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How to choose a TV in Australia: OLED vs Mini LED, size and gaming

A plain guide to buying a TV — panel types, the right size for your room, what gamers need and when prices drop — with live prices from Australian stores.

By the Compare Empire team2 min read Prices checked 26 October 2026

Most TVs look great in a showroom. What matters is how one looks in your room, with your content. Here's how to narrow it down in five decisions.

1. OLED or Mini LED?

OLED lights every pixel on its own, so black is truly black and contrast is the best you can buy. It shines in dim rooms and with films. Peak brightness is lower than the best LED sets, and static images held for many hours (news tickers, game HUDs) carry a small burn-in risk, so check the warranty.

Mini LED (often sold as QLED or Neo QLED) uses thousands of tiny backlight zones behind an LCD. It gets much brighter, which suits sunny living rooms and HDR sport, and has no burn-in risk. Blacks are very good but can show a faint glow around bright objects.

Standard LED sets are the cheapest. They're fine for a bedroom or a bright kitchen, but contrast and HDR are a clear step down.

2. The right size

For 4K, sit roughly 1 to 1.5 times the screen's diagonal away: about 1.6–2.5 m for a 65" set. Most people who upsize say they wish they'd gone bigger, and the jump from 65" to 75" often costs less than you'd expect.

3. What gamers need

For a PS5 or Xbox Series X, look for HDMI 2.1 ports with 4K at 120Hz and VRR (variable refresh rate). Check how many HDMI 2.1 ports a set has if you also use a soundbar on eARC.

4. Sound

Thin TVs have small speakers. Budget for a soundbar if dialogue clarity matters; even an entry-level bar is a big improvement. See our soundbar prices.

5. When to buy

New TV ranges usually arrive in autumn in Australia (spring overseas), so the outgoing models are often cheapest in the months after and around big sales. Every TV page here shows its price history, so you can see if a "sale" is real.

The most compared TVs right now

These are stocked by the most Australian stores, so the price gap between stores is real:

Browse every TV we track: all TVs A to Z.

How we pick: prices are today's lowest in-stock price across the stores we check, refreshed every morning. Nobody pays to be included. Specs come from the retailers' own listings. How Compare Empire works

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