Several times a year, electronics retailers slash prices on products as part of seasonal and holiday sales. Super Bowl weekend, President's Day, Amazon Prime Day, and of course Black Friday offer sizable discounts on big-ticket electronics like TVs. You might be able to find a great television for an amazing price during these sales. You might also wind up with a mediocre model you ultimately paid too much for, because product names and labels are confusing.
When you're shopping for a TV, the brand name can be a factor in features, design, and general quality. It's far from the biggest factor, however, because every TV manufacturer makes multiple lines of products.
There are budget-friendly TVs with low price tags and unambitious performance. There are midrange models with modest prices and performance to match. And there are high-end televisions with impressive performance and sky-high prices. And, after testing many of them, we’ve found that there are also budget TVs with great picture quality and pricey panels that aren’t up to snuff. If you simply follow a sale and buy a "Samsung TV" or a "Sony TV" or any other TV just because it has a discount, you'll have no idea exactly what kind of TV you're buying, or how good it is.
This is where stock keeping units, or SKUs, come in. In retail, SKUs are identifiers for specific versions of products. They identify the individual model of a given item, like a TV. Think of them as labels that let you figure out exactly what you’re buying when an ad or even the product box isn't completely clear on it.
Television SKUs are long and complex strings of letters and numbers that define a variety of aspects of each model. They can show the product line, screen size, and even individual retailer variants of TVs, and they're the key to decoding just how good a TV on sale is. They're also wildly different for each TV manufacturer.
With that in mind, here's a handy guide to decoding the SKUs of different TV manufacturers. It's a complicated system, but once you break down each label to its parts, it becomes much easier to navigate.
The Parts of the Number
Every television SKU can be broken down into individual components. Once you can identify these components, you can figure out things like screen size, tier/quality level, and even retailer exclusivity. Depending on the manufacturer, TV SKUs have three to five parts, including:
Screen Size: A number indicating how big the TV is.
Product Line: A set of letters or numbers indicating what product series the model is in.
Generation: A set of letters or numbers indicating what year the TV was made.
Retailer Sub-Model: A number indicating a specific model is intended to be sold at a specific retailer.
Other Variations: A set of letters or numbers indicating the TV is of a specific variety outside of its product series. Hisense, for example, designates Android TVs with an H and Roku TVs with an R, and LG specifically calls out OLED TVs with the OLED designation.
Fluff: Additional numbers or letters that indicate the sales region or other broad categorizations that are similar or identical across all TVs available from the manufacturer in your market.
Now that you know the basics, let's break it down by specific manufacturers.
Hisense
Example: Hisense 55U8G, the 55-inch version of a high-end 2021 Hisense TV.
The 55 at the beginning shows that Hisense puts screen sizes at the start of the product number.
The U means it's an Android TV. If it was a Roku TV, it would have an R instead.
The 8 after the U means it's on the high end of Hisense's lines. Lower-end TVs include the U7.
The G means it's a 2020 or 2021 model.
LG (LCD)
Example: LG 65NANO80UPA, a 65-inch NanoCell LCD TV.
The 65 at the beginning indicates the screen size.
The NANO is the generational and tier designation, showing that it's a 2020 or 2021 model and a NanoCell TV, which are LG's higher-end LCD TVs. UN and UP are lower-end LCD TVs, while SM indicates that it's a 2019 model.
The 80 shows the tier of TV within the NanoCell category. This number ranges from 75 to 99, so 80 indicates a relatively low tier.
The UPA is fluff for 2020 models, and can also say APA or ANA.
LG (OLED)
Example: LG OLED55C1PUB, a 55-inch OLED TV. LG's naming structure for OLED TVs is significantly different from LED TV names.
The OLED at the beginning shows it's an OLED TV.
The 55 indicates the screen size.
The C shows the product line, with higher letters generally indicating higher-tier versions with sleeker designs or more features. G, for example, has a fancier "gallery" design.
The 1 is the generational designation, and indicates a 2021 model. 2020 models are X (as in 10), and the number rolled over to 1 for 2021. 2019 models are 9.
The PUB is fluff, and can be ignored.
Samsung
Example: Samsung QN65QN90AAFXZC, the 65-inch model of Samsung's flagship 4K QLED TV.
The first QN, at this point, is fluff and can be ignored. It refers to QLED, Samsung's term for its wide-color LCD panel technology, and was previously used to describe only higher-end Samsung TVs. However, all current Samsung TVs are now considered QLED and have the QN prefix, while the UN prefix indicates it's at least a generation old.
The 65 is screen size.
The QN indicates it's a Neo QLED TV, a higher-end LED TV compared with Samsung’s broader range of QLED TVs (which are identified with just a Q).
The 90 shows it's a flagship 4K TV. Lower numbers indicate lower tiers, from 60 to 90. Three digits (like 900) would indicate an 8K TV.
The (first) A shows it's a 2021 model. Before that, T indicated a 2020 model.
The AFXZC is fluff, and can be ignored.
Sony
Example: Sony XR-65A90J, Sony's 2021 flagship OLED TV.
The XR indicates that the TV is one of Sony’s higher-end models (and can also say XBR), but it doesn’t show the specific product line. KD and KDL indicate lower-end Sony TVs.
The 65 once again shows screen size.
The A shows that the TV is an OLED. Sony A-series TVs are OLED, while its X- and Z-series TVs are LED.
The 90 indicates the position of the TV at the top of Sony's product lines. A lower number indicates a TV that isn't part of Sony’s Master Series flagships, like the A80J. Single numbers show high-end Sony models, while three-digit numbers sit below them, again counting down; the X95J is higher than the X90J, and so on.
The J at the end indicates that the TV is a 2021 model. An H indicates a 2020 TV (with the exception of the A9S Master Series OLED TV, also a 2020 model), while a G indicates a 2019 TV.
TCL
Example: TCL 55R635, the 65-inch model in TCL's 2020 6-series of higher-end budget TVs.
The 65, again, is screen size.
The R635 is complicated. The R6 indicates that the TV is part of the 6-series. The flagship 8-series is denoted by Q8, while the lower-end 4- and 5-series are denoted by S4 and S5.
The 35 shows that the TV is the 2020 version of the 6-series. A 25 indicates a 2019 model, which applies to the 4-, 5-, and 6- series. The 8-series hasn't been updated since 2019, so there's only Q825. If that isn't confusing enough, the last digit can also vary slightly.
Basically, pay close attention to TCL product numbers.
Vizio
Example: Vizio P65Q9-J01, the 65-inch model of Vizio's flagship LED P-series.
The P indicates the overall product line, and stands for Premium. M is Vizio's midrange line, V is the less expensive value line, and D refers to 1080p or lower resolution TVs. Above that are Vizio's OLED TVs, which are represented by OLED instead of one letter.
The 65 once again shows the screen size.
The Q9 indicates the TV is a high-end model that uses Vizio's Quantum Color feature. The Q is a standard part of all P- and M-series TVs, and is not present on V-, D-, or OLED TVs (the former two because they're low-end models, and OLED because Quantum Color is an LCD-specific technology, like Samsung's QLED). The 9 is standard for current P-series, but M-series TVs can have a 6 or a 7, with the 7 meaning it's a step-up model that can get brighter than the 6 model.
The J means it's a 2021 model, with H for 2020 and G for 2019.
The numbers after the generation letter are fluff.
The Best TVs
With all of this in mind, you can't go wrong with any of the picks on our list of the best TVs. Just make sure you're buying the right model!
If you're looking for something more specific, we also have lists for the best cheap TVs, the best 65-inch TVs, the best 75-inch (and up) TVs, and the best TVs for gaming.
If you're trying to figure out what size TV you need, check out our handy tips. And once you find the perfect model, read up on our five simple tweaks to get the best picture.
TV Tips For New TV Buyers
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