Gaming TV, need some opinions

Mr Stebe

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Hi guys,

Been a long time reader here, made many a purchasing decision based on the advise given, however this is the first time I’ve ever felt I needed personal advise.

In the past there’s always been a stand out TV at a particular price range that covered everything, but in the current market I’m struggling to find anything like that.

I’m looking for something to use as the title says, primarily for gaming, but with the odd bit of YouTube and some Sports.
I’ll be gaming using a PC, but I’ll be playing with controller using big picture mode.

The room I’m in is a combined lounge/kitchen (it’s an apartment) with quite a lot of natural light due to having balcony doors. Due to the kitchen there’s always some amount of ambient light even at night

I’m looking for anything between 49 and 55 inch
For reference my current main TV is a Samsung 55KS7000

Ive found a couple of options and was looking for some feedback on them:

LG49SM9000 ~£680: This caught my eye because of the full HDMI 2.1 ports, which will be great for use with the next generation of graphics cards (4K 120hz) and would also allow me to run more demanding games at 1080P 120Hz using Nvidias integer scaling to do nearest neighbour scaling (I’m very sensitive to poor scaling)
Downsides are Poor contrast due to IPS, but I’m thinking that if it’s in a room that’s always lit this will be less of an issue?
Also the blooming issues, which again i suspect are more of a problem in a dim environment.

Sony 55FX9005 ~ £750: VA Panel with must better contrast than the LG, also much better HDR performance, although this isn’t super important to me due to the current woeful state of HDR gaming on PC.

Supports 120Hz but only at up to 1440p and I’ve read online that the scaling at high refresh rates is much worse than standard as it bypasses a lot of the processing
Also, 40ms plus input lag at 1080p 60hz is also worrying if I ever want to play Nintendo switch.
Finally VA viewing angles have always been somewhat annoying to me, I find that even straight on the corners can sometimes wash out a bit

Samsung 55Q85R £999 ~ This really is at the top end of my budget.
By all accounts has the best reflection handling you can find on a TV, other than the Q90R, also incredibly bright for HDR content.
Also has the Wide angle filter to take care of the viewing angle issues.

Again no HDMI 2.1, does 1080p/1440p at 120hz but I can’t find any information about scaling. Input lag seems to be as good as the LG, slightly ahead of the Sony

Downsides; I’ve Heard horror stories about the anti glare coating being impossible to clean and in my home it WILL definitely get finger prints on it at some point in its life.
Finally, my last 3 TVs have been Samsung’s, I kinda fancy a change.

Im also aware that the LG B9 is available with basically everything for £1100 however I don’t think it would be bright enough for my room, the blacks would be wasted due to the ambient light and Burn In terrifies me (I never went plasma for this exact reason)

Thanks in advance guys, sorry for the lengthy post!
 
If you can stretch to it the Q85R is by far the best option. Spending less, the Sony is next best. The LG is an awful choice and a regression in picture quality compared to your current TV.

HDMI 2.1 can't be on the cards yet with your budget. The new replacement for the Q85R with a single HDMI 2.1 port is the Q90T and it will be some time before you see that TV as cheap as the Q85R as its just been released.

The LG SM9000 you found does have HDMI 2.1 but its not suitable for HDR because it doesn't get bright enough.

That leaves you only with LGs B9 OLED the only true option you could buy now with proper HDMI 2.1 support. Although the LG C9 would be even better.

Your current TV is pretty good, why not stick with what you have for now and upgrade when HDMI 2.1 is more common? That way you won't regret not having HDMI 2.1 features in the future.

For the record your KS7000 was one of the first TVs to come with HDMI 2.0a HDMI ports to enable HDR10, so it was very future proof for its time. If you were to buy a TV now without HDMI 2.1 it won't look as future proof as your current fared when its a few years old.
 

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