The 6 Best Budget TVs - Fall 2020
Reviews

The best budget TV that we've tested so far is the Hisense H8G. It offers a 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. 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 also a 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 fairly well-rounded TV, and for its price, it puts other high-end, more expensive TVs to shame. People who like watching movies in the dark should absolutely enjoy this TV.

It has one of the best native contrast ratios and black uniformity that we've seen on a LED TV. Combined with its good full-array local dimming feature, it displays deep and inky blacks, perfect for watching content in dark rooms. Even if you want to watch TV in a bright room, it gets bright enough to combat glare, and it has good reflection handling. It displays an extremely wide color gamut, but sadly, it doesn't get bright enough to truly get the full HDR experience. If you also want to use this TV for gaming, its response time is great, it has a Black Frame Insertion feature, and its input lag is low enough for casual gamers.

Unfortunately, like most Vizio TVs, it has trouble upscaling 480p and 720p content, so it's not ideal for watching DVDs or cable TV. Its SmartCast OS is also fairly limited because you can't download extra apps besides the ones it comes with. Luckily, you can cast whatever you like from your phone. If you just want great picture quality and don't mind having some of its issues, then the Vizio offers great value for its size.

The best cheap TV that 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 models.

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 option where top picture quality isn't required.