- The best TV is big enough for your needs, has a high resolution, and offers some smart features.
- You may think that such a fancy TV will cost you thousands of dollars, but our top pick, the TCL 55-inch 4K Ultra HD Roku Smart LED TV, has all those great features and costs less than half-a-grand.
TV pricing has come down over the past few years. Gone are the days when buying a 4K TV meant having to shell out thousands of dollars. These days, you can get a good, large 4K TV for only a few hundred dollars. In fact, it's so easy to get a great and affordable TV because there are many options.
As usual, there are a few things to consider when you're buying a new TV. Some of them are obvious, but some of them are a little subtler.
- Resolution: The first thing you'll want to consider is the TV's resolution. You can get an affordable TV with 4K resolution, but 4K isn't useful if you don't have any 4K content to watch. Still, it is worth considering how future-proof you want your TV to be. More and more 4K content is being released, and you'll want to be ready to take advantage of that.
- Size: Typically, bigger is better in the TV world, but too big can be a pain. You'll want to think about how big of a TV you want to watch on, to be sure, but you'll also want to consider whether you actually have the space for a big TV, or if something a little more modest would work better in your home. Remember: A large TV will require some distance between your eyes and the screen for proper viewing comfort.
- Connectivity: If you have a lot of devices you want to connect to your TV, you'll need a lot of ports on the back of the TV. Wireless connectivity may also be important. Increasingly, TVs are offering Wi-Fi connectivity and smart TV software, so you can stream without the need for a separate media-streaming device.
Here are our top picks for the best TVs for less than five-hundred dollars:
- Best overall: TCL 55-inch 4K Ultra HD Roku Smart LED TV (Series 4)
- Best TV under five-hundred with Alexa: Toshiba 55-inch Fire TV Edition TV
- Best 4K TV under five-hundred: LG 49-inch 4K 49UM7300PUA TV
- Best TV under four-hundred: TCL 49-inch 4K Ultra HD Roku Smart LED TV
Updated on 10/21/2019 by Les Shu: Updating pricing, links, and formatting. Updated our LG recommendation to a 2019 model.
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