When to buy a TV? The right time for your TV purchase

Many manufacturers introduce their new line-up every year in January, and if you’re looking for a new TV, you’ll naturally ask yourself whether you should buy a prior year model now or wait for a new TV after all. Here you can find out when the right time to buy a TV has come.

The price cycle of new TVs

As in the past years, the old models go through a similar price cycle. In January, the latest models are usually presented at the CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas. They then go on sale in the following months, mostly from March to April, at the manufacturers’ recommended retail prices – this is when the TVs are at their highest price.

From October to the end of the year, you can largely count on the best deals of many models presented in January. From January of the following year, prices gradually rise again and the new models are presented again – the cycle closes. It should be noted here that there are few exceptions that deviate from this cycle, such as Philips TVs or this year’s OLED TVs from Samsung.

As cheap as possible – When to buy a TV?

If you want to buy your TV especially cheap, you should wait for October to December. Here you can expect the biggest deals and also the most diverse offers. Offer weeks like the time around Black Friday, as well as Cyber Week represent highlights of the year when it comes to TV deals.

Unfortunately, you never know in advance which TVs will be on offer, so patience pays off in many, but not all cases. Another price low can be expected in June or July of the following year – but there may be stock shortages here, as some models are already completely sold out.

Those who regularly compare prices and do not simply look for offers on the closing date also have the best prospects of finding genuine offers and a reflected price idea. Often, in addition to the actual good offers, there are also some among them that seem better than they really are.

If you don’t want to spend the time or just want to make sure, you can of course rely on our highlight offers or our livestream, where we always present the best deals as marked highlight deals as well.

Ultimately, if you have the cheapest price in mind, you should always look at the previous year’s series and either from October of the year of release or from the summertime of the following year.

Do I need a new TV?

There are, of course, many reasons for buying a new TV, most of which are also extremely subjective. On the one hand, there are new technologies or other improvements that represent a really noticeable difference compared to the previous year’s model.

It could be a new or different panel technology, a different design, added gaming features like an HDMI 2.1 port, or something else entirely. The important thing is to understand what you want to use the TV for and what added value the new TV offers compared to the old one.

There are clear purchase arguments for gaming, for example, or when buying a new console that you want to fully exploit. There are many requirements that a TV can fulfill to fully exploit the latest games. But also the upgrade from Full HD to UHD or from SDR to HDR can drastically improve the TV experience with the appropriate material. If you want to dive deeper into this topic, we recommend our service article with everything you need to know about 4K resolution.

There are also the early adopters who always want the latest technology or those who are afraid that their favorite movie won’t be shown in the best possible quality. Roughly speaking, those who want the best of the best and are willing to pay for it.

If you only have a limited budget and are looking for a certain price range, you can find what you are looking for on our best lists. Here, you can find out whether there is a suitable TV in the respective price range that offers a correspondingly high added value or whether the current TV is sufficient:

When should I wait to buy a new TV?

If the budget is available or it is subjectively decided that the added value outweighs the costs, then there is nothing to stop you from buying a new TV model for the reasons mentioned above. It should only be pointed out that the novelties of many TV models do not offer such big changes compared to the previous year’s model, which is why a change is not always worthwhile due to the picture quality.

For example, let’s take the LG OLED C1 from 2021 and its predecessor, the LG OLED CX from 2020. Yes, the C1 is the slightly better TV on balance, but the two are so similar that in our opinion, the waiting period of about 9 months, but also the surcharge for the minimal improvements, is not worth it. Then we prefer to watch the 9 months already on an excellent TV and for a lower price!

Or even with the gaming features mentioned, you definitely don’t need all of them to enjoy even the console with the most requirements. Here, you should look at what the current TV already has and also what additional features the console would have to offer. Many gaming features are rather nice-to-have than really essential functions and generally only very few games support all features.

Sustainability or longevity can also play a role here. Because if there is no buyer for the old TV and it is just collecting dust in the basement, despite the fact that the last TV was not too old, then there are also moral reasons against buying a new TV.

But here, too, innovations may be waiting in the wings that are so promising that you would rather wait and see.

So when is the best time to buy a TV?

As is so often the case, it depends on your own situation. Factors like the budget and the current equipment are probably the most important. However, even with a high budget, we recommend waiting for a good offer and not simply buying the latest model on release every year. As listed in the article, there are many advantageous times to look at TV prices throughout the year – the main focus here is on October to December.

If you attach much more importance to the performance than to the price, then you should definitely wait for the new models, because especially in the high-end range there are even bigger differences every year than in cheaper model series.

Keep track of the best offers

Our secret tip is to take a look at our highlight deals, as well as our livestream. We recommend that you save the page and take a look every now and then. We keep an eye on prices throughout the year and highlight the best deals depending on how well we rate them, and in the livestream we give you free advice specific to your situation.

In addition, you should also keep in mind a target at which you would definitely strike, because if you keep waiting, you miss the cycle. Then you can only try again next year with a clear conscience to get hold of the TV at the lowest price. When the price of the new model is right, the successor will already be available.

Buy TV before or after Christmas?

Around Christmas time, many stores entice customers with offers. However, these are not necessarily as good as they seem. There are great offers before and after Christmas, but a general purchase recommendation can not be made here. It’s best to look at how the price will develop up to the Christmas period months before buying, so as not to fall for promising offers. Buying between October and December tends to be recommended.