A new TV purchase can be bewildering. When you’re looking at two dozen TVs side by side in a big box store, there are dozens of terminology that TV salespeople use, and occasionally the screens start to look the same.
You may choose the TV that offers the best value for your money by consulting our list of the top models available now. These are the 4K TVs that we suggest after annually testing all the best models in both our testing facility and our living homes.
We regularly update our list to reflect the most recent models available because TV technology is always changing, whether it’s a Samsung QLED TV, an LG or Sony OLED, or a Hisense or TCL Mini-LED TV.
In order to achieve this, we want you to get the complete package when you purchase a new item: excellent picture quality, rich sound, all of the modern smart features, and it would be wonderful to save a few dollars while you’re at it.
So which TVs are the best? Currently, the best TV we’ve tested is the LG C2 OLED. Its outstanding display panel makes it the greatest OLED TV, and it also gets top marks for its luxury design, maximum adaptability, and excellent smart TV platform.
The Samsung QN95B Neo QLED is the following model, and it offers excellent picture quality because to its combination of QLED color and Mini-LED backlight (the ingredients that make up Neo QLED). The greatest QLED TV we’ve recently examined combines outstanding performance with great sound, a wealth of smart features, and a chic design. Just be warned that this high-end 4K smart TV is not inexpensive.
The greatest 4K smart TV we’ve seen for less than $1,000 is available to you with the TCL 5-Series Roku TV (S546), the pinnacle of inexpensive TVs. Despite the affordable price, it is still among the greatest TVs available because of its feature-rich Roku TV interface and upgraded LED-LCD display with quantum dots. With this, top-notch gaming features, and a sophisticated design, there’s a lot to enjoy.
1. LG C2 OLED
What you must understand
The LG C2 OLED TV is the new benchmark for comparison among all the TVs that have passed our test bench this year. It essentially has everything we want in a high-end OLED TV: the design, the functionality, the smart TV platform, and more. Even while the LG G2 OLED is a stunning TV, it’s a bit finicky and requires professional installation, and it isn’t as effective as a gaming TV. Additionally, it costs hundreds more than a C2. The LG C2 is the OLED TV that most people will want to purchase this year because of this.
Design: The LG C2 OLED TV is a well-known but gorgeous piece of technology. The TV’s top half is made up of a 0.1-inch thick panel, which is absurdly tiny. Although the component compartment protrudes out on the back chassis’s lower half, overall design is still very svelte.
Performance: The Alpha 9 Gen 5 Processor 4K powers the upscaling on the LG C2 OLED TV, and the inclusion of OLED evo should result in a better, brighter overall image. As evo launched on the LG G1 OLED last year, we found that it did not live up to expectations, so we entered into this review with guarded expectations. But in our test, the C2 performed admirably.
All LG 2022 TVs come pre-loaded with webOS 22, a user interface that compiles content on a full-screen home page. Although user profiles have been added to help with recommendation curation and to keep each user’s relevant material within reach, the UI seems largely the same as on the other best LG TVs from the previous year.
Value for money: The LG C2 OLED TV costs slightly less than the 65-inch LG G2 OLED TV ($2,999), but it is unquestionably more expensive than any of the top inexpensive TVs.
2. Samsung S95B OLED TV
The Samsung S95B OLED 4K Smart TV represents a significant advancement for the business. It’s not just Samsung’s first OLED television; it’s also the company’s first QD-OLED television, which promises to combine the best aspects of both technologies for the finest possible color, brightness, and contrast. Samsung also comes perilously near to summiting that mountain.
But with the S95B Series, there is a huge gap between “close” and “precise.” Even while the set excels in all areas, including picture quality, audio output, gaming performance, and even remote control usability, its few minor flaws are accentuated by an asking price of $2,999 MSRP, which is just high enough to attract your attention. For some types of buyers, this might be among the greatest TVs available, but overall, there are cheaper and better options available.
Design: The S95B is an OLED set, which is renowned—or is it notorious?—for having incredibly thin screens. The TV has unusually thin bezels (approximately one-sixteenth of an inch on the top and sides and a quarter of an inch on the bottom) and a screen that is slightly thicker than one-eighth of an inch around every edge. Although the control box in the back increases the depth by roughly an inch and a half, the set’s svelteness is still stunning.
Performance: The S95B is one of the first TVs on the market to combine OLED and quantum dot technologies into a single set, and it generally lives up to its promise of next-generation picture quality. All of the movies, TV shows, YouTube videos, and our typical full-field, one-screen color screens looked stunning from every location in the room since the set retained nearly its entire color fidelity even at extremely oblique angles to the screen. Dolby Vision for HDR is not supported by the S95B, but none of the HDR10 content we sampled gave us any trouble.
The Samsung S95B makes use of Samsung’s exclusive Tizen smart TV platform. Although it resembles LG’s Web OS and the Google TV interface, we have mixed opinions about how easy it is to navigate and explore the material overall. You can personalize the content and channel tiles on the home screen to fit your viewing habits. You can choose from well-known streaming options like Netflix, Hulu, and HBO Max as well as ones that are free, like Samsung TV Plus.
Value for money: At $3,000, it’s a bit much to ask, even with all the advantages, especially in light of the fierce competition Samsung faces from the likes of Sony and LG, which are chasing after Samsung with new TVs that will improve on their respective excellent last-generation models, the A80J and C2.
3. TCL 5-Series Google TV
We were impressed by the TCL 5-Series Google TV (S546blend )’s of smart TV capabilities, reliable performance, and excellent value for money. The affordable 4K smart TV now has a more premium smart TV platform, one that offers personalized and customizable suggestions, a wide range of smart features, and deep Google Assistant integration that makes it a viable hub for the entire home of connected devices. This builds on the already solid 5-Series platform. But it also improves other facets of television.
The 5-Series Google TV is a more refined version of the 5-Series TV when it comes to everything from color quality to lag times, as we discovered in our in-depth testing. Along with a fantastic QLED 4K display, this TV also has a sleek remote control and a surprising number of gaming capabilities for a 60Hz TV. It’s undoubtedly one of the greatest TVs available for a smart TV that costs less than $1,000 for the majority of size possibilities.
Design: TCL’s mid-range TV designs won’t win any design awards, but the straightforward black plastic structure serves its purpose as a reliable home for a good 4K smart TV. It may not have the most dazzling appearance or be the slimmest item in the TV aisle, but it serves its purpose. Any of the brackets in our list of the best TV mounts can be used to hang the chassis on the wall because the chassis has holes for a 200 mm by 300 mm VESA bracket.
Performance: While the 2020 TCL 5-Series Roku TV’s cosmetic differences from the previous model were a welcome surprise, we were even happier to see that overall performance had increased, with the new model’s display offering better color, brightness, and faster response times than the already excellent Roku model. Our X-Rite spectrophotometer recorded a Delta-E average of 1.3, which is excellent for color accuracy straight out of the box. Lower marks are preferable. The S546 reproduced 99.97% of the Rec 709 color space, which was another amazing feature of color reproduction.
The best smart TV operating system currently available is Google TV, which offers a clear, user-friendly home screen with helpful content recommendations, simple access to live TV, and the convenience of voice control via the built-in microphone on the remote control or the TV’s built-in far-field microphones. The Google TV home screen and options look fantastic, furthering the already excellent experience that Android 10 offered.
4. Hisense U7H Google TV
It is exactly what we would anticipate from Hisense at this stage that the Hisense U7H is a killer option in this price bracket. It may not always outperform the competition, like the TCL 6-Series, but taken as a whole, it’s a genuinely good competitor that is ultimately worthwhile to purchase. Despite lacking Mini LED illumination, the Hisense U7H has a QLED panel and the constantly evolving Google TV operating system. With a few exceptions, it accomplishes its goal of providing a remarkable low-cost QLED TV viewing experience.
Design: Although the Hisense U7H’s overall appearance is nothing to get excited about, it is nevertheless elegant and fashionable enough to fit in most living spaces. Sadly, the U7H lacks the innovative legs that the U8H offers, but its subtle legs still look good and may be fitted in one of two locations: closer to the center or closer to the perimeter. The bottom bezel of the TV is the thickest, and the bezels are often thin. Although it thickens naturally at the bottom, the TV is still relatively thin overall. It will appear slim and fashionable installed on a wall or on a TV stand.
Performance: Although the Hisense U7H lacks the Mini-LED illumination seen in the more expensive Hisense U8H and Samsung QN95B models, it offers superb image quality that is difficult to distinguish without a side-by-side comparison. The TV is advertised as being fantastic for gaming. This seems to be supported by the fact that it includes two HDMI 2.1 ports, although keep in mind that its input lag isn’t the lowest. In general, it’s believed that a TV with input latency of less than 15ms is sufficient for the majority of gaming scenarios, and the Hisense U7H narrowly missed that mark with 14.6ms.
VRR, ALLM, and Dolby Vision Gaming are additional capabilities that are geared toward gaming. What is provided here will satisfy gamers. The TV does an excellent job of managing its backlighting such that you never suffer distracting blooming. Despite providing an excellent degree of brightness, both during normal viewing and during our lab tests, that is all.
The best smart TV operating system currently available is Google TV, which offers a clear, user-friendly home screen with helpful content recommendations, simple access to live TV, and the convenience of voice control via the built-in microphone on the remote control or the TV’s built-in far-field microphones. The Google TV home screen and options look fantastic, furthering the already excellent experience that Android 10 offered.
