Most TVs sold these days have a 4k resolution, except for a handful of 8k options and a few 720p or 1080p TVs. Since a lot of streaming content is in 4k, it's beneficial to have a 4k TV because it doesn't have to upscale anything. There are many factors you have to consider when looking for the best TV with a 4k resolution, including where you're going to watch TV. OLED models are ideal for watching content in dark rooms, while LEDs get much brighter if you want to use them in a well-lit room. Choosing one TV over the next can come down to personal preference, and there's no perfect choice.
We've bought and tested more than 380 TVs, and below are our recommendations for the best TVs you can buy with a 4k resolution. Also, check out our picks for the best TVs, the best smart TVs, and the best 4k gaming TVs. Most brands will start releasing their 2023 lineups soon, so make sure to vote on which ones you want us to buy and test first. If you want to find out more about the 2023 models, check out our 2023 TV lineup page.
The best 4k TV we've tested is the Samsung S95B OLED. It's an incredible 4k TV that looks amazing in a dark room, as bright highlights in HDR content stand out incredibly well, with no distracting blooming or haloing around bright areas of the scene. It also has much brighter, more vibrant colors than traditional OLED TVs like the LG C2 OLED. It runs Samsung's Tizen OS smart interface, which is easy to use and has a great selection of streaming apps and games.
It's also great for gaming thanks to its near-instantaneous response time, so there's no noticeable ghosting behind fast-moving objects. It has fantastic low input lag, resulting in a very responsive gaming experience, and it has a few great gaming features, including FreeSync variable refresh rate support to reduce screen tearing. Finally, it supports HDMI 2.1 bandwidth on all four of its HDMI ports, meaning you can take full advantage of the Xbox Series X and PS5, including 4k @ 120Hz support. It's been replaced by the Samsung S95C OLED, but the new model isn't much of an improvement, and it's more expensive, so it's better to get the 2022 model while you can.
If you want the absolute best TV for a basement home theater, get the Sony XR-55A95K. It's significantly more expensive than the Samsung S95B OLED. However, it's better for a home theater setup as it has wider format support than the Samsung model and delivers a more accurate image overall, especially in HDR. It supports Dolby Vision, which delivers a better HDR experience than the base HDR10 format, and it's more widely supported than Samsung's competing HDR10+ format, ensuring you'll enjoy the best HDR experience possible.
It also supports more advanced audio formats, like Dolby DTS:X passthrough over eARC, so you don't have to worry about what audio formats are used on your favorite movies. It displays an incredibly wide HDR color gamut, and its tone mapping is nearly perfect, meaning images look the way the content creator intended. It also gets very bright, so HDR content stands out, and colors are bright and vibrant.
If you're not in a completely dark room, the benefits of the Samsung S95B OLED aren't as noticeable, so an upper mid-range 4k TV like the Samsung QN90B QLED might be a better choice. This TV delivers excellent picture quality, with deep blacks and very bright highlights that stand out the way the content creator intended. It's a fantastic choice for a bright living room thanks to its high peak brightness and superb reflection handling, so glare isn't an issue. It looks good in a dark room, but it relies on a Mini LED backlight to produce deep blacks, so there's more noticeable blooming around bright objects than the S95B.
It's a great TV for pretty much any use. It has a great selection of gaming features, including HDMI 2.1 bandwidth on all four HDMI inputs, meaning you can enjoy 4k @ 120Hz gaming from the new-gen consoles. It also supports Xbox Cloud Gaming, so you can enjoy some of the latest Xbox hits without investing in an expensive console.
If you want something cheaper than the Samsung S95B OLED, the best mid-range TV we've tested is the LG C2 OLED. It's an incredible TV that delivers similar picture quality to the S95B. It uses a different type of OLED panel that delivers the same perfect blacks in a dark room, but colors aren't as bright and vibrant, and HDR content doesn't stand out as well due to its lower peak brightness.
It's a fantastic choice for gamers, thanks to its wide range of gaming features. Like the Samsung TV, it supports HDMI 2.1 bandwidth on all four of its HDMI ports and supports both FreeSync and G-SYNC variable refresh rates (VRR), ensuring a nearly tear-free gaming experience from any source that supports VRR. That said, it's not as good as the Samsung S95B OLED in a bright room. If you're looking for something that can handle a bit more glare, check out the Samsung QN90B QLED instead. It's a similarly-priced mid-range TV, but instead of an OLED panel with deep blacks, it uses an LED backlight, allowing it to get significantly brighter.
If you want a TV that offers excellent value, a cheaper mid-range option like the Hisense U8H is a great choice. It's a great TV with impressive picture quality in dark and bright rooms. It comes with the easy-to-use Google TV as its smart platform, and you can either watch apps directly on the TV or cast content from your phone. While it doesn't deliver the same perfect black levels and perfect black uniformity as the LG C2 OLED or the Samsung S95B OLED, it displays deep blacks with an impressive Mini LED local dimming feature. It means there's almost no blooming around bright objects.
Unlike the top two TVs on this list, this one supports both HDR10+ and Dolby Vision HDR formats, so you can take full advantage of the content you're watching, no matter which format it's in. It also displays a wide range of colors in HDR and gets bright enough to make highlights pop and colors look vivid. It also has a great selection of gaming features, including FreeSync support to reduce tearing, and it supports HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, but only on two of its four HDMI ports.
The best budget 4k TV we've tested is the TCL 5 Series/S555 2022 QLED. It's a good budget TV with surprisingly good picture quality and a wide selection of additional features. It's impressive for watching movies in a dark room thanks to its superb contrast ratio, fantastic black uniformity, and decent local dimming feature, meaning blacks appear deep and uniform in a dark room. It also has impressive peak brightness and decent reflection handling, so it's an acceptable choice for a bright room.
It's available in a wide range of sizes, and even the largest model is available at a budget price, so you can get the size that fits your needs. It runs the Roku OS interface, which is pretty basic but easy to use and has a good selection of streaming apps. By going with a budget model like this one over the Hisense U8H, you're sacrificing a bit on picture quality, but the biggest difference is for gamers, as it's limited to a 60Hz refresh rate. It's still great for gaming, but you can't take full advantage of the Xbox Series X or PS5.
If you want something cheap that gets the job done, the Hisense A6H is the best cheap 4k TV we've tested. It's an okay entry-level 4k TV that delivers okay overall picture quality. It runs the Google TV interface, with a huge selection of streaming apps available. It makes it a great choice for an office or guest bedroom, as you don't have to worry about buying an extra streaming stick to watch your favorite shows. It has a wide viewing angle, which is great if you like to watch TV while walking around, as the image remains consistent when viewed from the sides.
Unfortunately, unlike the other TVs on this list, it's not a good choice for a dark room. It has a low contrast ratio, and by going with a cheap TV, you're losing out on advanced features like local dimming to improve the appearance of dark scenes. It also can't display a wide color gamut, so although it supports Dolby Vision HDR, this adds very little overall.
Mar 27, 2023: Replaced the Hisense U6H with the TCL 5 Series/S555 2022 QLED, as it performs slightly better for around the same price.
Jan 18, 2023: Replaced the Insignia F50 QLED with the Hisense A6H, as the Insignia is on final clearance and is very hard to find. Added the Sony A95K OLED as the 'Best Home Theater' pick.
Dec 02, 2022: Added the Samsung QN90B QLED as the 'Best Upper Mid-Range 4k TV', and added the TCL 6 Series/R655 2022 QLED to the Notable Mentions.
Oct 03, 2022: Restructured the article for consistency with our other recommendation articles, and to make it easier for readers to find the best product for their needs.
Jul 08, 2022: Restructured article to reflect user needs and for consistency; renamed the LG C1 to 'Best 4k TV', the Hisense U8G to 'Best Mid-Range', the Sony A90J to 'Best For Home Theaters', and the Samsung QN90A as 'Best For Bright Rooms'; added the Samsung QN85A.
Our recommendations above are what we think are currently the best 4k TVs to buy 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 4k TV reviews. 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.