Don't Wait To Buy An OLED TV In 2026 - Here's Why

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Each new generation of OLED TVs comes with improvements over older models. However, if you're on a budget and don't want to blindly get the latest OLED on the market, it's best you wait for your preferred retailer to offer deep discounts on TVs. Fortunately, if you're looking for a previous-gen TV, the spring sales of April and May going on right now offer some of the best prices. If you mean to switch and aren't interested in any new TVs coming out in 2026, there are reasons why you absolutely shouldn't wait until later in the year to get a new OLED TV.

What makes the spring sale special is that it's the first big sale that occurs after TV manufacturers unveil their latest consumer tech at CES in January and right before these upgraded models hit retail stores. With companies offering their newest generation of TVs, the demand for older models grows weaker, and retailers become eager to clear inventory to make space for new stock.

This leads to deep clearance sales for TVs in April and May, making it one of the best times of the year to snag yourself something like a new 77-inch LG C5 OLED for just $1600 — significantly cheaper than its launch price of over $3000 last year.

There aren't many big discounts coming after Spring until Black Friday in November, which means TVs will slowly revert to the prices you'd usually be able to buy them at. Retailers like Best Buy and Costco will still offer plenty of good deals, but not the deep discounts available right now.

Seasonal discounts aside, there's also a chance that TV prices will hike up later in the year, primarily due to AI and a trend of consumer tech prices skyrocketing recently. This might not become too big of an issue if Google's AI compression truly reduces RAM costs, but it's still something to keep in mind.

"As this situation (referring to RAM shortage) is unprecedented, no company is immune to its impact," is what Samsung Co-CEO TM Roh had to say to Reuters about how AI data centers hoarding RAM supplies might affect consumer electronics. This might be most obvious in gaming consoles, GPUs, and smartphones, but smart TVs are also among the gadgets affected by increasing RAM prices.