Upgrading Your TV? Here Are The Best Smart TVs to Experience the Greatest Picture Possible

Editor’s Note: The TV landscape always changes with every passing CES trade show. We'll be keeping on top of all the latest and greatest models as they launch this year. But for now, we have updated this guide to include new smart TVs from Hisense, Samsung, Sony, and TCL. If you’re looking for the best overall pick and are ready to add to cart, we recommend the Hisense U8H Mini-LED ULED 4K Smart Google TV.

Between the long model names, buzzwords like quantum dots, and all new and different types of displays, Buying a new TV can be a bit overwhelming. Whether you’ve had your current TV for nearly a decade and it just bit the dust, you’re looking for a small TV for the bedroom, or you’re in search for something shiny and new for your home theater to take your movies to the next level, we’re here to help you find the best one for your needs and budget.

In the same way flip phones have been phased out in favor of smartphones, you'd be hard-pressed to find a TV that isn't smart. In case you're unfamiliar, smart TVs grant you easy access to thousands of streaming apps, so you can watch your favorite shows and movies at any time — on HBO MAX, Disney+, Netflix, Hulu, or everything in between. Most allow you to cast content from your smartphone straight to the big screen, and some even pack games and apps for streaming music.

You can feel confident knowing that our picks offer the best picture and audio quality — and come with all the ports you could possibly need for your video game consoles and home theater system.

The Best Smart TVs of 2023

What to Consider

Screen Size

The biggest factor in your smart TV buying decision will likely be its screen size. Screens are measured diagonally from corner to corner. Most folks would agree that bigger is better, since the larger the screen, the more immersive the TV. However, a big TV won’t do you much good if you don’t have room for it. Larger screens are best watched from farther back. The recommended viewing distance is 1.5 times the screen height — so for a 55-inch TV, you should be 3.3 feet away. This translates to 3.9 feet away for a 65-inch TV, and 4.6 feet away for a 75-inch option.

Resolution

This refers to the number of pixels that compose your TV’s picture. Small TVs (around 32-inches) typically have a 720p resolution. A number of affordable televisions have 1080p resolutions (1,920 x 1,080 pixels), but we recommend buying a TV that has a 4K or Ultra HD resolution. 4K TVs have 3,840 x 2,160 pixels, meaning they have four times as many pixels as 1080p HDTVs. Images are much more detailed. It’s worth mentioning that some manufacturers sell 8K TVs, but 8K content is still not readily available, and 8K TVs are pretty expensive, too — between $2,000 and $8,000.

Refresh Rate

This figure is expressed in Hertz (Hz). It tells you how many times per second a new frame can be put on the screen. 60 Hz TVs refresh the display image 60 times each second. A higher refresh rate makes for a smoother motion for live sports and video games. We recommend shopping for TVs with 120 Hz refresh rates.

HDR

This stands for high dynamic range, and it makes compatible content look a lot more vibrant than non-HDR footage. There are three HDR content standards — Dolby Vision, HDR10, and HLG. The best TVs support all three.

Panel Type

Just like back in the day when you had to decide on an LCD or plasma display, now, you have to pick from an organic, light-emitting diode display (OLED), liquid crystal display (LCD), a quantum dot LED TV (QLED), or a MicroLED panel. It's worth mentioning that OLEDs can’t get as bright as LCD, LED, or QLED TVs, so they are more susceptible to reflections in bright rooms. However, these other panel types can’t achieve the same black levels as OLED TVs do, since they rely on a backlight. Making things even more confusing is Samsung's introduction of a new kind of screen technology — QD-OLED which is a fusion between OLED panels with quantum dots. Sony has adopted this new screen tech, as well.

The gist is this: If you plan to use a TV in a bright room, we recommend shopping for a QLED TV, if you want the best possible image quality, you should get an OLED TV, and if you want a TV for an extremely dark room, get a QD-OLED TV.

Operating System

Similar to shopping for a smartphone and deciding between Android (Google) or iOS (Apple) operating systems, smart TVs run different operating systems, too. Sony TVs run Google TV, Samsung TVs use an OS called Tizen, LG models use webOS, and TCL and Hisense TVs use either Roku TV or Google TV. Amazon’s Fire TV OS is on its own TVs as well as some Toshiba and Insignia models. We prefer Google TV and Roku TV to other operating systems, since they are more intuitive and not as ad-filled. Of course, you can always buy a streaming device and run whatever platform you prefer or cast content from your smartphone.

It's also worth mentioning that at CES this year, Roku announced it would be launching its own TVs to run its smart TV platform.

HDMI Ports

We recommend shopping for a TV with at least three HDMI ports, but four is even better. HDMI ports are the jacks that you’ll plug external devices into, like video game consoles, streaming devices, or Blu-ray players. If you game a lot or are an audiophile, you should shop for a TV with HDMI 2.1 ports. HDMI 2.1 has more bandwidth, so it supports higher frame rates and higher resolution audio.

If you’re ready to make the upgrade to a smart TV, we’ve found the best options for every budget.