The 6 Best Budget TVs - Summer 2020
Reviews

The best budget TV we've tested so far is the Hisense H8G. It offers very good overall performance and it's available in a wide range of sizes all with a budget-friendly price. Most people should be happy with this TV and it even competes with some higher-end, more expensive TVs.

This TV has a good overall picture quality. It displays deep blacks due to its VA panel and it has a decent full-array local dimming feature too. It gets bright enough to combat glare and it has decent reflection handling if you want to place it in a bright room. It displays a wide color gamut for HDR content, but it doesn't get bright enough in that mode to make highlights pop. If you're a gamer, you should be happy to know it has a good response time and a black frame insertion feature to help reduce motion blur. Even though it's limited to a 60Hz refresh rate and no variable refresh rate support, it has a really low input lag, giving you a responsive gaming experience.

Unfortunately, it has narrow viewing angles, which is typical of a VA panel, and it has some uniformity issues. There's visible dirty screen effect visible in the center, which could be distracting during sports. Overall, though, it has some good extra features and it comes with Android TV, making it the best budget TV we've tested so far.

The best value TV for its size is the Vizio M658-G1. It's a very good overall TV that's available in 55 and 65 inch sizes and both offer great value for its size and price. It displays great picture quality but it lacks smart features.

This TV has an incredible contrast ratio and its black uniformity is nearly perfect, one of the best we've seen on a LED so far. It also has a full-array local dimming feature to help further deepen any blacks. It has good out-of-the-box color accuracy and it has an excellent wide color gamut for HDR color, but sadly it doesn't get bright enough to bring out highlights in that mode. However, it has good SDR brightness and good reflection handling if you want to place it in a bright room. It's also a good gaming TV as it has a great response time and a low input lag, but its lag might be too high for serious gamers.

Unfortunately, it has narrow viewing angles, uniformity issues, and it doesn't upscale 480p and 720p content as well as other TVs. The SmartCast OS is laggy and you can't download any additional apps, but it does come with a ton of apps included. Overall, it displays a good picture, making it the best value for size budget TV we've tested so far.

The best cheap TV we've tested so far is the TCL 3 Series/32S325 2019. You get what you expect in a cheap TV as its performance is sub-par compared to other higher-end TVs.

The 32 inch model is limited to a 720p resolution (except for the 32S327 variant) while the 40 inch model displays 1080p. On the upside, all models run the same Roku smart TV interface found on the higher-end TCL models. The Roku interface is smooth, easy-to-use, and gives you access to a large number of apps to cover any need. This TV serves you well if you're looking for a secondary TV, especially for a room where space is limited. It has excellent out-of-the-box color accuracy, which is great since you can't calibrate the TV.

Unfortunately, there's no HDR support or any advanced motion handling features like motion interpolation or a judder removal option.  It delivers a mediocre picture quality with deep blacks in a dark room, but can't get very bright so it's more suitable for a dim room like a garage. Overall, this TV can't compete with higher-end models, but it's great as a secondary TV where top picture quality isn't required.