This story is part of Holiday Gift Guide 2020, CNET’s gift picks with expert advice, reviews and recommendations for the latest tech gifts for you and your family.
This year, like everything else, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are going to be different. Major retailers such as Walmart and Best Buy are kicking off their sales earlier than ever this holiday season, spreading them out over the days and weeks before Black Friday itself (technically Nov. 27 this year), and most importantly focusing on online orders and curbside, contactless pickup to maintain social distancing.
No matter where or how you shop, this is the best time of year to get an amazing deal on a TV. Below you’ll find all of the best Black Friday TV deals we know about right now if you’re in the market for a new TV (for yourself, or as a gift!). Note that prices and inventory may change without notice, but were accurate at time of publication.
Note: The next update will be after 9 p.m. PT on Friday, Nov. 13, when we expect Walmart to add more live deals to its site.
Best Buy
TCL is best known for its Roku TVs, and we like the Roku smart TV system better than the Android TV version in this television, but for this price you can just buy a Roku Streaming Stick Plus, attach it to this TV and still come out ahead. Aside from its smarts we expect this 4-Series TV to perform “good enough,” just like the Roku equivalent.
Note that this was $50 cheaper last week, and therefore may be again — but for now it’s still a really solid deal on a 55-inch smart TV.
David Katzmaier/CNET
The best TV we’ve ever reviewed is in a whole other league compared to the doorbusters on this list, but if you’re willing to pay up this price is excellent and as low as it’s been all year. It might get even lower, but not by much.
The 65-inch version is also on sale for $1,897.
Read our LG CX-Series review.
What’s better than the best 55-inch TV we’ve ever tested? A bigger version. This is the best price of the year on the sweet spot size for the LG CX, and it’s big enough really appreciate its stellar image quality. We don’t expect it to go down too much further this year, but even if it does, the price drop won’t be massive.
Read our LG OLEDCX series review.
Best Buy
We haven’t reviewed this set and based on its specs we don’t expect it to match the picture quality of the best 75-inch models, but if you prioritize a big picture over everything else this is the cheapest price we’ve seen for a 70-inch TV, period. Like the TCL above it runs Android TV.
Target
The best TV deal in Target’s early Black Friday sale is on another 70-inch TV we haven’t reviewed. LG’s OLED sets (see below) will deliver a much better picture but if you can’t afford a better TV, and the Hisense above doesn’t appeal to you, this is still a very good price.
Best Black Friday deals coming soon
The following deals aren’t available yet, so if you click through to the merchant it won’t show the sale price. Patience, deals Padawan.
Sony
We haven’t reviewed this OLED but we expect its image quality to be similar to the LG CX above (as in: spectacular), and starting Nov. 22 at Best Buy, the 65-inch size will be $100 cheaper. By then the CX might get a price drop of its own, but then again it might not.
Look for this deal starting Nov. 22.
Amazon
This is technically a post-Black Friday deal, but it’s good enough to include here anyway. This is a spectacular price on a 50-inch TV, so expect it to sell out almost immediately.
Black Friday deals that have sold out or expired
The deals below are gone but since they could come back at any time, we’re keeping them here for now.
Speaking of TCL, this is the best price we’ve seen on a 55-inch TV this year. It’s basically the same as the 55S425 we liked so much, for around half of that model’s all-time lowest price. Just like that Onn TV above, we expect it to sell out fast.
Walmart
This TV is the first item listed in Walmart’s Nov. 11 pre-Black Friday ad, so expect it to sell out fast. The retailer’s Onn house brand isn’t known for world-beating image quality, but we expect it to perform about as well as the TCL 4-Series (see below) and it has the same great Roku operating system.
Insignia
This slightly larger Insignia has recently been selling for $150 but Best Buy cut another $50 off the price.
Sarah Tew/CNET
We haven’t reviewed Vizio’s first OLED TV yet — the company has been late shipping samples due to COVID-19 — but Vizio TVs have performed well in past reviews and this price, compared to something like the CX above, might be too good to pass up.
As with the LG CX above, there’s also a 65-inch size on sale (again to Best Buy members only) for $1,500.
Note that this deal has expired (although it could return again soon) and when it was available, it was reserved for Best Buy members only.