The brightest outdoor TV we've tested

I’ve been PCMag’s home entertainment expert for over 10 years, covering both TVs and everything you might want to connect to them. I’ve reviewed more than a thousand different consumer electronics products including headphones, speakers, TVs, and every major game system and VR headset of the last decade. I’m an ISF-certified TV calibrator and a THX-certified home theater professional, and I’m here to help you understand 4K, HDR, Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos, and even 8K (and to reassure you that you don’t need to worry about 8K at all for at least a few more years).

Samsung's The Terrace costs more than many competing models, but it offers the best picture quality of any outdoor TV we've tested.

Outdoor TVs tend to cost a lot more than their indoor counterparts because it’s expensive to weatherproof such large devices. The ones designed to work under direct sunlight, like Samsung’s The Terrace ($9,999.99 for the 65-inch full-sun model we tested), are even pricier because they also need to produce very high levels of light. Despite its premium price, Samsung’s all-season TV mostly impresses with class-leading picture quality, superb brightness levels, and very low latency. But The Terrace still catches glare occasionally and would benefit from a few more gaming features. If you can find a partially shady spot for your TV, the SunBriteTV Veranda Series 3 ($3,648.95 for the 65-inch version) is far more affordable and works quite well in areas that get some sunlight despite its full-shade branding. But if you want the ultimate full-sun TV experience, Samsung's The Terrace is worth the high price.

Samsung’s lifestyle TVs usually sport eye-catching designs, but the need for weatherproofing here prevents anything too daring. As such, The Terrace has the same chunky, matte black rectangular body as other outdoor TVs we’ve tested, like the Veranda 3. The 65-inch model measures a solid two inches deep, while 0.75-inch bezels frame the screen. Surprisingly, nothing (not even a Samsung logo) breaks up the flat bezels except a tiny rectangular protrusion in the lower right corner that houses the infrared remote sensor.

Like other outdoor TVs we’ve tested, The Terrace doesn’t come with a table stand. It also doesn't arrive with a wall mount, despite that being its most likely use case. You can easily attach any third-party stand or mount with the correct VESA measurements, but that's a separate expense beyond the already pricey TV.

All connections for The Terrace sit within a recessed area on the back right side. A door screws into place to cover the compartment, while rubber gaskets on the bottom edge allow cables to run out the back. Here, you get a power cable connector, three HDMI ports, a USB port, an Ethernet port for wired network connections, a second Ethernet port for directly receiving HDBT signals (HDMI over Ethernet), an optical audio output, a 3.5mm headphone jack, a 3.5mm EX-LINK port, and an antenna/cable connector.

Ordinarily, we would criticize a TV with only three HDMI ports, but the Ethernet port for HDBT is a very nice replacement. HDMI-over-Ethernet is one of the methods we prefer for sending video signals to TVs over distances of more than 50 feet (such as from an equipment closet indoors), because that's the point HDMI cable signals start to break down.

The OneRemote that arrives in the box is a sleek black wand with a metal body. Menu, playback, and other control buttons flank a circular navigation pad near the top. The power button and a combination indicator LED and pinhole microphone sit above the pad. Volume and channel rockers are below the pad, along with dedicated service buttons for Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, and Samsung TV Plus. Despite its nondescript design, the remote notably offers an IP56 rating, so it's effectively waterproof and dustproof. The only real hint of this weatherproofing is the sliding metal shell that protects a battery door complete with sealing rubber gaskets (the remote runs on two AAA batteries).

The Terrace itself has a slightly weaker IP55 rating, but that's still sufficient for an outdoor TV. The main difference between a device with an IPX5 and IPX6 rating is that you can submerge the latter, an extremely unlikely scenario for a full-sized TV. For comparison, these IP ratings match that of the SunBriteTV Veranda 3 (IP55) and its remote (IP56).

Like Samsung’s other TVs, The Terrace uses the Tizen-based Samsung Smart TV interface. It’s a feature-rich smart TV platform that supports all major streaming services (except Crunchyroll and Twitch) and offers Apple AirPlay 2 support for streaming from your iPhone, iPad, or Mac. The system also lets you choose between Samsung’s Bixby voice assistant, Amazon Alexa, and Google Assistant for hands-free control of your TV and compatible smart home devices. It even includes a web browser.

Our big complaint here is that the Samsung Smart TV interface feels a bit overbearing. All but the broadest and most common options sit a few levels deeper in the menus than they do on other smart TV platforms, which can be frustrating. If you can look past its menu structure, however, it’s a competent platform.

The Terrace is a 4K TV with a 120Hz refresh rate. It supports high dynamic range (HDR) content in HDR10, HDR10+, and hybrid log gamma (HLG), but not Dolby Vision. It has an ATSC tuner, but it isn't compatible with the ATSC 3.0 standard.

We test TVs with a Klein K-80 colorimeter(Opens in a new window) , a Murideo SIX-G signal generator(Opens in a new window) , and Portrait Displays’ Calman software(Opens in a new window) . Outdoor TVs often have mediocre contrast levels because they tend prioritize a picture that's bright enough to see against sunlight (which often eats shadow details anyway) rather than focus on showing deep black levels. TVs for full-sunlight environments (rather than spots with partial shade) need to be especially bright to overcome this issue.

We're happy to report that Samsung's full-sun TV broadly succeeds in that last regard. With an SDR signal in Movie mode, the TV puts out a modest 256 nits (with both a full-screen and 18% white field) and shows a black level of 0.2cd/m^2. But with an HDR signal, it displays an incredibly high peak brightness of 1,404 nits with a full-screen white field; that makes it one of the brightest performers on this test. An 18% white field actually causes the brightness level to dip a bit to a still-high 1,293 nits. With a 0.17cd/m^2 black level, The Terrace has an effective contrast ratio of 7,606:1. That isn’t very high for an indoor TV, but it’s by far the highest we’ve seen for an outdoor TV. Both the contrast ratio and brightness results are roughly double those of the SunBriteTV Veranda 3 (3,631:1 and 722 nits).

Color performance is also very strong, with a wide range and generally good accuracy. The above charts show the TV’s color levels in Movie mode with an SDR signal compared against Rec.709 broadcast standards and with an HDR signal compared against DCI-P3 digital cinema standards. SDR colors are nearly spot on, with cyans and magentas running a touch blue. HDR color levels skew slightly more, with cyan leaning toward green and magenta leaning toward red. But white levels are nearly perfect and the overall color range of the TV exceeds the DCI-P3 color space. It doesn't offer the most film-accurate color performance, but brighter, more vivid colors are easier to see against sunlight and they maintain a good balance here.

The TV's anti-glare screen isn’t quite fully effective, but it's still easier to see overall than any other outdoor TV we've tested. On a bright day, sunlight from large nearby windows obscured part of the picture, but we didn't have any issues picking out colors and detail in this scenario. And, when testing it outside on a bright day with the sun shining directly on the screen, we could still discern details, despite some loss in picture quality.

BBC’s Planet Earth II looks excellent on the TV. Plants and water appear in vibrant green and blue hues that never look oversaturated or cartoonish. Fine details like fur are easy to see, though they can appear a bit muddy in the shade. The picture looks just as vibrant at off angles as straight on, with no noticeable saturation dips or contrast shifts.

The red of Deadpool’s costume in the opening scenes of Deadpool exhibits good balance and saturation under the relatively cool lighting. In the burning lab fight scene, the flames look quite bright and show a variety of yellow and orange shades, though details in the darker parts of the frame look a bit muddy, especially in the presence of outside glare.

Skin tones look natural and show appropriate saturation against the stark black and white elements of the party scenes in The Great Gatsby. The whites of shirts and balloons stand out without looking overblown, but dark details like the cuts and contours of black suits occasionally fade or disappear.

Gamers should appreciate The Terrace’s 120Hz refresh rate, but won't like that it doesn't support variable refresh rate (VRR). Regardless, it's still highly responsive.

When we measured latency with an HDFury Diva HDMI matrix(Opens in a new window) , it showed an input lag of just 3.6 milliseconds in Game Mode. That’s well below the 10ms limit we use to determine the best gaming TVs.

Samsung's The Terrace performs better than any other outdoor TV we’ve tested by a significant margin. It’s incredibly bright and colorful, plus it offers lots of useful features. But it's also extremely expensive and susceptible to glare in some settings. We haven't tested SunBriteTV's partial-sun Signature ($8,658.95 for a 65-inch model) or full-sun Pro ($9,408.95 for the 65-inch version) models for comparison, so we can't yet call this model our Editors' Choice winner. Also note that if you can place your TV in a shadier area, the SunBriteTV Veranda 3 remains a strong alternative for a lot less money. Meanwhile, the Furrion Aurora ($3,199.99 for a 65-inch variant) is even more affordable, though it lags behind both The Terrace and Veranda 3 in picture quality. Ultimately, The Terrace is easy to recommend as a high-end addition to a sunny outdoor media setup—provide you have the funds for it.

Samsung's The Terrace costs more than many competing models, but it offers the best picture quality of any outdoor TV we've tested.

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I’ve been PCMag’s home entertainment expert for over 10 years, covering both TVs and everything you might want to connect to them. I’ve reviewed more than a thousand different consumer electronics products including headphones, speakers, TVs, and every major game system and VR headset of the last decade. I’m an ISF-certified TV calibrator and a THX-certified home theater professional, and I’m here to help you understand 4K, HDR, Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos, and even 8K (and to reassure you that you don’t need to worry about 8K at all for at least a few more years).

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