The best TV 2024, chosen by our reviewers for all budgets

The bright QD-OLED screen (a technology where OLED pixels mix with quantum dot color tech for great brightness and color range) is the centerpiece here, delivering fantastic contrast and rich colors that we can't get enough of. We measured the brightness at 1,100 nits in a 10% HDR window, which is slightly brighter than the LG C4… and that's a TV from 2024, while this is from 2023 and significantly cheaper. It's a beautiful TV, with colors and highlights a "joy to behold" according to our review. Naturally, being an OLED TV, it handles dark scenes with nuance and makes black tones look truly inky black. It's also stunningly sharp with 4K video and makes HD or lower-res footage look as strong as can be too, with little artificiality added. We took issue with how it handled the motion of 24fps movies in its out-of-the-box settings, but changing one setting fixed this.

Samsung uses multiple speakers placed around the edges of the screen here to make sounds seem like they're matching the position and movement of things on-screen, and it's very effective. On top of that, it's clear with dialogue, punchy enough to add excitement, and fairly natural-sounding. Obviously, bass is lacking compared to a dedicated system, and it can't produce the kind of width, height and scale that one of the best Dolby Atmos soundbars can – but unlike many mid-range TVs, you could live with it out of the box and not feel short-changed. It's among the best TVs for sound you can get for the price.

The smart TV platform used by Samsung is called Tizen, and while we don't find it to be quite as easy to use or slick as Roku's software, or the webOS software used on LG TVs, it's generally fine and won't baffle you. The voice control also works well and can help get to where you need to go in the menus if you struggle at all. Most importantly, it's very well-equipped for streaming service support, so there's pretty much nothing you could want to watch that you'll miss out on.

The S90C is just about as well-equipped as you could want in gaming. All four of its HDMI 2.1 ports are equipped for 4K 120Hz gaming from consoles or PCs, and support the console version of variable refresh rate gaming, as well as AMD FreeSync. It's missing Dolby Vision gaming support, and there's no Nvidia G-Sync support (which LG offers), but these are minor concerns for most people. We measured the input lag in its gaming mode at just 9.2ms, which is as good as it gets. Samsung's Game Bar menu makes it easy to customize how it performs as well and makes sure all the bells and whistles are turned on.

The Samsung S90C can now be found for around half the price it was at launch, meaning that a 55-inch model is often available for $1,299, and the 65-inch for not much more. For this price, nothing delivers the same kind nuanced, cinematic picture quality. But because this is a TV from last year, stock is running low – you might see even lower prices than this, but it really won't last long.

The 55-inch Roku Pro series TV we tested offers above-average brightness for a more budget-focused set – we measured around 900 nits peak brightness on a 10% window pattern and over 400 nits on a fullscreen pattern. While those are far from the most impressive numbers we’ve seen on a mini-LED TV, they compare well to competition at the same kind of official price. The Pro series also has excellent color performance and, as we noted in our review, we “didn’t experience any backlight blooming thanks to the TV’s well-implemented local dimming.” Its picture also shone with sports, partly because of its above-average brightness for a budget TV, but also because of the very good motion handling provided by its native 120Hz QLED display panel. 

A benefit of the Pro series’ sturdy “shadowbox” frame, which is slighty thicker than normal and was designed to accommodate a wall-mount installation, is that there’s space for side-mounted speakers – a configuration that allows for better audio clarity than the bottom-mounted speakers on most budget TVs. In our review, we found that there was “plenty of volume on tap” and that you could even get away with not using a soundbar. Which brings up another Pro series benefit: the TV can be wirelessly paired with the company’s wireless soundbars, subwoofers, and surround speakers. 

Roku made its name with streaming devices featuring an intuitive, simple-to-navigate onscreen interface, and that same smart interface is provided on Pro series TVs. Along with providing easy access to your favorite streaming apps, picture and sound settings can be quickly accessed by pressing the star button on the Pro’s remote control, which also has a built-in mic for voice commands. Roku had also promised a new feature called Roku Backdrops that’s similar to the “ambient” artwork display modes on other smart TVs, though that feature has yet to materialize.

Gaming support on the Pro series is surprisingly robust for a budget TV. It has two HDMI inputs with 4K 120Hz, VRR (with FreeSync), and ALLM support. Input lag in the TV’s game mode is a low 9.4ms, which is the type of performance we see in the best gaming TVs. The Pro series automatically switches to its game picture mode when a gaming console is connected and turned on, and the contrast-rich picture quality also extends to gaming, making it easy to see details in the darker parts of the screen.

There are good reasons why the Roku Pro Series is selected as the best budget TV pick in our guide. For less than $900 for the 55-inch model, you’re getting a TV with a bright mini-LED backlight, impressive picture quality and gaming performance, very good built-in sound, great gaming performance and features, and one of the best smart TV interfaces in the biz. And with major sales events now a regular occurrence, you can expect to pay much less than that if you keep your eyes open.

The U8N one of brightest TVs we’ve yet tested – when I measured the U8N, an HDR white window pattern covering 10% of the screen measured 2,851 nits, and a full-screen pattern yielded 805 nits, which are astoundingly high figures compared to previous TVs. But brightness is only one part of the picture quality equation, and Hisense’s TV also has refined local dimming for deep and detailed blacks. Not everything is perfect with the picture, with the main shortcoming being the noticeable color and contrast fade when viewing from far off-center seats, but when viewed straight on, the Hisense’s performance rivals TVs that cost substantially more when it comes to color reproduction, dynamic range, and natural sharpness.

The U8N’s built-in 2.1.2-channel audio system features upfiring speakers to deliver height effects in Dolby Atmos and DTS:X soundtracks. When watching movies, the U8N has clear dialogue and a good sense of spaciousness, and the sound can go impressively loud without any strain. Bass is also quite good for a TV’s built-in sound. We normally suggest adding a soundbar to any TV, but as I said in my U8N review, plenty of people will be happy with the U8N’s built-in speakers.

The U8N uses Google TV as its smart TV system, and it’s a reliable and generally easy-to-navigate option. One drawback is that a Google account is required to download apps beyond the handful provided by default on the home screen, but if you do sign in, Google will make personalized content recommendations based on your viewing and web browsing history rather than generating random ones. There are multiple ways to access picture and sound settings in the U8N’s menus, including a pop-up scrolling horizontal bar at the bottom of the screen that can be customized for quick access to frequently used adjustments. An onscreen Live TV guide displays free streaming channels in a cable TV-like grid format, and it can also be populated with broadcast channels pulled in by the U8N’s ATSC 3.0 “next-gen TV”  tuner. 

The U8N is a capable gaming TV, offering two HDMI 2.1 ports with support for 4K 120Hz, VRR up to 144Hz (including FreeSync Premium Pro), ALLM, and Dolby Vision 4K gaming. A pop-up game bar menu can be accessed when in game mode, which gives you quick access to gaming-related settings. I measured input lag on the U8N at a perfectly respectable 13.1ms – comfortably within the limit of 15ms that serious gamers expect to see.

At $1,499 for the 65-inch model I tested, the U8N is a great value. It’s regularly on sale for less than that amount, which almost seems like a steal given this TV’s impressive performance and features. The main TV that it competes with is the equally good TCL QM851G, which offers a similar level of performance and features and is usually priced around the same. The TCL is only available in 65-inch to 98-inch screen sizes, however, while the Hisense U8N also has a 55-inch option – really, you could buy whichever of these TVs is cheaper at any given moment, and their price competition with each other is only going to mean incredibly good prices for you.