Are 8K TVs Worth Buying in 2025?
Buying a TV in 2025 is a surprisingly complex experience. The sheer number of models, coupled with the different ways companies describe similar technologies ( OLED vs. QLED , microLED vs. miniLED), is enough to make your head spin.
One of the most important decisions you’ll likely make about your TV is picture quality. Right now, that means choosing between 4K and 8K. The former isn’t that old of a standard (if you’re buying physical media, 4K Blu-ray is the best you can do), while 8K is the latest major – and expensive – upgrade. But is an 8K TV worth buying in 2025? In limited cases, yes, but for most people, you’ll be better off with a 4K TV.
What does 8K even mean when it comes to TVs?
Like your computer screen, your TV is made up of pixels. The more pixels on your screen, the more detail you see. Over the past 15 years, TVs have gone from fairly low resolution standards of 480p (640 x 480 pixels) to 720p (1280 x 720 pixels) and 1080p (1920 x 1080 pixels). Newer TVs have increased the resolution to 4K, which is 3840 x 2160 pixels, while 8K is 7680 x 4320 pixels.
However, this pixel count does not change depending on the size of the TV. So if you can imagine it, a 100-inch 4K TV will have less detail than a 50-inch 4K TV because there are more pixels packed into the smaller space of the 50-inch TV.
The content delivered to your screen — whether it’s a video game, a streaming show, or a Blu-ray movie — also comes at a specific resolution, and it may be lower or higher than your TV can theoretically handle. If your video game is delivered at 4k resolution and your TV only delivers 1080p, you’ll see the content at a lower resolution.
When you watch content at a lower resolution than your TV (like a 720p, 1080p, or 4K movie on an 8K TV), your TV has to enlarge the image to fill the screen. If it were displaying the video at its native resolution, you’d see a tiny version of the video surrounded by black, since your TV has many more pixels than the video. To do this, your TV “adds” extra pixels based on the video, guessing what data the new pixels should use to fill the screen—what’s known as “scaling.”
The algorithm that does this upscaling varies depending on the brand and model of your TV or media player, and the results will vary. Some TVs do a better job of this than others. When you read TV reviews, most of them discuss the upscaling feature and how successful it is.
What is the difference between 4K and 8K?
Simply by doing the above calculations, you will notice that 8K content offers four times the resolution of 4K, which appears to be significantly more detailed. If you have watched 8K content, you may have noticed its “hyperrealism.” The clarity of color is unmatched, the depth of darkness your eye can perceive in the content is significant. (To get a true sense of how much better 8K is, I compared several Youtube videos provided at both resolution thresholds, and the difference was immediately apparent.)
The problem is that in 2025, there still isn’t much 8K content out there. The vast majority of streaming and gaming is still in 4K. The only 8K content I’ve found in the last eighteen months of using an 8K TV is essentially those same YouTube videos and the odd gaming experience. While it’s realistic to predict that more 8K content will be produced in the future as screen resolutions seem to keep getting higher, that hasn’t borne fruit yet.
Regardless of the content, the upscaling of 4K content on my 8K TV is so good that I still feel like I’m viewing most content in higher resolution 8K. I notice this when I switch between TVs in my house (one 4K, one 8K), especially if I’m watching a show and viewing the same content on both devices. When you go from 8K to 4K, the content will appear grainy for a while while you adjust.
Technologies required to support 8K content
Higher resolution TVs require more power because they have more pixels to light and control. But that’s not the only power consumption. The upscaling I keep talking about is done by the chip that processes the information, and that chip is also power hungry. While all LED panels have a backlight, 8K TVs may require more dimming and backlighting to maintain the resolution detail. That means more power consumption. In fact, one of the most shocking aspects of the 8K TV in my living room is the amount of heat the TV produces as a result of all the power it consumes.
Content delivered in high definition means that the content has higher data rates. If you are streaming to get this content, this means that you need more bandwidth from your internet service provider to get the content to your device.
When you can afford it, 8K content is truly stunning.
When I first installed an 8K TV in my home last year ( a 65-inch model courtesy of Samsung) , I spent a full week feeling like a five-year-old at Disneyland. I was absolutely blown away by the detail and size that so many pixels packed into such a small space provided. ( That’s about 33 million pixels , compared to about 8.3 million pixels on 4K TVs .)
I spent a lot of time that winter in front of the TV, watching an 8K video of a fireplace on YouTube. At first, I was shocked by how three-dimensional it looked. I could see that the higher resolution had extra saturation and depth of color compared to 4K.
The problem is that 8K content is hard to find. Japan has a dedicated 8K sports channel . TCL TVs have a dedicated high-definition channel with 4K and 8K video called The Explorers , and RED has an entire site dedicated to finding movies shot in that high resolution. Even smartphones are starting to support 8K video recording, with Samsung perhaps the most visible . But that’s it: 8K content is out there, but it’s limited. In fact, Samsung is the only one releasing 8K TV models in 2025.
8K TVs Can Make Old Stuff Look Surprisingly Good
One thing I’ve learned over the past year is that when we discuss 8K TVs, we should focus more on the upscaling capabilities rather than the native 8K content (which, as mentioned, is hard to find).
In my experience, the AI models and machine learning used to determine upscaling on my Samsung are simply amazing. I have a habit of re-watching very old TV content, including TV from the 70s and 80s. Last year, I used my 8K TV to binge-watch the 80s sitcom Who’s the Boss . While it lacked the detail of 8K video, it looked like it was shot with modern technology, which is a huge improvement over the original presentation. The same processor made TV shows and movies from the 90s, 2000s, and beyond look brand new, despite never having been shot in 8K.
It’s not just old stuff: Even content shot in 4K gains visible detail during the upscaling process. I noticed this most when watching movies with a lot of dark or dimly lit scenes. The extra pixels help your eyes understand what’s going on in the darker areas of the video. Watching the new season of The Last of Us over the past few months has been noticeably better on my 8K TV compared to my 4K model.
8K TVs are getting more expensive
You may have heard that you shouldn’t buy the newest or most expensive model of something, but instead choose a slightly older model that has been well tested and has a lower price.
While 8K TVs weren’t significantly more expensive than their 4K counterparts last year, that’s no longer the case. Samsung’s 65-inch 8K TV currently costs $3,279, while the 4K model costs $1,797. In my opinion, TVs are like major appliances: You should plan on keeping them for several years. (Research shows the average lifespan is 6.6 years .) So by buying a 4K TV now, you’re essentially betting that 4K will still be the standard in a few years.
Of course, you may simply not value ultra-high definition as much as I do, and that’s okay, too. There are a lot of factors that go into making a major purchase like this, and it would be a mistake to paint a general picture and assume that all 8K TVs will be prohibitively expensive if you consider them to be a device that will last you half a decade or more.
You definitely need an extended warranty.
Before I installed the Samsung monolith on my living room wall, I had a 2012 Panasonic 720p. It had never let me down in 12 years. Last month, my 16-month-old Samsung 8K TV went dim, and fixing it wasn’t as simple as replacing the backlight. On luxury models like this, the solution is often to replace the entire screen, which is about the same price as replacing the entire TV. I was shocked by this discovery. If you’re going to buy something as expensive as an 8K TV, I’d consider a warranty a must.
8K is nice, but not necessary
In my experience, watching 8K content is absolutely mesmerizing, but it’s just not enough to make me tell you to rush out and buy one for your next set. If you’re not desperate to upgrade, you might want to wait – and that’s not to say 4K content doesn’t still look great. A high-end 4K TV will give you all the smarts, brightness, contrast, and great native resolution for content that’s available now, and you’ll still be able to enjoy it long after 8K becomes the norm.