This easy upgrade made my PS3 feel brand new

However, while gaming on the PS5, it occurred to me that I should test something else on my new TV. Earlier this year, I finally got a PS3 for the first time after skipping it for an Xbox 360 back in the day. I enjoyed it, but I had been playing it on a monitor, and while it looked fine, the picture quality wasn't the sharpest. Naturally, I realized that with my OLED TV, the PS3 might look better than ever -- and that may be an understatement. On this screen, it feels like a whole new console.

OLED elevates the PS3 to a new level

It brings old PS3 games back to life with excellent contrast and vibrant colors

Obviously, the PS3's image quality can't compete with the PS5. But when I hooked it up to my OLED TV, I almost forgot I was playing on a console that's nearly 20 years old.

The first game I tried was Uncharted 2, and I was immediately impressed. OLED screens excel at contrast and deep blacks, which was clear during the game's intro sequence, where you're hanging off a train on a snowy cliff and during the nighttime museum heist. Those scenes usually appear washed-out on older LCD TVs, but on an OLED, the blacks were truly black, not the usual grayish tone I've seen before on LCDs.

That alone makes old PS3 games look more detailed than they did on older TVs. Since OLED panels can fully turn off individual pixels, shadows and dark scenes suddenly gain depth and clarity that the PS3 has always technically been able to output, but few TVs could display correctly until now.

On top of that, colors on the PS3 look far better on an OLED thanks to the panel's more vibrant and accurate color reproduction. I tested this with the PS3 version of The Last of Us, and while it obviously doesn't match the remake on PS5, the OLED screen made the decade-old game look surprisingly modern. The improved color accuracy makes the world and characters stand out in a way I'd never seen before on older TVs with the PS3.

Of course, any console, PC, or streaming device can benefit from being connected to an OLED TV. But using the PS3 really highlighted how impressive it was for its time. Games like The Last of Us and Uncharted 2 still look stunning in 2025, even though I'm playing their original PS3 versions, and it's enough to make the aging console feel surprisingly new again. If you want to play the latest and greatest versions of these games, the PS5 is obviously the way to go, but on an OLED display, the older versions come back to life in a way I didn't expect.

There are some limitations

Resolution is what holds it back

The biggest limitation of playing my PS3 on an OLED TV is, unsurprisingly, the resolution. The PS3 wasn't designed for 4K gaming, so it's hard not to notice that its image isn't as crisp as what you'd see on a PS5. PS3 games were built for 720p/1080p HD, not 4K UHD, and that difference shows on modern screens. Still, the OLED's vibrant colors and deep contrast help compensate for the lower resolution.

Another drawback is the lack of HDR, which simply didn't exist during the PS3 era. But even without HDR, the natural contrast and brightness of an OLED panel still make the image pop more than it ever did on older LCD TVs.

Overall, if you have an OLED TV or monitor and an old gaming console like a PS3 or Xbox 360, I highly recommend trying it again on the newer panel technology. While older games obviously won't look as good as modern ones, viewing them with enhanced colors and contrast on an OLED makes them look much more detailed, and it's a fun trip down memory lane to revisit older games you haven't played in a while. OLED monitors and TVs are also becoming more affordable, so if you want to switch to OLED without spending a fortune, there are many options available, including budget-friendly options like a 27-inch monitor, which you can find for under $600.