Key takeaways:

• High-end TV brightness has evolved from around 1,000 nits highs of over 4,000 nits, driven largely by Mini- and Micro-LED technologies.
• TVs with exceptional peak brightness (e.g., TCL X11K, LG G5) can be up to half as bright when switched to the most color-accurate "Movie" or "Filmmaker" modes.
• TVs that measure under 1,000 nits in accurate mode are still sufficient for a good viewing experience, including HDR movie watching and gaming.

Anyone who's ever been to a Best Buy or Target is familiar with the "wall of TVs" -- a long corridor of televisions with each one set to an eye-searing brightness. This mode is often called either "Shop Mode" or "Vivid" or "Dynamic" depending on the brand. Here at CNET, we've been saying for a very long time that Vivid is great for selling TVs, but not for watching TVs.

CNET has been testing TVs in our dedicated lab since the turn of the century, and we have a wealth of data covering every aspect of a TV's performance -- across hundreds of models. Yet, TVs have changed a lot in that time, as have the things we watch on them. It doesn't seem possible, but TVs continue to improve every year, and one of the most obvious ways has been in the amount of brightness they're capable of.

So, using test data my colleagues and I have gathered in the CNET TV Lab, I've seen how brightness has increased over the past few years. With this knowledge, I'm here to help you decide what kind of brightness you can expect when choosing a TV, and what all of that extra light is actually useful for. 

Read more: Best TVs of 2026

Our data confirms TV brightness has exploded

For the past few years, TV manufacturers have been engaged in a brightness war, and it continues to this day. In 2026, the TCL QM8L was advertised as capable of up to 6,000 nits, which, according to projector-maker Valerion, puts it in the "outdoor sporting display" range. Do we need that in the living room? 

Until 2025, the brightest TV we had reviewed was the Vizio PX65-G1. It was released in 2019, and was brighter than any TV before or since, at 2,900 nits -- yet, that's still half as bright as TCL claims it to be. At the time of the Vizio's release, most TVs we reviewed were under 1,000 nits. In the past 18 months, the brightness TVs have been able to produce has exploded, from a maximum of 2,900 nits to over 4,500, and the new QM8L (review soon) even says to go to 6,000. Most "normal" TVs have also increased in maximum brightness to between 1,000 and 1,500. 

The massive improvement in brightness levels has largely been driven by LED-based models such as the TCL QM8 series and the Hisense U8QG -- the latter of which I measured at over 4,000 nits. With the move to mini and even micro LED, manufacturers have been able to fit thousands of times more light sources into their TVs, which jacks up the brightness. 

There are a couple of models that are capable of offering both high brightness and accuracy, and the best at this is the Hisense U8Q. As you can see from the graph above, Hisense wasn't the only TV that managed exceptional brightness, but not all of them were as bright in their "accurate" mode. Some were half as bright. The trend is most obvious with the TCL X11L, TCL QM9K and LG G5, which have the highest brightnesses for their respective technologies, but are up to half as bright in their Movie modes.

There's some physics at play here. There are a bunch of tricks manufacturers can use to boost their TVs' apparent brightness, for instance, by changing the color of "white," also known as color temperature. We naturally perceive bluer TVs, or those with a high color temperature, as brighter. Since backlights are often made with blue LEDs, this naturally shifts the color response from "accurate" to "blue-ish". This can help to inform the Vivid mode, which is very bright and immediately impressive, but not something you can sit down and watch a lot of. Everything can look hyper-real, like an "uncanny valley" cartoon.

While the technology that is pushing the envelope is LED-based, OLED hasn't been without its advances. LG's move to a "four-stack" technology -- effectively sandwiching two OLED panels together -- helped boost the G4's brightness tremendously. With the release of the G6, however, we've seen that continued increases in light output have been minor since then. Designs like the G5 and G6 can't compete with the absolute torches that are the latest micro RGB TVs, and most people don't need them to do so, either. 

Why brightness isn't everything

When you see a TV advertised as "OMG the brightest thing ever," it's usually because the model is set to that Lambada: The Forbidden Dance mode, aka Vivid. Setting it to Movie or Filmmaker will make it look a lot better, but what about all that brightness you paid for? Why can't TV manufacturers just make TVs work well at higher brightness levels?

I have yet to formally review any 2026 TVs as I write this, but I have measured quite a few, and none of the models have hit the highs established last year. Is the brightness war already over? It's too early to say, but the move to MicroRGB could mean TVs are going to be more colorful rather than terribly bright.

This isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Last year, at the launch of the LG G5, the company's technicians showed us a demo of how bright the screen could get. Then one of the techs said something to the effect of, "You don't want to run the TV like that all the time," before quickly turning the set off. This is one of the issues limiting how bright they can get -- running a TV at maximum brightness all the time isn't actually good for it, especially if it's an OLED. 

Running any TV at full clip reduces the life of the diodes and, therefore, of the panel itself, and with static images can increase the risk of image retention or burn-in. In the case of the G5, it looks very good indeed when set to its -- still bright -- Movie mode, so much so that I gave it a Labs Award for Best Color Accuracy.

Brightness is an important consideration, but it's only one piece of the image quality pie. Color and contrast are just as important. Think about all of the movies that are set at night -- usually a chase scene of some sort. It's usually very dark and hard to see what's going on, especially on a TV that doesn't show shadow detail very well. Can you think of scenes that are mostly white? There aren't nearly as many, so filmmakers don't always use light tones as much as dark ones.

Some of my favorite TVs are actually quite dim. The QM6K is one of the best TVs under $1,000, but it struggles to get 600 nits. The LG C4 is an excellent TV, but its accurate mode, as CNET tested it, is under 1,000 nits. Yet it's still bright enough for gaming and movie-watching. 

How much brightness do you really need?

With the invention and proliferation of High Dynamic Range content, the brightness a TV needs to convey has increased dramatically. There are several brightness levels for content, and the most common are 1,000 nits and 4,000 nits. Until now, there hasn't been a reliable way to tell what content is set to what brightness, and to have your TV use it. One company wants to help.

While Dolby Vision is one of the HDR tentpoles, Dolby has produced a sequel designed to improve picture quality for TVs from budget through to premium models. Dolby Vision 2 allows content creators and TV makers to make use of all that extra light output. We're at least 12 months away from seeing compatible content or hardware, though. 

So Dolby Vision 2 is coming, but where is this brightness most useful right now? In a single word: gaming. Unlike streaming platforms like Netflix, game developers can pretty much set the HDR brightness of their game to whatever they want. As part of my Labs regimen, I test every new TV with a battery of gaming tests, including playing fast action games, and found that the extra brightness can help the image pop and improve immersion. Playing a video game like Call of Duty on Xbox is the easiest and most fun way to tell the difference between a 3,000-nit TV and a 1,000-nit one.

While it can't hurt to buy a bright TV, most TVs can deliver a good picture. Even budget models like the excellent Hisense QD7. Its features, like Dolby Vision and the forthcoming update, help these TVs deliver the punchy picture you want without paying for a bunch of LEDs you don't need.

CNET's buying advice

Next time you're in a big-box store and see the line of screens, you can really look at the TVs that catch your attention. Yes, they're bright, but look for those little tricks, like an overly blue cast or rosy red people. What the companies want you to do is compare Vivid modes, and so making a decision on this is almost impossible.

As always, it's best to do your homework when buying a TV -- check CNET, other review sites and forums like Reddit. Sometimes a bright TV will look good at maximum brightness in your house, but not always. The good news is that TVs are generally better and brighter than they were a decade ago, and they continue to improve, so the likelihood of buying a turkey is minimized.