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The 4 Best LED LCD TVs - Winter 2024 Reviews

Updated
Best LED TVs

For many years, TVs with LED backlights have dominated the market. Manufacturers release many LED models every year that have different features. You won't get the same excellent dark room picture quality as an OLED, but LED TVs have a few advantages compared to OLEDs (check out our article about OLED vs. LED). LED TVs' biggest advantage is their brightness, which allows them to get brighter than OLEDs, and they're immune to permanent burn-in. LED TVs are also sometimes called LCDs instead. LED refers to the technology used to create the backlight, whereas LCD refers to the technology used to produce different colors and shades. As all LCD models currently on the market use LED backlights, the two terms are often used interchangeably.

We've bought and tested more than 335 TVs with LED backlights, and below are our recommendations for the best TVs with LED panels that you can buy. See also our picks for the best TVs, the best PS5 TVs, and the best TVs for Xbox Series X, or vote on which ones you want us to buy and test. To learn more about the upcoming 2024 models, check out our 2024 TV lineup page.


  1. Best LED TV

    The Sony X93L/X93CL is the best LED TV we've tested. It's an amazing TV for bright rooms with its fantastic HDR brightness, excellent reflection handling, and wide color gamut, resulting in bright, vibrant images. It also looks excellent in a dark room due to its high contrast ratio and Mini LED local dimming feature, even if it does result in some blooming around bright highlights. The TV's viewing angle is wide enough for a pleasant viewing experience when sitting to the side, although the image visibly washes out at moderate to extreme angles. Of course, like most Sony TVs, it's a home theater standout due to its stellar image processing and its support of Dolby Vision HDR and advanced DTS audio formats.

    It's also a great gaming TV with HDMI 2.1 bandwidth on two ports, as well as HDMI Forum VRR and G-SYNC, so the TV can fully utilize the latest consoles or PC graphics cards. It also has an excellent response time and fantastic input lag for a very responsive gaming experience. It's available in three sizes, from a 65-inch to a huge 85-inch model, with all sizes delivering incredible picture quality. In North America, it's the unofficial successor to 2022's Sony X95K, with the Sony X95L only being available in an 85-inch size in that region. For those with deep pockets, the Sony X95L is the best LED TV on the market and is especially enticing if you have access to its smaller sizes. Still, as amazing as it is, it's not worth the price increase over the X93L for most people.

    See our review

  2. Best Mid-Range LED TV

    The best mid-range TV we've tested with an LED panel is the Hisense U8/U8K. It's an excellent TV with fantastic contrast and an impressive Mini LED local dimming feature. It delivers deep blacks in a dark room with very little distracting blooming around bright objects. It has exceptional peak brightness and reflection handling, ensuring it can easily overcome glare in a bright room. It has good image processing, although not nearly as good as the Sony X93L/X93CL. The Sony is also more accurate than the Hisense, but the Hisense makes up for it with higher peak brightness, better contrast, and a slightly wider color gamut.

    Still, it's a great TV for gaming, with up to 4k @ 144Hz support on its two HDMI 2.1 bandwidth ports, alongside full VRR support. It has a fast response time and incredibly low input lag, ensuring a smooth and responsive gaming experience, which is great for competitive gamers. It's compatible with Dolby Vision HDR and HDR10+, so content looks its best no matter its form. Like the Sony TV, it supports advanced DTS audio formats, allowing for the best sound when watching physical media. Overall, it's an amazing bang for the buck, but if you want to save even more money, consider the step-down Hisense U7K. It's dimmer and has worse contrast than the U8K, but it has the same feature set and is of great value.

    See our review

  3. Best Budget LED TV

    The best LCD TV we've tested in the budget category is the Hisense U6/U6K. It has an excellent contrast ratio, so dark scenes look amazing in a dark room, with little blooming around bright areas of the screen. It has a sub-par but functional full array local dimming feature, but there's a bit more blooming than on the Hisense U8/U8K, and it's not nearly as bright. Still, it has alright peak brightness in HDR and good peak brightness in SDR, with decent reflection handling, so glare isn't an issue in a brighter room. It has a wide color gamut, so colors look vibrant and realistic, and it displays HDR content the way the content creator intended. It supports HDR10+ and Dolby Vision HDR but doesn't support advanced DTS audio formats.

    Unfortunately, its image processing is significantly worse than its more expensive siblings, so there's visible digital noise when watching low-bitrate content from streaming platforms. Still, it's a great TV for gaming, as it has superbly low input lag and variable refresh rate support for a responsive, nearly tear-free gaming experience. Unlike the U8K, it's limited to a 60Hz refresh rate, which is disappointing for gamers wanting to take full advantage of their Xbox Series X, PS5, or recent gaming GPU. It's still great for visually-intensive games on consoles targeting 4k @ 60Hz in their 'Graphics' mode or for 60 fps PC gaming.

    See our review

  4. Best Cheap LED TV

    If you're shopping on a tight budget, the Roku Select Series is the best widely available cheap LED TV we've tested. It's a decent TV with satisfactory reflection handling to help reduce the appearance of glare in a bright room. It has fewer features than the Hisense U6K, as it doesn't have any form of motion interpolation, lacks a local dimming feature, and has inadequate image processing. It's also not the brightest TV in HDR, but it's decent for watching movies in a dark room with its adequate contrast, great black uniformity, and excellent color and HDR brightness accuracy. Plus, the TV has very good peak brightness in SDR, which results in a pleasant viewing experience in SDR content.

    Still, it has a great response time and very low input lag, so it's still a great gaming TV if you don't care about advanced features like VRR or a 120Hz refresh rate. It comes with the great Roku TV smart platform, which is extremely fast, simple, and easy to use, with a great selection of streaming channels. It has a good remote with an integrated microphone for voice commands, or you can also give commands through the Roku companion app on your phone. You can also plug headphones into the remote, a great feature at this price point. If you're a Costco member, you'll instead want to get the much better Hisense A6/A65K, which is brighter and more colorful.

    See our review

Notable Mentions

  • Sony X85K: The Sony X85K is a very good LED TV, but unfortunately, its price curve doesn't make it a good value, as it's almost as expensive as the Hisense U8/U8K while not being nearly as good. The Hisense U6/U6K is a bit worse but far cheaper. However, the Sony is available in more sizes than the Hisense TVs, including a small 43-inch model and a huge 85-inch one, so it's a very good choice if you're specifically shopping for these sizes. See our review
  • TCL QM8/QM850G QLED: The TCL QM8/QM850G QLED is a seriously bright TV that will light up any living room. It's also well-priced, significantly cheaper than the Sony X93L/X93CL. Unfortunately, it has a ton of quirks and bugs that make it hard to recommend, even with its incredible performance. Plus, the Hisense U8/U8K is a bit better and is significantly cheaper. See our review
  • Samsung QN90C/QN90CD QLED: The Samsung QN90C/QN90CD QLED is a great TV and a strong competitor to the Sony X93L/X93CL. Still, the Sony is more well-rounded; it has better image processing and advanced audio and video format support. Ultimately, the Samsung is slightly better for bright rooms or users with multiple HDMI 2.1 devices, while the Sony is somewhat better for everyone else. See our review
  • TCL Q5/Q550G QLED: The Best Buy exclusive TCL Q5/Q550G QLED is a decent TV from TCL and directly competes with the Hisense U6/U6K. The Hisense is a bit better overall and can emphasize highlights better due to its local dimming. Still, the TCL is the better gaming TV because it outputs 1080p @ 120Hz and 1440p @ 120Hz, with a wide VRR range through resolution halving on the 55-inch and 65-inch models. See our review
  • Roku Plus Series QLED: The Roku Plus Series QLED is a strong competitor to the Hisense U6/U6K but falls a bit short due to the better color accuracy of the Hisense. The Hisense also has more features overall, such as VRR and 24p judder removal from more sources, which makes up for the Roku's slight edge in picture quality. See our review

Recent Updates

  1. Feb 15, 2024: Confirmed that picks are accurate and available, updated intro text, and clarified that the TCL Q5/Q550G QLED is a Best Buy exclusive.

  2. Dec 20, 2023: The better Roku Select Series replaced the TCL S4/S450G as the 'Best Cheap LED TV', and we added a few Notable Mentions.

  3. Oct 25, 2023: Replaced the Samsung QN90C/QN90CD QLED with the slightly better Sony X93L/X93CL as the 'Best LED TV'. Due to availability issues and newer models being released, the Hisense U8/U8H, TCL 5 Series/S555 2022 QLED, and Hisense A6/A65K have been replaced by the Hisense U8/U8K, Hisense U6/U6K, and TCL S4/S450G, respectively.

  4. Aug 28, 2023: Refreshed the text for accuracy and consistency, taking into account availability.

  5. Jun 28, 2023: Mentioned the Samsung QN90C/QN90CD QLED in the 'Best LED TV' pick, added the Sony X85K to the Notable Mentions, and refreshed the text for accuracy and consistency.

All Reviews

Our recommendations above are what we think are currently the best LCD 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 LED 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.