We have more screens in our lives than ever, from the cell phone in our pocket to the laptop we use to work. And yet, a television that offers a cinematic and community viewing experience remains an important part of the home for most people. What's exciting is that TV technology has evolved rapidly in recent years, and the size and quality that were out of financial reach for many of us now cost only a few hundred dollars.
If you choose wisely, it is also an investment that will last a long time. You don't need to replace a television that is only a couple of years old, as advancements occur much more slowly for televisions than for other technologies, such as smart speakers, headphones, or cell phones.
To help you choose the best options, we spent the last few months testing the latest available models (either 2019 or 2020) from a wide range of TVs, from 43 to 75 inches. After spending many hours watching our favorite shows and movies, comparing aspect ratios and display quality, and testing the intelligence of each model, we found that these three televisions are best for most cases:
- Best Overall TV: TCL 6-Series
- The luxury choice: Sony A8H
- Best budget purchase: Vizio V-Series
A quick look at the winners
With models starting at $ 599.99 for a 55-inch screen, the TCL 6 series surprises in price. But can a 4K smart TV really deliver a good picture for $ 500? The short answer: a resounding yes. The TCL 6 series produces a vibrant image with flexible customization options and handles HDR and Dolby Vision, optimization standards that enhance the content you are viewing by adding depth to detail and expanding the color spectrum.
For those willing and able to spend more, the Sony A8H, a 2020 OLED TV, offers a vibrant and strong image with deep black colors and a sleek construction. Although it starts at $ 1,898 for a 55-inch model (the 65-inch is $ 2,798), we are talking about OLED, which means that the panel is made up of pixels that individually emit a color to create an image with better contrast. The Sony A8H boasts a wide range of colors, from bright whites to subtle pastel shades to very dark blacks. It supports a wide variety of image standards that improve content quality and the result is an exceptionally vibrant and detailed image.
With so many options under $ 500, the low-budget category was cluttered with competition. Ultimately, the Vizio V-Series TV ran the best in our tests. The device supports 4K HDR and supports easy ways to send content from your phone to the big screen (Google Cast and AirPlay 2). It is also equipped with Dolby Vision, which will automatically increase the colors and contrast of the content. It is better than all low-end TCL models and Fire TV editions and offers a very solid image at this price.
The winners in depth
Best Overall TV - TCL 6-Series (from $ 579.99; amazon.com)
One of the best things about the TCL 6 series is that they are Roku TVs, so you have access to thousands of ready-to-use streaming services. You also don't need a treasure map to find the content. The main interface is a simple three-box wide grid and a list on the side that acts as a quick setup menu. Its inputs (such as HDMI and antennas) appear as boxes on the grid, next to boxes for streaming services and the applications you want to add, allowing you to quickly switch between them. The interface can get tricky as your list of services and apps grows, but you can organize them, like a grid or list, to make it easier to find what you're looking for.
Netflix, Disney +, YouTube, Hulu, Apple TV +, Sling, AT&T TV, YouTube TV, Philo, Google Play, ESPN, and most other services are available. You'll need an account to have full access to them, but once it's set up, just log in once from the TV and you're ready to go. As more channels and services come to Roku, your TV will update automatically.
Sending content to Series 6 from your phone is also simple and you can do it with various services, including Netflix, Hulu and YouTube. While you're on the same Wi-Fi network, Series 6 will automatically appear in the app's streaming menu.
And you don't have to worry about all that content being wasted on a low-quality screen. The TCL 6 series UHD 4K panel handles color reproduction pretty well. During Avengers: Endgame , we were impressed by the vibrant and accurate colors of Captain America's red, white, and blue shield, not to mention that tough green we love from the Hulk. Nothing was washed or seemed oversaturated.
The TV also supports Dolby Vision HDR, HDR 10, and a wide range of colors. This means that the TV can read metadata embedded in the image to calibrate the image in real time and make it appear closer to the creator's intentions. Overall, it offers accurate color reproduction and contrast, and shows great mastery of brightness and shadow.
When we saw Springsteen on Broadway broadcast on Netflix on Dolby Vision, the detail presented, from the pores on Bruce's face to the wood texture on his guitar, was second to none. Even the low-light accessories in the background were easy to tell apart. The lighting during The Rising , which depicts Springsteen in a silhouette, was real proof of how this LED panel handles deep blacks alongside a brighter burst of light. When Springsteen was dimly lit from behind against a black background, the TCL was able to contrast the darker areas with sharp reflections, all without any detail being erased.
The audio quality in Series 6 is a bit disappointing; We found it too easy, for example, for the mix to get muddy, with the voices mixed together with the background ambience. We definitely recommend pairing the 6 Series with a sound bar or home theater system. That said, it is true across the board that as TVs have thinned, so has the built-in sound quality, and we recommend adding external speakers to any of the TVs on this list.
For the price, the TCL 6 series is a high-capacity 4K UHD TV that has the ability to deliver significant improvements in HDR content, including increased brightness and an added emphasis on color. It's a massive 65-inch panel big enough to fill most spaces under $ 800. Also, we can't praise the Roku TV platform enough. It is the best option for most people.
The luxury pick: Sony A8H (from $ 1,898; amazon.com)
Buying an OLED means you're paying for superior image quality that offers vibrant colors and deep blacks, and that's certainly what you get with the Sony A8H, which narrowly outperformed the LG CX 55 and offers more value than the 8K QLED. Q800T from Samsung.
This panel produces hyper-precise colors with immense detail, thanks in part to Sony's iconic X1 Ultimate processor. This technology optimizes everything you're watching in real time, boosts content to 4K high-definition, and lets you take advantage of standards like HDR or Dolby Vision. It is the same basic metadata rendering that TCL presents in the 6 Series, but Sony has an advantage because many of the cameras and screens on TVs and movie sets are made by them. Thanks to this, they have a large amount of accumulated content through which they have trained an AI to determine the best way to calibrate a television. The A8H takes advantage of this knowledge and uses the processor to calibrate the panel and optimize the image. All this means that Sony is really better when it comes to producing the best picture on a television.
This feature stood out during our tests. With an episode from the first season of The Simpsons , compared to some of the other TVs we tested, there was noticeably less confusion between the characters, and the image maintained a realistic balance of vitality and color.
Featuring animation and live action, the A8H is optimized in real time for a highly accurate experience. In "Captain Marvel", when (spoiler) ends up defeating the villain with a huge bang the A8H made no additional noise in the picture: the bang didn't seem unnatural and finally fit in with the surrounding universe. This is a feature of the OLED panel, which can make minute changes in light pixel by pixel, and Sony technology optimizes this well on the A8H.
There's also Dolby Vision support for content that supports it. Similar to HDR, Dolby Vision brings out colors and offers stronger contrast. With content that is not compatible with Dolby Vision, we found ourselves using the Vivid image mode, which provides the greatest amount of brightness. Most importantly, it does not reduce sharpness or add graininess. That is a great system.
Sony opted for a customized version of Android TV for the A8H interface. This offers access to a ton of streaming services, including Netflix, Disney +, Hulu, and YouTube, though Android TV is more limited than Roku's platform. Of course, you can always expand that library by adding an external device, like a Roku Ultra or Apple TV 4K.
The Android TV platform also means that you can control the A8H with the Google Assistant and request content or adjust a setting with voice commands. Just hold the button on the remote control and ask me to open Netflix, or be more specific and request your favorite YouTube channel.
For those in the Apple ecosystem, the A8H supports AirPlay 2 to stream content from your iOS, iPadOS, macOS, or watchOS device. It also works with Amazon Alexa, but controls are limited to basic commands like turning the TV on and off and controlling playback. It's nice to have it, but since it's Android TV, the deepest integration is with Google Assistant.
On the sound front, there is no room for the usual speakers at the bottom of the TV, facing forward or down, like on LED or QLED TVs. In the A8H, the sound comes from the screen, through two actuators that vibrate to create it. It's pretty impressive and offers an immersive experience, although we still recommend a soundbar or home theater setup.
The A8H includes all of that technology in a really slim package, almost to an astonishing degree, especially if you've never seen an OLED TV before. At its thinnest point, the A8H is only a quarter of an inch thick, while most televisions are at least two inches thick.
All in all, an OLED offers what could be the best image on the market. You get incredibly deep blacks (if you look at the depths of the ocean, you feel like they're catching you) and vibrant colors. Sony's A8H does all of this and combines it with cinematic tones. You're paying almost $ 2,000 (or $ 3,000, depending on size), but you get a premium TV that you won't have to think about upgrading for years to come.
Best Budget Buy: Vizio V-Series (starting at $ 339.99; amazon.com)
While the option to pay less for a TV always carries compromises (i.e. in image quality compared to our other top picks), the Vizio V-Series leaves relatively little to be desired at this price. It does not have the best HDR nor does it offer the highest level of detail. But considering it starts at just $ 379.99, it's a solid TV with a proper interface that's nice to watch.
The V Series manages to produce a reasonably good image. Take that climactic scene from Captain Marvel we mentioned earlier: the contrast between the bright bang and the darker background is pretty nice in the V Series, though the bang itself isn't quite as vibrant compared to the TCL 6 Series, or so detailed as in the A8H. Similarly, in Avengers: Endgame, when Thanos is alone against the darkness of space, his outfit and skin are displayed with considerable vitality in the V Series, but the contrast, color, and reflections in his shining armor are not. They fully represent with the same precision as in high-end models.
With programs in 720p or 1080p HD quality, such as Below Deck Mediterranean and 90 Day Fiance , the V-Series panel introduced no additional noise or blur by scaling content to higher quality.
Overall, it's a good image, but it doesn't create the same immersive experience as high-end TVs.
Vizio's SmartCast platform is not our most beloved interface but neither is it the most hated one. It has access to a ton of services and plays great with Alexa, Google, and even Apple, similar to Sony's A8H. It can be slow during initial setup and browsing, but it does its job when you need to open Netflix or Hulu and start a movie or series.
The Vizio V-Series offers acceptable quality, with surprisingly deep blacks and vibrant colors, and gives you access to an otherwise premium ecosystem at a remarkable value for a 50-inch 4K TV under $ 400.
Note: The above prices reflect the price at the time of article posting.
