So you're looking to buy one of the best TVs — lucky you. But where do you start? After all, you have to choose between 8K and 4K and answer the OLED vs QLED question. Plus you have to decide whether to go with Samsung, LG, Sony, TCL, Vizio, Hisense or Toshiba. And of course you'll also need to work out which smart TV features you're looking for.
In short, it's not quite as simple as buying the most expensive model you can afford. You want the whole package: great picture quality, rich sound, and all of the smart features available today, and it would be nice to save a buck or two while you're at it.
But don't worry. We’ve tested and reviewed the latest TVs from all the best TV brands to help you choose the right TV for your home. Every TV we review is assessed for hours, including being put through an exacting technical testing process, so that we can find the best TV for your budget and needs.
We’ve made it our mission to offer you real-world advice that cuts through all the jargon and explains exactly what these TVs can do for you. So while we’ll let you know about the specs, we’ll also explain what this will mean for your viewing experience, whether that’s the improved picture quality that 4K resolution brings, or the vibrant colors that HDR TVs offer.
In short, Tom’s Guide has your back when it comes to finding the best TVs.
Top 3 TVs in 2022
What are the best TVs?
The Samsung QN90A Neo QLED is the best TV we've reviewed, delivering superb picture quality with its combination of QLED color and mini-LED backlight (the ingredients that make up Neo QLED). Pair that performance with fantastic sound, rich smart features and a stylish design, and you've got the best TV we've reviewed recently. Just be aware that this premium 4K smart TV doesn't come cheap.
The LG G2 OLED is also among the top TVs you can buy. It features a gorgeous OLED panel; it's a great 4K smart TV, and it's an excellent gaming TV, thanks to its low latency and gaming optimizer modes. And this being one of LG's 'Gallery' series models, it also looks fantastic. Look out, though, for the new LG C2 OLED; we're testing this now, and it could prove an even better purchase.
The TCL 6-Series Roku TV (R635) is the ultimate in affordable TVs, giving you the best 4K smart TV we've seen for less than $1,000. In fact, ignoring the budget-friendly price, it's still one of the best TVs on the market, thanks to a quantum-dot enhanced LCD and mini-LED-backed display and feature-rich Roku TV interface. Combine this with superior gaming features and a refined design, and it's got plenty to love.
As we await the latest 2022 TV models, keep an eye out for new QD-OLED TVs that promise to combine the best of OLED and quantum dot technology. See our Sony A95K QD-OLED preview and our Samsung S95B QD-OLED hands-on.
The best TVs you can buy in May 2022
The Samsung QN90A Neo QLED TV combines Samsung's highly refined quantum dot technology with the tight control of mini-LED backlighting, resulting in one of the best TV displays we've ever tested. To take brightness as an example, the QN90A achieved 1813.83 nits in our testing — more than four times the LG G1's 412.05 nits. Color reproduction, meanwhile, was 99.51% — on a par with other excellent non-OLED sets, though below what you get on the best OLEDs. Samsung pairs that image quality with a bounty of smart TV functions and genuinely intelligent features, like a solar-powered remote control that eliminates the need to swap out batteries — delivering eco-friendly design and unbeaten convenience at the same time.
The whole thing is packed into a gorgeous 1-inch-thick design that contains a huge array of smart features, potent Dolby Atmos sound and some of the best performance we've ever seen. HDMI 2.1 connectivity comes as standard, and it's also a great option for gamers thanks to plenty of dedicated features and an impressive 12.6-millisecond lag time in our testing. One slight negative is that it only supports HD10+ and not Dolby Vision as well, which means it's not quite as versatile as some sets, but overall it's the best TV we've seen in the past 12 months. We look forward to reviewing Samsung's 2022 sets very soon.
Read our full Samsung QN90A Neo QLED TV review.
The 2022 version of LG's premium G-series OLED TVs is here — and it's brilliant. The LG G2 OLED improves upon last year's G1 in almost every regard to up the game when it comes to the screen tech. Brightness has been a long-time OLED shortcoming, but in our testing we found that the LG G2 reached 590.54 nits — way above the G1's 412.05, albeit not quite on a par with the Sony A80J's 713.65 result. And brightness is just one aspect of its performance that impressed us, with color accuracy, color gamut and lag times all faring well in our testing. And of course you get the deep blacks we've come to expect from OLED.
This being one of LG's 'Gallery' series TVs, its design is also something to behold, with a minimalistic silver frame that gives it a near-bezel-less appearance. It's also well equipped with ports, sounds better than almost any OLED we've ever heard and offers a full-featured smart TV platform that should satisfy most households, without quite being the best. The LG C2, which we're currently testing, may end being a better purchase for most people, but until then this is the best OLED TV you can buy.
Read our full LG G2 OLED TV review
The TCL 6-Series Roku TV (R635) offers enormous value for its affordable price, offering premium picture quality and a great smart TV experience for much less than the competition. As TCL's best mainstream smart TV, the R635 ups the ante with mini-LED backlighting in addition to QLED. The result is impressive color and brightness — backed up by our test scores — plus some of the best HDR performance we've seen on anything this side of an OLED display.
But TCL keeps delivering more, like THX Certified Game Mode, which makes the 6-Series one of the best gaming TVs available, even for yet-to-be-released consoles like the PS5 and the Xbox Series X. From the design's smart touches, like cable management in the stand, to the always-solid Roku TV platform, the TCL 6-Series R635 is the best TV value, and it's not even close.
Read our full TCL 6-Series Roku TV (R635) review.
The LG C1 OLED is a fantastic value among premium TVs, offering an amazing OLED display, a full complement of HDMI 2.1 ports, and the best gaming performance and features you can get. The display offers rich picture quality with impeccable contrast and sharpness, superb HDR support and gaming performance that beats everything else we've seen. Color reproduction is incredible: in our testing it reproduced 131.59% of the Rec 709 color gamut, higher than almost any other set bar the more expensive LG G1 and a long way clear of QLED models such as the Samsung QN90A. Color accuracy is similarly superb: it achieved an average Delta-E rating of 1.25, one of the best scores we've seen. It can't compete with a non-OLED set such as the Samsung above on brightness, but that's to be expected. Combine all of that with a stunning design and better-than-average sound, and you've got one of the best TVs you can buy.
LG's webOS faces stiffer competition on app selection and features, but smart options, like your choice of Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa voice assistants, AI-driven sports alerts, and gaming features like the game optimizer menu and support for Google Stadia and Nvidia GeForce Cloud keep it in the mix for the best smart TVs. Just note that some have complained about a Dolby Atmos audio delay with certain devices, like the Xbox Series X, and also that our reviewer needed to adjust the bass settings in the equalizer to get the right balance. But all in all, it delivers incredible quality and solid value for the admittedly premium price, making it one of the best TVs we've tested. We expect our LG C2 review to follow soon for the 2022 model.
Read our full LG C1 OLED TV review.
The TCL 5-Series Google TV (S546) wowed us with its combination of smart TV features, solid performance and great value for your dollar. Building on the foundation of the already-good 5-Series, the move to Google TV gives the affordable 4K smart TV a more premium smart TV platform, one that offers personalized and customizable suggestions, a huge assortment of smart features, and deep Google Assistant integration that makes it a viable center for the entire home of connected gadgets.
But it also offers a step up in other aspects of the TV. As we found in our extensive testing, the 5-Series Google TV is a more polished version of the 5-Series TV when it comes to everything from color quality to lag times. And as well as delivering an excellent QLED 4K display, you also get a slick remote control, and a surprisingly wide array of gaming features for a 60Hz TV. For a smart TV that sells for under $1,000 for most size options, it's easily one of the best TVs on the market.
Read our full TCL 5-Series Google TV (S546) review.
The Vizio OLED TV is the most affordable OLED TV on the market, and the first to offer a less-premium alternative to offerings from LG and Sony to shoppers in the United States. Selling for hundreds of dollars less than the competition, the Vizio OLED packs plenty of smart features alongside the 4K OLED display, and delivers the sort of premium picture quality that normally costs much more.
Vizio's SmartCast smart TV platform has also expanded its app selection significantly, and all of the major apps you might want — from Netflix to Disney+ — are available right on the TV. The few that aren't offered on the home screen (HBO Max is the most glaring omission) can still be enjoyed through the TV's built-in Google Cast and AirPlay 2 support. Combine all of this with an improved remote control design and great sound with better-than-average bass, and you've got an easy pick for affordable OLED TVs.
Read our full Vizio OLED TV review.
The Sony Bravia XR A80J is absolutely packed with futuristic technologies: this 4K OLED TV has HDR, a 120 Hz refresh rate, ATSC 3.0 tuner, Google TV streaming and Sony's own Bravia Core service, Acoustic Surface Audio+ technology… the list goes on. Sure, not everyone will need everything here, but it's nice to have the option.
Just as importantly, it also excels at the basics. As we found in our testing, contrast is superb, colors are rich and varied, viewing angles are impressive and it handles upscaling well. Sound is also excellent and Google TV is a big upgrade on the older Android TV. Against that, the XR A80J requires a little more tweaking in order to look its best; it's fine out of the box, but to really reach its full potential, you'll want to play around with various modes. It's not the cheapest and other sets beat it purely based on picture quality, but as an all-round package the A80J is a great choice.
Read our full Sony Bravia XR A80J review.
The Hisense U8G Android TV is our favorite Hisense model, and one of the best Android TVs around. With a quantum dot color and integrated Chromecast and Google Assistant, it's a full-featured smart TV that offers great quality for a reasonable price. With support for both Dolby Vision and HDR10+, it also offers the best HDR format support you can find, along with Dolby Atmos sound. It has built-in voice control with room-listening microphones, effectively letting you use the TV as a smart speaker, and offering the sort of smart home integration and control that would normally cost much more.
In our review, we were especially impressed by the U8G's brightness, which exceeds 700 nits of peak brightness and combines with the better-than-average HDR support for great performance that brings out highlights and shadows. With few complaints and lots of great perks, the Hisense U8G ANdroid TV is easily our new favorite Hisense model.
Read our full Hisense U8G Android TV (65U8G) review.
The TCL 5 Series Roku TV does what TCL does best, delivering a surprisingly great mix of features and performance at an excellent affordable price. With even the largest model selling for less than $1000, you get the superb color and brightness of QLED, as well as Roku's user-friendly smart TV interface, which puts thousands of apps right at your fingertips.
In addition to the excellent color accuracy and full color gamut offered by the QLED display, it offers top-of-the-line HDR support, with Dolby Vision in addition to basic HDR10 and HLG formats. With input lag clocking in at 13.1 milliseconds in our testing, it's also one of the best affordable gaming TVs you can buy. And it's roughly half the price of Samsung's equivalent QLED TV, making it one of the best values in smart TVs.
Read our full TCL 5-Series Roku TV (S535) review.
The Hisense U7G Android TV is being marketed as a TV built for gaming, and the specs make it easy to see why: The Quantum Dot display boasts good color and sharp images, the panel's 120Hz refresh rate will handle the most demanding game console output, and a pair of HDMI 2.1 ports offer the best connectivity you can get for high-frame rate gaming.
And any TV that's good for gamers will usually do pretty well at everything else. Handling both Dolby Vision and HDR10 Plus formats, it's got some of the best HDR support available, and Dolby Atmos sound means it has the audio to match. It impressed us in our testing, and it's more affordable than you'd expect given the feature set. Gamer or not, the Hisense U7G Android TV is a solid 4K smart TV.
Read our full Hisense U7G Android TV review.
The Toshiba C350 Fire TV is the 2021 addition to the small family of Amazon-powered smart TVs, offering good features and decent performance for its extremely affordable price. It's a decent example of the Fire TV template, combining good-enough 4K picture quality, impressively short lag times, and Amazon's great Fire TV smart features, like built-in Alexa voice control, a pretty big app store and (of course) an interface that puts Amazon's Prime Video service front and center. With even the largest 55-inch model selling for less than $500 (and likely much less during sales events), it's one of the smartest affordable TVs you can get.
The C350 doesn’t come with the latest bells and whistles, such as HDMI 2.1 or Dolby Atmos support, but it does Dolby Vision and HDR10 — though not very well. But with excellent color accuracy, low lag time and a good looking design, it's still a solid TV for the price, and better than many Fire TV models we've seen in the past.
Read our full Toshiba C350 Fire TV review.
Though it's not quite as weatherproof as some SunBriteTV models, the new SunBriteTV Veranda 3 stands above the competition by offering a performance that's worthy of plenty of indoor 4K TVs. It's designed for full-shade environments such as patios, porches, and sunrooms, rather than being entirely exposed to the elements, and lacks the tempered-glass screen that the SunBriteTV Pro 2 has, but it's still rated IP55 for protection against dust, solid objects, and water, and can handle temperatures from -24 to 104 degrees Fahrenheit.
Just as importantly, it puts in a fine all-round performance. In our testing, we measured an impressive max brightness of 528 nits, while color reproduction is also on a par with plenty of good indoor sets. A low lag time and 120 Hz screen make it a good option for outdoor gamers, if that's a thing, while the addition of Android TV finally gives SunBrite a quality interface. Even the remote is vastly better than previous outdoor options. It's not cheap, but if you're after a 4K outdoor TV, look here first.
Read our full SunBriteTV Veranda 3 Outdoor TV review.
When it comes to 8K TVs, there are plenty of ultra-premium sets you can choose from, but TCL has stepped things up by bringing the price down. The TCL 6-Series 8K Roku TV (R648) is the most affordable 8K TV on the market, and it's even more affordable than some of the 4K sets we recommend. Plus, it's got everything we love about Roku TVs, along with excellent performance and short lag times for gaming.
By offering next-gen resolution at current-gen prices, it's the 8K TV we recommend – or, that we would recommend, if we thought people should be buying 8K TVs (which we don't). Our only issues with the TV's performance were the 8K panel's limited viewing angles and the mediocrity of the audio, which can be solved with a simple soundbar. But the bigger issue is one facing any 8K TV out there – there's next to nothing you can watch in 8K, and that may not change anytime soon.
Read our full TCL 6-Series 8K Roku TV (R648) review.
How to choose the best TV for you
If you're trying to find the right TV for you, there are several factors to consider, from the basics of screen size and resolution, to the specific smart features and ports offered on a given model. We recommend most homes opt for a 55- or 65-inch TV with 4K resolution. We're also big fans of smart TVs, which let you stream all of your favorite shows and use dozens of apps without a second device.
We have extensive shopping advice, like our TV buying guide and figuring out what size TV you should buy. And if you still have questions about smart TV features and capabilities, check out Smart TVs: Everything you need to know.
Performance: Our TV reviews also look at how well each TV performs in key areas, like picture quality and sound, so don't forget to look up the model you're interested in to see our TV reviews.
Ports: We generally recommend opting for more ports, so that you never have to manually unplug and re-plug HDMI cables to switch from your Bl-ray player to your game console or other device. Three ports is common, but nicer TVs usually have 4 HDMI ports. You'll also want make sure at least one is HDMI 2.1; our guide to the best HDMI 2.1 TVs can help here. (Still confused? Check out TV ports explained: What all those HDMI, USB and other connections are for?)
Extra USB ports are also handy for powering antenna amplifiers or streaming sticks, as well as viewing media from USB storage.
HDR: Most TVs offer high dynamic range (HDR) support, with Dolby Vision being the top format and HDR10 the most basic. But more important is the backlight, with OLED TVs and LED sets with local dimming offering the best HDR capabilities.
Smart software: Some of the TVs are among the best Alexa compatible devices and best Google Home compatible devices you can own, so pay attention to which smart home platform the sets offer before choosing.
Price: You can find smaller 4K TVs that sell for less than $500, which will spare you some cash for some of the best soundbars or best streaming devices to go with your set. However, you'll want to pay more for features like HDR support and a decent number of HDMI ports.
Generally speaking, you'll pay around $500 for a lower-price, 55-inch, 4K TV and at least $900 for a 65-inch model. Premium 4K TVs can sell for thousands of dollars, but we find that the sweet spot for superior performance and value is right around the $2,000 mark.
8K TVs, on the other hand, run from pricey to mortgage-your-house levels of expense, with new smaller models selling for as little as $3,000, but running up to the tens of thousands.
Get a broader view of everything the best TV brands have to offer by checking out the full roster of 4K and 8K TVs from every major manufacturer.
If you've narrowed down your TV shopping by brand, price range or screen size, check out our picks for the best TVs in each.
Best TVs | Best 4K TVs | Best smart TVs for streaming | Best TVs for gaming
The best TVs under $1000 | The best TVs under $500
Best TV brands | Best Samsung TVs | Best TCL TVs | Best LG TVs | Best Roku TVs | Best Google TVs | Best OLED TVs | Best QLED TVs | Best 8K TVs | Best HDMI 2.1 TV | Best TVs with ATSC 3.0 | Best TVs with Chromecast
The smallest smart TVs | Best 43-inch TVs | Best 50-inch TVs | Best 55-inch TVs | Best 65-inch TVs | Best 70-inch TVs | Best 75-inch TVs | Best 85-inch TVs
And don't forget to watch out for the latest TV reviews.
How we test TVs
Evaluating TVs is about more than just kicking back to watch a movie. We lab test every TV, measuring color gamut, color accuracy and brightness to objectively see which sets are the best for these key indicators. We also test for lag time – a key detail for gaming – measuring to the millisecond how long it takes for content to travel from the original source to the screen. We use these results to make numbers-based comparisons about color and display quality.
We also spend time with each set for real-world evaluation and see how our lab results translate into more subjective performance. We also compare sets side by side and view samples from the latest movies, specialized test patterns that highlight strengths and weaknesses of each display, and a range of content across several sources. With that information, we can tell you which TVs look best, sound best and offer the best viewing experience.
Finally, we evaluate the smart TV functions and apps for each TV, looking at everything from the remote control design to the voice interaction
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