The best HDMI 2.1 TVs support the latest connection standard, which means improved video performance and the ability to transfer more information quicker between your connected device and your TV. At the moment, not many platforms take advantage of that, but it is great for gaming.
The increased bandwidth, compared to HDMI 2.0, makes games more responsive, the variable refresh rate (VRR) helps reduce blurring. The TV I think makes the most of these enhancements is the Samsung S90F, which is why I rate it as the best HDMI 2.1 for most people right now.
It's an incredible blend of performance, brightness, fast response times and a dedicated gaming hub make it a fantastic value pick, even if it is a 2025 model. If you want to keep the cost down more, then it's almost too easy to recommend the fantastic Hisense U65QF as the best budget HDMI 2.1 TV right now.
The best HDMI 2.1 TVs you can buy right now
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Best HDMI 2.1 TV overall
Of course it's important that the Samsung S90F has four HDMI 2.1 ports, meaning all its HDMI inputs support the standard, but there's a lot more to this TV than volume of ports. It also comes with a 120Hz refresh rate, which is ideal for console gaming, as all the current-generation consoles output at 120Hz.
So you get a TV that really seems to believe in supporting gamers, backed up with Samsung's Gaming Hub, which comes as part of the brand's Tizen OS software. If you plug a console into one of the four ports, the hub recognizes it and creates a quick start shortcut, where you can jump back into games from the TV's menu.
This automatically enables the S90F's Game Mode, which optimizes performance for your gaming session. All of this wouldn't matter though if the TV didn't also look incredible. We found in our lab tests that it can handle bright rooms and has great color accuracy, which showed from the moment you turned on the TV.
And, as an OLED TV, it's exceptional at handling contrast, so all the colors really pop off the screen. So if you're playing something vibrant or cartoon-ish, like something from the Mario series, it's going to look as fun and creative as you'd expect. But we found this impressive performance applies to dark and shadowy scenes and games too.
Movies, TV shows and sports all looked fantastic during testing, but it was during gaming on the Nintendo Switch 2 and PS5 that we felt the S90F shone. We put it through it's paces with Armored Core 6 and Elden Ring Nightrein, and there was no blurring as the 120Hz TV matches the refresh rate of the consoles.
- Read our full Samsung S90F OLED TV review
Best budget HDMI 2.1 TV
Although HDMI 2.1 ports have been common on flagship TVs for half a decade now, it's still a surprise to find a cheap TV like the Hisense U65QF with two HDMI 2.1 ports and so stacked with features. Not to state the obvious, but that's two fewer than the Samsung S90F, though it increases to four HDMI inputs with two HDMI 2.0 ports.
So that's enough to keep two consoles plugged in and have two spare for streaming devices. Of course it would be nice to have all four support the newer standard, but it's a decent compromise for a TV that's less than half the price of the Samsung S90F. That TV is also an OLED, where the U65QF is a Mini-LED TV.
In theory, that'd mean the Hisense set is less vibrant, but that wasn't our experience. The colors looked incredible in everything we watched, and our lab tests found that it has similar color accuracy to the S90F, a vastly more expensive TV. Occasionally during darker scenes, there was some glare, but not enough to distract from what's on.
Plus, there one area it has the edge over the Samsung set; refresh rate. The U65QF supports 144Hz natively, more than enough for all console gaming, and high enough to make it a good option for PC gaming, live sports or movies with fast-moving action. The rub is that it's response time is 13.1ms, compared to 9.1ms on the S90F.
In competitive gaming it can make a difference, but for single-player local games, you'll never really notice. Especially if you enable the TV's Auto Low-Latency Mode to reduce lag. All combined, this meant we really enjoyed playing games like Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, which held up well against more expensive TVs.
- Read our full Hisense U65QF review
Best HDMI 2.1 TV for bright rooms
I keep recommending Hisense TVs to people because they're incredible value; lots of features, great performance and a good price. The brand's niche is mid-range LED TVs, which keeps the cost down compared to their OLED counterparts. But you'd have a hard time spotting that the Hisense U75QG isn't an OLED.
Our tests found that it is exceptionally bright, registering at three times brighter than the Hisense U65QF and Samsung S90F. It's an incredible feat for a TV at all, especially at this price. And before we delve to far into its performance, the U75QG corrects the (minor) flaw of the U65QF: it comes with four HDMI 2.1 ports (instead of two).
Even more surprising was that it had such an impressive response time. In our lab, it hit 9.8ms, compared to the 9.1ms you'd get on the Samsung S90F. Yes, it's fractionally slower, but not in a material way. Plus, the Hisense U75QG is several hundred dollars cheaper than the Samsung model.
It has the highest refresh rate of all the TVs on this roundup, natively reaching 165Hz. This is probably more than you really need, unless you plan to use the HDMI 2.1 TV for PC gaming, but it's hard to complain when you get a higher spec for less money. Plus, it runs Google TV software, one of the easiest smart TV platforms.
The one word of caution I'd give is to not place the Hisense U75QG in direct sunlight. It has an anti-glare coating, but we found that it wasn't super effective when battling against a focused stream of light. But it'll easily hold its own in the brightest of rooms, making one of the best HDMI 2.1 TVs you can get right now.
- Read our full Hisense U75QG review
How we test the best HDMI 2.1 TVs
We test the best HDMI 2.1 TVs in the same way we test all TVs; we use them. Alright, it's not quite as simplistic as that, but practical, real-world use is the core of our reviewing process, because we want you to know what it's like to actually watch the TV, play games on it or listen to the dialogue before you spend your money on a new set.
But before you get to that (fun) part where we actually put on a movie, TV show or game, the television goes through our lab testing process. We use industry-standard equipment to measure key performance metrics, like brightness, response time and color accuracy to get an objective sense of how the TV behaves.
This allows us to compare how the set performs in the real world compared to the manufacturer's claims, and means we can more readily tell you what's changed since the previous model. The data plays a big part in our recommendations, as a brighter TV will be better for bright rooms, and lower lag better for gaming.
It's also thanks to these measurements that I still recommending the 2025 Samsung S90F, for example, even though Samsung has a new slate of OLED TVs from 2026 available. The data showed that the performance was largely the same on the old and new models, so why spend more on the newer TV when you don't need to?
Once the data is tucked away in our spreadsheets, it is actually time to sit down in front of the TV and watch a selection of movies and shows. We often choose media we know well so that we can cast a critical eye over the set's performance, rather than assessing the quality of the content itself.
We pull all the objective data and subjective testing experience into our reviews, which normally focus just on the model we're testing and how it compares to the older edition. Then those insights inform how we pull together our recommendations and which TVs we say are best for particular use cases.
How to choose the best HDMI 2.1 TVs
Choosing the best HDMI 2.1 TV is a lot like how to decide on any other TV. As useful as the improvements are with the newer standard, most TVs now come with at least a few HDMI 2.1 ports, so it's more important to think about what you need from your new set, where you plan to put it and what you want to watch on it.
But first, you want to figure out the right TV size for your room. Generally, TVs range from 43 or 50 inches through to 85 inches (and sometimes up to 100+ inches). The core tech in the display often remains unchanged through the sizes, with some exceptions for the smallest and largest sets, which may have different panels or power.
You might be thinking of a specific size because you imagine the new TV going into a large living room, as a secondary set in the kitchen or in a smaller dorm room. And that will likely influence what you use the TV for; movie and sports watching, background viewing or gaming.
The setting also plays a part in whether you need a super bright television to combat daylight or if it can be a bit dimmer as you plan to use the TV for late night bingeing or gaming. Technically, the same considerations apply for audio, but most TVs have pretty mediocre sound, so I nearly always recommend getting one of the best soundbars.
And while I know it's hard when all the marketing leads that way, but its important not to be swayed too much by the TV's specs. It's far more important how the TV actually performs than the type of panel in the display. Of course, it's hard to tell that when you're looking at a (virtual) box, which is why we test them before recommending any.
FAQs
What is HDMI 2.1 and what does it do?
HDMI 2.1 is the latest standard for connecting HDMI-based devices, usually for video playback. It was announced in 2017, implemented in some TVs by 2020, and became more common place in 2022. Most TVs now have at least two HDMI 2.1 ports that can take advantage of the port's improved performance.
It's a bit like when we transitioned from micro-USB and Lightning cables to USB-C, except HDMI 2.1 cables still look the same with the same shaped connector. The major difference is that the new standard increases the bandwidth (how much information can be sent), which opens up new possibilities.
Technically, this means you can stream 4K video at 120Hz, which would be exciting, except most devices and platforms don't stream 4K video at a suitable frame rate yet. So the new standard is currently less useful if you just plan to watch things on your TV. But for gaming, it means your console or PC can pass more information through and quicker.
This makes games more responsive, and HDMI 2.1 enables Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) where your TV can match the game's frame rate, leading to less blurring or tearing, where two frames end up mashed together. In our buying guides, I normally use Refresh Rate to refer to the fixed, native refresh rate of the TV.
For most content, this is what the refresh rate will be. But with HDMI 2.1's VRR, you often see TVs with a secondary, higher refresh rate. For a 120Hz TV, the VRR would typically be 144Hz or 165Hz, where it can temporarily display games at that speed.
HDMI 2.2 was officially unveiled in January 2025, but it took almost a decade for HDMI 2.1 ports to become commonplace on TVs, so expect HDMI 2.2 to rollout to TVs in the mid-2030s. But if HDMI 2.1 is any example, it'll be longer until you can actually take advantage of all the new improvements and features.
