This week on You Asked, we tackle some of the most common TV buying questions right now, from choosing between LG and Samsung’s latest OLEDs to which brands handle upscaling best. We also dig into whether Dolby Vision 2 is a reason to hold off on a new TV purchase, or if today’s high-end sets are already good enough.
LG C5 vs. Samsung S90F: Which should you buy?
@alexandervictoria7609 asks: Hi , I’ve been following you guys for years. You’re the reason I bought the sony a80k . Now my tv got damaged and I’m looking for something new. I can get a discount on the lg c5 and the Samsung s 90f both for the same price and about 150 more than the 2024 models. What should I do?
First of all, you’re going to have a great time with either of those TVs. They’re both an upgrade from the A80K in terms of HDR brightness and peak highlights. And I think we had them both on our Best TVs list this year.
The competition between the C5 and S90F is very close, and it probably comes down to whether or not you care about having Dolby Vision with the C5.
Samsung doesn’t support Dolby Vision, but will you even miss it? What the S90F does have that LG doesn’t, and neither did the Sony A80K, is a QD-OLED panel at the 55-, 65-, and 77-inch sizes. It provides a good bit more color volume than the C5 and its W-OLED panel.
The C5’s advantage is SDR brightness and, if you’re an Xbox gamer, you get Dolby Vision there as well.
Still, both options offer four HDMI 2.1 ports and a very wide viewing angle with outstanding contrast, because OLED.
So my vote is with the S90F, but you truly can’t go wrong.
Which TVs have the best upscaling?
@bmj4052 asks: my biggest question that i can never get a straight answer – what tv is has the best upscaling for standard definition signals? ie. basic netflix, youtube, other generic streaming platforms that don’t stream 4k
This is a good question. And though I haven’t personally run this test with a bunch of TVs side by side playing the same thing from a variety of different sources to thoroughly inspect which is best, I have some takes and evidence behind them.
When we tested the Vizio Quantum Pro a while back, one of our biggest critiques was this exact thing. It didn’t do well with upscaling. To illustrate it, we put it up against the Sony A95K OLED. Those TVs are not in the same league at all, but facts are facts.
In that test, the Sony did a much better job. And because those are such night-and-day comparisons between a cheaper Mini LED TV and a top-notch OLED, we also tested it with the Samsung QN90C, a premium Mini LED that came out in the same year. It was also a big step up.
Through watching lots of TV on that Samsung in my own home, and from what I’ve seen filming some of Sony, Samsung, LG, and Panasonic’s best TVs over the last few years, I’m going to say Sony. Their processing has been the running favorite for years now.
That’s also probably why a lot of people are freaking out about TCL potentially taking over Sony’s TV production next year.
That said, while Sony’s processing and upscaling is top notch, unless you put it side by side with some of Samsung and LG’s best, I’m not sure it’s something that just jumps out at you from TV to TV. Even if it’s basic Netflix or another streamer in 1080p instead of 4K, if the content is well produced, it’ll look pretty good on most modern, higher-end TVs.
It’s the blocky, grainy, poorly lit, or old content that hasn’t been remastered where you can really see how well a TV does its cleanup job.
Is Dolby Vision 2 worth waiting for?
@amitavraja3385 asks: In 2026 only TCL and Hisense are going to support Dolby Vision 2, the rest of the big manufacturers are not. Don’t think Sony would either. Suspect most big brands are wait and see policy this year and maybe from 2027 they would have support for Dolby Vision 2. Don’t forget 2026 TVs won’t be backwards compatible without a major hardware upgrade, unless it’s from TCL & Hisense. So is it risky to buy new expensive televisions this year knowing that these TVs won’t be able to support DV2?!
I want to point out that I read that question as it was written, but I don’t know that all of that is 100 percent true. I don’t know what some of these manufacturers have planned, nor do I know the exact chipsets in the TVs coming out and whether they’ll support Dolby Vision 2. What we do know is that TVs need the MediaTek Pentonic 800 chip.
What I can offer is some perspective, especially since we’ve learned about the TCL–Sony deal.
If I had to purely guess and speculate on one manufacturer that might have Dolby Vision 2 capability at some point, it’s Sony. MediaTek has been their source of system-on-chips, and with the hype and work put into their new RGB backlight TV that’s on the way, I find it hard to believe Sony wouldn’t put the latest and greatest into that model, especially if it meant being able to get an over-the-air update down the line and boost sales by adding Dolby Vision 2.
So if you’ve got the funds that you will need to buy that premium TV from Sony, I’d probably feel good about it. And I’d bet my bottom dollar it’s going to be a beautiful TV.
That brings me to my next point. Dolby Vision 2 looks really, really good, and it’s a noticeable improvement from the original Dolby Vision. But you see the biggest difference in lower-end and budget-friendly TVs, at least from what we were shown at CES.
The difference between the higher-end TVs we saw Dolby Vision and Dolby Vision 2 displayed on wasn’t quite as big.
My point is this: If you need to get a high-end, expensive TV, or you just want one because you’re due for an upgrade, I don’t know that Dolby Vision 2 is going to be the reason to delay that purchase.
HDR10 and HDR10+ also look great. They won’t have the content intelligence feature to clean up some really dark scenes, but this stuff still looks great, and none of this is Dolby Vision 2.
Whether it’s processing and upscaling, HDMI inputs, brightness, contrast, image quality, brand loyalty, or whatever other reason you come up with, there are lots of things that can drive a TV purchase. Assess those things along with your curiosity about Dolby Vision 2, and make your decision based on all of that.