If you've been looking into the best gaming TVs in the last few years, you've probably noticed an annoying discrepancy between brands: the number of HDMI 2.1 ports offering full 4K 120Hz (or better) support with variable refresh rate support.
While most of the best LG TVs and best Samsung TVs offer this tech on all four of their HDMI ports, TVs from the likes of Hisense, TCL, Panasonic and Sony have been limited to offering the tech on just two of their four HDMI ports.
This is due to the chips powering the TVs: LG and Samsung have custom solutions enabling them to go all-out, while others rely on MediaTek chips, which have been limited to twin HDMI 2.1 ports.
However, that looked set to change in 2025. Last year, MediaTek announced that its next-gen chips would overcome this problem, and at the start of this year, it was confirmed that this chip would be in some of 2025's TVs.
So great – lots more of the best TVs will offer a full house of HDMI 2.1 now, right? Turns out, it's not as simple as that.
Power vs ports
My first inkling that we weren't about to get the universal upgrade we expected came when I saw the Panasonic Z95B at CES 2025. Panasonic confirmed that the new set would stick with the two HDMI 2.1 ports that its predecessor had.
While at CES, Hisense confirmed that some of its 2025 TVs would have four HDMI 2.1 ports, though, so the potential for it was clearly still there.
Clarity came during the launch of Philips' new TV range for 2025. In particular, I found out that the high-end Philips OLED+910 (and the mid-range OLED810) would have two HDMI 2.1 ports, while the budget Philips OLED760 and its mini-LED range would be getting the upgrade to four HDMI 2.1 ports.
Why the seemingly backward system where the higher-end TVs don't get the same features as the mid-range models do? Danny Tack, Senior Director Product Strategy & Planning for TP Vision (which makes Philips TVs), told me that they had to choose between picture processing power and HDMI support.
The higher-end end image quality features used in the top-end OLEDs requires more processing power than a chip with support for four HDMI 2.1 ports could supply, while that wasn't a problem for the more limited image processing used in the budget OLED.
Philips chose to focus on the image quality for the high-end OLEDs, so went with the more limited connectivity option, but the mid-range models get the extra HDMI flexibility because there's no such compromise.
I don't know that Panasonic faced the same problem, but I wouldn't be surprised at all, considering how refined and advanced the image processing is even on the Panasonic Z95A from last year. And it seems quite likely that Sony's 2025 TVs (as yet unannounced) would face the same dilemma.
We don't have full information about TCL and Hisense's ranges this year yet, so we'll have to see which sets end up with the upgrade and which don't.
Good news and bad news
It means that 2025 could be an odd year for TV specs. Those looking for a high-end gaming TV not from Samsung or LG might end up disappointed; those looking for a mid-range TV might end up getting more than they expected; those looking at the more budget end might find themselves limited again.
We'll make sure we call this information out in our reviews and guides, but I'm looking forward to the time when we can just assume that all HDMI ports on all TVs do the same thing…
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