The video game industry has evolved continuously and invested immense resources to generate evolutions in image, sound, speed, and all the features that make a game today more impressive and exciting. However, to fully enjoy these advances, it is necessary to have a television that is at the height of your console.
Therefore, for a television to be in accordance with the characteristics of the newest consoles such as the Playstation 5 and the Xbox Series X, we must take into account certain factors when investing in a television. Choosing a good option will definitely increase the quality and experience while you are playing.
We made a list of traits that should be analysed from a technical point of view to select the best 4K Tvs for gaming.
DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY
Many of us have heard of televisions that come with different types of screens, such as LED, OLED, QLED, etc. However, each one has its advantages over the others when connecting with current consoles.
OLED technology has exceptional image quality in any usage scenario, but especially in dark environments or at night. Also, to make black purer, OLED televisions have their own source and lighting since the screen is made up of millions of organic diodes and individual light emitters. This technology tends to be a little expensive, and therefore, it is not uncommon to see that the prices are a little higher than conventional LED televisions.
As for QLED TVs, these work with quantum dots lit by a bright LED behind them (more or less similar to a conventional LED TV). QLED stands for quantum light-emitting diode as it uses tiny nanoparticles called quantum dots for brightness and colour.
QLED screens offer a much higher brightness level, allowing you to view all kinds of content even if the room is illuminated and possibly a little higher than OLED in general.
On the other hand, OLED screens can be seen without luminance degradation at drastic viewing angles, and therefore if a person moves from side to side, or up and down, the image quality does not decrease as much in colour as in contrast, which is ideal if you play with someone else.
Having said that, OLED and QLED deliver fantastic results, although each one excels in different aspects, which makes in part the decision subjective when choosing between one or the other. If the player wants to play in dark environments or at night, the OLED and its contrast will be exceptional. If you are going to play during the day or very colourful games, you may prefer the brightness peaks of a QLED television.
TV SIZE
Choosing a television either to watch movies or for video games, we should definitely make things clear, the bigger the TV, the better the experience will be. Therefore, the TV must be as large as possible. Today, the 4K format has eliminated the famous distance between the TV and the player. It is no longer necessary to be several meters away if you want to have a large screen, since we can see it at a short distance without the image quality suffering the least, so any home can easily have a model of 55 or more inches.
If the goal is to squeeze the best out of your console, choose a large model.
High dynamic range imaging (HDR)
Another important factor when acquiring a television for gaming is HDR which is a vital technology for specific games, where you get the most out of the dynamic range between the lightest and darkest areas. Therefore, the television is capable of adjusting the lighting in real-time, since the compatible games manage to offer a much more vivid and striking range of colours and tones. Something very worth having available on your TV.
For this, there are televisions with 10 bits HDR (HDR10) which is sufficient, but the ideal would be HDR10+ which is an evolution of this technology developed by Samsung and Amazon video.
On the other hand, it would also be ideal if the television is compatible not only with HDR10+ but with Dolby Vision because they are the two HDR standards that offer us the best image quality thanks to their ability to use dynamic metadata.
Low input lag
It is the time that elapses at the moment in which we operate the buttons of the control, the sending of the information through the HMDI input, the process of the action by the console which sends to the television the frames that reflect that effect to let it show it through its panel. If the response of the entire process is slow, the brain will be fast enough to detect the delay, and therefore this will reduce the quality of the experience when playing. For this, a low latency must be below 20 milliseconds.
Fortunately, some televisions have a game mode or compatibility with NVIDIA Sync or AMD FreeSync, which reduces input lag.
For this, it is also recommended to purchase a television that handles a frame rate of 60hz to 120hz native. It is important to note that not all television models handle native HZs on the television's feature list and sometimes each brand has a different measurement which can be confusing when purchasing a screen.
In summary, when purchasing a TV to play, we recommend purchasing a 4K UHD TV with OLED or QLED screen technology ideally (without detracting from some LED models with excellent image), with low input lag, HDR10+, between 60hz to 120hz native, with game mode, FreeSync or NVIDIA sync, and with a screen size of not less than 50 inches if space is available.