CES 2024 is nearly here.

If you’re a tech-focused person, get your best walking shoes prepared and your warmer-weather clothes ready for the massive, fun convention in Las Vegas.

The massive tech event creates headlines and debuts new products each year, and we’ve got all the details you need for the 2024 edition.

What is CES 2024?

First off, in case you didn’t know, CES is an acronym for Consumer Electronics Show. And, well, the event is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a massive convention in Vegas focused on tech products mostly intended for everyday people. Last year, for instance, some of the highlights included a device that turned Apple devices into high-powered camera monitors, an accessibility-minded gaming controller, and AR glasses.

This year, it seems like TVs could be a big focus, considering TCL has already shown off the prototype for a foldable television.

The convention features thousands of exhibitors, major product launches, and presentations by huge names in tech. In short, it’s one of — if not the — biggest events in the tech world.

When is CES 2024?

The 2024 edition of CES is scheduled for Jan. 9-12, with some media-only events in the preceding days. You can find the entire schedule on CES’s website.

CES 2024 exhibitors

CES 2024 exhibitors that you should watch out for are Samsung, LG, Sony, Nvidia, TCL, and Hisense, particularly if you’re curious about the new TVs that will hit the scene at the popular Vegas trade show. If you have interest in cars, keep an eye out for Kia, Hyundai, and Honda.

CES 2024 ticket prices

Here’s the tricky part about CES: You have to been an industry member, media member, or exhibitor to attend. It is not open to the general public. How does one prove they’re in the industry. CES lists a number of ways, including a business card, proof of employment, your name on a company website, or a recent media article listing you as an industry professional.

Now, once you’re allowed in, the cost of tickets vary. Since we’ve passed the deadline for discounted tickets, they now cost $350 for an exhibits plus pass. That gets you into most of the standard experiences and grants you access to exhibitor booths. A deluxe pass, which costs $1700, adds on extra conference programming, partner programming, and other features.

CES is set to get underway quite soon, so if you want to go, make plans now. But if you cannot make it, be sure to watch out for all of Mashable’s on-the-ground coverage.

Astronomers have found a world less than 900 light-years away in space being whipped and battered by enormous cyclones.

The findings, which relied on previous Hubble Space Telescope observations, show brutal storms are repeatedly created and destroyed in the vast temperature swings between the side of the exoplanet that faces its host star and the side in darkness.

WASP-121b, sometimes known as Tylos, the ancient Greek name for Bahrain, hugs its star so tightly that its upper atmosphere is 3,400 degrees Fahrenheit – twice as hot as the typical cremation oven. (We looked it up.)

To help visualize this hellscape, a team of scientists supported by NASA and the European Space Agency created a video, below, that shows the exoplanet’s weather in action. And if you think those undulations look punishing, consider this: The whole thing has been slowed down to allow people to see the weather patterns in closer detail.

Credit: NASA / ESA / Quentin Changeat (ESA / STScI) / Mahdi Zamani (ESA / Hubble)

Needless to say, Tylos isn’t one of those exoplanets scientists are thinking could be a Plan B for Earth. But as experts learn how to study weather on exoplanets, this research could help them find the worlds with more temperate climates in the future.

To make the discovery, the international team assembled and reprocessed Hubble archives from 2016, 2018, and 2019. The researchers used the data to infer the chemistry, temperature, and clouds of the atmosphere at different times, said Quentin Changeat, co-author on the paper accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement. Then, the team used computer simulations to model the drastic weather variations.

“This provided us with an exquisite picture of the planet changing over time,” he said in a statement.

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The number of confirmed exoplanets — planets orbiting stars other than the sun — has risen to 5,566, with over 10,000 more candidates under review.

The growing tally only scratches the surface of planets believed to be in the cosmos. With hundreds of billions of galaxies, the universe likely teems with many trillions of stars. And if most stars have one or more planets around them, that’s an unfathomable number of worlds.

Tylos is a type of exoplanet known as an ultra-hot Jupiter, a world more massive than the actual Jupiter that orbits extremely close to its star. The giant exoplanet orbits its star in under 1.5 Earth days.

It’s a strange place that gets stranger with every study. In 2022, scientists suspected the world’s dark side is cool enough to host metal clouds that rain liquid gems.

A “torrent” of ultraviolet light from the host star is heating the planet’s upper atmosphere, causing magnesium and iron to vaporize and vent into space as gas, according to the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore.

And the gravitational forces from the star are so strong, they seem to have smushed the planet into a football shape.

Around 3,000 years ago, a star 15 times bigger than our sun exploded. Now, scientists are watching it blast valuable elements into space.

Astronomers have a powerful new observatory orbiting Earth, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency-led XRISM (X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission). In collaboration with NASA, the team just captured an unprecedented view of this exploded star, now called “supernova remnant N132D,” located some 160,000 light-years away.

Massive stars forge elements deep inside their hot, pressurized cores, and can also create elements during a violent stellar blast that occurs when they run out of fuel and collapse. In the image below, you’re seeing the wreckage of such a star enrich the cosmos with these elements. The XRISM observatory picked up evidence of iron, calcium, sulfur, silicon, and argon. (Iron, you may recall, is a vital part of our blood.)

“These elements were forged in the original star and then blasted away when it exploded as a supernova,” Brian Williams, NASA’s XRISM project scientist, said in an agency statement.

The expanding, bubble-like remnant of gas and elements is about 75 light-years across (and one light-year is around 6 trillion miles).

The inset on right shows a close-up of supernova remnant N132D.
Credit: Inset: JAXA / NASA / XRISM Xtend; Background: C. Smith / S. Points / the MCELS Team / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA

An artist’s conception of the XPRISM satellite in orbit.
Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab

XRISM carries an instrument, called a spectrometer, that is invaluable for sleuthing out the composition of distant cosmic objects. The James Webb Space Telescope, for example, carries a spectrometer. Spectrometers take in light and then separate it into different colors, similar to a prism, with different colors indicating different elements. XRISM detects a type of light called x-rays, which different objects in the universe — like exploded stars and the matter swirling around black holes — emit into space.

“XRISM will provide the international science community with a new glimpse of the hidden X-ray sky,” Richard Kelley, the U.S. principal investigator for XRISM at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, said in a statement. “We’ll not only see X-ray images of these sources, but also study their compositions, motions, and physical states.”

The ambitious space mission, launched in September 2023, is just beginning. It’s designed to last three years, but given the track record, it’ll likely last for a lot longer.

There’s a megalodon tooth resting on my fireplace mantle.

The ancient, palm-sized fossil is fascinating, but a common household curio: Teeth from the giant extinct shark — which grew around 50 feet long, which is longer than a city bus — are frequently found in accessible coastal areas worldwide. The sharks’ huge jaws were lined with 276 teeth, and they likely lost and replaced thousands over their lifetimes, allowing plenty of teeth the chance to fossilize.

But scientists now report the first-ever discovery of a megalodon fossil in the extremely remote, completely dark deep sea, located over 10,000 feet (3,090 meters) beneath the surface. The finding, made by a remotely operated robot, reveals significant insights about the lives of these ocean giants, who lurked in the seas some 20 million to 3.6 million years ago. They were big enough to eat whales.

“This is an amazing find and is interesting in several aspects,” Nicolas Straube, a deep sea shark researcher at the University Museum Bergen in Norway and co-author of the study, said in a statement. The study was recently published in the science journal Historical Biology.

One of the main insights is that the predatory megalodon likely traversed the oceans, as opposed to just lurking along the coasts.

“The sample indicates that megalodon was not a purely coastal species and that this species migrated across ocean basins similar to many modern-day species such as the great white shark,” Jürgen Pollerspöck, a researcher at the Bavarian State Collection of Zoology in Germany and another co-author of the study, also said in a statement.

You can see the deep sea fossil below. And starting at 4:10 in the following video, you can watch footage of scientists using the remote operated vehicle Hercules to collect the rare specimen.

The megalodon fossil collected at over 10,000 feet (3,090 meters) down.
Credit: Katherine Kelley

Another important revelation from the fossil, found in the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, located southwest of Hawaii, was its coating in a black mineral called ferromanganese. It takes a million years for just a few millimeters to accrue on deep ocean objects, providing evidence that this megalodon fossil, lodged in sediments and removed with a shovel, had been there for eons.

Shark biologists are still investigating why the megalodon, a species that once dominated the seas, went extinct. Cooling oceans could have been a contributor, and more recent research suggests the megalodon and great white sharks coexisted as apex predators near the end of the megalodon’s reign, some 5.3 to 3.6 million years ago. That means they were competitors for prey. Ultimately, the megalodons may have been put at a disadvantage because they likely took longer to grow so large and reach sexual maturity. More deep fossil finds may paint a clearer picture.

The deep sea is still largely unexplored, though scientists with several ocean exploration groups are making enormous research strides. This recent expedition, funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Ocean Exploration program, occurred aboard the Ocean Exploration Trust’s 224-foot-long vessel (E/V) Nautilus. It’s designed to deploy exploration robots into the deep sea, largely in the sprawling Pacific Ocean.

The partially reconstructed jaws of a megalodon.
Credit: Ethan Miller / Getty Images

Indeed, deep sea exploration missions often return to the surface with discoveries, or rarely seen sightings.

“We always discover stuff when we go out into the deep sea. You’re always finding things that you haven’t seen before,” Derek Sowers, an expedition lead for NOAA’s Ocean Exploration mission, told Mashable in 2022.

The U.S. GOES-East satellite, orbiting 22,300 miles above Earth, snaps detailed images of powerful storms and our planet’s dynamic weather.

From its perch in space, this satellite also peers back at the sun, and has recently captured views of solar flares — explosions of light from the sun’s surface. This activity has ramped up as our medium-sized star has entered a more active state. Don’t worry — these powerful bursts from the sun are normal, though they can pose huge risks to our electrical grid and communication infrastructure.

Similar to storm seasons or climate patterns on Earth, the sun experiences a cycle of weather. The sun’s lasts for 11 years. During this pattern, solar activity increases for some 5.5 years, then decreases, then picks up again.

“It’s the space equivalent of hurricane season. We’re coming into another one,” Mark Miesch, a scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center, told Mashable last year.

In this current cycle, solar activity will peak around July 2025 (aka the “solar maximum”). So expect some fireworks. For example, NOAA recently reported that on Dec. 14 the sun emitted a particularly powerful solar flare — the strongest of the current cycle and likely the most potent since 2017. It triggered temporary radio blackouts in the U.S. and across the Americas.

Below are views of recent flares captured by the GOES-East satellite. GOES-East orbits above Earth’s equator at a speed equal to our planet’s rotation, allowing it to stay fixed in the same place (also known as “geostationary orbit”).

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The sun doesn’t just emit solar flares. It also shoots out “coronal mass ejections,” or CMEs: These occur when the sun ejects a mass of super hot gas (plasma). “It’s like scooping up a piece of the sun and ejecting it into space,” NOAA’s Miesch explained. Sometimes solar flares trigger CMEs, and sometimes they don’t. What’s more, there are “solar energetic particle” events, or SEPs These are essentially solar flares with lots of energetic particles. They’re especially dangerous to astronauts and satellites.

Fortunately, our atmosphere protects us from things like X-rays and energetic particles emitted from the sun. Meanwhile, Earth’s potent magnetic field (generated by Earth’s metallic core) deflects many particles from solar storms and shields us from the sun’s relentless solar wind, a continuous flow of particles (electrons and protons) from our star.

Space weather scientists use a number of spacecraft, satellites, and ground telescopes to detect potentially damaging solar events, and to better predict when they might happen. A spectrum of potential hazards, ranging in seriousness from briefly problematic to extremely damaging, can ensue when the likes of a strong solar flare or CME hits Earth.

Infamously, a potent CME in 1989 knocked out power to millions in Québec, Canada. The CME hit Earth’s magnetic field on March 12 of that year, and then, wrote NASA astronomer Sten Odenwald, “Just after 2:44 a.m. on March 13, the currents found a weakness in the electrical power grid of Quebec. In less than two minutes, the entire Quebec power grid lost power. During the 12-hour blackout that followed, millions of people suddenly found themselves in dark office buildings and underground pedestrian tunnels, and in stalled elevators.”

Our sun, a giver of light and energy, makes life on Earth possible. But scientists stay wary of its powerful outbursts.

Sexting (dirty talk, swapping nudes, sending explicit audio messages…the list goes on, depending on your personal preference and comfort level) is one way to take your dating life to new heights.

Whether you’re single and ravenous for some sexy screen time with a stranger, in a long-distance relationship that’s keeping the passion alive through digital intimacy, or interested in amping up your solo sex toy sessions with steamy instructions from your partner, mastering the act (art?) of sexting could lead to a more fulfilling physical and emotional experience.

Once viewed as taboo, sexting is a mainstream way to communicate your desires.

According to a 2023 survey of U.S. adults by the market research platform Statista, 77 percent of participants said they’ve sent at least one sext — that’s up from 45 percent in 2019 and just 14 percent about 10 years ago.

And we’re pretty sure those numbers will rise as tech advances and societal norms evolve to become more accepting and inclusive of sexual expression.

Sexting isn’t just a saucy way to get off; it’s a great tool for building trust and intimacy and sharing or exploring your wants and fantasies in a consensual and safe manner. It can also help you and your partner feel more connected and maintain a strong sexual bond (so the next time you get together, it may be even hotter). This is especially true in long-distance relationships or during periods of physical separation.

How to start sexting

For some, just the thought of sending an explicit message or racy photo can be intimidating. (And that’s OK!) There are so many apps and resources out there to help even the most novice sexters feel empowered and confident.

Not sure where to start? Based on our research and hands-on testing, we’ve narrowed down the best sexting apps of 2024 to the following top contenders:

TL;DR: Looking for an affordable Apple Watch alternative? Through Jan. 7, snag the CMax Lite Smartwatch for just $39.99 instead of $59.99 — that’s a savings of 33%.

2024 has only just started, but the time is already ticking by. Whether you’re tracking your progress on a New Year’s Resolution or just relaxing after the holidays, a smartwatch could be the companion you need this year. 

You don’t need to shell out for an Apple Watch to get a high-quality smartwatch. Instead, just grab the CMax Lite Bluetooth Smartwatch. This Apple Watch alternative is a fraction of the cost with many of the same functions, and it looks pretty great too. For just one more day, this smartwatch has also been marked down to $39.99. No coupon needed. 

Celebrate 2024 with a smartwatch

The CMax Lite Smartwatch manages to do a lot while still costing only a little. This smartwatch has fitness functions like calorie counting, a step counter, a heart monitor, and even reminds you to drink water. Just keep in mind that this watch isn’t medical equipment, so the health functions may work better as estimates. 

You can set alarms and even use it to check the weather. Don’t worry about a little rain, though. The CMax is IP67 waterproof and equipped for adventures. You might be surprised how long the 220mAh battery lasts, too. 

An Apple Watch alternative under $50

Save this year on a great way to keep the time, count your calories, track your fitness, and more. 

January 7 at 11:59 p.m. PT is the deadline to get the CMax Lite Bluetooth Smartwatch on sale for $39.99 (reg. $59.99). 

StackSocial prices subject to change.

This feels significant: Disney has officially retracted a copyright claim on a third-party’s Steamboat Willie video on YouTube.

On Thursday, Mashable reported that YouTuber and voice actor Brock Baker had uploaded a video to his channel with over 1 million subscribers which was almost immediately hit with a copyright claim from Disney.

YouTube’s message to Brock Baker regarding Disney releasing the copyright claim on his “Steamboat Willie” upload.
Credit: Brock Baker

Baker’s video featured the entirety of the 1928 Disney animated short Steamboat Willie. He had remixed the film, which stars Mickey Mouse, with his own comedic audio track playing over the nearly 8-minute cartoon, and released it under the title “Steamboat Willie (Brock’s Dub).”

After being hit with the claim, Baker’s upload became demonetized, meaning the YouTuber could not make any money off of it. The claim also blocked the ability to embed the video on third-party websites. In addition, the YouTube video was given limited visibility, including being blocked from view entirely in certain countries. 

Baker disputed the copyright claim shortly after receiving it. His case appeared strong, as Steamboat Willie entered the public domain on January 1, 2024, allowing a broad range of creative usage of the film and its contents without Disney’s permission — including for profit.

He was successful.

“Disney released their claim and it’s now embeddable and shareable worldwide,” Baker told Mashable on Friday along with a screenshot of the email alert he received from YouTube letting him know the copyright claim was released.

“Good news! After reviewing your dispute, Disney has decided to release their copyright claim on your YouTube video,” reads the YouTube email message.

As a result of Disney pulling the claim, Baker’s video is now monetizable, embeddable, and viewable worldwide.

“I’m honestly glad it took 24 hours and not 30 days, still frustrating though,” Baker told us, referencing YouTube’s policies which gave Disney an entire month to respond to his dispute to their copyright claim. “I wish I knew what goes on behind the scenes.”

There has been lots of speculation online about what exactly can be done with Steamboat Willie that won’t draw the ire of or potential lawsuit from Disney, which still holds the trademark (which is different from a copyright) for uses of the iconic Mickey Mouse character in certain contexts. According to TechDirt, other Steamboat Willie videos have also reportedly received copyright claims over the past few days.

YouTube, for its part, historically asserts that it does not mediate copyright claims. It’s up to the copyright holder to make claims via its Content ID tool, and it’s up to uploaders to dispute those claims when they believe they were incorrectly made. According to YouTube, the responsibility to release claims on content that has fallen into the public domain is with the Content ID user, who in this case is Disney.

Based on how quickly Baker’s video was flagged, Disney’s copyright claim on his upload was likely automated, drawing from YouTube’s Content ID database. Mashable has reached out to Disney for more information and will update this piece if we hear back.

But, the way this has played out will likely be genuinely helpful to those looking to create new creative works based on the newly public domain title Steamboat Willie. By releasing the YouTube copyright claim on Baker’s video, Disney has made what could be its first official public action recognizing that Steamboat Willie along with this version of Mickey Mouse is indeed public domain.

In other words, content like Baker’s is allowed, with or without Disney’s input.

UPDATE: Jan. 5, 2024, 3:30 p.m. EST This post has been updated with the latest list of Dyson vacuums and air-purifying fans still on sale after the end of Dyson’s huge holiday sale.

Best Dyson deals this week:

---

Best cordless Dyson vacuum deal

Dyson Gen5detect

$849.99 at Dyson
(save $100)

Get Deal

---

Best Dyson fan deal

Dyson Pure Hot + Cool HP07

$599.99 at Best Buy
(save $150)

Get Deal

The automated convenience of a robot vacuum is undeniably sweet, but for some, a Roomba just can’t compare to the rush or attention to detail of manual vacuuming. That’s where the iconic cyclonic suction of a Dyson comes in — and you can bring it home on a budget with this week’s deals on Dyson vacuums.

Looking for air care or hair care deals instead? We’ll keep you posted on those, too.

Our top pick

Why we like it

The more compact version of Dyson’s newest (and most powerful) line of vacuums is one of the only cordless Dysons still on sale in the first week of the 2024. (It was $200 off ahead of the holidays compared to the $100 discount now, but it’s still something.) The Gen5detect pumps out the same 262 Air Watts of suction power as the Gen5outsize but weighs almost a pound less due to a smaller dust bin. All of that extra oomph doesn’t take away from battery life — you can manage up to 70 minutes of cleaning before charging the Gen5detect Absolute.

The Gen5detect line also has whole-machine HEPA filtration and ships with two cleaning heads: the Fluffy Optic head with a laser for illuminating dust and a Digital Motorbar with automatic hair detangling.

More deals on cordless Dyson vacuums

• Dyson V11 Extra — $469.99 $599.99 (save $130)

Dyson fan deals

• Dyson Pure Cool AM11 — $324.99 $429.99 (save $105)

• Dyson Hot + Cool Jet Focus AM09 — $329.99 $469.99 (save $140)

• Dyson Pure Hot + Cool HP04 (refurbished) — $349.99 $549.99 (save $200)

• Dyson Pure Hot + Cool Gen1 HP10 — $499.99 $599.99 (save $100)

• Dyson Pure Hot + Cool HP07 — $599.99 $749.99 (save $150)

UPDATE: Jan. 5, 2024, 3:00 p.m. EST This story has been updated with the latest deals on 4K and 8K TVs in the first week of 2024.

Best 4K TV deals this week:

---

Best 55-inch TV deal

TCL 55-inch Q5 QLED TV

$299.99 at Best Buy
(save $150)

Get Deal

---

Best 65-inch TV deal

LG 65-inch 99 Series Mini-LED 8K TV

$1,499.99
(save $1,000)

Get Deal

---

Best 75-inch TV deal

LG 75-inch UQ70 4K TV

$549.99 at Best Buy
(save $200)

Get Deal

---

Best 85-inch TV deal

Samsung 85-inch Q80C QLED TV

$2,199.99 at Samsung
(save $1,100)

Get Deal

Upgrading to a 4K TV — even a QLED or OLED — no longer has to be an intimidating financial setback. High-quality TVs featuring punchy colors, decipherable shadows, and smooth transitions have become increasingly affordable for regular consumers, made even more budget-friendly by frequent sales from retailers like Best Buy, Samsung, Walmart, and Amazon.

We’ve pulled the best TV deals from across the internet as of Jan. 5. Deals are categorized by brand, then listed in order of size (smallest to largest) and price (lowest to highest).

Samsung TV deals

Why we love it

Of the handful of 85-inch Samsung TVs majorly discounted right now, we think the deal on the extra-large Q80C for more than $1,000 off is the best bang for your buck.

The Q80C is Samsung’s most advanced QLED (before meeting the Neo QLED side of the family), packing 96 precisely-lit local dimming zones for the meticulous brightness necessary for watching sports in the daylight. Also present are advanced gaming features like a 120Hz refresh rate and VRR support.

More Samsung TVs on sale

• Samsung 50-inch TU690T 4K TV — $279.99 $379.99 (save $100)

• Samsung 50-inch QN90C QLED TV — $1,199.99 $1,599.99 (save $400)

• Samsung 55-inch The Frame QLED TV — $1,119.99 $1,499.99 (save $300 plus get a free $100 Best Buy gift card)

• Samsung 55-inch QN85C QLED TV — $1,199.99 $1,499.99 (save $300)

• Samsung 55-inch QN90C QLED TV — $1,497.99 $1,997.99 (save $500)

• Samsung 55-inch S90C OLED TV — $1,599.99 $1,899.99 (save $300)

• Samsung 55-inch S95C OLED TV — $1,999.99 $2,499.99 (save $500)

• Samsung 65-inch Q60C QLED TV — $749.99 $999.99 (save $250)

• Samsung 65-inch S90C OLED TV — $1,599.99 $2,599.99 (save $1,000)

• Samsung 65-inch QN85C QLED TV — $1,499.99 $1,999.99 (save $500)

• Samsung 65-inch QN90C QLED TV — $1,599.99 $2,799.99 (save $1,200)

• Samsung 65-inch The Terrace Full Sun Outdoor QLED TV — $7,499.99 $9,999.99 (save $2,500)

• Samsung 75-inch Q80C QLED TV — $1,499.99 $2,199.99 (save $700)

• Samsung 75-inch QN85C QLED TV — $1,999.99 $2,699.99 (save $700)

• Samsung 75-inch QN90C QLED TV — $2,397.99 $2,997.99 (save $600)

• Samsung 77-inch S89C OLED TV — $1,999.99 $3,599.99 (save $1,600)

• Samsung 77-inch S90C OLED TV — $2,499.99 $3,599.99 (save $1,100)

• Samsung 85-inch CU800 4K TV — $1,199.99 $1,599.99 (save $400)

• Samsung 85-inch Q60C QLED TV — $1,599.99 $2,299.99 (save $700)

• Samsung 85-inch Q70C QLED TV — $1,799.99 $2,799.99 (save $1,000)

• Samsung 85-inch QN85C QLED TV — $2,299.99 $3,799.99 (save $1,500)

LG TV deals

Why we love it

This 2021 65-inch QNED TV is one of the few LG TVs still at their holiday sale price — and the reigning discount happens to be an impressive 40% off. QNED is a mashup of LG’s NanoCell technology and quantum dots (which amp up color depth using an extra light filter of nanoparticles) and the backlighting of mini LEDs (like regular LEDs, but smaller for extra precision).

The 99 Series of LG QNEDs also happens to be 8K instead of 4K. That doubled resolution isn’t yet necessary for most streaming content that’s available right now, but this large, ultra-bright TV is sitting at such a good price that most similarly-sized 4K models from LG won’t be cheaper.

More LG TVs on sale

• LG 42-inch C3 Series OLED TV — $899.99 $1,149.99 (save $250)

• LG 42-inch Flex bendable OLED TV — $1,996.99 $2,499.99 (save $503)

• LG 48-inch A2 OLED TV — $549.99 $1,299.99 (save $750)

• LG 65-inch B3 Series OLED TV — $1,499.99 $1,999.99 (save $500)

• LG 65-inch C3 Series OLED TV — $1,599.99 $2,099.99 (save $500)

• LG 70-inch UQ70 TV — $498 $648 (save $150)

• LG 75-inch UQ70 4K TV — $549.99 $749.99 (save $200)

• LG 77-inch B3 Series OLED TV — $1,999.99 $2,899.99 (save $900)

• LG 77-inch C3 Series OLED TV — $2,499.99 $3,199.99 (save $700)

• LG 77-inch G3 Series OLED TV — $3,799.99 $4,299.99 (save $500)

• LG 86-inch UR7800 4K TV — $899.99 $1,249.99 (save $350)

• LG 86-inch 80 Series QNED TV — $1,899.99 $2,299.99 (save $400)

Sony TV deals

Why we love it

Of the several 4K TVs that Sony released in 2023, the X90L is the most premium regular LED model before the lineup switches over to mini-LED. Still, the X90L features full-array backlighting with local dimming that offers more precise brightness across the entire screen than a cheaper edge-lit LED TV. (That’s particularly helpful when the screen is so massive.) With better-than-basic lighting plus a high contrast ratio, low input lag, and VRR support, this 85-inch X90L is a great option for a big-screen budget gaming TV.

More Sony TVs on sale

• Sony 65-inch X80L OLED TV — $1,999.99 $2,299.99 (save $300)

• Sony 75-inch X90L 4K TV — $1,699.99 $1,999.99 (save $300)

• Sony 77-inch A80L OLED TV — $2,899.99 $3,299.99 (save $400)

More TV deals from Amazon, TCL, Hisense, and more

Why we love it

TCL’s Q5 series came out in late summer 2023 and knocked the Q6 Series out of its spot as the brand’s most affordable QLED. And with Best Buy’s discount pushing this model under $300, it’s easily the cheapest 55-inch QLED on our list.

A quick scroll up to our mid-size QLED picks from Samsung, Sony, and LG make the rarity of a 55-inch QLED TV under $350 palpable. The Q5 has most of the same specs as the Q6 including HDR PRO+ with Dolby Vision, Motion Rate 240 motion smoothing technology (a win for gamers on a budget), three HDMI ports, and built-in Google Assistant.

More TCL TVs, Vizio TVs, Fire TVs, and other TVs on sale

• TCL 43-inch S4 4K TV — $199.99 $249.99 (save $50)

• Insignia 43-inch F30 4K Fire TV — $189.99 $269.99 (save $80)

• Pioneer 50-inch 4K TV — $199.99 $299.99 (save $100)

• Vizio 50-inch V Series 4K TV — $248 $319 (save $71)

• TCL 50-inch Q5 QLED TV — $249.99 $399.99 (save $150)

• Insignia 55-inch F30 4K Fire TV — $239.99 $349.99 (save $110)

• Pioneer 65-inch 4K TV — $299.99 $499.99 (save $200)

• Insignia 65-inch F30 4K Fire TV — $349.99 $499.99 (save $150)

• TCL 65-inch Q5 QLED TV — $399.99 $599.99 (save $200)

• Toshiba 75-inch C350 4K Fire TV — $539.99 $799.99 (save $260)

• TCL 85-inch S4 4K TV — $799.99 $999.99 (save $200)

• TCL 85-inch Q6 QLED TV — $999.99 $1,299.99 (save $300)

• TCL 85-inch QM8 Mini-LED TV — $1,999.99 $2,399.99 (save $400)

• TCL 98-inch S5 4K TV — $2,999.99 $4,999.99 (save $2,000)