A quick question for anyone still hunting a TV after Black Friday: do you want the prettiest picture, the best gaming setup, or the most convincing bargain? In 2025 those three wants often point to the same place — the LG C5 — which Tom’s Guide’s senior TV editor called their favorite TV of the year. It’s worth unpacking why that praise stuck, what else is worth your money, and whether you missed the boat on deals.
The C5: why an editor crowned it the year’s standout
The C5 isn’t flashy for flash’s sake. What it offers is an almost-perfect balance: OLED black levels and contrast, a full complement of gaming-friendly HDMI 2.1 ports, Dolby Vision support, and LG’s polished webOS with a Game Optimizer mode that hides a lot of complexity behind sensible defaults. In lab and real-world viewing the self-lit pixels of OLED give excellent depth and HDR highlights — not the absolute peak brightness of flagship models, but more than enough for movies, sports and console gaming.
Price helped its reputation. At the time of the reviews the 65-inch model sat near $1,396, a tag that felt downright generous for an OLED with these specs. If you’re curious about current pricing, you can check price for the LG C5 available on Amazon.
The rest of the value-packed field
If you want more choices (and you should), 2025 had plenty:- LG B5: an affordable OLED that brings genuine pixel-level blacks and the same core gaming features as higher-end LG models — the B5 is a smart pick if you want OLED without sticker shock.
- TCL QM6K: an entry-level Mini-LED that gives a brightness and contrast bump over conventional LED sets; great if your room gets sun and your budget is tight.
- Hisense U75QG: a bright, mid-range Mini-LED that’s particularly appealing to PC gamers thanks to high refresh rates and VRR support.
- Samsung S84F/S85F: Samsung’s entry OLEDs trade Dolby Vision for other strengths (color tuning and system-level features) and can be an awesome bargain when discounted.
- Room brightness matters. OLEDs excel in dim viewing rooms; Mini-LEDs beat them in bright, sunlit spaces.
- Gamers: check for 4K/120Hz support, VRR/FreeSync, and multiple HDMI 2.1 inputs. The LG C5 and many 2025 Mini-LEDs covered those bases well.
- HDR format choices can sway the decision. Dolby Vision remains common on many streaming titles and LG sets, while Samsung pushes HDR10 variants — there’s an ongoing format debate and even new entrants on the horizon around HDR standards that may affect buyers in time as HDR ecosystems evolve.
- Streaming and device integration: if you rely on PlayStation features or plan to stream from handheld/cloud devices, check platform compatibility and special modes. Console and streaming hardware have been changing rapidly; for instance, Sony’s streaming accessories and cloud updates are expanding how people use TVs with PlayStation systems streaming PS5 libraries gets simpler.
All of the above appeared in Tom’s Guide’s lists of best value TVs this year; each one nails a slightly different use case. If you sit near a sunny window, give Mini-LED models like the QM6K or Hisense U75QG a hard look. If you want cinematic blacks and wide viewing angles, OLEDs (C5, B5, Samsung S84F) remain the gold standard.
Deals: are holiday discounts still worth chasing?
Black Friday and Cyber Monday brought headline steals, but retailers kept dropping prices through the holidays. Big-screen models — 75-inch and up — saw particularly deep cuts (examples included 75–77" Mini-LED and OLEDs falling hundreds or even thousands off launch prices). If you need a TV now for a holiday gathering or as a gift, there are still solid discounts to be had; if you can hold off, end-of-year clearance and early-January promos sometimes shave more.
A practical rule: buy when a model you’ve researched appears at a price you’re comfortable with. If you need a bright set for daytime viewing, snag a discounted Mini-LED. If you want cinematic nights and deep blacks, a discounted mid-range OLED like the C5 or B5 is a rare find.
A few buying pointers from the trenches
So — buy now or wait?
If you have an immediate need (holiday guests, replacement of a broken set), you won’t regret picking a well-reviewed discounted model today. If you can wait, watch the model you want for a week or two: prices for popular models like the C5 and B5 have bounced around post-Black Friday and can dip again. Either way, match the TV to your room and your habits: bright-room viewers and sports fans should favor the brightest Mini-LEDs; movie lovers and mixed-use households will love the C5-style OLED balance.
In the end, 2025’s market felt generous: strong mid-range OLEDs, capable Mini-LEDs, and gaming-first feature sets made excellent TVs more accessible than in previous years. The LG C5 earned its laurels because it didn’t ask you to choose between performance, features and value — it simply delivered all three.