2025 has been a bumper year for reviews.
I’ve crunched the numbers, and we published more than 200 over the last 12 months, roughly half of which were in the TV/AV category that I look after.
I was involved in pretty much all of those TV and home cinema reviews, either as the primary tester or as one of the ‘second-lookers’ (we test as a team, so every review involves several What Hi-Fi? staffers).
Of those 100 or so products, these are the five that rocked my world the most.
(This would have been a list of eight, but I decided to set myself a rule of just one highlight per brand)
Sony Bravia 8 II
Yes, I know I’ve written about this magical OLED TV a lot, but it would be disingenuous for me to start this list with any other product.
This has been an incredible year for OLED TVs, with a whole new panel technology (Primary RGB Tandem OLED) stealing the early headlines, and the QD-OLED camp raising its game to compete. The result has been the closest, most competitive flagship OLED TV battle I can remember.
What’s interesting is that the Sony Bravia 8 II is, in terms of pure numbers, arguably the least impressive TV of the bunch, but it’s the best in real terms. It doesn’t go quite as bright in outright terms as its LG or Samsung rivals, and it doesn’t use its innate Quantum Dot-enhanced vibrancy to dazzle you with colours.
Instead, it uses the bright and colourful potential of the latest-gen QD-OLED panel to deliver even more natural and cinematically authentic picture quality.
This is just the most all-round appealing TV I’ve ever tested, with a balance of technical innovation and processing mastery that I don’t think will be beaten for a while.
Hisense AX5125H
One of the best things about this job is, of course, getting to test the latest super-premium kit, but there’s also a genuine thrill to discovering an incredible bargain – and that’s exactly what this is.
The Hisense AX5125H was just £249 when we tested it, and it can now be bought for an even lower price of £199. That’s about half the price of most decent entry-level solo Dolby Atmos soundbars, yet this is a Dolby Atmos soundbar with a wireless subwoofer and two wireless surrounds.
I don’t mind admitting that my expectations for the sound quality weren’t high, but as soon as I set the system up and ran the first movie through it, I knew we’d stumbled upon a budget beauty.
Whenever I would take a break from testing, I’d convince myself that the Hisense couldn’t be as good as I thought, but then I would return to it, put on another movie and be impressed all over again.
Without a doubt, this is the home cinema bargain of the year.
Epson EH-LS9000
While not a bargain in the way of the Hisense soundbar system above, the Epson EH-LS9000 is fantastic value for money, essentially redefining projector expectations at its price.
That price is £2999 / $3999 / AU$7299, which certainly isn’t a snip, but the LS9000 fully justifies the outlay with specs that include 4K (via pixel-shifting), a claimed brightness of 2200 lumens, substantial HDR support, and 4K/120Hz gaming, plus a performance closer to models in the category above.
The crisp, colourful and three-dimensional-feeling picture is such a joy that we took time out of our busy testing schedule to watch more movies and play more games on the Epson just for fun.
KEF Q Concerto Meta 5.1 Speaker System
I could (some would say “should”) be writing about the incredibly impressive, boundary-pushing XIO soundbar here, but I’m an absolute sucker for ‘traditional’ home cinema, and I just loved listening to KEF’s Q Concerto Meta speaker package this year.
It probably helped that Senior Staff Writer Lewis Empson led this review, so he had to do all of the heavy lifting and calibrating, whereas I just got to enjoy the performance.
And what a performance it is: the combination of rich warmth and crisp punch is intoxicating, and the seamlessness with which effects are passed around the room is hugely immersive.
We put this system together by picking different speakers from KEF’s range, but it’s now being offered as a complete package for significantly less than the £3146 at which we tested it.
TCL 98C7K
If I had the space, I would have bought the 98-inch TCL C7K already.
The C7K had already impressed us in 65-inch form when we wrestled the 98-inch version out of its box, but I really didn’t think that TCL’s step-down Mini LED tech would effectively stretch to this gargantuan size.
Oh, how wrong I was.
This TV is an absolute joy to watch, delivering blacks, brightness and colours that projectors can only dream of. Like TCL’s other 2025 models, it’s nicely tuned, too, delivering a satisfyingly authentic home cinema experience.
It’s also now available for under £2000. That’s unbelievable value for money. If 100 inches was my limit, I would absolutely buy this TCL TV over a projector.
