Get insider access
Preferred store
Your browser is not supported or outdated so some features of the site might not be available.
To try to better understand how long a TV should last, we're running 100 TVs through an accelerated longevity test for the next two years. Learn more about our latest findings with our latest video, which has been posted to our new RTINGS com R&D channel.

The 6 Best Flat Screen TVs - Spring 2023 Reviews

Updated
Best Flat Screen TVs

Nearly all TVs sold now are flat-screen TVs. Curved TVs screens were once more popular, but they're increasingly hard to find now. Modern flat screens have gotten thinner and bigger, and some are designed to look like pieces of art that blend into your décor when wall-mounted. Finding the best TV for you all depends on your needs and what you're going to be watching; the most important aspects of picture quality for watching the big game with a large group of friends in a bright room are different from watching a movie in a basement home theater with a few people.

We've bought and tested more than 380 TVs over the last nine years, and below you'll find our recommendations for the best TVs with a flat screen TV. Make sure to check out our recommendations for the best TVs, the best TVs for Xbox Series X, and the best TVs for PS5. Most brands have started releasing their 2023 lineups, 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.


  1. Best Flat Screen TV

    The best flat-screen TV we've tested is the Samsung S95B OLED. This remarkable TV delivers incredible picture quality, with deep inky blacks that look amazing in a dark room. Its near-infinite contrast ratio allows it to display incredibly bright highlights when watching HDR content, with no blooming or haloing around bright highlights in dark scenes. Its unique QD-OLED panel also lets it display bright and vivid colors, meaning the latest HDR content looks incredibly realistic.

    It has an incredibly thin profile that looks amazing, but it's so thin that there are reports of the panel bending, so if you decide to mount it, you'll have to take extra precautions. It's been replaced by the Samsung S95C OLED in 2023, which offers similar picture quality but a sleeker, slimmer design that doesn't stick out as much when wall-mounted. It's significantly more expensive, so the S95B is still the better buy.

    See our review

  2. Best Upper Mid-Range Flat Screen TV

    If you usually watch TV in a bright room, an LED TV with higher peak brightness, like the Samsung QN90B QLED, is a better choice than the Samsung S95B OLED. It's an excellent TV overall, with fantastic picture quality. It gets extremely bright, meaning it can handle a lot more glare than the S95B. It looks good in a dark room, but there's noticeable blooming around bright areas of the screen.

    It runs the same great smart interface as the S95B, with a huge selection of streaming apps. It even supports Xbox Cloud Gaming, allowing you to play streaming Xbox One X games directly on a TV without needing an expensive console. It delivers a fantastic movie-watching experience, with deep blacks thanks to its Mini LED backlight and a wide color gamut, so the latest HDR content pops the way the creator intended. It also has a wide viewing angle, but it's not as wide as the S95B.

    See our review

  3. Best Mid-Range Flat Screen TV

    The best mid-range flat-screen TV we've tested is the LG C2 OLED. It's an excellent all-around TV that delivers stunning picture quality and performs well for any use. OLEDs can turn off individual pixels, resulting in a near-infinite contrast ratio and perfect black uniformity. There's no blooming around bright objects on a dark background, making it a fantastic choice for watching content in dark rooms. It has great features, whether you're gaming or simply streaming your favorite content.

    The built-in LG webOS interface is easy-to-use and has a ton of apps available to download, and the included Magic Remote makes it easy to navigate through the menus. It has HDMI 2.1 bandwidth and variable refresh rate (VRR) support, as well as low input lag and a near-instantaneous response time for a smooth gaming experience. It uses an older OLED technology than the Samsung S95B OLED, so colors aren't as bright and vivid when watching HDR content.

    See our review

  4. Best Lower Mid-Range Flat Screen TV

    The best mid-range flat-screen TV is the Hisense U8H. It's an impressive TV that looks great in any viewing environment. Although it can't produce blacks as deep and inky as the LG C2 OLED, it still has an outstanding contrast ratio and an impressive Mini LED full array local dimming feature, so there's very little blooming around bright objects in dark scenes. It's incredibly bright and has excellent reflection handling, so it's a great choice for a bright living room with many windows.

    The built-in Google TV interface is easy to use and has a great selection of streaming apps through the Google Play Store, so you're sure to find your favorite content. It's also great for console gamers, with support for 4k @ 120Hz gaming on two of its four HDMI ports. You'll also find a great selection of gaming features, including support for FreeSync variable refresh rate technology, ensuring a smooth, nearly tear-free gaming experience.

    See our review

  5. Best Budget Flat Screen TV

    The best budget flat-screen TV we've tested is the TCL 5 Series/S555 2022 QLED. It's a surprisingly good budget TV that delivers a great overall experience. It's an impressive TV 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, making it an equally good 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 it 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.

    See our review

  6. Best Cheap Flat Screen TV

    You can still get an enjoyable TV experience without spending a lot. If you're on a tight budget, the best cheap flat-screen TV we've tested is the Hisense A6H. 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 your guests can watch their favorite shows without you having to worry about buying an extra streaming stick. It also has a wide viewing angle, so the image remains consistent when viewed from the sides, making it a great choice if you like watching TV while walking around.

    Of course, as expected for a cheap TV, it delivers worse picture quality than the other models on this list. It delivers just basic picture quality, and unlike most of the other models 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.

    See our review

Notable Mentions

  • Sony A95K OLED: The Sony A95K OLED delivers a very similar experience to the Samsung S95B OLED, as they share the same underlying panel technology. The Sony offers Dolby Vision support and better processing, so you'll enjoy a more accurate movie-watching experience. However, it's only worth the price difference if you're looking for the best home theater setup. See our review
  • LG G2 OLED: The LG G2 OLED is a fantastic flat-screen TV that looks amazing when wall-mounted, thanks to its included slim wall mount. However, it has a worse color volume than the Samsung S95B OLED and is more expensive. See our review
  • TCL 6 Series/R655 2022 QLED: The TCL 6 Series/R655 2022 QLED is a great TV, but it's not quite as good as the Hisense U8H, and it's similarly priced, so the Hisense is a better choice for most people. See our review

Recent Updates

  1. Apr 04, 2023: Verified our picks for consistency and refreshed the text. Added a mention of the Samsung S95C OLED to the Samsung S95B OLED, and moved the LG G2 OLED to a Notable Mention.

  2. Jan 30, 2023: Replaced the Hisense U6H with the TCL 5 Series/S555 2022 QLED, as it's a bit better overall for around the same price. Also replaced the Insignia F50 QLED with the Hisense A6H, as the Insignia is discontinued and hard to find.

  3. Dec 01, 2022: Added the Samsung QN90B QLED as the 'Best Upper Mid-Range Flat Screen TV' and added the TCL 6 Series/R655 2022 QLED to the Notable Mentions.

  4. 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.

  5. Jun 21, 2022: Completely restructured the article with new categories and refreshed the text throughout. We also removed many Notable Mentions that are no longer relevant.

All Reviews

Our recommendations above are what we think are currently the best flat screen TVs available to buy for most people in each price range.

If you would like to do the work of choosing yourself, here is the list of all our reviews of flat screen TVs. 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.