It isn’t easy to find the best TV – there are more and more TV options with elaborate screen tech and jargon-filled features – but the good news is that an excellent home theater experience has never been more affordable. And with the holiday season in full swing, these TVs are even more affordable than usual!
We’re here to help you find the best TV in your budget range, based on our extensive testing experience with these sets – and right now, that includes looking how the best TV deals have changed their value – we’ll highlight the price drops for our favorite TVs on this page. You should start with our number one TV: you can get the 65-inch Samsung S90C OLED TV for just $1,599 at Samsung, down from $2,599. We also think the 65-inch Hisense U6K mini-LED 4K TV for just $498 at Amazon (down from $799) is a phenomenal value if you want something more budget.
In this guide, we’ve focused on the best TVs for all-round excellence, balancing picture quality (measured objectively in some ways, but also from our subjective experience in other ways), features, sound quality, price, and size options. If you’re looking for something specific, you might prefer to head straight to our guides to the best gaming TVs, best TVs under £1000 or best OLED TVs – but here, you can get an overview of all the best models, including from these categories (and more).
We’ve reviewed every kind of TV over the years, from the first flatscreens to the original OLEDs to today’s best 85-inch TVs. And that means we know which features really matter and how they will deliver the most bang for your TV-buying buck. No matter how much you want to spend, what you want to watch or where you want to watch it, you should find the best TV for you in this guide.
Al Griffin
Al Griffin is TechRadar’s Senior Editor for Home Entertainment in the US. Previously the editor of Sound & Vision magazine, he brings nearly three decades of tech journalism and AV product testing experience to the position. Right now, he’s using that experience to whittle down the list of Black Friday TV deals still available to just the best ones. That includes the 75-inch Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED for just $899 at Amazon (down from $1,099) as an excellent big-screen budget buy, or the 42-inch LG C2 OLED TV for $849 at Walmart (down from $1,299 originally) if you want a small TV that doesn’t compromise on features or picture quality.
The quick list
Want the simplest guide to the best TVs around? Here’s our quick guide – you can read more in-depth verdicts on each TV by following the link, as well as alternative options in some cases.
The best TV for most people
✅ With brighter pictures and better sound at a mid-range price, this is a fantastic value.
❌ It comes in limited sizes.
💰 Starting from just $1,297 in Black Friday deals, it’s the best-value mid-range OLED.
The best budget TV
✅ A high-quality, affordable 4K TV with easy-to-use smart TV software.
❌ If you want gaming features or elite picture quality, you need to spend more.
💰 You can find this for just $379 at 55 inches on Black Friday, which is excellent for a QLED TV.
The best mid-range TV
✅ A bright TV to use in light room that’s also packed with gaming features, and good picture quality.
❌ It’s not as cinematic as OLED or higher-end mini-LED TVs.
💰 Black Friday deals bring this down to just $698 for the 55-inch with is incredible for mini-LED tech!
The best premium OLED TV
✅ This is the most spectacular OLED TV on the planet, thanks to its high brightness, razer-slim design and smart connections box.
❌ All of this comes at a premium price.
💰 It starts from $1,899 in the Black Friday deals.
The best for 8K detail
✅ You want the ultimate in dazzling big-screen TV brilliance – this takes color and contrast to new levels, as well as offering 8K.
❌ It’s a heck of an investment.
💰 It’s over $1,000 off for Black Friday, but still starts at $3,299.
The best cheap OLED TV
✅ Delivers cinematic OLED pictures and next-gen gaming features for less.
❌ It’s not great for bright rooms, and the sound is mediocre.
💰 Starting at a $999 Black Friday price, it’s a steal.
The best bright TV for daytime sport
✅ Thanks to class-leading brightness, this is the best at beating reflections, and it comes in lots of sizes.
❌ Even with mini-LED, OLED has more precise dimming control.
💰Starting at $897 for Black Friday, it’s a strong value.
The best for versatility
✅ A beautiful and feature-packed OLED TV available in a wide range of sizes.
❌ In the middle sizes, the Samsung S90C is brighter and sounds better for the same price.
💰 Starts from $899 in Black Friday deals, which is a record low.
The best TV for sound
✅ Beautiful OLED pictures, with sound so good, you won’t need a soundbar.
❌ Not very bright, and more expensive than equivalent OLEDs, like the S90C or C3.
💰 Starts from $1,399 for 55 inches over Black Friday.
The best TV 2023
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Below you’ll find full write-ups for each of the best TVs in our list. We’ve tested each one extensively, so you can be sure that our recommendations can be trusted.
The best TV for most people
BUY IT IF
✅ You’re want QD-OLED for relatively cheap: The Samsung S90C gives you a brighter OLED screen than the LG C3, and fantastic picture quality, for the same price as C3.
✅ You need lots of HDMI 2.1 ports: With four HDMI 2.1 ports that all support 4K 120Hz and up to 144Hz refresh rates for gaming, the Samsung S90C offers unbeaten connectivity.
DON’T BUY IT IF
❌ You want the brightest OLED available: Both the Samsung S95C and the LG G3 offer higher brightness levels than the S90C.
❌ You want an 80-inch TV: The 83-inch model uses a different screen type that’s far less bright – we wouldn’t recommend it. Get the 83-inch LG C3 instead, which has Dolby Vision.
The Samsung S90C takes the top spot on our best TV list because it does it all; excellent picture quality, sleek design, brilliant gaming performance and it gives you access to QD-OLED technology for the cheapest it’s ever been. With prices dropping over time too, this gives you real OLED bang for your buck.
With excellent contrast levels, dynamic and punchy colors and deep, rich blacks that we come to expect from an OLED, we found in our review that the S90C’s extra brightness compared to the LG C3 (further down this list) or Sony A80L really adds an extra layer, despite these TVs all costing the same. Its sharpness levels and detail are also a sight to behold. One thing to note, though, is that the 83-inch model uses a regular OLED screen that’s much less bright, and we would recommend getting the 83-inch LG C3 instead.
Not just a beautiful TV, the Samsung S90C is also a gamers’ paradise. With a refresh rate of 144Hz, it has four 2.1 HDMI ports that all support 4K 120Hz, VRR and ALLM. It also has a gaming hub so you can tweak setting easily to get the most out of your games. Add to this built-in sound quality that beats almost all other TVs, including LG’s OLEDs, you get a complete package with the S90C.
It’s not totally perfect (the lack of Dolby Vision support is a shame), and higher-priced OLEDs such as the Samsung S95C (at #4 in this list) and LG G3 can beat it for brightness. But in terms of what you get at this budget level, the Samsung S90C is real value for money and is the best TV for most people.
Read the full Samsung S90C review
The best budget TV
BUY IT IF
✅ You want a great smart TV interface: Easy navigation and a large app selection make Roku TV one of the best smart TV software options around.
✅ You want a great-value TV: The Roku Plus Series offers strong picture quality and an intuitive smart TV interface at a very affordable price.
DON’T BUY IT IF
❌ You don’t want a soundbar: The Roku Plus Series has less impressive built-in sound and could definitely benefit from a soundbar.
❌ You’re watching in a bright room: With average brightness levels, the Roku Plus Series will struggle in brighter viewing environments.
The Roku Plus Series is a budget TV that provides very good overall picture quality that exceeds its price tag. Coupled with a great smart TV interface, the Roku Plus Series is a real option for people looking for a new TV on a tight budget.
Picture quality is the real highlight of the Roku Plus Series. Colors are vibrant and have a real visual punch. Motion is also processed well, with fast panning shots not suffering from much blurring that a lot of budget TVs tend to and images look crisp and clean. However, picture suffers a little when viewed from off center, and the Roku Plus Series has average brightness levels, so isn’t the best for brighter viewing environments, but it’s hard to argue against the quality of picture you get with the Roku Plus for the money you pay.
The Roku TV smart TV platform built in to the TV is one of the better smart TV interfaces. It’s easy to navigate and comes with a wealth of app options and even offers the Roku Live TV portal that enables access to a load of free channels. It’s worth noting that accessing picture settings within the Roku Plus Series can be a real pain, but Roku TV still sits as one of the best smart TV platform.
The Roku Plus however is not the best for gaming, with no 120Hz support or cloud-based gaming options, and its built-in audio isn’t the best so a soundbar may be required – but for the money, this is a great-looking TV with good features and a top-tier smart TV platform.
Read the full Roku Plus Series review
The best mid-range TV
BUY IT IF
✅ You plan to watch in a bright room: With excellent brightness levels thanks to mini-LED, the Hisense U8K is great for bright rooms.
✅ You want a TV with an ASTC 3.0 tuner: Usually found on higher-end sets, the U8K comes with an ASTC 3.0 tuner for next-gen 4K digital broadcast TV.
DON’T BUY IT IF
❌ You want a TV that looks good from any angle: The U8K’s contrast fades when viewed from off-center, so might be a TV to avoid if you have lots of visitors. The Samsung QN90C (#7 on this list) is better for that.
❌ You want a perfect TV: QD-OLED and OLED TVs beat the U8K in areas such as precise contrast. You can also expect better local dimming from more premium mini-LEDs, such as the QN90C mentioned above.
The Hisense U8K has great picture quality, excellent gaming features and a seriously competitive price point to make it a mid-range winner. Using mini-LED technology for high brightness levels, the Hisense U8K is great for daytime viewing and comes installed with Google TV as a smart TV platform, which is generally slick and packed with useful streaming apps.
Despite focusing on brightness, thanks to that mini-LED technology, the Hisense U8K also offers deep black levels for an excellent contrast. Unfortunately, this contrast does fade somewhat when viewed off-center. However, thanks to its anti-glare coating and a high peak brightness of 1,590 nits (which tops any OLED TV available today) it makes light work of brighter viewing environments.
In terms of gaming, the Hisense U8K is a surprisingly well-stocked TV. With two HDMI 2.1 ports that offer a refresh rate of up to 144Hz, Dolby Vision, VRR and ALLM support, the Hisense U8K is an ideal option for gaming (unless you need four HDMI 2.1 ports). It also features a game mode to get the most effective performance out of your video games.
In terms of audio and design, the Hisense is solid as well, with decent bass and dialog clarity for audio and an adjustable feet from a design point of view. The Hisense U8K may not be the perfect TV, but at the price it is, it’s certainly one that suits a lot of people’s budgets and comes with a wealth of features as a bonus.
Read our full Hisense U8K review
Best premium OLED
BUY IT IF
✅ You want a bright OLED picture: The S95C offers OLED detail and contrast with best-ever brightness thanks to the QD-OLED panel, taking it to a new level.
✅ You want a slim, sleek design: With a minuscule screen trim, ultra-slim rear and external connections box, the S95C is an elegant TV for a classy room.
DON’T BUY IT IF
❌ Mini-LED suits you more: If you have a particularly bright room to deal with, mini-LED may suit you better; even more than the S95C’s much improved brightness.
❌ Dolby Vision is a must: Samsung’s TVs continue to lack Dolby Vision support and sadly the S95C is no exception.
The Samsung S95C is groundbreaking. It’s the brightest OLED TV we’ve reviewed so far, by a long way – in our testing, it beat previous QD-OLED screens by 40% for peak HDR brightness. We measured it at 1,400 nits – compare that to the 820 nits of the LG C3 and you can see why it’s so interesting… and expensive. It’s so much brighter, which means it can look closer to real life – and there’s an even bigger difference between bright and dark.
That’s an astonishing improvement for OLED TVs, and it’s not the only thing astonishing here. In our full review, we said the Samsung S95C is “particularly effective in taking high dynamic range video to a whole new level of enjoyment, drama and realism, but also feeds gloriously into the S95C’s colors, unlocking new levels of color volume and purity, even in bright color areas, we’ve never seen before on an OLED TV”.
It’s also packed with gaming features and HDMI 2.1 connectivity, and we measured a best-in-class 9.2ms response time when gaming. Even the sound is pretty good, though you really should pair this with a proper sound system of some kind.
With all this and excellent gaming performance, why isn’t top of the list? That title goes to the S95C’s more budget sibling, the Samsung S90C. The S90C doesn’t offer quite the same brightness levels as the S95C, but it’s cheaper and still offers fantastic all around performance, so the S90C sits atop the list. Don’t get us wrong though; the S95C feels every bit as premium as it should.
Read the full Samsung S95C review
Best 8K TV
BUY IT IF
✅ You want the ultimate cutting-edge TV: This TV is as good as mini-LED gets currently, and its 8K screen uses AI smarts to make even 4K video look better than 4K.
✅ You want a gorgeous-looking television: The QN900C is one of the best-looking TVs on the market, sporting a near-invisible bezel and speakers.
DON’T BUY IT IF
❌ You are on a budget: As expected for an 8K TV, the QN900B comes at a hefty price compared to Samsung’s best 4K TVs (which are close in quality).
❌ You prefer simpler user interfaces: Samsung’s Smart Hub software on this TV isn’t the strongest when it comes to feeling precise and easy to use.
8K might feel a bit like overkill to some, but if you’re going to buy a large size TV and you’ll feed it high-quality 4K pictures (given the absence of 8K movies), there’s no doubt that the Samsung QN900C can be a clear step up. The set offers stunning picture quality, exceptional color and brightness, terrific sound and outstanding black tones – all in a package that’s unmatched in terms of design.
For the uninitiated, Samsung’s ‘Quantum’ mini-LEDs are 1/40th the thickness of a regular LED, meaning thousands of smaller LEDs can be packed together in a much tighter fashion, allowing for far more accurate dimming zones and black levels that are much closer to what you get from OLED.
This has one of the most advanced mini-LED screens so far, and the magic trick here is combining it with Samsung’s AI upscaling, which can take 4K images and make them look closer to 8K resolution, so there’s real benefit in the higher resolution. Put simply, the QN900C is consistently able to produce images that look better than their source, as long as they’re high quality in the first place (HD video or low-bitrate streaming isn’t so transformative).
But you’ll pay a very high premium for this, compared to Samsung’s highest-end 4K TVs (such as the QN90C, further down this list), which are very nearly at the same level of brightness and contrast. Still, you also get top-tier gaming features, excellent built-in sound, and fantastic One Connect box, which moves all the connections to a tidy separate box, with one cable carrying power and visuals to the TV.
Read our full Samsung QN900C review
Best cheap OLED TV
BUY IT IF
✅ You want excellent OLED pictures: With deep blacks and punchy colors, the LG B3 has an outstanding picture despite being LGs’ entry-level 2023 OLED.
✅ You want great gaming performance: The LG B3 offers 4K 120Hz support, Dolby Vision gaming and VRR and ALLM connectivity and a handy Game Optimizer mode.
DON’T BUY IT IF
❌ You need more than two HDMI 2.1 ports: Despite excellent gaming performance and features, the LG B3 only offers this one two of its four ports.
❌ You need the best built-in sound: While it’s respectable, the B3’s sound system is definitely not as punchy as other TVs available, like the Samsung S90C (#1 on our list).
With its prices finally dropping, the LG B3 now offers an entry-level option to 2023 OLEDs but doesn’t compromise on picture quality or gaming performance. Its features rival plenty of other OLEDs on the market, and you don’t have to fork out as much to get sumptuous image quality.
Superb contrast levels with deep blacks and dynamic colors combine to give the B3 a picture that feels more premium than the price tag it comes with. It offers Dolby Vision HDR support and when used, movies and TV shows look fantastic with it. It doesn’t have high brightness levels however, with the LG C3, Samsung S90C and even the Sony A80L beating it. It still handles reflections well despite this in reasonable controlled environments, but for bright room viewing, such as sports during the day, something like the Samsung QN90C (#7 in this list) will be much more visible.
With LGs’ Game Optimizer feature included, the LG B3 is a real dark horse for gaming. The ability to tweak so many settings while playing really means you can tailor your gaming experience to whatever game you’re playing. It also has 4K 120Hz, VRR, ALLM and Dolby Vision gaming support. It’s just a shame that this is only on two of its four ports, but that’s okay for the more casual among us.
The B3 does have a distinctly average built-in sound system, though, and its stand feels a little cheap compared to its price tag, but there is still plenty on offer here to make the LG B3 a real consideration if you’re looking to upgrade your TV and make your way into the world of OLED.
Read our full LG B3 review
The best TV for sport
BUY IT IF
✅ You want a perfect TV for daytime viewing: With high brightness and anti-glare screen, the QN90C is perfect for those with bright rooms.
✅ You want a great gaming TV: With four 2.1 HDMI ports that support 4K 120Hz, VRR and FreeSync and an intuitive cloud based gaming platform.
DON’T BUY IT IF
❌ You want the best TV, money no object: The QN90C offers impressive performance, but the QN900C offers better shadow detail, brightness and black depth.
❌ Your budget is limited: You can get a decent mini-LED TV for less in the form of the Hisense U8K at #3 on this list, although it doesn’t offer quite the QN90C’s performance.
Samsung’s QN90C series TVs feature a mini-LED backlight, which allows the set to deliver high brightness along with generally more refined local dimming than what you’ll get with a standard QLED model that uses a regular LED backlight. And while the QN90C doesn’t quite hit the OLED-like heights of the company’s flagship QN95C when it comes to rendering the deepest shadows, its performance on that front is nonetheless impressive. Along with its strong brightness, an anti-glare screen makes the QN90C a great TV for viewing daytime sports.
Gaming is a particularly strong point for Samsung Neo QLED TVs, and the QN90C offers up four 4K 120Hz-capable HDMI 2.1 ports for connecting next-gen game consoles. Its Gaming Hub greatly expands the possibilities for gamers with cloud-based services including Xbox, Nvidia GeForce Now, Amazon Luna, Utomik and more.
The QN90C has better than average audio performance for a TV, including an Object Tracking Sound Plus feature to enhance the directionality of effects in movie soundtracks. It also supports the company’s Q-Symphony feature, which lets you pair the TV with select Samsung soundbars for a more spacious and dynamic audio experience.
There are definitely budget mini-LED alternatives from brands like TCL and Hisense that can be had for a lot less, but when it comes to features and design sophistication, they won’t be able to match the QN90C .
Read our full Samsung QN90C review
The best TV for versatility
BUY IT IF
✅ You like a wide choice of sizes: Ranging from 42-inch to 83-inch, the LG C3 can fit anywhere in the house, from desk to cinema room.
✅ You want a TV for movies and gaming: The LG C3 has very strong picture quality, and gaming features to cover every avenue.
DON’T BUY IT IF
❌ You’ll watch in bright rooms: The middling brightness means it can struggle with sunlight or reflections – the Samsung S90C at #1 in this guide is brighter at the same price, or the Samsung S95C (#4 in the guide) is nearly twice as bright.
❌ You have the LG C2: While there are some improvements, the LG C3 does not give enough of a jump from its predecessor, the C2, to warrant an upgrade.
The LG C3 covers a lot of bases when it comes to what you look for in a TV; it has great picture quality, a host of gaming and smart TV features, and it comes a wide array of sizes that should suit whatever your needs, whether it’s your new PC monitor or you want it to cover most of your wall to get that cinematic experience.
The LG C3 offers excellent detail within its picture and deep black levels that make it look brilliant when watching moves or TV shows. As we noted in our review “colors look bright without being garish” and the picture was “perfectly crisp”. There also isn’t much need to tweak any picture settings; out of the box, the LG C3 looks fantastic, but there are plenty of options to tweak if you need to experiment.
Gaming features are stocked here, with Dolby Vision, VRR, ALLM, AMD FreeSync and Nvidia G-Sync support and 4K 120Hz on all four 2.1 HDMI ports. Game Optimiser also enables you to play around with settings to get gaming on the C3 just right as well. And, with a wide array of sizes available from 42-inch to 83-inch, every gamer from the bedroom to the living room should be covered.
With so many features and options under its belt, the LG C3 is a versatile TV for sure. However, the Samsung S90C, one of the C3’s closest rival, takes the crown for best overall TV with improved brightness and a better built-in sound than the LG C3 at the same price. But, if you’re not a Samsung fan or you need smaller than 55 inches, it’s hard to argue against the LG C3.
Read our full LG C3 review
The best TV for sound
Black Friday deals
The Sony A80L costs a little more than some OLED competition even on Black Friday, but if you don’t want a soundbar, it may be worth it.
➡️ Lony A80L 55-inch:
$1,498 $1,398 at Amazon
➡️ Sony A80L 65-inch:
$1,798 $1,698 at Amazon
BUY IT IF
✅ You want excellent audio: The A80L delivers impressive built-in audio that does a good job with Dolby Atmos effects.
✅ You want brilliant picture quality: The Sony A80L also delivers a sharp, refined picture with fantastic detail at a mid-range price
DON’T BUY IT IF
❌ You want the brightest OLED screen: Other OLEDs TVs from brands like LG and Samsung offer higher brightness levels than the A80L.
❌ You want all the latest gaming features: The A80L only has two HDMI 2.1 ports and doesn’t support Dolby Vision at 120Hz either.
The Sony A80L is a mid-range OLED TV that delivers rich, fulsome audio quality. Thanks to its speaker placement and Acoustic Surface+ technology, the A80L’s built in sound is powerful and punchy, feeling fully connected to the action on screen. Because the sound can travel through the screen itself, the audio is direct and room-filling at the same time. Bass levels are not massive despite multiple subwoofers, but this is undoubtedly one of the best TVs for sound on the market at the moment.
Not just packed with an incredible sound system, the Sony A80L offers excellent picture quality. With spectacular sharpness and detail, the A80L provides crisp images with both 4K and upscaled HD movies and TV shows. The color handling on the A80L is top-tier as well, which in our review we said was “mesmerizingly precise”. The A80L does however have lower brightness levels than our top pick OLEDs, including the Samsung S90C at #1 on the list.
The Sony A80L also has good gaming features with 4K 120Hz, VRR and ALLM support. Sadly, it only has two HDMI 2.1 ports, where TVs from LG and Samsung will have it across all four ports and it doesn’t support Dolby Vision gaming at 120Hz either; something that LGs’ mid-range OLEDs have been supporting since 2021. However, it does have ‘Perfect for PlayStation’ features, meaning it has a special HDR mode for the PS5, and custom image presets for different genres of game.
It may be slightly more expensive than other entry-level/mid-range OLEDs, such as the LG C3, but if you’re a Sony fan, you won’t be disappointed by the A80L’s amazing sound quality and brilliant picture.
Read our full Sony A80L review
How to choose the best TV for you
How do I find the best Black Friday TV deals?
We’re updating our guide to the best Black Friday TV deals with new offers that we think are good as we find them, but you may be looking for something that doesn’t quite fit what we’ve suggested. So, where do you start among the hundreds of discounted options?
Our main tip is this: decide what size of TV you want, and your budget, and filter down to options that fit both of them before going any further. You’ll find that once you narrow these two criteria, the herd thins out massively.
From there, you can focus on the features you want most. Do you really want an OLED TV because you’re a movie buff and you love cinematic contrast? That will thin the list down again. Or perhaps you need something with next-gen gaming features on a budget – again, this will narrow things. Know what you want from your TV and things will come into focus quickly.
Maybe all you want is the biggest screen possible for the lowest price you can find – that’s fair enough! But in that case, still think about the smart TV software of your TV. Spending with Roku TV or Amazon’s Fire TV system is easier to use than some of systems you get on rock-bottom-price TVs, and you’ll be grateful to have something user-friendly.
How do I choose the best TV for me?
There are tons of things you could consider when buying a new TV, but not everyone needs to get stuck in the technological weeds. Here’s the advice our editors tend to give the (many) people who ask this of them in real life.
First, set your budget and your size. Choose a maximum amount you’re willing to spend, and the size of TV you want, and then narrow your search to only models that fit both of those criteria. You will find that already you’re down to looking at only a handful of options, making it much easier to get a grip on things. If you have quite a high budget, set yourself a minimum budget too to help narrow things – maybe 30% below your maximum budget.
When considering the size of the TV, think where you’ll be installing it; it can make all the difference if you’re using one of the best TV wall mounts to mount your TV, or just placing it on a stand, as the same TV can look different on both these places.
So now you’ll need to make a few further decisions. If you’re looking at the mid-range or premium end of things, do you want an OLED TV or an LED/mini-LED TV? In sizes of 55 inches and up, LED TVs tend to be brighter than OLEDs, and so are great for watching sports or TV during the day in bright rooms. But for movie nights, OLED TVs are the best, thanks to their unrivalled contrast – they just don’t go as bright as LED TVs unless you get the most expensive models.
If you’re buying a mid-range set, you’ll need to decide if you need a 120Hz screen or not. This is great for gamers (especially those with a PS5 or Xbox Series X), and good for movies, because it can show more natural motion. But if you want to save cash, getting a 60Hz TV might be a better idea, because 120Hz TVs always cost more.
And then, spare a thought to sound. Most of today’s thin TVs have weak built-in sound. If you don’t mind buying one of the best soundbars too (or if you already have one), then don’t worry about this. But if you don’t want extra boxes in your setup, then focus on the TVs we’ve recommended where we mention the audio is stronger. Sadly, it tends to be higher-end sets that do this better – but even then, not all are created equal. Sony and Samsung are usually strong for audio, though, so are a good place to start.
Which TV is the best quality?
That depends how you define quality. We define it as the ultimate mix of picture quality, features, design and price – when recommending the TV that’s best for most people at any given price, that’s what we’re looking for. And that’s why the Samsung S90C is at the top of our list – there are TVs that do individual things better, but nothing else does so much stuff so well, for the same kind of price.
The best premium OLED on the market for us is the Samsung S95C, the Samsung S90C’s more premium sibling, but it comes with a bigger price tag and when this is matched up against the S90C, the S90C delivers better value overall.
Which brand is best for TVs in 2023?
There’s no one brand that does TVs better than the others, but there are definitely some TV makes that excel in certain areas more than their rivals.
Some of the best brands on our list are Hisense, LG, Samsung, Sony, TCL and Vizio. They all tend to be the top-performing brands at the premium end, though all bring out a wide range of models each year.
The Samsung S90C is at the top of our best TV guide right now with an outstanding picture and although it’s expensive, it’s excellent value for money. With steps into the QD-OLED world, of which the Samsung S90C is one, Samsung has established itself as a real contender for best OLED TVs, with the also impressive Samsung S95C offering incredible picture quality and performance. There’s still also Samsung’s dynamic mini-LEDs on offer that will suit most people with bright environments.
LG also certainly make excellent OLED TVs – in fact, LG Display makes the OLED panels for most other brands. We like that LG offers a wide range of TVs, including different budgets and sizes – the LG C3 goes from 42 inches all the way up to 83-inches. LG’s webOS is one of our favorites, an easy to use operating system that feels intuitive.
Sony is another major player in the TV space. Its screens boast stunning picture quality and build quality. Although, like other brands in this list, there’s a wide range across the board. One interesting difference about Sony is its really pushed its Cognitive XR processor, a processing chip added to its TVs from 2021 that boosts vision and audio performance.
Of course you shouldn’t feel hemmed in by these four brands – Panasonic offers excellent premium TVs with a focus on image quality in particular, and Hisense and TCL offer great value in the mid-range and affordable end of the market.
Which is better OLED or QLED?
This is one of the biggest and more contentious TV tech questions of the moment. Luckily we’ve covered all of the details in our OLED vs QLED guide.
However, if you’re looking for a summary we’d say that QLED is a great option for brightness if you’ll watch in bright, sunlit conditions; whereas OLED TVs offer better viewing angles and superior contrast for gorgeous movie-like images, as long as you can control the lighting.
Is 4K better than OLED?
Luckily, you don’t need to decide whether to go with OLED or 4K – you can have both! 4K refers to the resolution (ie, the number of pixels on the screen), while OLED refers to the panel technology (ie, what the pixels are made from).
So you can have 4K screens that are OLED (almost all of them are, apart from some pricey 8K OLED TVs), and you can have 4K screens that are QLED, mini-LED or other tech.
Is LG better than Samsung?
Both LG and Samsung are excellent TV brands and you can’t really go wrong with either. However, there are some areas where one TV maker could be a better option than the other.
An LG TV tops our best TVs guide, but Samsung is the market leader for sales overall. If you’re looking for the most impressive picture quality out there, regardless of price, nothing currently beats LG’s OLED panels for color and contrast.
But Samsung TV’s are incredibly bright, particularly in more affordable models. We also love Samsung’s lifestyle sets, like The Frame QLED 4K TV (2022), for combining performance with style. And its cheaper TVs are usually excellent value for money.
How we test the best TVs
The best TVs are chosen by our writers and editors based on a few main criteria: their overall picture performance including contrast, color saturation and motion handling; the list of features they offer; their sound quality; their design and remote control; and how well their smart TV platform works. We’re looking for TVs that are well-built and have the technology to last for the next few years, balanced with their price, of course.
Obviously, there is a level of subjectivity that goes into the review process, however we strive to maintain fairness across brands by testing the same type of content on each screen (HD/SDR, 4K/HDR, games, movies and music) and reporting what we’ve found the experience to be like.
We test the brightness and color range using a colorimeter, and we ensure that we test ‘out-of-the-box’ as well as after calibrating the screens ourselves, so that we can tell you what you’ll get if you don’t tweak at all, as well as what the TVs are capable of in the right hands.
Like our readers, our writers’ and editors’ room layouts differ and may cause slight disparities in testing, however we make every attempt to question our assumptions and troubleshoot our issues with performance in every review.
The latest updates to the best TVs buying guide
November 24 2023
Added more information about the latest Black Friday deals on TVs featured here.
November 10 2023
Added author bio and link to TechRadar’s Best Black Friday TV Deals page.
October 12 2023
Added this ‘latest updates’ section to keep readers informed of any changes to this buying guide. Updated several products in this list to reflect our latest reviews, and following price cuts and lack of stock of older TVs.
