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Best Value
Vizio 4K TV (V4K55M-0801)
Best Smart TV
Roku Plus Series QLED
Best Upgrade
TCL QM6K QLED
A Cheaper Google TV
TCL Q6
It’s a great time to buy a cheap TV. With TVs getting better and brighter each year, and the economy doing … whatever it’s doing, investing in the best cheap TV for your money could be the perfect thing for you. Don’t just grab the first random model that pops up on Amazon, though, as some just aren’t that great.
That’s why we spent hundreds of hours testing dozens of screens of all levels to ensure that only TVs with solid performance and great daily usability made the cut. Whether you need a primary 4K HDR display for your TV room or an extra screen for the bedroom or den, this tight list of the best cheap TVs we’ve tested has what you need. For more options, check out our main Best TVs and Best Soundbars lists, and hit up our guide on How to Choose the Right TV to get the inside scoop on all your TV questions.
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What does WIRED consider for the best cheap TVs?
The short answer is price, performance, and usability. Most regular folks who ask me about a new TV are looking for something around $500 or less. Jumping up a few hundred dollars can often get you a lot more performance value, but I understand that may not be in the budget, so this list generally aims for TVs at or below that magic number. To get there, we’ve made a slight sacrifice on size, generally recommending 55-inch models rather than the 65-inch size that’s becoming the industry standard. Not everyone needs a larger screen, and the larger you go, the more you’ll notice performance imperfections.
As TVs get increasingly bigger, it’s also getting harder to find good TVs smaller than 55-inches, especially if you want features like High Dynamic Range and quantum dot colors that make for a much more vibrant and impactful picture. These features often go hand-in-hand with 4K resolution, so while you may not mind getting an HDTV at smaller sizes, all the TVs we’ve recommended offer 4K resolution. Wherever possible, we look for models that offer various size options to cater to all buyers and use cases.
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Best Value
This Vizio TV is loaded for the money, offering advanced features like Dolby Vision HDR alongside gaming chops like VRR (variable refresh rate) and low input lag. The picture is bright and punchy, Vizio’s smart interface is simple and easy to use, and it comes in multiple sizes, from 43 to 86 inches. Because it’s a direct-lit screen without local dimming, it won’t look as good as pricier models in the dark, but the 55-inch model shown here costs around $300 or less on sale. That’s about the best deal you’ll find in TV land right now.
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Best Smart TV
Roku’s decision to jump into the TV business has paid off, mixing the brand’s brilliantly intuitive smart interface with impressive picture quality, especially in its top two models. The Plus Series is the goldilocks option for value shoppers, offering quantum dots for vibrant colors and full-array local dimming for rich black levels. Extra smarts like a voice-search remote and support for Apple HomeKit, Amazon Alexa, and Google Assistant round out its bona fides for a versatile display with plenty of brains.
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Best Upgrade
If you can stretch your budget, this sweet TCL screen gives you performance and features that go well beyond the standard cheap TV crowd. Boasting TCL’s cutting-edge screen tech, its mini-LED display gets just about everything right, offering deep black levels, poppy HDR brightness with very little blooming, accurate colors, and a clear and vibrant screen even when seated slightly off angle. Top features include a 120-Hz native refresh rate, dual HDMI 2.1 inputs for gaming features like VRR (variable refresh rate), and an intuitive Google TV interface. In short, it’s a total ringer, and the 55-inch model’s sale price usually lands around $550.
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A Cheaper Google TV
If the QM6K is too pricey but you still want Google TV, 2024’s Q6 could be a good alternative. The model name is a bit of a misnomer, as TCL added several technologies year over year. This model lacks local dimming, so it won’t look nearly as good as the QM6K in the dark, and it only offers a 60-Hz screen. Still, its mix of poppy quantum dot colors, breezy streaming, and handy features make it a solid budget option, especially since you can often get a 65-inch model for well under $500.
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The Best Tech (On Sale)
The Hisense U6N comes with mini-LED backlighting for excellent black levels and features Hisense’s excellent ULED technology for great colors. This 55-inch model is often on sale for under $600, and it’s worth the extra cash when you can find it on sale. A 144-Hz refresh rate makes it excellent for everything from playing PS5 at the highest settings to gaming on PC, and a built-in Fire TV interface is more than fine for all your app-based needs, despite not being as easy to use as Roku or Google TVs. On picture quality alone, this competes with models that cost about twice as much, which is impressive enough for most living rooms. — Parker Hall
Cheap TVs We’re Testing Soon
We’re constantly testing new TVs to make sure we recommend the very best options. The TVs below are currently in our “to test” queue. While we can’t recommend them yet, they’re good candidates for this list based on previous testing.
LG B5 OLED: The word “cheap” is a stretch here, but LG’s B-series has long provided the primary benefits of OLED (perfect black levels and fantastic contrast, vibrant colors, excellent off-axis viewing) at a cost that falls well below most name-brand models. The B5 hasn’t crossed our doorstep yet, but given that we adored 2024’s step-up C4 OLED (9/10, WIRED Recommends), and the B-series historically borrows heavily from its pricier sibling from the prior year, I’m fairly confident this will be the prime pick for those after an OLED on a budget.
