Nearly all TVs sold now are flat-screen TVs. Curved TVsre popular, but they're increasingly hard to find now as both consumers and manufacturers prefer flat screens. Modern flat screens have gotten thinner and bigger, and a few are designed to look like pieces of art when wall-mounted. Finding the best TV for you all depends on your needs and what you're going to be watching; watching a ton of sports with friends requires a different type of TV than if you watch movies alone. Also, choosing one TV over another may simply come down to personal preference.
We've bought and tested more than 365 TVs, and below you'll find our recommendations for the best flat screen TV available. Make sure to check out our recommendations for the best TVs, the best TVs for Xbox Series X, and the best TVs for PS5.
Best Flat Screen TV
Mixed Usage9.1Movies9.4TV Shows8.7Sports8.9Video Games9.4HDR Movies9.2HDR Gaming9.3PC Monitor9.2The 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 incredibly 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. If you want something a bit more solid and blends into the background a bit more, check out the LG G2 OLED. It's a similarly incredible TV, with perfect deep blacks and bright highlights, but colors aren't as bright as the S95B. It has a unique design that's meant to be wall-mounted; it doesn't even come with a stand.
Best Mid-Range Flat Screen TV
Mixed Usage9.0Movies9.4TV Shows8.5Sports8.8Video Games9.3HDR Movies8.8HDR Gaming9.1PC Monitor9.0The 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, either, making it a fantastic choice for watching content in dark rooms. It has great all-around features, whether you're gaming or simply streaming your favorite content.
The built-in LG webOS smart 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.
Best Lower Mid-Range Flat Screen TV
Mixed Usage8.6Movies8.7TV Shows8.4Sports8.4Video Games8.9HDR Movies8.7HDR Gaming8.9PC Monitor8.4The 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 lots of windows.
The built-in Google TV smart 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.
Best Budget Flat Screen TV
Mixed Usage7.9Movies8.2TV Shows7.7Sports7.4Video Games8.0HDR Movies7.9HDR Gaming8.1PC Monitor7.8The best budget flat screen TV we've tested is the Hisense U6H. It's a great TV for most uses, with excellent contrast, outstanding black uniformity, and a decent local dimming feature, meaning it looks great in a dark room as blacks look deep and uniform, but there's more blooming than the Mini LED backlight of the Hisense U8H. It has decent reflection handling and is plenty bright enough to overcome glare in a bright room. It has impressive upscaling with lower-resolution content, has great gradient handling, and can display a very good wide color gamut.
It's an impressive gaming TV with a great response time, resulting in clear motion with just a bit of blur behind fast-moving objects. It has low input lag for a responsive gaming experience. Unlike the more expensive models on this list, like the Hisense U8H, it's limited to a 60Hz refresh rate and doesn't support advanced gaming features like variable refresh rates or HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, so it's better suited for casual gamers that prefer impressive visuals over the best motion handling.
Best Cheap Flat Screen TV
Mixed Usage6.9Movies6.2TV Shows7.4Sports7.1Video Games7.2HDR Movies6.4HDR Gaming7.6PC Monitor6.8While most cheap TVs are good enough for streaming your favorite content, their picture quality is usually mediocre at best. However, some cheap TVs have surprisingly decent picture quality, like the Insignia F50 QLED, which is the best cheap flat-screen TV we've tested. It has worse picture quality and lower peak brightness than the Hisense U6H, but it still performs well overall, especially if you're in a moderately lit room. It looks surprisingly good in a dark room, as it has a high contrast ratio and good black uniformity, but it lacks a local dimming feature.
What makes this better than most other cheap TVs is that it uses the same quantum dot technology typically found on far more expensive TVs, which allows it to display a wide range of colors in HDR. Even in SDR, it has great out-of-the-box accuracy. It comes with the Fire TV interface, which is similar to the Google TV interface on the Hisense U6H and has a good selection of streaming apps, and navigating through the menus feels smooth, so you don't have to worry about buying an external streaming box to watch your favorite shows.
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, but it's not worth the significant price difference for most users.
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