The 6 Best 55 Inch 4k TVs - Winter 2021 Reviews

The LG OLED55CXPUA is the best 55 inch TV with an OLED panel we've tested. Its panel can individually turn off its pixels, resulting in an infinite contrast ratio and perfect black uniformity, making it an ideal choice for watching movies in dark rooms. It's very well-built and comes with a unique center-mounted stand. It also has wide viewing angles if you have a wide seating arrangement.

It's packed with features that are geared towards gamers. It has a 120Hz refresh rate with variable refresh rate (VRR) support to reduce screen tearing. It has low input lag and a near-instant response time that results in smooth motion. Even if you notice some motion blur, there's a Black Frame Insertion feature to help reduce it. It upscales lower-resolution content without any issues, such as from cable boxes or Blu-rays. It has outstanding reflection handling and has decent brightness, but it's best to avoid placing it in a room with direct sunlight. Lastly, it has impressive out-of-the-box color accuracy, so you may not need to get it calibrated to enjoy it to the fullest.

Sadly, it has the risk of permanent burn-in, which is common among OLED TVs. We expect this should only be an issue if you constantly watch the same content with static elements, like the news, but it shouldn't be a problem if you watch varied content. It displays a wide color gamut for HDR content, but it may not get bright enough to make some highlights pop the way they're supposed to. Overall, it delivers an excellent picture quality, making it the best 55 inch smart TV we've tested.

The best 55 inch TV with an LED panel that we've tested is the Samsung QN55Q80TAFXZA. It's premium 4k TV in Samsung's QLED lineup, and even though it sits below the Samsung Q90/Q90T QLED, it offers impressive performance for its price, and most people should be happy with it. One advantage with this over the LG CX OLED is that LEDs don't have the risk of permanent burn-in, so you can easily leave it on your favorite news channel without worrying about damaging it.

It delivers excellent picture quality, and it's packed with gaming features. It has a VA panel with Samsung's 'Ultra Viewing Angle' layer. This means its contrast is lower than most VA panels, but it has decent viewing angles, and it's suitable for fairly wide seating arrangements. The decent full-array local dimming feature helps further deepen any blacks, so it's a great choice for watching movies in dark rooms. In bright rooms, it has outstanding reflection handling and gets bright enough to combat glare. It's also amazing for gaming thanks to its excellent response time, VRR support, and incredibly low input lag.

Unfortunately, it has some uniformity issues with dirty screen effect in the center, but this may vary between units. It also has excellent out-of-the-box color accuracy, but this also may vary between units. If you also watch lower-resolution content, such as from DVDs and cable boxes, it doesn't display any upscaling artifacts and removes 24p judder from any source. Lastly, it displays a wide color gamut and has good HDR peak brightness. All things considered, this is the best 55 inch smart TV we've tested if you're in the market for an LED TV.

The best 55 inch TV for watching HDR content that we've tested is the Hisense 55H9G. It won't cost you much and offers impressive all-around performance. It supports HDR10, HDR10+, and Dolby Vision, so you can enjoy your favorite movies in HDR. It's well-built and has a nice design that fits into any setting.

It has a VA panel that provides an outstanding contrast, delivering extremely deep blacks, and it has remarkable black uniformity. The full-array local dimming features perform great and help reduce deepen any blacks. It displays a great wide color gamut for HDR content and gets bright enough to make highlights stand out the way the creator intended. It upscales lower-resolution content without any issues and removes 24p judder from any source, such as Blu-ray players or native apps. If you also want to use it for HDR gaming, it has an amazing response time and low input lag, but there's no VRR support.

Sadly, our unit has mediocre out-of-the-box accuracy, but this may vary between units, so your experience may be different. It also has narrow viewing angles, but that's expected from a VA panel. The built-in Android TV isn't the easiest to use, but it has a ton of apps available to download, and you get HDR in both Netflix and YouTube. Overall, the picture quality is excellent, making the Hisense the best 55 inch 4k TV we've tested.

The best 55 inch TV we've tested in the budget category is the Hisense 55H8G. It uses a VA panel capable of producing deep and inky blacks, which is further improved by its full-array local dimming, making it a fantastic choice for dark room viewing. It's also well-suited for bright rooms as it has great peak brightness and decent reflection handling.

It has good motion handling thanks to its fast response time, and it has an optional Black Frame Insertion feature to help reduce motion blur. It supports most HDR formats, including Dolby Vision and HDR10+; however, its peak brightness isn't quite high enough to make highlights stand out in HDR content. Input lag is exceptionally low if you want to game, but the refresh rate is limited to 60Hz, and there's no VRR support of any kind.

Unfortunately, images look washed out from the sides due to its VA panel's narrow viewing angles, so it isn't ideal for large rooms or wide seating areas. The Android TV platform is fairly easy-to-use, and there are plenty of apps available through the Google Play Store. If you're planning on using it as a PC monitor, it supports most common resolutions and can display proper chroma 4:4:4. All in all, this is a well-rounded TV that has near-flagship performance for a wallet-friendly price.