Credit:
Reviewed.com / Jackson Ruckar
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Credit:
Reviewed.com / Jackson Ruckar
Reviewed's mission is to help you buy the best stuff and get the most out of what you already own. Our team of product experts thoroughly vet every product we recommend to help you cut through the clutter and find what you need.
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The TCL 3-Series delivers considerable value for what you're paying: a built-in Roku platform, sleek design, and reliable picture quality. Read More
The Samsung Q60A features a bright, impressive picture with a generous helping of features that makes it a great pick for the price. Read More
The 32-inch Samsung Q50R features an array of bells and whistles (including quantum dots), but it's high-class hardware might be too much for folks who just want a basic TV experience. Read More
The Vizio D-Series is a good TV for a room without too much ambient light. It delivers decent picture for the money and includes the SmartCast OS. Read More
If you're in the market for a 32-inch, 1080p television, the Samsung N5300 is a great blend of value and dependability. Read More
Even though big screen TVs have become increasingly affordable in recent years, there are still plenty of reasons to pick up small TVs. If you're looking to add some entertainment to a dorm room, kitchen, or guest bedroom, a 32-inch TV could be the perfect solution. While you can often find cheap TVs from no-name manufacturers, we recommend sticking to the best brands to ensure you get both a great deal and a TV actually worth keeping around.
After testing several of the most popular 32-inch TVs, the TCL 3-Series (available at Amazon) is our stalwart choice as the best 32-inch TV for most people. It’s available with either 720p or full-HD 1080p resolution, offers commendable picture quality, and packs an intuitive Roku smart platform. But there are a few other TVs on our list worth checking out, all of which should offer solid performance and dependable quality to fit your smaller TV needs.
The TCL 3-Series is available in both 720p and 1080p versions. We highly recommend springing for the version with 1080p resolution.
Good picture quality
Sleek design
Plenty of features
No HDMI 2.1 features
Only 60Hz refresh rate
Impressive hardware
Bright for its class
Overstuffed with features for its size
Slim bezels
Loads of streaming apps
Not very bright
Bright for its class
Tizen smart platform isn't our favorite
Our lab is outfitted with much of the same equipment you would find at a factory that manufactures and calibrates televisions.
Reviewed's current Home Theater team consists of Michael Desjardin and John Higgins.
Michael is a Senior Staff Writer and has been a member of the Reviewed tech team since 2014. A film enthusiast and TV expert, he takes picture quality seriously but also understands that not every TV is a good fit for everyone.
As Reviewed’s Senior Editor of A/V and Electronics, John Higgins is responsible for products ranging from TVs to soundbars to headphones. Before Reviewed, he spent his freelance years writing about televisions, projectors, speakers, and all manner of home theater gear for myriad print and online publications.
Lee Neikirk was Reviewed's previous Home Theater Editor. He began his time at Reviewed as a staff writer, then senior staff writer, covering TVs, headphones, and soundbars.
We measure things like peak brightness, black level, hue, and so on.
Screen size doesn’t determine how we test TVs. Whether it’s a 32-inch TV likely destined for a guest room or a premium 75-inch screen that will find a home in a movie room, we use the same testing rigors.
Over the years, we’ve honed our testing process, gathering data marginal enough to satisfy video engineers while also being relevant to the average person's viewing experience. We measure things like peak brightness, black level, hue and saturation for primary and secondary colors, and the accuracy of the TV's electro-optical transfer function. We weigh our performance tests based on how the human eye prioritizes vision, which means we put "brightness" data higher than colorimetry.
Outside of the technical tests, we also spend a lot of time just watching and using each TV, getting a feel for the at-home experience—anything and everything that might be relevant.
4K, 1080p and 720p all refer to TV resolution. 4K TVs have 3,840 pixels horizontally by 2,160 pixels vertically for a total of more than 8 million. This is the current standard/mainstream resolution for most TVs. TVs with 1080p resolution, sometimes called Full HD resolution, have 1,920 pixels horizontally by 1,080 pixels vertically for a total of more than 2 million. 720p TVs have 1,280 pixels horizontally by 720 pixels vertically for more than 900,000 total.
The more pixels that a display has, the sharper an image is. With small TVs, however, it can be harder to tell the difference than on larger displays. What’s best for you depends on where you’re going to watch the TV and what you’re going to watch on it. For instance, you wouldn’t want to break the bank on an 8K TV if you’re going to watch it in the kitchen while you’re putting dinner together. It really comes down to a value choice.
With TVs for dorm rooms, guest rooms, and the like, you can buy TVs with lower resolutions without diminishing your viewing experience substantially. If it’s a TV that may get more use, you may want to consider spending a little more money on a 4K TV.
Smart TVs have evolved greatly since they were first introduced. Now, most are used as a way to watch streaming services, such as Netflix, Disney+, Hulu and Amazon Prime Video. Some offer smart features such as browsers or calendars, but all of them have ethernet or Wi-Fi built-in.
The user experience depends on which smart platform comes with a TV. Our favorite is Roku for its simplicity and functionality. Other streaming platforms include Google TV, Vizio SmartCast, and Samsung’s Tizen operating system. Regardless, should you end up not liking the smart platform that comes with your TV, purchasing a streaming device won’t break your bank.
Michael Desjardin graduated from Emerson College after having studied media production and screenwriting. He specializes in tech for Reviewed, but also loves film criticism, weird ambient music, cooking, and food in general.
Lee was Reviewed's point person for most television and home theater products from 2012 until early 2022. Lee received Level II certification in TV calibration from the Imaging Science Foundation in 2013. As Editor of the Home Theater vertical, Lee oversaw reviews of TVs, monitors, soundbars, and Bluetooth speakers. He also reviewed headphones, and has a background in music performance.
John is Reviewed's Managing Editor of Tech. He is an ISF Level III-certified calibrator with bylines at ProjectorCentral, Wirecutter, IGN, Home Theater Review, T3, Sound & Vision, and Home Theater Magazine. When away from the Reviewed office, he is a sound editor for film, a musician, and loves to play games with his son.
Our team is here for one purpose: to help you buy the best stuff and love what you own. Our writers, editors, and lab technicians obsess over the products we cover to make sure you're confident and satisfied. Have a different opinion about something we recommend? Email us and we'll compare notes.
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