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.

The S95D's picture quality is nothing short of spectacular, using every ounce of its built-in QD OLED tech to create a visually stunning experience. Details and textures are incredibly lifelike and refined and we said in our review that "Faces and skin tones had almost photo-realistic accuracy as if they were actually in the room". We also praised the S95D's bold, dynamic colors and excellent contrast as well, but it's the OLED Glare Free anti-reflection screen that steals the show, which we said made reflections "nearly impossible to see" in our testing. We did find that there was some black crush in the S95D's Filmmaker Mode, but this is the only real complaint about a near-perfect picture, and tweaking settings fixed it. While Dolby Vision HDR support would also have been welcome, the set's tone mapping does such a good job we don't think it's a real problem. The S95D's picture is nothing short of magnificent and, as we said in our review, is "what OLEDs should strive to be".

Despite being a thin TV, the S95D's built-in speakers are still very good. Its best aspect is the Object Tracking Sound (OTS+) system, which accurately places the sound around the screen while connecting it to the action. Its bass is also powerful and, as we said in our review, "tightly controlled and precise". We did find, however, that the S95D's soundstage wasn't as immersive as we'd have liked. Although the S95D's sound won't beat the likes of the Sony Bravia 8, it's still very good. But, we do think the S95D's picture deserves sound to match, so if you can add an elite soundbar or home theater system, do.

Tizen, Samsung's own smart TV platform and the one used in the S95D, is a solid interface that provides a good amount of cutomization and organization options for users. Its hubs – Home, Gaming, Daily+, Ambient – are a great way to categorize different apps for easy navigation and there's plenty of picture settings to tweak. While it's not quite as intuitive or feature packed as other smart TV platforms such as LG's webOS, it's still a decent interface overall.

As a gaming TV, the S95D is packed with pretty much everything you could need. Across its four HDMI 2.1 ports, it supports 4K, 144Hz, ALLM and VRR (including AMD FreeSync Premium Pro). The Game Hub is a useful tool that organizes everything gaming into one place and provides access to cloud-based gaming apps such as Xbox, Luna and more. But, it's not just features where the S95D excels in gaming, boasting superb performance – thanks to a super-low input lag that we measured at 8.9ms during testing – and fantastic visuals that give any game real depth. If you're looking for a premium gaming TV, the S95D has you covered.

As a premium TV, the S95D was always going to struggle in terms of bang for your buck when compared to sets from the likes of TCL and Hisense, but an elite TV carries a higher price. The 65-inch model that we tested costs roughly $3,099 – identical to the rival LG G4 – which isn't cheap. But if you're looking for a TV that covers all the bases and performs at a top level, the S95D is a prime example that more than justifies its premium price. It's just that the price will undoubtedly be too high for some people.

Equipped with less advanced OLED panel than more expensive models, the LG B4 still manages to deliver great picture quality. In our review, we found the B4 to be accurate in terms of color and contrast, especially when using its Dolby Vision Filmmaker Mode. We also found its motion handling to be excellent. Where it's limited is brightness when compared with more premium OLEDs – we measured its peak HDR brightness at 656 nits, compared with the step-up LG C4's 1,024 nits. That's a big difference, and you can very much see it. We found this limited brightness to slightly take away from the B4's dynamic picture, but it still delivers the deep, perfectly precise contrast that OLED is famed for, and the lack of brightness is much less of an issue if you watch mostly in controlled lighting environments. At this price, the B4's picture is more than accomplished enough and befitting of an OLED TV – it's just that will get more if you pay more.

Sound is one of the B4's weaker areas. We found in our review that the B4's speakers have "decent balance and dialogue comes across clear", but this is where the best parts end. Dolby Atmos reproduction isn't particularly refined and bass is limited. Pushed to higher volumes, we also found the B4's sound becomes "a bit thin and edgy". For those looking for the best built-in sound, look to the Sony Bravia 8, while the S90C is also far superior and close in price to the LG B4. Although the B4's sound "does the job", we'd recommend one of the best soundbars to complement the B4's picture.

Equipped with LG's own smart TV platform, webOS 24, we described the interface as "one of the best going" in our review, praising its Quick Cards for easy app organization and navigation. We also really liked the Quick Menu thanks to its convenience for access to useful settings such as picture mode, sound mode and more. The only real negative with webOS is its large banner ad at the top of the home menu, but most smart TV platforms have this today. In terms of smart TV interfaces, not many can compete with webOS – much to the B4's benefit.

The B4 is an excellent option for gaming, especially for those looking for a more affordable OLED. Stocked with four HDMI 2.1 ports, supporting 4K, 144Hz, Dolby Vision gaming, variable refresh rate (including AMD FreeSync Premium and Nvidia G Sync) and auto low-latency mode, the B4 is seriously well equipped for gamers. It also comes with LG's Game Optimizer for easy settings adjustments, including a Boost Mode that drops the B4's input lag to an ultra-low 9.1ms. We were suitably impressed with the B4's gaming prowess.

The B4 is a well featured TV for the money, but its value ultimately comes in to question when put up against the step-up LG C4. For the 65-inch model of the B4, the official price is around $1,499 as opposed to $1,599 for the C4, and C4 comes with that brightness boost and faster processing if you can stretch your budget a little. Still though, the B4 is fairly priced for what it offers, and is still the cheapest 2024 OLED TV you can get – and price cuts during the regular sales will bring it down further.

The Samsung QN90D's main strength is in its motion processing, making it superb for sports. In our review we found "intense sequences and fast panning camera shots were expertly handled" with whatever sport was thrown at it. Its high brightness levels – we measured peak brightness at 2,192 nits and fullscreen brightness at 680 nits – mean it's also effective in brighter viewing environments. But it's not just sport where the QN90D excels, as it delivers bold colors and solid contrast for movies as well. There is some backlight blooming present, as with most mini-LED TVs, and sets such as the TCL QM851G and Hisense U8N deliver higher brightness, but the QN90D delivers a slightly more consistent picture overall – especially with motion.

The QN90D's sound quality is generally good overall. We were most impressed with the QN90D's placement of sound around the screen, using its Object Tracking Sound+ (OTS+), that connected the action to the audio perfectly. It also delivered solid bass levels and clear speech throughout our testing. However, also during our testing, we couldn't help but feel the QN90D's soundstage was lacking – or, as we said in our review, "almost as if it couldn't escape the screen's borders". While most people will be happy with the QN90D's speakers, we still think it deserves a soundbar if you're a home theater fan.

Using Samsung's own smart TV platform, Tizen, the QN90D comes with a good number of picture settings for those who like to experiment. Tizen also uses several different hubs – Home, Game, Daily+ and Ambient – to organize the QN90D's apps and features in an easy to navigate fashion. While it's a very good smart TV interface, it doesn't quite best the likes of webOS as it lacks sound setting customization and doesn't feel quite as smooth. Nevertheless, most will find it perfectly fine.

The QN90D is perfectly equipped for gaming, with support for 4K, 144Hz, VRR (AMD FreeSync Premium Pro included), ALLM and HGiG support, across four HDMI 2.1 ports. We were impressed by the QN90D's fantastic performance, thanks to its low 9.9ms input lag. It also carried across its strong picture quality from movies to gaming, with excellent contrast and color. In places, its HDR tone mapping did come across a little aggressive, but it still looked great overall. Combining all this with high brightness, the QN90D is a sublime gaming TV.

Value is a tough ask for the QN90D as although it mostly delivers across the board, more affordable models such as the TCL QM851G and Hisense U8N offer a similar number of features, comparable picture quality and performance but at fraction of the price. For context, the 65-inch QN90D retails for $1,599 compared to the Hisense U8N, which we've seen for as low as $999 for its 65-inch model. The QN90D is still the top choice for sports no question, but for more general use, the price gap between it and more affordable mini-LEDs may be too great.

In use, the C4 delivers a picture that’s bright enough for viewing in rooms with moderate-to-high ambient light levels. I measured peak brightness on the LG C4 at 1,065 nits, a number that comes very close to matching the Samsung S90C OLED we have listed as the best overall TV in this guide. When watching in dim lighting conditions, its picture really pops to life, displaying rich color, deep blacks, and detailed shadows. Like other OLED TVs, the C4 looks good over a very wide viewing angle, so there’s never a bad seat in the house – a benefit when watching sports with a group.

The same Alpha 9 AI Gen 7 processor responsible for the C4’s picture-quality boost over the C3 also improves sound by upmixing audio for a virtual 9.1.2-channel Dolby Atmos presentation. When I reviewed the C4, I found the dialogue in TV shows and movie soundtracks to be consistently clear, and that there was a good snse of spaciousness with the AI Sound Pro mode active. As with most TVs, bass was on the light side, so if you want cinematic sound it will be best to add a good soundbar. The C4 provides several features designed to work exclusively with LG soundbars, including Wow Cast, which wirelessly transmits Dolby Atmos audio from the TV to the soundbar, and Wow Orchestra, which syncs up the speakers in the TV and the soundbar for enhanced audio presentation.

The new webOS 24 smart interface on the C4 has been updated for a more streamlined look. A main feature is Quick Cards, which lets you store apps and settings in various categories including Games, Music, Home Hub, Sports, and Home Office. Content recommendations are located below these, though, like on other smart TV interfaces, they routinely push you toward a free ad-supported TV portal (LG Channels, in this case). LG’s Magic Remote makes navigating everything easy, and a new Quick Menus provides easy access to picture and sound settings.

The LG C4 is a powerhouse TV for gaming. Its four HDMI 2.1 ports support 4K 120Hz, Nvidia G Sync and AMD FreeSync, and Dolby Vision gaming, and it’s one of the first TVs to be 144Hz certified by Nvidia. Similar to Samsung TVs, the C4 has cloud-gaming options, with Nvidia GeForce Now, Amazon Luna, Utomik and other services supported. A Game Optimizer mode is automatically enabled when a gaming console is connected, reducing input lag as low as 9.2ms and providing a convenient pop-up game menu for making quick gaming-related adjustments.

The 55-inch version of the LG C4 is now available for around $1,399, making it a very good value. You’ll pay nearly twice that amount for more flagship OLED TVs in that screen size from LG, Samsung, and Sony, and the picture quality advantages of those premium models, while real, aren’t something that most viewers will miss. LG’s C-Series OLED TVs have long represented a sweet spot for OLED TVs, and the C4 carries on that tradition.

The elephant in the room for the Bravia 8's picture quality is that it's not as bright as the LG C4, and is around half as bright as the likes of the Samsung S95D, which means there's a clear difference in contrast levels between them – and the low brightness means that for daytime viewing in bright rooms, some scenes will struggle against strong reflections. However, outside of that, the Sony is a total knockout. It may not go super-bright, but we found that white tones looked strong and clean, and there's a huge amount of nuance in the dark areas, making it easy to see fine detail in shadows, giving it a strong cinematic feel. Our review also praised the "natural and accurate colors" with realistic and subtle tone shifts playing in the light. There's a ton of detail too, and Sony does a great job with upscaling lower-quality material. Based on our testing, we strongly recommend avoiding Professional mode (which is Sony's equivalent of Filmmaker mode) when watching non-HDR stuff, though – it was incredibly dark. We also preferred Dolby Vision Bright over Dolby Vision Dark for watching Dolby Vision movies and TV – again, Dark was just a bit too dark on this limited-brightness screen.

This is obviously the key thing we've chosen this TV for, and nothing sounds better at the same kind of price. Not only does it feel deep and clear, but the positional effects are as good as it gets right now. As we noted in our review, when watching an action sequence in Shang-Chi "when an attack landed towards the bottom-left of the screen, for example, that’s exactly where it could be heard, as opposed to a full sound coming from all speakers." We also noted that there was an impressive level of height created from object-based soundtracks (such as IMAX Enhanced DTS:X) and that the volume could be turned up impressively high without being distorted, and only added to the positional effects when doing so. We also really liked the Voice Zoom dialogue enhancer, which made speech easier to pick out but kept it sounding natural. The only issue here is that bass isn't very deep, but that's true of anything that doesn't come with a real subwoofer, and the low-frequency performance you get here is still way above average.

Google TV is extremely comprehensive when it comes to streaming options, so there's no fear that you'll want to watch something you can't find, even if it's quite a niche service. We like Sony's quick settings menu, which brings up commonly-tweaked options at the bottom of the screen without interrupting what you're doing. The Eco Dashboard makes it possible to see how much energy you'd save by changing settings if that's a concern for you (this does tend to degrade performance though, be warned). The fundamental issue, though, is that we found it to be slower, less slick, and a little less intuitive than the webOS software on LG's TVs. That's probably best-in-class right now, while Google TV is good and comprehensive, but not our first pick.

The good news for the Bravia 8 compared to previous Sony TVs is that we measured an input lag of 12.8ms, which is a big improvement over the 16.5ms we measured on the Sony A80L that it replaces. It's still not quite as good as the 9.2ms of the LG C4, but only a handful of people will really care about that difference – the Bravia 8 is more than fast enough to feel like games are responding instantly. You also get the best HDR performance from both consoles here, because Dolby Vision Gaming is supported for the Xbox Series X, while Sony's Auto HDR Tone Mapping feature is an equivalent for PS5 found only on its own TVs – the idea is that it adjusts the HDR processing depending on the particular scene you're looking at, for better detail in the results. Sony's Game menu offers ways to tweak gaming settings that are useful for the more hardcore and is easy to use. The key flaw here, though, is that only two of the four HDMI ports offer HDMI 2.1 support for 4K 120Hz gaming, whereas the LG C4 offers four ports with this support, making it more futureproof for those who may add more consoles (or other devices that need this type of connection).

We already mentioned that the Bravia 8 is notably more expensive than its LG and Samsung equivalents, but that spending more on this TV means you don't necessarily have to spend on a separate soundbar to get fulfilling sound. So it's far from bad value, especially considering how good the pictures look, but you won't see us labeling it as the bargain of the year unless Sony suddenly gets very aggressive with the price drops.