Televisions

The QE65S95B is a Samsung OLED TV. This is something that bears repeating, because after spending almost a decade telling you not to buy an OLED because they're not bright enough and can fall prey to screen burn, Samsung has changed its mind. Before anyone starts mumbling anything about hypocrisy or petards, however, Samsung's new OLED TV is not the same as the models we're used to.

Great as the excitement is this year surrounding Samsung's debut QD OLED TVs – the first 'self-emissive' displays from the Korean company in close to a decade – it still determinedly sees Mini LED as its top-flight TV technology. And on the evidence of the flagship 75in QE75QN900B, it has a point. This TV is good enough to have you wondering if your budget will stretch to its premium price tag.

While OLED had new brighter panels to shout about in 2021, the story of the year for rival LCD technology was definitely the arrival of mini LED backlighting. Samsung, in particular, showed how moving to much smaller LEDs, coupled with an increase in a TV's number of local dimming zones, could rewrite the LCD picture quality rule book in terms of contrast precision. Now it returns with a second-gen model to hopefully wow us again.

Philips is aiming for the front of the grid with the 65OLED+936. An evolution of the brand's OLED+935 model, this update couples a racy fifth-generation P5 image engine with an all-new OLED panel and HDMI 2.1 high frame rate support. The screen has clearly got Panasonic's JZ2000 home cinema hero in its sights, so what can it tempt us with? Quite a lot, as it happens...

Many TV brands have adopted Mini LED technology this year, but Sony is having none of it. Its 4K LCD models for 2021, including the upper mid-range 65X90J under examination here, persist with the 'standard' LED lighting that LCD displays have been using for years. Happily, though, this certainly does not prevent the 65X90J from being seriously desirable.

Mini LED is perhaps the TV technology story of the year. The implementation of LEDs far smaller than those of conventional backlights has helped put TCL on the TV map and taken Samsung's 2021 Neo QLED TVs to new heights. And now it's back to (hopefully) revolutionise LG's LCD fortunes with the 75QNED99, a 75in 8K model with a price tag far more tempting than the company's 8K OLEDs.