TV Pricing Is Deliberately Confusing

Television manufacturers have perfected a system designed to make price comparison as difficult as possible. The strategy is simple: give different retailers slightly different model numbers for what is essentially the same TV.

Samsung, LG, and Sony all do this. A Samsung TV sold at Best Buy might carry a model number ending in “B,” while the functionally identical set at Costco ends in “C.” The internal panels, processors, and features are the same or nearly so. The different suffixes exist primarily to prevent you from doing an easy apples-to-apples price comparison.

This is not a conspiracy theory. It is an open industry practice. And it works. Most buyers see two different model numbers, assume they are different products, and give up on comparing prices.

Understanding this tactic is the first step to buying a TV intelligently.

Key Factors Beyond the Sticker Price

Price matters, obviously. But TVs have enough meaningful variation that the cheapest option is not always the best value. Here is what actually affects your experience.

Screen Size and Viewing Distance

The most impactful spec for daily satisfaction is screen size relative to your viewing distance. A 55-inch TV is fine for a bedroom. For a living room where you sit 8 to 10 feet from the screen, 65 inches is the sweet spot. At 12 feet or more, 75 inches starts to make sense.

The price jump between sizes is not linear. Going from 55 to 65 inches might add $200. Going from 65 to 75 inches often adds $500 or more. Knowing your ideal size prevents both overspending on a TV that is too large and underbuying one you will want to replace in two years.

Panel Technology: LED, QLED, and OLED

This is where manufacturers love to confuse buyers with branding.

LED/LCD is the baseline. Perfectly fine for most rooms, especially bright ones. Prices start low and stay reasonable at larger sizes.

QLED is Samsung’s branding for LED TVs with a quantum dot layer that improves color. It is a meaningful upgrade in color accuracy, but it is still an LCD panel with the same contrast limitations. Do not let the name fool you into thinking it is a different class of technology.

OLED is the genuine premium tier. Each pixel produces its own light, which means true blacks, infinite contrast, and superior viewing angles. The tradeoff is higher cost and lower peak brightness compared to the best LED sets. OLED prices have dropped significantly in recent years, but a 65-inch OLED still runs two to three times the price of a comparable LED.

For most buyers in most rooms, a good LED or QLED set offers the best value. OLED is worth the premium if you watch a lot of movies in a dark room and care about image quality enough to pay for it.

Refresh Rate and Gaming Features

If you game on a console or PC, refresh rate matters. A 120Hz panel with HDMI 2.1 support enables smoother gameplay on PS5 and Xbox Series X. If you do not game, 60Hz is fine. Do not pay extra for features you will never use.

Smart TV Platform

Every TV ships with a built-in smart platform: Google TV, Tizen, webOS, Roku TV, or Fire TV. The platform affects your daily experience more than most specs because you interact with it every time you turn the set on. If you already own devices in a particular ecosystem (Google Home, Alexa), matching your TV platform simplifies things. But any of these platforms can be bypassed with a $30 streaming stick if you end up disliking it.

When to Buy a TV

TV pricing follows the most predictable seasonal pattern in all of consumer electronics.

Super Bowl Season (January - Early February)

Retailers discount TVs aggressively before the Super Bowl. This is one of the two best buying windows of the year. Inventory is high, competition is fierce, and deals are real.

Spring Model Transition (March - May)

New model-year TVs start arriving in spring. Retailers need to clear outgoing inventory, which means solid discounts on last year’s models. If you do not need the absolute latest panel technology, this window offers excellent value.

Prime Day (July)

Amazon’s mid-year event reliably produces good TV deals, and competing retailers match prices. This is particularly good for budget and mid-range TVs.

Black Friday Through Cyber Monday (November)

The deepest discounts of the year, period. The catch: many Black Friday TV “deals” are on special models manufactured specifically for the event with lower-quality components. Stick to name-brand models you can verify the specs on, and the savings are genuine.

The Worst Time to Buy

August through October is historically the worst window. New models have arrived at full price, the holiday discounting has not started yet, and inventory of discounted older models is often depleted.

How to Compare TV Prices Without Getting Fooled

Given the model number shell game, comparing TV prices takes a bit more effort than other categories. Here is a practical approach.

Identify the Core Model, Not the Retailer Suffix

Look up the TV you are considering on the manufacturer’s website. Identify the model series (e.g., Samsung S90D, LG C4, Sony Bravia 8). Then search for that series across retailers. The retailer-specific suffixes are cosmetic. Focus on the series name, screen size, and panel year.

Compare Current Prices Across All Major Retailers

The same TV series routinely varies by $100 to $300 across retailers. Search for TVs on Lowest Listed to see prices from Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart, and others in one view. This eliminates the tab-juggling that manufacturers count on to prevent comparison.

Use Price History to Validate “Sales”

TV retailers run near-constant promotions. The question is whether today’s price is actually good or just average with a red “SALE” tag. Checking the 30-day price history tells you immediately whether a listed discount represents a genuine dip or business as usual.

Check the Deal Score

When you are comparing across sizes, brands, and panel types, a Deal Score gives you a quick read on which listings represent genuinely strong value relative to the broader market. It is especially useful for TVs because the category has so many variables that raw price comparisons can be misleading.

Look for Stacking Coupons

TV purchases are high-dollar, which means even a modest percentage coupon translates to meaningful savings. Check for active retailer coupons before completing any purchase. A 5 percent coupon on a $1,200 TV is $60, which is worth the ten seconds it takes to look.

The Bottom Line

TV shopping rewards the informed buyer disproportionately. The model number game, seasonal cycles, and wide retailer price variance mean that the difference between a good purchase and an overpay can easily be $200 or more on the same television.

Know your ideal size. Understand the panel technology tradeoffs. Buy during a favorable window. And above all, compare prices across retailers before you commit.

Start your TV price comparison on Lowest Listed to see what the same set costs everywhere before you buy.