Best TVs for 2026: Expert Tested and Reviewed is attracting attention across the tech world. Analysts, enthusiasts, and industry observers are watching closely to see how this story develops.
This update adds another signal to a fast-moving sector where product decisions, platform changes, and competition can quickly shape the market.
So, you want a new TV? Buying the best TV to meet your needs is a balancing act of finding the best price, the right size for your room and the best picture quality. I’ve reviewed most of the current TVs head-to-head in a dedicated lab, and I want to help you choose the best-value TV that’s right for you. It’s worth noting that all of the TVs below are from 2025 while 2026 models are appearing on shelves right now. Look out for reviews of the latest TVs shortly, including the LG G6 OLED and Samsung S95H.
The Samsung S90F has a lot going for it. It’s relatively affordable, super-light, easy to install and delivers some of the best images I’ve ever seen. It’s great for gaming, too, with super-low lag scores and well-saturated colors. It dispenses the “infinite black” of the best OLEDs, pairing it winningly with excellent shadow detail.
Key to the Hisense QD7QF’s success is full-array local dimming — a display tech you usually only find in more expensive TVs — and it’s something the previous QD7N also lacked. As a result, this Hisense has a level of picture quality I’ve never seen before in a TV this cheap. The enhanced levels of contrast give images a solidity that meant the Hisense was unmatched.
While every other OLED TV until now has shown modest increases year-over-year, the LG G5 is a massive improvement on its predecessor. LG says it has a 40% improvement in brightness — a claim I verified in my own testing — and it’s a TV that can take on LCD TVs for its clarity and punch. The G5 has better color than any other TV I tested in 2025 and it’s the winner of the CNET Labs Award for Best Color Accuracy. It’s a lot better for gaming, too. For the right person, the extra $1,100 for the G5 over the C5 may be worth it.
If you want the best TV you can buy in 2026, this is it. Samsung’s S95F takes everything we loved about last year’s S95D — great picture quality, super-fast gaming, superior anti-glare — and somehow manages to improve upon it. What’s especially impressive is how well this TV banishes reflections, making it well-suited for watching in a bright room. If you find yourself squinting at the screen because you can see a window or overhead lights in your picture, this TV is for you. While there is some loss of contrast with the lights on, it’s not as pronounced as with the S95D, and its overall lack of reflectivity is well worth the trade-off.
As the brightest TV I’ve ever tested, the TCL QM9K is the winner of the inaugural Lab Test Award for Brightest TV Screen. It has a maximum brightness of 4,520 nits, which is about 500 nits brighter than its nearest competitor, the Hisense U8QG. This TV’s high brightness is an asset, whether you’re watching a movie in a well-lit room or playing the latest AAA game. The TV still costs less than flagship OLED models, like the LG G5 and Sony Bravia 8 II. This TV also offers better gaming response times than most high-end models.
For the best TVs for the money, it’s the TVs priced at less than a grand that typically include the features you want without paying too much. The TCL QM6K started at a grand and is now even cheaper (about $550) and it has those tick boxes already checked — excellent picture quality, streaming and gaming. It’s an attractive TV with its “bezel-less” design and is simple to put to together and set up.
TCL has topped CNET’s list of the best TVs for the past few years and the QM8K improves in a few key ways. In my side-by-side comparison tests with the LG C5 and the Hisense U8K, the TCL stood out with excellent color and OLED-like black levels. The key to the TC’s picture-quality performance is mini-LED tech and its new Halo Control system, which is designed to reduce light bleed in dark scenes. It works but it does mean the screen is a little less bright than the previous QM851.
Whether you need a TV for sporting events, gaming or streaming shows and movies, there’s a model here for you. Be aware that because TVs are a stable technologies, year-to-year improvements are usually minor. In some cases, you can even buy a 2024 TV that’s similar to a current model, but for a fraction of the price.
The TVs on this list are the best models you can buy currently, from high-end QLED and OLED TVs to midrange mini-LED and cheap 4K smart TVs. CNET has awarded one of these TVs, the LG G5, as the winner of its first Labs Award for Best Color Accuracy, while the TCL QM9K is the brightest screen I’ve tested.
This guide has been refreshed with more information about 2026 models. The brightness comparison table has been expanded to include data from both 2024 and 2025, and a link to a CNET Labs exclusive has been added, explaining why TVs have become so bright.
The Samsung S90F has a lot going for it. It’s relatively affordable, super-light, easy to install and delivers some of the best images I’ve ever seen. It’s great for gaming, too, with super-low lag scores and well-saturated colors. It dispenses the “infinite black” of the best OLEDs, pairing it winningly with excellent shadow detail.
The only ding against it, like all Samsung TVs, is that it doesn’t support Dolby Vision, but HDR10 Plus is more than enough for most purposes. Also, it lacks the step-up S95F’s light-rejecting coating, so it is not as good in a lit room as that TV.
All in all, though, the Samsung S90F is a fantastic TV with great contrast levels and highly saturated colors, which can bring cinema-like images into your home.
Key to the Hisense QD7QF’s success is full-array local dimming — a display tech you usually only find in more expensive TVs — and it’s something the previous QD7N also lacked. As a result, this Hisense has a level of picture quality I’ve never seen before in a TV this cheap. The enhanced levels of contrast give images a solidity that meant the Hisense was unmatched.
Adding to its superior picture was its higher brightness — over twice that of other 2025 budget TVs I tested head-to-head — and this boosts immersion in video games as well.
As I write this, the QD7QF’s price is subject to some volatility — it’s currently $309 (for the 50-inch) but was $400 the previous time I checked. If the Hisense is out of stock or becomes more expensive, the 2024 Fire TV 4-series is almost as good, even if it lacks local dimming.
While every other OLED TV until now has shown modest increases year-over-year, the LG G5 is a massive improvement on its predecessor. LG says it has a 40% improvement in brightness — a claim I verified in my own testing — and it’s a TV that can take on LCD TVs for its clarity and punch. The G5 has better color than any other TV I tested in 2025 and it’s the winner of the CNET Labs Award for Best Color Accuracy. It’s a lot better for gaming, too. For the right person, the extra $1,100 for the G5 over the C5 may be worth it.
With its high brightness, the G5 is also great for use in a lit room, although it’s second to the excellent Samsung S95F, in my testing, in terms of reducing glare in a bright room.
With excellent clarity, punchy contrast and bold color, the LG G5 is the model to choose if you want the best combination of picture quality and brightness.
If you want the best TV you can buy in 2026, this is it. Samsung’s S95F takes everything we loved about last year’s S95D — great picture quality, super-fast gaming, superior anti-glare — and somehow manages to improve upon it. What’s especially impressive is how well this TV banishes reflections, making it well-suited for watching in a bright room. If you find yourself squinting at the screen because you can see a window or overhead lights in your picture, this TV is for you. While there is some loss of contrast with the lights on, it’s not as pronounced as with the S95D, and its overall lack of reflectivity is well worth the trade-off.
Picture quality is just as great as you’d expect from an OLED, with vivid colors and fantastic contrast. The TV has also had a brightness boost in 2025 of about 30% and can go toe-to-toe with the even-brighter (on paper, at least) LG G5.
The only downside? It costs a lot of money. Yet, as Samsung’s flagship OLED, the S95F makes your investment worthwhile — and rewards movie fans and gamers alike with excellent performance in an attractive package.
As the brightest TV I’ve ever tested, the TCL QM9K is the winner of the inaugural Lab Test Award for Brightest TV Screen. It has a maximum brightness of 4,520 nits, which is about 500 nits brighter than its nearest competitor, the Hisense U8QG. This TV’s high brightness is an asset, whether you’re watching a movie in a well-lit room or playing the latest AAA game. The TV still costs less than flagship OLED models, like the LG G5 and Sony Bravia 8 II. This TV also offers better gaming response times than most high-end models.
If you tend toward gaming almost exclusively, the QM9K is a good match with its high brightness and zippy response. Alternatively, if you want the best picture for the same money, you could get the LG G5 or, for even less money, the Hisense U8Q or TCL QM8K.
For the best TVs for the money, it’s the TVs priced at less than a grand that typically include the features you want without paying too much. The TCL QM6K started at a grand and is now even cheaper (about $550) and it has those tick boxes already checked — excellent picture quality, streaming and gaming. It’s an attractive TV with its “bezel-less” design and is simple to put to together and set up.
The TV delivers compatibility with all the HDR formats — including Dolby Vision and HDR10+ — and includes the company’s Halo Control system processing, which is designed to eliminate backlight haloing in its 500 dimming zones.
In my side-by-side tests of the TV I found that it had plenty of contrast compared to its competition, though I had hoped for a lot more oomph in the brightness department — its 655 nit reading is super low for a modern TV. Yet, if you’re watching in the dark, or without direct reflections, its lack of dazzling whites won’t be an issue.
TCL has topped CNET’s list of the best TVs for the past few years and the QM8K improves in a few key ways. In my side-by-side comparison tests with the LG C5 and the Hisense U8K, the TCL stood out with excellent color and OLED-like black levels. The key to the TC’s picture-quality performance is mini-LED tech and its new Halo Control system, which is designed to reduce light bleed in dark scenes. It works but it does mean the screen is a little less bright than the previous QM851.
The TV also has a sleek design with a center-mount stand and a spiffy remote control. The operating system is Google TV, which I don’t like as much as Roku TV, but it’s still a solid smart TV system.
Apart from a slightly slower gaming response time — measured at about 1ms slower than most and 4ms slower than the best — the main downside of the TCL QM8K is that it’s only available in large sizes (65 inches and up). If you’re looking for a TV for a smaller space, I recommend the similarly performing Hisense U8QG instead.
Hisense U8Q: An excellent TV, the Hisense U8Q goes tit-for-tat against the TCL QM8K and it’s also a lot brighter. Read my review of the
Roku Pro Series TV has some of teh best onboard sound I’ve ever heard
Roku Pro Series: If you want a TV that’s also a Roku, this is the best one yet, though third-party models may give you better picture quality. Read my full review of the Roku Pro Series TV.
LG C5: Like the Samsung S90F, this is an excellent OLED TV for watching TV or playing games. It’s a fine TV, but the S90F is better. Read my review of the LG C5 TV.
The Panasonic Z95A is a 2024 OLED TV that boasts a dedicated audio system.
Samsung S90D: The S90D performed well in our measurement tests but it suffered some contrast loss compared to the C4. Any differences between the C4 and S90D were subtle. It has been replaced by the S90F. Read CNET’s full review of the Samsung S90D.
Samsung S95D: With a versatile matte screen and awesome picture, the Samsung S95D delivers astounding image quality and is quite a bit cheaper than the newer S95F. Read CNET’s full review of the Samsung S95D.
CNET’s David Katzmaier and Ty Pendlebury have been testing TVs since the turn of the century.
In every CNET TV review, I compare three or more similar TVs side by side in a dedicated, light-controlled test lab. With each review, I employ a rigorous, unbiased evaluation process honed over more than two decades of TV reviews. I test TVs with a combination of scientific measurements and real-world evaluations of TV, movies and gaming content.
To evaluate picture quality, I use an AVPro Connect 8×8 4K HDR splitter so each TV receives the same signal. I test the TVs using various lighting conditions, playing different media, including 4K HDR movies and console games, across a variety of test categories, from color to video processing to gaming to HDR.
To measure each TV, I use specialized equipment to grade according to the data light output and color. My hardware includes a Konica Minolta CS-2000 spectroradiometer and a Murideo Six-G 4K HDR signal generator. I use Portrait Displays CalMan Ultimate software to evaluate every TV I review according to the data their brightness, black levels and color.
The Konica Minolta CS-2000 spectroradiometer testing an LG OLED in CNET’s lab.
To determine a television’s color accuracy, I compare three results in every TV’s Geek Box chart: Avg color error (primary and secondary colors), Avg grayscale error (10 measurements of gray from almost black to white) and Colormatch HDR error (over twenty HDR colors). With these three tests, I can compare almost 50 data points of how each TV’s color output varies against its input. By finding the average of these values, I can then pick the one with the lowest overall value. This year, the Labs Award for Best Color Accuracy goes to the LG G5 OLED.
My reviews also account for such things as features, design, smart TV performance, connectivity including HDMI inputs and gaming compatibility.
With all of the TVs available today, and all of the technical terms and jargon associated with television technologies, it can be tough to figure out what’s important. Here’s a quick guide to help cut through the confusion.
Picture quality: Broadly speaking, the type of display technologies helps dictate how good a TV’s picture quality is, but OLED is typically the best display technologies, and this is followed by LCD (including QLED, and Mini LED). OLED tends to have the best picture quality because it doesn’t need a backlight and every pixel can be either on or off, leading to great black levels. In comparison, each LED in a backlight looks after multiple pixels at a time so it isn’t as precise — it’s not yet 1:1. Among midrange models, look for a feature including full-array local dimming, mini-LED and 120Hz refresh rate, which (unlike some other extras) do help improve the picture in my experience. Additionally, If a TV uses Quantum Dots it often leads to better color performance, whether it’s an OLED or an LCD.
Screen size: Bigger is better in my book. I recommend a size of at least 43 inches for a bedroom TV and at least 55 inches for a living room or main TV — and 65 inches or larger is best. More so than any “feature,” stepping up in TV screen size is the best use of your money. One of the most common post-TV-purchase complaints I’ve heard is from people who didn’t go big enough. And I rarely hear people complain that their TV is too large. It’s worth adding that while TVs can get really big indeed, 4K resolution is sufficient for even the biggest models, and CNET doesn’t recommend any 8K TVs as they represent a poor comparative value.
Price: TVs range in price from $100 to more than $2,000. Smaller screens are cheaper, well-known brands are more expensive and spending more money can also get you better image quality. Most entry-level TVs have a good enough picture for most people, but TVs last a long time, so it might be worth spending more to get a better picture. It’s also best to shop for a TV in the fall when prices are lower.
Sound quality: Every TV has some sort of built-in speaker, but in my twenty years of reviewing AV equipment the sound of modern TVs has been routinely terrible. While I do test the audio on each model, if you are serious about sound quality then buying a separate soundbar (from $100) or home theater system will instantly improve vital aspects such as speech and bass reproduction.
Smart TV: Among entry-level TVs the most important feature is what kind of smart TV system the TV uses, and while some are proprietary to each brand (Samsung and LG) some models do offer Roku and Google TV.
One important aspect of image quality I test is overall brightness using the CS-2000 spectroradiometer. Here’s how brightness compares in nits across select TVs listed above. Read TVs Are Getting Uncomfortably Bright, and This is Why for more information on how the most recent models fared.
Prices vary widely by size and features, from less than $100 for basic 24-inch TVs to more than $2,000 for big OLED models. TVs last a long time, so we think it’s worthwhile to spend a little extra beyond the bare minimum to get a bigger screen, better picture quality or better features. With that in mind, here are some ballpark prices that will get you a very good TV in 2026.
You could pay (much) more or less. The fact is that just about any TV will produce a picture decent enough to satisfy most viewers. Most complaints you read in user reviews aren’t about picture quality. Instead, they’re about ease of use, smart TV menus or sound (or a broken TV).
In our opinion bigger is better, and your money is best spent on large screen sizes rather than a slight upgrade in image quality. The answer also depends on room size and seating distance: If you have a big room and sit farther away, you’ll want a bigger TV.
In our reviews, OLED TVs, which use organic light-emitting diode technologies, have always had better picture quality than LED TVs, which are essentially LCD TVs that use LED backlights. The main reason is that OLED TVs can produce a perfectly dark shade of black with no stray illumination or blooming, which leads to better contrast and pop. LED TVs can get brighter and usually cost less than OLED TVs.
At CNET, our favorite is Roku for its simplicity, but different systems like Google TV, Amazon Fire TV, Samsung and LG have different strengths, particularly for voice commands. In any case, we don’t consider the built-in smart TV system that important because you can always connect a streaming device to any TV.
Most TVs sound terrible because their thin cabinets don’t have room for decent-size speakers or a bass. If you want to get good sound, you should buy an external audio system. Even an inexpensive soundbar will deliver much better audio quality than a TV’s built-in speakers.
Why This Matters
This development may influence user expectations, future product strategy, and the competitive balance inside the broader technology industry.
Companies in adjacent segments often react quickly to similar moves, which is why stories like this tend to matter beyond a single announcement.
Looking Ahead
The full impact will become clearer over time, but the story already highlights how quickly the modern tech landscape can evolve.
Observers will continue tracking the next steps and how they affect products, users, and the wider market.