The awesome Sony A95L OLED TV is now cheaper than ever, but I recommend one of these alternatives instead

I've been using the 65-inch Sony A95L at home for the last few weeks (that's it in my living room in the photo above), and I'm absolutely loving it.

It's that marrying of the brightness and vibrancy of QD-OLED technology to Sony's trademark cinematic authenticity that does it for me: it means the picture is hugely exciting and dynamic, yet also accurate and 'correct'.

It's great for gaming, too, and I'm really making use of the free, super-high-quality streams on Sony Pictures Core.

You would think, therefore, that I would be telling you to take up this A95L deal, which is the lowest price I've seen for the 65-inch model:

Sony XR-65A95L QD-OLED TV was £3699 now £2299 at Richer Sounds (save £1400)
The Sony A95L is a second-gen QD-OLED TV that marries incredible brightness and colour vibrancy to cinematic authenticity and subtlety. It looks stunning, too, and its Acoustic Surface Audio+ sound system is excellent.

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But I'm not going to do that, and the reason is two-fold:

The LG G4 is currently £800 cheaper

I don't like the LG G4 quite as much as I do the Sony A95L, but I do still like it a great deal.

And because LG is so much more aggressive with its pricing, the 65-inch G4 is available for vastly less, and a difference this big is too good to ignore.

The G4 has some advantages over the A95L, too: it's even easier to get the most out of (just use Filmmaker Mode and switch on the ambient light sensor and you're pretty much sorted); the webOS smart platform is better than the Sony's Google TV; and it's got four HDMI 2.1 sockets that support every gaming feature under the sun.

The G4 goes even brighter than the A95L, too, although its MLA OLED panel isn't quite as good at bright colours as the Sony QD-OLED panel is.

Still, at these prices, I would absolutely take the G4 over the A95L, and I'd spend the 'change' on a Dolby Atmos soundbar – the Sony A95L sounds good for a TV, but it's no match for even a mid-range soundbar such as the Sonos Beam Gen 2.

LG OLED65G4 2024 OLED TV was £3299 now £1499 at John Lewis (save £1800)
Lowest-ever price: £1172
The new LG G4 looks on paper to be much like the G3 it replaces, but the second-gen MLA OLED panel can go much brighter, and LG's picture processing has stepped up a gear this year. It's awesome for gaming, too.

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And the Sony A95L's replacement is now here

The second thing putting me off recommending that deal on the Sony A95L is that its successor, the Bravia 8 II, has just hit shops.

I'm not saying you should go out and buy the new model right now (I never recommend buying a TV at launch as prices are so inflated), but it's launched for less than the A95L did, and I don't think it will be too long before its hits the £2300 price point that the A95L is at now.

The Bravia 8 II's presence in shops now also means that the A95L's price is likely to drop further in the coming weeks and months.

So, while I love the A95L and would ordinarily recommend it in a heartbeat, anyone desperate for a flagship-level OLED TV right now should buy the LG G4 (and a soundbar) instead.

Those who can be patient, meanwhile, should wait either for the A95L's price to drop further or for the new Bravia 8 II (a review of which we're working on right now) to get its first discounts.