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Reviewed / Betsey Goldwasser
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Credit:
Reviewed / Betsey Goldwasser
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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With an exquisite picture and exhaustive features, the LG C3 OLED is an incredible TV for movies, gaming, and everything in between. Read More
The Samsung Q60B is a decent, affordable QLED TV for casual viewing, but its HDR performance is lacking and it's not cut out for next-gen gaming. Read More
With its incredible picture and extensive list of features, the Samsung QN90C is one of the best-performing mini-LED TVs you can buy. Read More
The Samsung QN90D delivers a bright, colorful picture and a long list of features. It’s perfect for HDR movies and gaming. Read More
The TCL 4-Series offers 4K performance at a price that won't break your budget. Read More
Although it might seem as though TVs are growing in size, good things still come in small packages.
Plenty of manufacturers still support smaller TVs—models that range in size from 32-inches to 43-inches. These TVs can be the perfect fit for smaller living rooms or for bedrooms, guest rooms, and dorm rooms.
While 65-inch TVs are more glamorous and 55-inch TVs are the most popular television size, the best 40-inch TVs can deliver great performance and desired features.
People shopping for 40-inch TVs will find plenty of 42-inch and 43-inch models as well—those screen sizes are more common. In fact, our favorite television in this size range is a 42-inch TV, the LG C3 (available at LG) . This 4K OLED TV delivers an exquisite picture and a mountain of extra features, including some of the most sought-after gaming enhancements available today.
If the C3 isn’t the best TV for you, we’ve found other great TVs at different price points.
The 42-inch LG C3 OLED is our pick for Best Upgrade, thanks to its incredible picture and laundry list of features.
The Q60B gets bright enough in SDR for casual, daytime viewing. If you watch a good amount of TV in a sunny room, it'll serve you well.
The impressively bright picture and excellent picture processing make the Samsung QN90C a worthwhile investment.
Spectacular for HDR
A terrific gaming TV
Posh design
Difficult-to-use software
Less refined SDR year over year
No Dolby Vision
4K resolution at affordable price
Available with Roku or Google TV operating systems
Compatible with HDR
Native refresh rate of 60Hz
Lacks HDMI 2.1 inputs
Inexpensive
Roku OS
Decent picture for small room
1080p resolution
Does not support HDR
4K resolution
Supports HDR
Uses quantum dot technology
Does not get incredibly bright
Uses Vizio's SmartCast streaming platform
Smaller TVs—sets with 32-inch to 43-inch screens—are great options for kitchens, bedrooms, or guest rooms. They can also be the best TV for smaller living rooms, and they are often more affordable than bigger TVs.
Our recommendations for this guide range in size from 40 inches to 43 inches. It’s important to note that you’re less likely to notice the size difference between 40-inch models and 43-inch TVs. A good rule of thumb is that it takes an extra 10 inches or more to make a TV really feel bigger.
Our guide on how to choose the right TV size can help you make what television is best for you—and also for your viewing distance.
Shopping for TVs can be confusing. Being familiar with some terms you may see—LED, LCD, OLED, QLED—can help you navigate the experience.
LED refers to Light Emitting Diode while LCD stands for Liquid Crystal Display. LEDs are the backlights used in LCD TVs, also sometimes called LED TVs for this reason. The LED backlight shines through a layer of a semi-solid substance called "liquid crystal," named for its ability to morph in reaction to tiny electrical volts and allow light to pass through.
QLED TVs are LEDs with quantum dots, which allows the displays to produce rich colors better than LED TVs without quantum dot technology.
While OLED may sound similar, it’s a different panel technology than LED/LCD. Rather than an LED backlight element shining through an LCD panel element, OLED TVs essentially combine the backlight and crystal array, using sub-pixel strata that produce light and color individually.
Read more: QLED vs OLED—What’s the Difference?
If you can afford a 4K TV, we recommend making the upgrade, especially if it’s for a television that may get more use, such as a living room set. The more pixels that a display has, the sharper the image. TVs with 4K resolution (3,840 x 2,160) have more than 8 million pixels. That compares to more than 2 million for Full HD (1,920 x 1,080) and more than 900,000 for 720p TVs (1,280 x 720).
While lower resolution TVs may not noticeably diminish your viewing experience in a kitchen or guest room, the extra money for a 4K TV and better image quality will be worth it for a television that will get heavy use.
Smart TVs have evolved a lot since they hit the market. These days, people use smart TVs mostly as a way to watch movies and their favorite TV shows on streaming services like Hulu, Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon Prime Video.
People shopping for a 40-inch smart TV will notice that televisions have different operating systems. Roku is our favorite streaming platform because it’s easy to use, quick, and has a vast array of available apps. Roku TVs have the operating system baked right in.
We also really like Google TV, which is also fast and easy to use. You can find Google TV on Sony televisions and other brands. We’re not as high on Samsung’s Tizen OS or LG’s webOS. Those tend to have more sponsored content and can be slower and not as easy to navigate.
While streaming apps is probably the biggest boon of smart TVs, many of them do a lot more. Depending on the manufacturer, you can expect smart features like the ability to use Alexa and Google Home voice commands, use a web browser, and even control other smart home devices.
People who play a lot of video games should pay close attention to HDMI ports. To get the most out of some game consoles, gamers will want a TV that has HDMI 2.1 inputs 4K gaming at 120 hertz (Hz). Also important is Auto Low Latency Mode and Variable Refresh Rate. ALLM switches to settings that reduce input lag when you fire up a game while VRR adjusts the refresh rate of your TV to match up with the frame rate of the game you’re playing.
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.
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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