The 7 Best Smart TVs For Streaming - Fall 2023 Reviews

The best smart television we've tested is the Samsung S90C OLED. It's an amazing TV with a great selection of smart features, including support for Bixby and Alexa voice assistants. This means 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, its well-organized Tizen smart interface is fast and easy to use. It has a huge selection of streaming apps, so you can quickly find your favorite shows.

Like all OLEDs, the TV looks great in a dark room, but it's no slouch in a bright room either; it easily gets bright enough to overcome glare and bright lights, and its reflection handling is fantastic. Of course, you get perfect black levels when using it in a dark room thanks to its near-infinite contrast ratio, and there's no distracting blooming around bright objects in dark scenes. 2022's Samsung S95B OLED is also a great option, although the S90C is a bit brighter, has official 4k @ 144Hz support for PC gamers, and comes in 77 and 83-inch sizes.

Although the Samsung S90C OLED is the best choice for most users, if you want the best home theater experience possible, consider the more expensive Sony A95K OLED. It delivers similar picture quality to the Samsung, using a similar QD-OLED panel. Still, the Sony TV is more accurate overall and has better image processing capabilities, so it displays scenes exactly as its creator intended. It supports advanced audio and video formats, like Dolby Vision HDR, a more widely supported format than Samsung's competing HDR10+. Overall, you'll get the best HDR experience possible from more content with the Sony than you would with the Samsung.

The Sony is also no slouch when it comes to smart features. It runs the built-in Google TV interface, which is slower than Samsung's Tizen OS but has more features and a wider selection of streaming apps. It supports hands-free voice control, so you can find your favorite content without the remote or use the voice assistant to control your other devices. Of course, the A95K is very expensive, so if you want a Sony OLED specifically for its processing capabilities, the Sony A80L/A80CL OLED is much cheaper. Still, it's also a big step down in brightness and color vibrancy.

If you're looking for the best TV for streaming in a bright room, check out the Sony X93L/X93CL. Unlike our top two picks, this TV isn't an OLED, and as such, it doesn't look nearly as good in a dark room due to more blooming around bright objects in darker scenes, including around subtitles. However, it looks much better in well-lit rooms thanks to its bright mini LED backlight and excellent reflection handling, making it an excellent choice for a bright viewing environment. It's even bright enough to use outdoors but isn't weather-proof, so you'll need an appropriate enclosure.

It has Sony's legendary image processing capabilities, so streaming content looks its best. As far as smart features go, it's identical to the Sony A95K OLED, with the same great Google TV 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 different voice assistants. The TV has an okay viewing angle, good enough for a wide seating arrangement or if you like to move around with the TV on, although the image noticeably darkens at a moderate viewing angle.

If you want an OLED but want something a bit more affordable than our top two picks, consider the LG C2 OLED. It uses a WOLED panel, which isn't as bright or as colorful as the QD-OLED found in the Samsung S90C OLED or Sony A95K OLED, so highlights don't pop as much in HDR, and colors aren't as vivid. But, the LG offers the same near-infinite contrast that OLEDs are known for, making it a fantastic choice in dark rooms. In terms of its smart features, LG's proprietary webOS smart platform is excellent, as it's easy to use, and navigating through it feels smooth. LG's remotes are unique because they have a point-and-press feature, similar to a Nintendo Wii remote, that lets you easily choose apps and settings in the menu, saving you the hassle of scrolling through everything with a directional pad. The webOS smart platform also allows customization with different profiles, so you can have a different layout than someone else at home.

You could also opt for this TV's successor, the LG C3 OLED. It's more expensive, but the C3 is a bit brighter, has better image processing, and has DTS advanced audio format support, making it a great choice for home theater fans. For everyone else, the C2 or the Samsung are better buys.

If you want something cheaper but aren't necessarily on a budget, consider the Hisense U8K. It's a clear step down from the LG C2 OLED regarding picture quality as it doesn't deliver the same perfect blacks, but it's still an impressive TV that outperforms any other option in its price range. The Hisense runs Google TV as its built-in smart interface, with many apps available to download through the Google Play Store, so you can find your favorite content. Google TV can take some time to learn, but once you do, it's easy to use, and navigating the menu feels smooth.

It also supports hands-free voice control, which makes it easy to find your favorite content, as you can ask it to search the name of your show or open a specific streaming app without even picking up the remote. Regarding picture quality, it gets incredibly bright and has excellent reflection handling, so it can easily overcome glare in a bright room. Its image processing capabilities are also quite good, even if not near what the Sony can do. Unfortunately, it has a narrow viewing angle, so it isn't good for watching shows with a wide seating arrangement, as the image degrades as you move off-center.

If you want to save money, the best budget smart TV we've tested is the Hisense U6K. Compared with the Hisense U8K, the main trade-off is that it doesn't get as bright, so highlights don't pop as much in HDR, which is normal for a budget-friendly model. It also has worse reflection handling, so it's better to use in a dark room, where it displays deep blacks thanks to its full-array local dimming feature. Unfortunately, there's some blooming around bright objects. It upscales content well, has good HDR gradient handling, and is very accurate overall, so it displays most content the way its creator intended.

Like the U8K, it runs the Google TV interface, which is very simple to use once you're used to it, and has a great selection of streaming channels. The included remote supports voice control, which is great if you want to find content quickly. The TV even has an integrated microphone for hands-free voice control, which you can turn off with a switch if you're worried about privacy. If you're a Costco member, you might want to consider the Hisense A65K instead. It's just a bit worse than the U6K but significantly cheaper.

If you want something cheap that gets the job done, the TCL S4/S450G is the best cheap smart TV we've tested. It's a basic TV that delivers worse picture quality than the Hisense U6K, but this is typical of cheap models. It also isn't as good in a dark room due to its lack of local dimming, although its contrast and black uniformity are certainly good enough for a pleasant dark room viewing experience. It doesn't get very bright, but it has good reflection handling, so it can handle a few lights in a moderately-lit room.

It runs the same Google TV smart interface as the Hisense U6K, which has one of the widest streaming app selections, so you can easily find your favorite shows and movies. Its remote even has an integrated microphone for voice commands, which is great for a cheap TV. Again, if you're a Costco member, get the Hisense A65K instead. You can find it for a similar price to the TCL, but it's a far better TV overall.