Why I'm ditching my OLED TV (and what I'm replacing it with)

Published Oct 30, 2026, 2:00 PM EDT Tim has been covering technology for almost 20 years, in that time spanning a broad range of topics from security to product reviews. He is especially focused on the Apple ecosystem, productivity, and consumer advice. Over the years Tim has written thousands of articles, reviews, and round-ups in addition to producing video content and original photography. A graduate of journalism, he found his footing as a freelancer with a laptop and loves how he is able to work from practically anywhere. Now a Senior Editor for iPhone, Mac, and Smart Home at How-To Geek, Tim still loves to write. He can also be found crafting round-ups and productivity posts for the Zapier blog. Earlier in his career Tim spent nearly a decade as a writer and eventually Apple section editor for MakeUseOf. Tim currently lives in Brisbane, Australia. Outside of work he loves to hike and work out, play video games, and spend quality time with his wonderful partner and two cats Inka and Roger. When I bought my OLED TV in 2020, I expected I would get a full decade or more out of it, just as I had the LCD model it replaced. Now, only six years later, the original LCD is still going strong, but the OLED has one foot in the grave. Rather than just buying another, I thought I’d spice things up a bit. My OLED is dying Way too soon for my liking I decided to buy an OLED right at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The logic was sound: we’re all going to be locked up for a year or two making sourdough and playing video games; we might as well enjoy ourselves while we do it. This was also only a few months out from the launch of the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 consoles, so I wanted to be “next-gen ready.” The 65-inch LG CX knocked my socks off. It might not get super bright, nor is it one of those “gallery” models that sits perfectly flush against the wall, but the contrast ratio and dark room performance are unmatched. To this day, the panel looks great, and I wouldn’t be replacing it at all were it not for the fact that it’s not long for this world. There are two big issues with my TV that are hard to ignore, and both showed up at around the same time a few months ago. The first is that the TV has a tendency not to wake up from standby. Waiting for the light to come on used to solve the problem, but now the only solution is to cut the power at the wall, cross your fingers, and turn it on again. This has led to me controlling my TV with a smart plug for the last couple of months. It means that the pixel refresher process can’t run in standby mode, so I’m slowly cooking the panel. Firmware updates can’t be applied either, since they depend on a functioning standby mode. The fix for this would be swapping out the control board, which I’d do if it wasn’t for the other problem: a dying panel. There’s a ghostly smear at the top of the screen that has slowly grown in size over the past few months. It started out like a papercut; now it looks more like a trail of white paint that runs across the top of the screen. I’ve been doing my best to ignore it, but I’m reaching my limit. I’m buying a projector instead But not just any projector While I love my OLED for its inky blacks and know that the technology has improved dramatically over the last half-a-decade, I’m somewhat reticent to replace it like-for-like. In fact, the equivalent LG model would cost me more today than I paid six years ago (I’m going to blame the price of RAM for this). According to the TV, I’ve had 7072 hours (and counting) of use in the last six years. This feels like a disappointingly low number considering the tens of thousands of hours that are often quoted for panel life. I’ll chalk it up to bad luck, but the fact is that I waited to replace it long enough that something else has caught my eye. Ultra-short throw projectors have improved considerably over the past few years, with Chinese brands like Xgimi and AWOL Vision taking established projector brands like JVC and LG to task with digital light processing (DLP) technology that uses lasers and mirrors to cast a massive image from mere inches away from the screen. It wasn’t until I heard about the upcoming Xgimi Aura 3 Max that I decided to take a chance (the slightly older AWOL Vision Aetherion Max helped too). This is a gamble since the projector is launching on Kickstarter, a common tactic for these brands, at around $2,199. I can’t test it or see final production reviews before I buy, though Xgimi says that the retail MSRP will be double that. Paired with the right screen (which further pushes the price up), a good laser projector can just about hold its own in daylight viewing while blowing you away at night with a cinema-like experience. I’m trading OLED-level blacks for a big screen, and only time will tell if that’s the right decision. Filling in the gaps with mini-LED A price-to-performance ratio that’s hard to ignore While projectors have traditionally been ill-suited to gaming on account of unacceptable input lag, a lack of true 120Hz 4K output, and the absence of HDMI 2.1 ports, the Aura 3 Max fixes all of these things. True 120Hz output also has some benefits for movie watchers, like the elimination of telesync judder caused by a 3:2 pulldown. Since my partner and I love to play games together, I also have lofty plans to install two cheaper 55-inch mini-LED TVs on the same wall, and a retractable 120-inch screen will cover these nicely. Brands like TCL and Hisense are pumping out incredible TVs that get eye-searingly bright, with thin OLED-like bezels, and rich color volume. The fact that you can buy two for less than the price of a single OLED is wild. Of course, that stage of the living room transformation is going to need to wait, but it’s always good to have goals—right? The Xgimi Aura 3 Max doesn’t ship until December, so I’ll be twiddling my thumbs and praying that the OLED makes it before it shows up at my door. Find out more about what makes a laser projector so tempting in 2026.