LG QNED 4K - 85 Series 55QNED85TUA 55"

The LG QNED85TUA packs 120Hz, four HDMI 2.1 ports, and Dolby Vision into a $665 package that's hard to beat for gaming. The edge-lit panel holds it back on picture quality, with blacks that can't match mini-LED competitors. Buy it for gaming and bright-room viewing, skip it for dark-room movie nights.

The gaming numbers are where this TV earns its keep. A native 120Hz refresh rate paired with FreeSync and ALLM means your PS5 or Xbox Series X will feel responsive and smooth. Four HDMI 2.1 ports is genuinely rare at this price. Most budget and mid-range TVs give you two, maybe three, and often only one supports full bandwidth. Here you can plug in a console, a gaming PC, and still have room for a soundbar without juggling cables. The Game Optimizer menu is also one of the better implementations we've seen, letting you tweak black levels and frame rate settings without diving into five submenus.

Picture quality is more of a mixed bag. The Quantum Dot NanoCell layer does deliver rich, saturated colors, and the α8 processor's upscaling is excellent. 1080p content looks crisp and clean. But this is an edge-lit panel, and our display score of 22nd percentile tells the real story. Blacks won't get truly deep, and you'll notice some blooming around bright objects on dark backgrounds. The Dimming Pro feature helps minimize the halo effect, but it can't work miracles without local dimming zones. For a bright living room, this is fine. For a dark home theater setup, you'll see the panel's limits.

The TCL QM8K Series is the most direct threat here. TCL's mini-LED panels deliver dramatically better contrast and black levels, and their gaming features are equally strong. You'll pay more, but the picture quality gap is real. The Hisense U8 Series is another mini-LED option that beats the LG on contrast while staying competitive on price. Both of those are better picks if you watch a lot of dark content or movies in a dim room.

On the other side, the Roku Plus Series 55R6C7 is cheaper but gives up the 120Hz panel and most of the gaming features. The Samsung Neo QLED QN70F splits the difference with better contrast than the LG but fewer HDMI 2.1 ports. And the Sony BRAVIA XR XR77A95L is in a completely different league, a 77-inch OLED that costs several times more. The LG's real advantage is that it bundles premium gaming features and excellent processing into a package that undercuts most mini-LED competitors.

At $665 USD, this TV is aggressively priced for what you get. The feature set reads like a TV that should cost $900 or more. Four HDMI 2.1 ports, 120Hz, Dolby Vision, and LG's excellent webOS platform are all here. The Magic Remote is also genuinely nice, with its point-and-click cursor making text entry and menu navigation way less painful than the standard d-pad remotes on most competitors.

The value equation shifts depending on what you prioritize. If gaming features and smart TV polish matter most, this is one of the better deals in the 55-inch space right now. If pure picture quality is your main concern, you can find TVs with full-array local dimming for similar money, though you'll likely sacrifice some gaming features or build quality. The 4.5-star rating across 432 reviews suggests most buyers feel they got their money's worth.

The LG QNED85TUA is one of those TVs that sounds like it should cost way more than it does. You get Quantum Dot and NanoCell color tech, a 120Hz panel, four HDMI 2.1 ports, and Dolby Vision support in a 55-inch package that's currently floating around $665 USD. That's a lot of feature boxes checked for the money. LG's QNED line sits below their OLEDs, but the 85 series is the sweet spot where the processing and gaming chops start to feel genuinely premium.

This is a TV aimed squarely at two groups. Gamers who want 120Hz, VRR, and ALLM without paying OLED prices, and streamers who want accurate colors and Dolby Vision for movie nights. The α8 AI Processor 4K is the same brain found in some of LG's pricier sets, and it does a lot of heavy lifting here. The edge-lit panel is the compromise, and we'll get into what that means for picture quality in a minute.

Our database puts this TV's gaming score at 61.3 out of 100, which lands it in the 79th percentile overall. That's strong for a mid-range LED. The picture quality score of 36th percentile is the honest caveat. You're getting great features and processing, but the underlying panel tech has limits. Whether those limits matter depends on your room and what you watch.

If you watch a lot of movies in a dark room, this TV will frustrate you. The edge-lit panel can't produce deep blacks, and blooming around bright objects becomes obvious when the lights go down. You'd be better served by a mini-LED set like the TCL QM8K or Hisense U8, both of which offer full-array local dimming for better contrast in dark scenes.

Home theater enthusiasts who prioritize picture quality over features should also look elsewhere. The 36th percentile picture quality ranking isn't a knock on LG's processing, which is excellent, but the panel hardware simply has limits. If you're spending most of your budget on a TV for cinematic viewing, consider stretching to an OLED or at least a higher-end mini-LED. This LG is a gaming and bright-room TV first, and a home theater display second.

For gamers on a budget, this is an easy recommendation. The 120Hz panel, four HDMI 2.1 ports, FreeSync, and ALLM give you everything you need for current-gen consoles without spending OLED money. The low input lag and Game Optimizer menu make it feel like a TV designed with gaming in mind first. If your PS5 or Xbox is your primary screen, you'll be happy here.

For movie buffs and dark-room viewers, look elsewhere. The edge-lit panel simply can't produce the deep blacks and contrast that mini-LED or OLED alternatives manage. If you mostly watch in a bright living room with lots of ambient light, the blooming issues fade into the background and the vivid colors carry the day. But if you're building a dedicated home theater space, spend a bit more on a mini-LED set like the TCL QM8K or Hisense U8.