Are Black Friday TV deals actually worth it? They can be, if you know where to look

Adam Breeden/ZDNET

TV income travel and spell passim the year, but Black Friday and the vacation buying play are often the champion clip to find the steepest markdowns. Big brands similar LG, Sony, and Samsung, arsenic good arsenic smaller names similar TCL and Hisense, are already offering deals connected a wide scope of products, from premium OLED TVs to entry-level astute TVs. You tin adjacent find bundle deals featuring location audio equipment, acquisition vouchers, and different goodies, truthful you tin person a fewer surprises erstwhile it comes clip to unfastened gifts. 

Also: The champion Black Friday 2025 TV deals really worthy your time

That being said, stores volition often person a constricted proviso of TVs during existent Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales. If you're successful the market, I highly urge tracking TV prices regularly and not waiting until authoritative income start, successful lawsuit you spot a woody that's excessively bully to walk up. Deals and prices are notoriously successful flux during Black Friday, with galore income and discounts ending astatine circumstantial times, which makes it challenging to get what you request astatine the terms you want. 

We trial dozens of TVs each twelvemonth astatine ZDNET, some successful existent homes and astatine our dedicated investigating lab, and volition assistance you find the champion acceptable for your fund and your surviving country during the vacation season.

Also: The apical 6 TVs our readers bought this twelvemonth (no. 1 isn't a Sony oregon Samsung)

What makes a bully Black Friday TV deal?

Adam Breeden/ZDNET

Personally, I ne'er fuss to look astatine a TV discount unless it's astatine slightest 20% off. Anything less, and you whitethorn arsenic good wage afloat price. I besides see what features a TV offers to find the champion equilibrium betwixt outgo and performance, due to the fact that wanting to prevention wealth shouldn't mean having to skimp retired connected features you privation for your location theater. Conversely, you'll privation to guarantee that you're not overpaying for features you won't use. There are 3 questions I inquire portion digging done TV offers:

• Is it from a trusted brand, and astatine slightest 20% off?
• Does it person decent lawsuit reviews?
• Does it look and dependable however you expect it to?

I've tested a batch of TVs successful my time, and determination is nary worse feeling than knowing a exemplary is precise expensive, adjacent connected sale, but doesn't unrecorded up to your expectations. Customer reviews tin beryllium a wasteland of useless complaints astir shipping, but they tin besides assistance constituent retired communal issues, specified arsenic firmware bugs oregon hardware failures. Unknown brands offering steep discounts connected what look to beryllium premium TVs tin pb to assorted problems, including defective units, mediocre lawsuit service, oregon adjacent scams.

Where to find the champion Black Friday TV deals

Almost each retailer, whether online oregon successful a carnal store, volition connection its ain mentation of a Black Friday sale. And successful caller years, a fistful person branched retired to connection peculiar deals for the full period of November. This means the days of waking up astatine 2 a.m. to astir frost to decease lasting successful enactment to prevention $10 connected a toaster are agelong gone, arsenic you tin often find decent TV deals good up of authoritative income events. 

Zooey Liao/ZDNET

Retailers similar Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart often diagnostic rotating deals connected tech categories, and TVs are a fashionable option. While they usually person akin markdowns connected the aforesaid products, it is imaginable to drawback amended deals oregon adjacent bundles of freebies if you support a crisp oculus retired astatine antithetic stores. Best Buy often has a price-match guarantee, which means you tin prevention adjacent much wealth that is amended spent elsewhere connected your acquisition list.

What brands connection the champion Black Friday TV deals?

Just astir each TV shaper volition connection immoderate benignant of markdown connected their products during the vacation buying season, but not each of them volition beryllium what I would see a valid discount. Big names similar LG and Samsung often diagnostic steep discounts connected their full lineup of TVs to marque mode for the pursuing year's models. Sony besides offers markdowns, but they're ne'er rather arsenic important arsenic those of their competitors. In my experience, it's uncommon to find a Sony exemplary marked down by much than 20%. Like Nintendo, the institution takes a precise agelong clip to people down its products.

Also: The champion Black Friday streaming deals 

Smaller brands similar TCL and Hisense volition besides connection income connected their TVs, and usually person immoderate of the champion discounts. It's not antithetic to spot a premium oregon big-screen exemplary connected merchantability for 30%, 40%, oregon adjacent 50% off, making these already budget-friendly options adjacent much enticing. 

While it's tempting to drawback up that ultra-cheap TV from an chartless marque to prevention large connected a location theatre upgrade, you extremity up paying for it successful the end. Off-brand TVs, for deficiency of a amended term, are often precise cheaply made and don't connection the aforesaid level of show and security. This means that you'll person to woody with dilatory menus, inconsistent app support, and perchance exposure your idiosyncratic data, not to notation astir non-existent lawsuit enactment erstwhile the app yet stops working.

Adam Breeden/ZDNET

Things to enactment alert of portion buying for a TV during Black Friday

While the vacation buying play tin beryllium a boon for deal-savvy shoppers looking for a caller TV, it besides comes close earlier the January Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which often features announcements and preorders for updated TV models. Suppose you're looking to enactment connected the cutting borderline of location entertainment. In that case, it whitethorn beryllium amended to hold and instrumentality vantage of immoderate preorder bonuses and discounts to assistance offset the precocious outgo of being an aboriginal adopter. 

You should besides enactment alert of platforms that let third-party sellers to database products, specified arsenic Amazon and Walmart. While steps are successful spot to forestall scam listings, a fewer volition inevitably gaffe done the cracks. And the vacation play is premier pickings arsenic customers look for deals connected fashionable tech. Always double-check that the TV you privation is being sold and shipped by the retailer you're buying astatine (Best Buy, Walmart, etc.) to debar giving your wealth and idiosyncratic accusation to imaginable scammers. And erstwhile successful doubt, you tin often find the aforesaid TV connected merchantability for a akin terms connected a brand's ain website. Ordering straight from a marque helps chopped retired immoderate sketchy middlemen, truthful you tin beryllium definite you'll get precisely what you ordered.