The best TV in 2023: our top picks from LG, Samsung, Sony, TCL, Vizio and more

Our list of the best TVs you can buy will help you get the set that delivers the best performance for your money. We test all the top TVs each year — both in our lab and in our living rooms — and these are the 4K TVs that we recommend. 

Because TV technology evolves fast, we're frequently updating this guide to keep up with the latest and greatest models, whether that's a QLED TV from Samsung, an OLED from LG or Sony, or a Mini-LED TV from the likes of Hisense or TCL. 

To that end, we want you to get the whole package when buying something new: 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.

So what are the best TVs available now? The LG C2 OLED is now the best TV that we've tested. Not only is it the best OLED TV thanks to an impressive display panel, but a premium design, maximum versatility and great smart TV platform hit all the high marks, too. 

That said, if you want the latest models, you should hold out until March or April of 2023 to make a purchase. That's when we're expecting to see new versions of many of our favorite TVs listed below arrive at retailers. 

Written by

Written by

Nick Pino

Welcome! My name's Nick and I look after our guides to the best TVs, best OLED TVs and best 4K TVs. Most of my day is spent watching and evaluating new screens from LG, Samsung, Sony, Hisense, TCL and Vizio. I have 10 years of experience in AV, and before I joined Tom's Guide I was formerly the Senior Editor, TV and AV at TechRadar. I love helping people find the perfect TV, so please feel free to reach out over email or tag me on Twitter and I can help you out.

The quick list

Here's a quick overview of the best TVs you can buy right now based on our testing and reviews. And keep up on scrolling if you want to see our in-depth analysis of all the top TVs for every budget. 

The full list: Best TVs in detail

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What you need to know
Of all the TVs to hit our test bench this year, the LG C2 OLED TV is the new standard for comparison. It has mostly everything we want to see from a premium OLED TV — the style, the performance, the smart TV platform and more are all pretty much perfect. As much as the LG G2 OLED is a spectacle of a TV, it’s a bit fussy needing professional installation and it doesn’t make as good a gaming TV. Plus it’s several hundred dollars more than the C2. That’s why the LG C2 is the OLED TV most people will want to get this year. 

Design: The LG C2 OLED TV is a familiar, yet stunning piece of hardware. The panel itself is impossibly thin, measuring 0.1-inch thick across the top half of the TV. The component compartment extends out on the bottom half of the back chassis, but it’s still very sleek overall. Even better is the fact that the LG C2 OLED TV has four HDMI inputs. All four of those are HDMI 2.1 supporting 4K at 120Hz, with one supporting HDMI ARC/eARC (enhanced audio return channel). If you have a Blu-Ray player, soundbar and gaming console like we do, the full array of 2.1 inputs comes in handy. 

Performance: The LG C2 OLED TV’s upscaling is powered by the Alpha 9 Gen 5 Processor 4K while the addition of OLED evo promises better and brighter overall picture. Now, we found evo fell short of promises when it debuted last year on the LG G1 OLED, so we went into this review with tempered expectations. But the C2 rose to the occasion in our test. Color accuracy is a highlight of the LG C2 OLED TV, with the set earning a 1.7 Delta-E score. The LG C2 also provides an impressively wide color gamut, producing 134.45% of the Rec 709 color space, surpassing the basic color standard by a significant margin. 

Smart TV: All LG 2022 TVs ship with webOS 22, an interface that gathers content on a whole-screen home page. The interface feels mostly the same from the other best LG TVs from last year, but with added user profiles for curating recommendations and keeping each user’s relevant content in reach. When nothing’s being watched, the LG 2022 TV Always Ready tool is an ambient mode that displays art, photos or a music player.

Value for money: The LG C2 OLED TV’s price definitely makes it more premium than any of the best cheap TVs, though it’s a tick more affordable than the LG G2 OLED TV (65-inch, $2,999). 

Read the full review: LG C2 OLED

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The best QLED TV

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What you need to know
With the Samsung QN95B Neo QLED TV, Samsung once again proves why it’s the QLED TV king. Thanks to best-in-class brightness, cable management convenience and impressive performance across most content genres, the QN95B is a tough TV to beat. At a time when OLED TVs steal most of the hype, Samsung’s premium Neo QLED technology stands out in one big way: brightness. By introducing a Mini LED backlighting, the panel can achieve higher levels of brightness without sacrificing depth and gradations of luminance.

Design: The Samsung QN95B Neo QLED TV looks like a premium piece of equipment, complete with flush bezels and thin body that measures under 1 inch wide. It comes with a low-profile central stand that might limit the size soundbar you can place under it, but you could also hang the TV with a 400 x 300 VESA TV mount. What’s unique about the QN95B is that it uses Samsung’s One Connect box that houses the TV’s port array, including 4 HDMI 2.1 (1 supporting ARC/eARC) and 3 USB ports. The box then connects to the TV from a single cord, providing the choice to conceal unsightly cables as well as easy access to the ports.

Performance: Brightness is perhaps the QN95B’s biggest strength. In Standard mode with HDR content, the QN95B reached 1905.8 nits in a 10% window in our testing. For comparison, the LG C2 OLED TV hit 800 nits in the same window. Perhaps the only anecdotal shortcoming is a slight banding and blooming effect on the dark skies when you sit approximately 45 degrees off-angle to either side. Spec-wise, no Dolby Vision support is a setback for fans of the popular format; however, the set does handle HDR10, HLG and HDR10+ formats.

Smart TV: The Samsung QN95B Neo QLED TV uses Samsung’s proprietary Tizen smart TV platform. We have mixed feelings about the overall ease of navigation and content exploration, but it’s similar to LG’s Web OS and the Google TV interface. The home screen displays tiles for different content and channels, which you can customize to suit your watching preferences. In terms of streaming services, you’ll find popular choices such as Netflix, Hulu and HBO Max, as well as some free streaming services including Samsung TV Plus. 

Read the full review: Samsung QN95B Neo QLED TV

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The best value TV

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What you need to know
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.

Design: TCL's mid-range TV designs aren't going to win any prizes, but the basic black plastic construction does the job, providing a sturdy housing for a decent 4K smart TV. It may not look flashy, or be the slimmest thing on the TV aisle, but it gets the job done. The chassis includes holes for a 200 mm by 300 mm VESA bracket, meaning that it can be easily hung on the wall using any of the brackets on our list of the best TV mounts.

Performance: Though some cosmetic differences from the 2020 TCL 5-Series Roku TV were a pleasant surprise, we were even more pleased to see that performance had improved across the board, with the display offering better color, brightness, and shorter lag times than the already excellent Roku model. Color accuracy was great right out of the box, with a Delta-E average of 1.3 as measured by our X-Rite spectrophotometer. Lower scores are better. Color reproduction was also impressive, with the S546 reproducing 99.97% of the Rec 709 color space.

Smart TV: There's a strong case to be made that Google TV is the best smart TV operating system on the market, offering a clean, easily-navigated home screen, with useful content recommendations, easy access to live TV and the convenience of voice control through the remote's built-in mic or the TV's integrated far-field microphones. The home screen and menus of Google TV look great, improving upon the already solid experience that Android 10 provided. 

Read the full review: TCL 5-Series Google TV (S546)

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The best QD-OLED TV

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What you need to know
The Samsung S95B OLED 4K Smart TV signifies a big step forward for the company. It’s not just Samsung’s first OLED set, it’s also its first to combine OLED with quantum dots, resulting in a QD-OLED TV that promises the best of both technologies: superior color, brightness, and contrast in a single package. And Samsung comes tantalizingly close to conquering that mountain.

But the distance between “close” and “exact” proves to be a gulf with the S95B Series. For all the set gets right with its picture, sound, gaming performance, and even its remote control, its few minuscule missteps are amplified by a price ($2,999 MSRP) that’s just high enough to make you think twice. This may be one of the best TVs out there for certain kinds of shoppers, but overall you can do better — and cheaper.

Design: OLED sets are renowned—notorious?—for having ultrathin screens, and the S95B is no exception. Along every edge, the screen measures a trifle more than one-eighth inch thick, which, combined with the barely-there bezels (measuring about one-sixteenth of an inch on the top and sides and a quarter-inch on the bottom), give the TV an unusually sleek look. The control box in the back adds about an inch and a half to the depth, but the set’s svelteness is impressive nonetheless.

Performance: One of the first TVs on the market to fuse OLED and quantum dot technologies into a single set, the S95B all but promises next-generation picture quality by dint of its existence — and largely delivers. The picture on all of the movies, as well as a few TV series and YouTube videos we tried, plus our standard full-field, one-screen color screens, dazzled from anywhere in the room, as the set maintained almost its full color fidelity at even extreme angles relative to the screen. The S95B does not support Dolby Vision for HDR, but we had no complaints about any of the HDR10 video we sampled.

Smart TV: The Samsung S95B uses Samsung’s proprietary Tizen smart TV platform. We have mixed feelings about the overall ease of navigation and content exploration, but it’s similar to LG’s Web OS and the Google TV interface. The home screen displays tiles for different content and channels, which you can customize to suit your watching preferences. In terms of streaming services, you’ll find popular choices such as Netflix, Hulu and HBO Max, as well as some free streaming services including Samsung TV Plus. 

Value for money: For $3,000, it's a bit much to ask — even given the myriad positives — considering the stiff competition out there from the likes of Sony and LG, which are nipping at Samsung’s heels with new TVs that will build on the advances from their excellent last-generation sets, the A80J and the C2 respectively.

Read the full review: Samsung S95B OLED TV

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The best TV for gaming

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What you need to know
The Hisense U7H is a killer option in this price range — which is exactly what we’d expect from Hisense at this point. It doesn’t necessarily beat all the competition, like the TCL 6-Series, in all situations, but as a package deal it’s a seriously strong contender — and ultimately, worth buying. The Hisense U7H may not have Mini LED backlighting, but it does offer a QLED panel, and the ever-improving Google TV operating system. And, for the most part, it succeeds in delivering an impressive low-cost QLED TV-watching experience, but there are a few caveats to keep in mind.

Design: The overall design of the Hisense U7H is nothing to write home about, but it’s still sleek and stylish enough to fit in most living rooms. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have the new legs on offer by the U8H, but the understated legs on the U7H still look decent, and can be installed in two different positions — closer to the center, or closer to the edge. The bezels on the TV are relatively slim, with the bottom being the thickest. The TV itself is relatively slim too, though of course thicker towards the bottom. On a TV stand or mounted to the wall, it will look thin and stylish.

Performance: The Hisense U7H may not have the Mini-LED backlighting on offer by the higher-end Hisense U8H and Samsung QN95B, but it gets so close to the same level of excellent image quality, that without a side-by-side test, it can be hard to tell. The TV is being billed excellent for gaming. The fact that it has two HDMI 2.1 ports seems to confirm this, however note that it isn’t the lowest when it comes to input lag. Generally, it’s considered that a TV with less than 15ms of input lag is good enough for the majority of gaming situations, and the Hisense U7H just breezed under that at 14.6ms.

Other gaming-focused features include VRR, ALLM, and Dolby Vision Gaming. Gamers will be happy with what’s on offer here. The TV excels at controlling its backlighting in a way that ensures you’ll never experience blooming to a level of being distracting. That’s all despite offering a great level of brightness, both in day-to-day viewing and in our lab testing. 

Smart TV: There's a strong case to be made that Google TV is the best smart TV operating system on the market, offering a clean, easily-navigated home screen, with useful content recommendations, easy access to live TV and the convenience of voice control through the remote's built-in mic or the TV's integrated far-field microphones. The home screen and menus of Google TV look great, improving upon the already solid experience that Android 10 provided. 

Read the full review: Hisense U7H QLED TV

The best mid-range TV

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What you need to know
TCL has long been acclaimed for bringing a lot of performance to TVs that don’t cost a lot of money. That trend continues with its latest 6-Series Roku TV, the 65R655, which amps up key aspects of its performance—particularly brightness and gaming potential—while keeping the price affordable. Throw in the super-easy-to-use Roku TV interface and you have a set that more than delivers on its picture promise without busting your budget.

You will have to make a couple of sacrifices to take full advantage of the good deal the 65R655 offers, a set this simple won’t appeal to everyone, and there aren’t a ton of innovations when compared with earlier 6-Series sets. But in what it does offer over its predecessors and competitors, the 65R655 offers a compelling amount of TV while minimizing most of the compromises. If you’re looking for one of the best TVs you can find for less than $1,000, this one is an excellent place to start.

Design: Though the 65R655 is not a bad-looking TV, it’s not exactly sleek. Measuring 2.7 inches at its thickest point, it will jut out noticeably from the wall if you choose to mount it using the 300x300mm VESA holes that are the black, ridged rear panel’s most prominent feature. The thinner part of the screen measures about 1.2 inches by itself, and the whole thing is framed by a brushed-metal strip surrounding the screen. The bezels it creates are themselves quite slim: less than one-eighth inch on the left, right, and top, and just under a half-inch on the bottom (to allow for the TCL and Roku TV logos). The IR receiver and the status light and front and center below that.

Performance: TCL promises outstanding color and brightness from its new 6-Series TVs, thanks to the use of mini LED and QLED technologies and the presence of so-called “Contrast Control Zones” (aka dimming zones). With many sets, the picture mode you choose is essential to your watching experience, but that’s unusually true with the 65R655. There are five picture modes for SDR content and more for HDR (depending on the technology you’re using), but regardless of which dynamic range you’re playing in, the main mode you’ll need and want is Normal.

Smart TV: Although it may not be as powerful, extensible, or attractive as other smart interfaces on the market, Roku TV wins points for simplicity. The home screen is divided into two zones: The left third is devoted to a scrolling menu that provides you a number of options for either surfacing or searching for content or configuring the TV itself, and the right two-thirds expands on your choice to provide additional interaction possibilities.

Read the full review: TCL 6-Series Roku TV (65R655)

Brightest OLED TV

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What you need to know
The LG G2 OLED TV is the brightest LG OLED TV ever, and we have the test results to prove it. OLED TVs typically suffer on this front compared to the best QLED TVs, but no more. The change from last year’s LG G1 TV is stark, with the second-generation OLED evo panel featuring a dedicated heat-dissipation system that lets the picture get much brighter without causing the dreaded OLED burn-in.

There’s more to this TV than just brightness, though: an updated Gallery Series design, new webOS version and high-scoring performance across the board makes this one of the best TVs on the market this year. However, the premium features come at a premium price; this is LG’s most expensive 4K OLED TV of the year, with a $2,999 ticket on the 65-inch configuration. 

Design: As the name may suggest, LG’s Gallery Series TVs prioritize design. The set is wrapped by a minimalistic silver frame with subtle texture, but it doesn’t curl over the screen, instead maintaining a bezel-less appearance. The G2 OLED TV’s one-inch-deep body holds everything the TV needs, so you won’t find a rear protruding component box like you might on other OLED TVs. The uniform chassis also features a recessed mount and input panels on the back.

Performance: We first saw this set side-by-side with the LG C1 OLED and this year’s LG C2 OLED, and the brightness (and brightness control) is unparalleled for an LG OLED. This is the first time in a few years we can say the Gallery Series performance has an undeniable advantage over the C series. Color accuracy is another highlight of the G2 OLED TV. It earned a Delta-E score of 1.30. Any result of 2.0 or less is good, with lower scores being more accurate. Lastly, when it comes to lag times, the Gallery Series remains a top option for gaming thanks to its auto low latency mode. It measured a lag time of just 13.1 milliseconds. 

Smart TV: All LG 2022 TVs ship with webOS 22, an interface that gathers content on a whole-screen home page. The interface feels mostly the same from the other best LG TVs from last year, but with added user profiles for curating recommendations and keeping each user’s relevant content in reach. Thanks to a new NFC control, using LG ThinQ app’s Magic Tap function you can tap your smartphone to the TV remote to switch profiles. Magic Tap lets you easily mirror content from your smartphone to the LG G2 TV, too. 

Read the full review: LG G2 OLED TV

The best large-screen TV

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What you need to know
The Sony Bravia X95K Mini LED TV, which is the brand’s first set powered by Mini LED backlighting, looks to keep up with the best 4K TVs of the year from LG and Samsung. It has the kind of HDR performance you crave on movie night, pairing the set’s high luminance and targeted backlight control with plenty of nuance and practical vibrancy. Sony packages it up in a sleek build, complete with multiple stand configurations and a great remote.

Despite entering a bit later into the Mini LED competition, the X95K hits most of the marks we want from a 4K HDR TV. We say most, however, because viewing angles are rather narrow and the port options may seem limiting for a set that starts at $2,799 for the 65-inch configuration. But if you’re looking for a premium-feeling piece of equipment with Google TV, this massive Mini-LED TV is a good place to start.

Design: The Sony Bravia X95K Mini LED TV's design oozes finesse. It features thoughtful details that assist both with setup and general appearance. We’re fans of the titanium silver bezel, which wraps the sides of the screen but doesn’t infringe on the panel, maintaining a bezel-less look. It’s also worth appreciating the checkerboard pattern on the back. Still, it would be nice if all four HDMI ports were 2.1 for making the most of performance abilities for multiple peripherals, as the LG G2 and Samsung QN95B both support.

Performance: Sony’s Cognitive Processor XR works in tandem with the XR Backlight Master Drive to deliver controlled, yet well-rounded HDR performance. In out-of-the-box standard mode, the Sony Bravia X95K Mini LED TV covered 99.89% of the Rec 709 color space, which is a nearly perfect reach to the average viewer with an LED TV. The X95K’s best Delta E score came in at an excellent 1.88 in Filmmaker Mode, which isn’t surprising as Sony has long emphasized preserving the filmmaker’s intent in picture processing. Pretty on-brand for a TV manufacturer that’s also a movie studio. 

Smart TV: The Sony Bravia X95K Mini LED TV user experience is powered by Google TV. Google TV, first found in the best streaming devices from Google, has fully replaced Android TV as Sony’s TV OS. And we’re a fan; Google TV is easy to customize and control using your Google account, while the platform serves up content recommendations based on your suspected interests. You can also connect multiple accounts to the TV, as well as parental control profiles, meaning everyone in the family can be closer to the things they want to watch.

Read the full review: Sony Bravia X95K Mini-LED TV

The best Hisense TV

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