does this mean that we will never recommend another 8K TV? To cover a little, we will see. The problems listed above have little to do with the capacity of any manufacturer to make a product. We know that they can make 8K as they did. The problem with 8K is the lack of content. There is very little business (well, apart from Sony), can do on this subject. Without 8K content, as mentioned, there are very few points to an 8K TV.
It would not be a huge problem if the televisions were the same price or cheaper as their 4K counterparts. They are generally more expensive, however, and only work good or worse than some of their competitors. Since resolution is only one aspect of image quality and not one of the most important, that makes 8K an expensive feature that you cannot really use.
So, for 2025, we do not recommend any 8K TV. If prices drop, 8K content suddenly becomes widely available, or there is another major and unexpected change, perhaps we will do so in the future.
