Buy Smart Tv

It's not exactly the flatscreen TV we'd recommend to next-gen-ready gamers looking for a perfect companion for the Xbox Series X or PS5 that can push 4K at 120fps, but if you're buying a TV to binge Netflix, stream Hulu or, well, basically just enjoy your viewing experience, this is the best smart TV (and certainly the best TCL TV) that we'd recommend for you.

buy smart tv

The best TVs are chosen by our writers and editors based on a few main criteria: their overall picture performance including contrast, color saturation and motion handling, as well as their feature set, design and smart TV platform. We're looking for TVs that are well-built and have the technology to last for the next few years.

All new 4k TVs come equipped with a smart platform. Some manufacturers choose to use proprietary platforms, while others prefer to integrate third-party options like Google TV, Android, or Roku. No matter the case, the selection of apps is great, and the most common streaming apps are available on almost all platforms. Choosing the best smart platform is based on your personal preferences for which smart OS you enjoy using the most, and there's no perfect solution for everyone.

We've bought and tested more than 380 TVs, and below are our recommendations for the best smart televisions you can buy. See our picks for the best Roku TVs, the best TVs, and the best 4k TVs. Most brands will start releasing their 2023 lineups soon, so make sure to vote on which ones you want us to buy and test first. If you want to find out more about the 2023 models, check out our 2023 TV lineup page.

The best smart TV we've tested is the Samsung S95B OLED. It's an amazing TV with great smart features and a wide selection of streaming apps. It has a great selection of smart features, including support for Bixby, Google Assistant, and Alexa voice assistants, so you can choose your preferred platform and spend less time searching for content and more time enjoying your new TV. If you don't want to use voice assistants, the Tizen smart interface is well-organized, fast, and easy to use, and it has a huge selection of streaming apps, so you can quickly find your favorite shows.

It's also no slouch when it comes to smart features. It runs the built-in Google TV interface, which is a bit slower than Samsung's Tizen OS, but it has more features and a wider selection of streaming apps. It supports hands-free voice control, so you can find your favorite content faster than you can find the remote, or use the voice assistant to control your other devices in the house.

It also has a wide viewing angle, which is great if you have a wide seating arrangement or if you like to move around with the TV on, as the image doesn't fade or look washed out when you're watching it from the side. As far as smart features go, it's identical to the Samsung S95B OLED, with the same great Tizen OS smart interface. There's a huge selection of streaming apps, and the remote makes it easy to find your favorite content thanks to its built-in support for Bixby, Google Assistant, and Alexa voice assistants.

If you want something cheaper that doesn't sacrifice too much on picture quality, check out the Hisense U8H. It's an impressive TV that outperforms any other TV in its price range, delivering outstanding visuals and a smooth, easy-to-use smart interface. Unlike the two Samsung TVs at the top of this list that run Samsung's proprietary Tizen OS, the U8H runs Google TV as its built-in smart interface, which has many apps available to download through the Google Play Store, so you're sure to find your favorite content. Google TV can take some time to learn, but once you do, it's easy to use, and navigating through the menu feels smooth.

If you're on a budget, the best budget smart TV we've tested is the TCL 5 Series/S555 2022 QLED. Despite the budget price point, this smart TV delivers great performance overall. It runs the Roku OS smart interface, which is very simple to use and has a great selection of streaming channels. The included remote is very basic and doesn't support hands-free voice control, which is disappointing. However, the Roku companion app is well made and offers a few unique convenience features, including a private listening feature that lets you send the audio from the native apps to your phone.

If you want something cheap that gets the job done, the Hisense A6H is the best cheap smart TV we've tested. Like the Hisense U8H, it runs the Google TV smart interface, which has one of the widest selections of streaming apps, so you can easily find your favorite shows and movies. It makes it a great choice for an office or guest bedroom, as your guests can watch their favorite shows without you having to worry about buying an extra streaming stick.

A smart TV is a television connected to the internet that provides web-related features. There are built-in apps for streaming, and there's usually an app store where you can download your favorite apps. Built-in smart platforms are similar to streaming boxes from Apple and Roku, and while smart TVs were once slower, they've since equaled the performance of a streaming box.

Not only does almost every TV include smart features, but most of them are also pretty good. LG's WebOS and TCL's Roku stand out for their quality. However, most shoppers will be pleased by the features of any of the smart platforms. Don't fret too much about features if you're shopping for a TV because the picture quality is still more important. Instead, focus on the picture quality or other features that complement your usage, and you'll get much closer to finding your perfect TV that way.

Our recommendations are based on what we think are the best TVs for streaming currently available with smart features. They are adapted to be valid for most people in each price range. Rating is based on our review, factoring in price, and feedback from our visitors.

If you would like to do the work of choosing yourself, here is the list of all our reviews of smart TVs. Be careful not to get too caught up in the details. While no TV is perfect, most TVs are great enough to please almost everyone, and the differences are often not noticeable unless you really look for them.

Another important feature that makes TVs smart is the interconnectivity between various devices. While HDMI, introduced for consumer electronics in 2004, is now a standard, a Smart TV offers way more. First of all, you can access your favourite apps such as YouTube as well as streaming services such as Netflix, HBO Max or Disney Plus.

The picture quality of the TCL 4-Series Roku TV was only a slight step behind the Vizio V-Series (below) in our 2023 budget TV test, but we liked its Roku smart TV system better than Vizio's SmartCast, so the TCL gets the top spot on this list. The 4-Series lacks the Dolby Vision, Bluetooth connectivity and AMD FreeSync with a variable refresh rate, all of which the Vizio offers, but in our book superior smart TV streaming is more important at the budget level.

Like its predecessor the C1, the C2 is bogged down by the WebOS smart TV system. Signing in to an LG account unlocks another feature, customized recommendations and additional user accounts. LG touts the fact that you can set up favorite sports teams, for example, but most people will just go straight to the app and skip the clutter. On a TV this expensive, you should just attach a good streaming device instead.

Samsung's onscreen smart TV system is excellent, with quick responses and plenty of apps -- we'd take it over LG or Vizio's systems. We still like Roku and Android/Google TV (found on Sony TVs) better overall, however, because they have even more apps. Just like most TVs now (including Roku), Samsung has the Apple TV app and works with Apple's AirPlay system.

The biggest downside of the Vizio is its smart TV platform, Vizio SmartCast. It's crowded, slow and littered with ads for platforms such as Tubi and Kidoodle TV. That's why the TCL 4-Series with Roku gets the top slot. That said, if you value its image quality and extra features, you can always add a separate streaming device to this Vizio.

Vizio's SmartCast smart TV menus haven't changed much aside from adding a new "Inputs" button, a welcome addition... albeit one Roku TVs have offered for years. Although all the major streaming services are accounted for, the interface is worse than Roku and Google TV. The main issue with Vizio is cluttering the screen with a bunch of TV shows and movies we don't care about.

When specifically evaluating smart TV performance, we use all of the major features available on the platform and note how they stack up against the competition. Our metrics include: overall platform ease-of-use, effective layouts and design, search capabilities, privacy settings, the number of apps and their performance, and the overall speed and reliability of the system.

Amazon makes a full range of smart TVs that run on their Fire operating system. The Fire TV platform is not one of our favorites because of the fact that ads are featured prominently throughout. We just don't appreciate the TV becoming a giant rotating billboard for content or ads when in screensaver mode. In addition, we've found other TVs tend to have better picture quality than most Fire TVs.

Many smart TVs come with some kind of voice assistant. All Amazon Fire TVs come with Alexa built in, while Sony, TCL and Hisense TVs that run on Google's operating system offer Google Assistant. Many new Samsung and LG TVs come with both Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa built-in as well. Roku TVs and Vizio TVs, meanwhile, respond to voice commands but don't work with Alexa or Google Assistant.

On most of these TVs you'll need to speak into the remote to use voice commands, but some also respond to hands-free "Alexa" or "Hey Google" wake words, just like a smart speaker. And many TVs can also be paired with a smart speaker, such as an Echo Dot or Google Nest Mini, to receive voice commands.

Ultra HD video looks great, and there is more and more content to enjoy. Several streaming services, like Netflix, Amazon Video and even YouTube have started offering 4K content, making smart TVs and streaming sticks your best bet for easily finding 4K movies and shows. Ultra HD Blu-ray discs are becoming more common too, and most big releases will release in 4K these days. 041b061a72