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The 5 Best TVs For Bright Rooms - Winter 2024 Reviews

Updated
Best TV For Bright Room Viewing

If you plan on placing your TV in a bright room, there are three main criteria you should consider before purchasing.

SDR and HDR Peak Brightness

A bright room TV must be as bright as possible to counteract any glare from bright lights or windows. SDR peak brightness is important if you're mainly watching sports or TV shows, so a good LED TV is optimal in that context. HDR peak brightness is more important if you're mainly looking to watch HDR movies or do modern gaming. The top OLEDs can now get pretty bright in HDR, although high-end LEDs are still far superior in that regard, making them the obvious choice for bright rooms.

If you'd like to know more, we have in-depth articles about SDR peak brightness and HDR peak brightness.

Reflection Handling

Even if your TV can get very bright, it must handle reflections well for a good viewing experience. Great reflection handling minimizes the size of reflections, making them less intrusive when watching the TV. Inversely, poor reflection handling makes for bigger, more diffuse reflections. While OLEDs tend to have the best reflection handling overall, the best LED TVs are now almost as good.

You can also read our in-depth article on reflection handling.

Viewing Angle

Bright room content, like sports or TV shows, is often watched from multiple angles rather than directly from the front. You might have a large living room or friends over to watch a big sports event, with them seated around the TV. Thus, having a great viewing angle is important, as you want to ensure everyone has a satisfactory viewing experience. Furthermore, you want to be able to move around the TV without the image constantly shifting colors or becoming dimmer.

Look up our article on viewing angles for more information on this topic.

We've bought and tested more than 425 TVs, and below are our recommendations for the best ones you can buy for a bright room. See our picks for the best TVs for watching movies, the best TVs for watching sports, and the best outdoor TVs. You can also vote on which ones you want us to buy and test. To learn more about the 2024 models, check out our 2024 TV lineup page.


  1. Best TV For Bright Rooms

    The best TV for bright room viewing we've tested is the Sony X93L/X93CL. It's a 4k TV from Sony's 2023 TV lineup, and it's packed with features that make it an excellent choice for a bright room. It uses a Mini LED backlight, which allows the TV to get very bright. Combined with its amazing reflection handling, you won't have any issues using it in a well-lit room, even if you place it opposite a bright window. It's also a fantastic gaming TV, with support for HDMI Forum VRR and G-SYNC VRR technologies, low input lag for super responsive gaming, and HDMI 2.1 bandwidth on two of its HDMI ports for up to 4k @ 120Hz gaming.

    It's also easy to stream your favorite content, like sports and TV shows, as it comes with version 10 of the Google TV smart interface. It's an easy-to-use smart platform with many apps available to download, and the included remote has a built-in mic that you can use with voice commands to open your favorite apps and change inputs. Plus, it has Sony's market-leading image processing capabilities, so movies and shows look their best no matter the source's quality. It also supports Dolby Vision HDR and DTS advanced audio formats, making it a splendid choice for a bright home theater room.

    If you're looking for the absolute best, consider the more expensive Sony X95L. It has a better local dimming solution, leading to splendid contrast and an even better dark room viewing experience. It's not worth the price premium over the X93L for most people, but it's the best LED TV on the market. It's only available in an 85-inch size in North America, but other regions can access it in 65 and 75-inch sizes.

    See our review

  2. Best Bright TV For The Outdoors

    Although most of these picks focus on TVs for bright indoor rooms, what if you want to watch TV outside? Enter the Samsung The Terrace, the best outdoor TV we've tested. Even if you want to use your TV in an enclosure outside, it's easy for light to get through, so you want something that gets bright enough and minimizes reflections well. Samsung designed this TV explicitly for outdoor use, so it's made to handle direct sunlight, making it one of the brightest TVs we've tested. Plus, it has an IP55 rating for water protection, so you won't have to worry too much if it rains. The reflection handling is fantastic, meaning it looks amazing in any outdoor setup.

    It's also a great gaming TV, with HDMI 2.1 bandwidth on one port and low input lag. It doesn't support any variable refresh rate (VRR) technologies. Unfortunately, it has only one HDMI 2.1 port, so you can't connect multiple recent consoles to the TV, but it's a great TV to hook up your Nintendo Switch to at your BBQ parties. Thanks to the built-in Tizen smart platform, you won't have to get an extra box to stream your favorite content, and the built-in speakers are decent enough to use without a soundbar. It's also a lot more expensive than the Sony X93L/X93CL, so the Sony is the better choice unless you plan on using this outdoors.

    See our review

  3. Best Mid-Range TV For Bright Rooms

    The best mid-range TV for bright rooms we've tested is the Hisense U8/U8K. It's a great TV for watching shows or sports during the day. Like the Sony X93L/X93CL, it uses Mini LED technology to get exceptionally bright and overcome glare. It also has excellent reflection handling. It has surprisingly good image processing capabilities, so movies and shows look good no matter their source, even if it isn't nearly as good as the Sony TV. Its viewing angle is narrower than that of the Sony, so it's not as good overall if you have a wide seating arrangement, as the image isn't consistent when viewed from the side.

    Still, it's an excellent TV for gaming thanks to its low input lag and fast response time. It has great gaming features, including HDMI 2.1 bandwidth on all four HDMI ports for up to 4k @ 144Hz gaming, so it's fully compatible with recent consoles and gaming PCs. It runs the Google TV smart interface, which is user-friendly and has a great selection of streaming apps. It also has a great selection of smart features, including hands-free voice control with Google Assistant or Alexa, so you can quickly find your favorite content. You could also save some money by going for the Hisense U7K instead: it has worse contrast and lower peak brightness than the U8K, but it has the same features otherwise and is a great TV for the price.

    See our review

  4. Best Budget TV For Bright Rooms

    The best TV for bright room viewing in the budget category we've tested is the Hisense U6/U6K. It's a good TV for a bright room, with impressive peak brightness and decent reflection handling, so it can overcome glare in a moderately lit room. Its semi-gloss coating reduces the intensity of ambient light well, but it doesn't deal as well with reflections from lights directly opposite the TV, so it's not as good as the Hisense U8/U8K for a room with many windows. It has an excellent color volume, making this TV very colorful overall.

    Of course, you lose something by going with a cheaper model, and in this case, the TV doesn't get as bright as the more expensive models above, has worse contrast, and is limited to a 60Hz refresh rate. Its image processing is also significantly worse, so there's visible digital noise when watching low-bitrate content from streaming platforms. Still, it's a great 60Hz gaming TV with its fantastic low input lag, good response time, and VRR support. It uses version 11 of the Google TV smart interface, which is easy to use, fast, and smooth.

    See our review

  5. Best Cheap TV For Bright Rooms

    The Roku Select Series is the best cheap TV for a bright room we've tested. It's a decent TV with satisfactory reflection handling to help reduce the appearance of glare in a bright room. Its HDR brightness is inadequate, but this model has very good SDR brightness, so it looks its best in a moderately-lit room. It handles bright rooms well when watching SDR content. It's also good for a dark room with its okay contrast ratio, even though it doesn't have local dimming to improve it further. It has sub-par image processing, which is normal for a TV at this price point, so it's at its best when watching high-quality 4k content. Still, it's extremely accurate with only a few minor adjustments, so this is truly a TV that you can buy, install, and enjoy.

    It comes with built-in Roku TV, which is very fast and easy to use, and it has a good selection of streaming services available, so you can quickly find your favorite content. Unlike the more expensive TVs on this list, it has limited extra features, so it's not the best choice for someone looking for advanced gaming features like HDMI 2.1 bandwidth or variable refresh rate support. Thankfully, it has extremely low input lag and a great response time, making it a good choice for someone looking for the cheapest possible bright room gaming TV. If you're a Costco member, you can get the slightly better Hisense A65K for a similar price. If Costco isn't an option, the Roku is an amazing choice.

    See our review

Notable Mentions

  • LG G3 OLED: The LG G3 OLED is the first OLED bright enough in HDR and SDR to be considered a good bright room TV. While it can't sustain its peak brightness nearly as well as the Sony X93L/X93CL or Hisense U8/U8K, it's still easily bright enough for a well-lit room. Consider it if you're itching to get an OLED but are hesitating due to bright room performance. See our review
  • TCL QM8/QM850G QLED: The TCL QM8/QM850G QLED is an incredibly bright TV, even more so than the Sony X93L/X93CL. Unfortunately, it has an even narrower viewing angle and a lot of quirks to contend with, so it lacks the Sony TV's polish, and the Hisense U8/U8K is a bit better overall for a similar price. See our review
  • Samsung QN90C/QN90CD QLED: The Samsung QN90C/QN90CD QLED is a great TV. It's brighter than the Sony X93L/X93CL, making it more vibrant in a bright room. However, the Sony is the better TV overall, with much better image processing, support for Dolby Vision HDR, advanced DTS audio formats, and a slightly lower response time. See our review
  • TCL Q6/Q650G QLED: The TCL Q6/Q650G QLED is a decent TV that competes with the Hisense U6/U6K. The Hisense is better overall and can emphasize highlights better due to its local dimming. Still, the TCL is the better gaming TV because it outputs 1080p @ 120Hz and 1440p @ 120Hz, with a wide VRR range through resolution halving. See our review

Recent Updates

  1. Mar 12, 2024: Ensured the availability and accuracy of our current picks.

  2. Feb 01, 2024: Confirmed that all picks are accurate and available to purchase.

  3. Dec 07, 2023: The recently reviewed Roku Select Series is now our 'Best Cheap TV For Bright Rooms', as it's better than the TCL S4. Otherwise, we've also expanded the introduction with more details about the crucial features of bright room TVs.

  4. Oct 10, 2023: Replaced the Samsung QN90C/QN90CD QLED with the Sony X93L/X93CL due to the Sony being a bit better overall. Also replaced the Hisense U8/U8H, TCL 5 Series/S555 2022 QLED, and TCL 4 Series/S455 2022 with the Hisense U8/U8K, Hisense U6/U6K, and TCL S4/S450G respectively due to availability.

  5. Jul 18, 2023: Replaced the Samsung QN90B QLED with the Samsung QN90C/QN90CD QLED as the pick for 'Best TV For Bright Rooms', added the TCL QM8 QLED to the Notable Mentions, and refreshed the text for accuracy and consistency.

All Reviews

Our recommendations above are what we think are currently the best TVs for bright rooms for most people in each price range. We factor in the price (a cheaper TV wins over a pricier one if the difference isn't worth it), feedback from our visitors, and availability (no TVs that are difficult to find or almost out of stock everywhere).

If you would like to do the work of choosing yourself, here is the list of all our reviews of 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.