LG QNED 4K - 85 Series 86QNED85TUA 86"

The LG QNED85's smart platform is a standout, ranking in the 96th percentile, but its overall picture quality is a letdown at the 36th percentile. You're buying an 86-inch screen for its size and user experience, not its contrast or HDR performance. The built-in audio is weak, so factor a soundbar into your budget, and make sure you shop around to avoid overpaying by nearly $400.

Gaming on this 86-inch beast is a pretty good time. The 120Hz refresh rate and FreeSync Premium support put it in the 73rd percentile for gaming, which is well above average. You get smooth, tear-free gameplay from a PC or console, and the low input lag in Game Mode keeps things responsive. It's not the absolute best gaming TV on the market, but for most people, it's more than enough to enjoy fast-paced shooters and racers on a huge screen.

Where the performance gets shaky is in a dark room. The edge-lit LED backlight is the main culprit. There's no local dimming to speak of, so black bars on movies look more gray than black, and you'll notice some blooming around bright objects on dark backgrounds. The HDR performance is middle-of-the-pack, sitting in the 51st percentile. It accepts an HDR10 signal, but it lacks the peak brightness and contrast to really make high dynamic range content shine the way it does on a premium QLED or OLED. The picture quality score is dragged down to the 36th percentile by these contrast limitations, which is a real letdown for a TV at this price point.

Stacked against the competition, the LG QNED85 is a specialist in size and smarts. The Sony BRAVIA XR A95L and Samsung Neo QLED QN900F are in a completely different league for picture quality, with OLED and Mini-LED tech delivering perfect blacks and stunning HDR, but they cost significantly more, especially at this size. The TCL QM7K and Hisense U7 Series are the real threats. They offer Mini-LED backlights with full-array local dimming for a fraction of the price, delivering much better contrast and HDR punch. You'll sacrifice the polished webOS experience and a bit of brand cachet, but the picture quality gap is substantial. The LG wins if you want a huge, user-friendly screen for a bright room, but the TCL and Hisense win if you care about movie-night picture quality.

Pricing on this set is all over the map, with a $386 spread between vendors. You can find it as low as $1411 and as high as $1797, so shopping around is non-negotiable. At the lower end of that range, you're getting a colossal 86-inch smart TV with great gaming features for a price that's hard to argue with. But if you're paying closer to $1800, the value proposition crumbles. At that price, you're in the territory of a smaller but significantly better-performing OLED or a high-end Mini-LED TV that will deliver a far superior picture. The value here is entirely dependent on you snagging the best deal and prioritizing screen size above all else.

The LG QNED85 is a massive 86-inch screen that absolutely dominates a room, and its smart features are top-tier, landing in the 96th percentile in our database. The webOS platform is snappy, and the magic remote is genuinely a joy to use. But when you look past the sheer size and the slick interface, the picture quality tells a different story. It sits in the 36th percentile for overall picture quality, which means it's outperformed by a majority of the TVs we've tested. The edge-lit panel struggles to keep up with the deep blacks and contrast you'd get from a full-array local dimming set, let alone an OLED.

That said, for a bright living room, the QNED color technology does deliver a vibrant, punchy image that pops with SDR content. The a8 AI processor does a decent job upscaling older shows, and the 120Hz panel with FreeSync Premium makes it a solid choice for gaming, even if it's not the absolute best. The real elephant in the room is the audio. The built-in 2.0 channel speakers are weak, landing in the 33rd percentile. You'll absolutely want to budget for a soundbar, a point echoed by pretty much every owner.

If picture quality is your top priority, you should skip this TV. The edge-lit panel's poor contrast lands it in the 36th percentile, making it a bad fit for movie enthusiasts who watch in a dark room. You'd be much happier with a smaller OLED from LG or Sony, or a Mini-LED set from TCL or Hisense, which will deliver deeper blacks and far more impactful HDR for a similar or lower price. This TV is also a pass for anyone who doesn't want to buy a separate sound system, as the built-in audio is simply not up to par.

The LG 86QNED85TUA is a tough one. It's a fantastic smart TV with a gigantic screen that's great for gaming and bright-room viewing, backed by overwhelmingly positive user reviews. But we can't ignore the data: its picture quality is in the bottom half of TVs we've tested. If your heart is set on an 86-inch screen and you find it at the $1400 end of the price spectrum, it's a solid buy. Just know that you're paying for size and a slick interface, not for top-tier picture performance. A soundbar is not a suggestion, it's a requirement.