Best gaming TVs: 3 premium sets, selected by our expert team

To enjoy the best possible gaming experience, you not only need one of the best TVs, but a television set that can keep up with the pace of your console and show off those AAA titles in the way they were meant to be enjoyed – with no compromises on sharpness, latency, or detail.

That's why you'll want to be up to speed on HDMI 2.1 standards, variable refresh rate (VRR), and auto low-latency mode (ALLM) when considering your new TV for top PS5 or Xbox gaming.

Some TVs are significantly better for gaming than others based on their feature-sets, therefore, so we've put together this guide to point you towards the best of the best as far as gaming TVs go – and to save you a significant amount of time clicking around retail sites online.

The experts at T3 have been reviewing the latest and greatest televisions for decades, so you can be sure they know what they're talking about when it comes to gaming TVs. Read on to decide which of these three premium picks might be the right one for you.

T3's Top 3

How these gaming TVs compare

To a certain extent we're splitting hairs when it comes to comparing the LG OLED C5, the Samsung S95F, and the Philips OLED 910. All of these OLED televisions scored a full five stars in their respective reviews, so it's difficult to start weighing them up against each other and trying to find weaknesses as well as strengths.

The Philips OLED 910 does have something the other two TVs don't: immersive Ambilight, that will match your games. If this is something that appeals – alongside a top-notch OLED panel and brilliant sound engineered in partnership with Bowers & Wilkins – then this might be the best set for you. Just note that only two out of the four HDMI ports offer the full HDMI 2.1 standard that's best for high-end gaming.

When it comes to the LG OLED C5 and the Samsung S95F, it's the latter's anti-reflective coating that adds a point of distinction, meaning it's great in daylight or at night. The Samsung is a little more expensive, though, but this QD-OLED panel looks fantastic, the sound is great, and there are four HDMI 2.1 ports. It might well be our favourite TV of the moment, whether for gaming or anything else.

The LG OLED C5 is just a small step below the Samsung (and the flagship G series from LG) in terms of picture quality, but it's still outstanding to look at – and it's more affordable than the Samsung model, making it our top pick for most people. Gamers will love the four HDMI 2.1 ports, supporting all the latest gaming technologies.

What to look for

Many of the best TVs overall can be great for gaming – whether on a PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X or S, Nintendo Switch 2, or PC – but if you use the wrong picture preset while gaming, things start to feel off immediately. That's because the image processing that TVs rely on makes a gigantic difference when it comes to input lag (the time between when you push a button on your controller, and when you see the results on-screen).

With that in mind, look for a dedicated Game Mode on your TV: this deactivates a lot of the picture processing used when watching movies or TV, because these features tend to slow down response time. By disabling them, you can gain valuable microseconds, which in turn plays to your advantage in fast-moving games. The difference doesn't sound like much, but it is – it makes games seem sluggish, and is really a problem in things that are fast-moving, or that require precision.

You've probably already worked out the price to pay when engaging a low-latency Game Mode: turning off some picture processing means image quality suffers. Potentially, things can look less sharp, there’s more obvious noise and banding, and contrast can also take a hit. So ideally you want to look for a TV that still delivers great-looking pictures at all times, balancing low latency still with the right amount of processing.

A feature to help make sure that you're not suffering unnecessarily from lag is built into the latest consoles. It's called Auto Low-Latency Mode (ALLM), and the idea is that it's a standardised signal the console can send that TVs can receive, and know they need to switch into a gaming-friendly mode that reduces latency. The crucial part is that it's all platform agnostic – as long as your console and TV both support it, it all happens seamlessly, even if they're from different manufacturers.

The top consoles on the market can also output video in 4K at up to 120 frames per second (4K/120Hz). Higher frame rates mean you see games responding to your inputs twice as fast (because a new frame is created in half the time), and you should get extra clarity in fast-moving games too. Basically, for games that support this (which won't be all, by any means), you'll be able to react more quickly and accurately to action, and motion will look much smoother and more realistic. There's more info in our 120Hz gaming explainer.

Related is another key next-gen feature: Variable Refresh Rate (VRR). This is designed to help keep games looking smooth in balance with visual quality. The idea here is to sync how quickly your console generates a new frame with how often your TV is expecting to show a new frame – if the two aren't in lock, you can end up with what's called 'screen tearing', where you see a half-finished frame, making everything look weird. It's a big deal, and our VRR explainer digs in further.

These three technologies (ALLM, 4K/120, VRR) are all supported by HDMI 2.1, which is the latest incarnation of the venerable connection. HDMI 2.1 uses the same connection type as previous HDMI ports, so everything is backwards compatible – but its big upgrades support all these new technologies, as well as 8K. Our HDMI 2.1 explainer can tell you everything you need to know about the new standard, and it's one of the key features to look out for when choosing the best TVs.

Do you need a TV or a monitor?

When it comes to gaming, there's always a discussion to be had between choosing one of the best TVs or one of the best gaming monitors. There's actually no right or wrong answer: it depends what you're looking for, the devices you're using to do your gaming, how much you've got to spend, and personal preference.

If you're doing your gaming on a console in the living room, for example, then it makes a lot of sense to use a gaming TV. You'll get fantastic gaming performance, plus everything else that a TV offers. Televisions can certainly go to bigger sizes than monitors can, though as the size gets bigger so does the amount of money you'll have to spend.

If you're gaming on a PC in a bedroom, on the other hand, then a monitor might be better. You can generally get better specs – refresh rate, response time, resolution – for less money. And a monitor is going to be far superior in terms of clarity if you want to do other tasks, like edit spreadsheets and send emails.

Over the years, the line between these two choices has blurred, with TVs getting modes especially for gaming, and some monitors adding built-in smart features – meaning you can queue up apps like Netflix and Disney+ without any extra hardware. Nowadays, it's where you're doing your gaming and what you're gaming on that matters most when choosing between a monitor and TV.

How we test the best gaming TVs

We take our tech reviews very seriously here at T3, across all product categories, and every television that comes our way gets put through a lengthy series of tests. We treat each product as if it were our own by living with them, including the best gaming TVs on the market, and then draw our conclusions.

Our expert review team has sat in front of many TVs for many hours in the interests of bringing you the most knowledgeable and personal reviews, and as a result we definitely know what looks good and what doesn't. We've got the first-hand experience to be able to compare and contrast different products on the market, and to evaluate how particular ranges of TVs have evolved over time.

When it comes to gaming televisions, the quality of the picture is of course most important, but there's lots more to look out for – the features that come included, the quality of the built-in audio, and how well each model stacks up against the others when you're doing something that doesn't involve gaming. Price is of course a crucial consideration as well.

As with any T3 review, each TV is awarded an overall score out of five stars, which helps justify where a product sits within our rankings. For more details on our methods and our scoring, check out our How We Test page.

Reviewer panel

Mike Lowe

Mike is the editor of the core tech section here at T3, and plenty of his time is spent reviewing TVs. He's seen all the leading models come and go over many years, which means he's expertly placed to tell you which television you should be upgrading to.

Steve May

Steve is a tech journalist who founded Home Cinema Choice magazine, proving his reviewing chops when it comes to the best TVs (among other audio-visual gear). He has 25 years' experience of assessing televisions and more – and it shows in his reviews.