I’m a senior staff writer at Wirecutter covering TVs and other AV equipment. In addition to this guide, I oversee Wirecutter’s guides to LED/LCD TVs, OLED TVs, media streaming devices, and several others. I have reviewed TVs since 2012, and I have ISF Level III training and calibration certification. There are more TV stands in my house than there are people.

For the latest version of this guide:

• I referenced reviews from trusted sources and relevant technological data to identify the TVs that satisfied our requirements for inclusion in this guide.
• Over the years, I’ve worked with dozens of manufacturers’ engineers and QA specialists to identify the hardware components that help to elevate a budget TV’s performance beyond its price point.
• Like all Wirecutter journalists, I review and test products with complete editorial independence. I’m never made aware of any business implications of my editorial recommendations. Read more about our editorial standards.

The 4K TVs we cover in this guide offer great performance at a budget-friendly price, generally around $500 or less for a 55-inch TV. If you’re looking for an affordable upgrade to get 4K resolution and high dynamic range video—or if you’re looking for something a little larger than your current TV—this is the guide for you.

However, if picture quality is your top priority and you’re willing to pay more for a better performer, check out our guides to the best LCD/LED TV and the best OLED TV.

If you’re looking specifically for a smaller TV, check out our guides to the best 40- to 49-inch TVs and the best 32-inch TVs.

 

Our goal in every round of testing is to find the lowest-priced 4K TVs that use advanced performance technologies such as local-dimming backlights and quantum dots to deliver a satisfying viewing experience with the fewest drawbacks. Lately, we’re also on the hunt for mini-LED backlights. (Read our TV buying guide for explanations of those terms.)

The more affordable TVs from manufacturers such as LG and Samsung usually do not include those advanced technologies—particularly local dimming—while brands like Sony, Sharp, and Panasonic typically don’t produce budget-oriented TVs at all. That leaves primarily Hisense, TCL, Vizio, Amazon, and Roku as the major contenders in this category—and with the latter two companies focusing as much (or more) on their smart-TV experiences as on pure picture quality, finding TVs that satisfy our minimum requirements is difficult.

On top of that, we consider only TVs that support high dynamic range video playback (preferably in both the HDR10 and Dolby Vision formats) and that can produce the wider color gamut used in 4K HDR content.

Because we’re looking for user-friendliness in this category, the quality of the TV’s integrated streaming platform is important here, too.

Most of the TVs in this price category have only a 60 Hz refresh rate, which isn’t ideal for the hardcore gamer. But they may still include gaming-friendly features such as automatic low-latency mode (ALLM) and variable refresh rate (VRR). You can read more about these features in our guide to the best gaming TVs. We do not require the inclusion of higher-bandwidth HDMI 2.1 ports for our picks in this guide because these TVs tend to have a lower refresh rate.

To help us whittle down the list of TVs to test, we rely on reviews from sites we trust, such as Rtings and Tom’s Guide.

The best way to compare TVs is to put them next to each other and look at them using the same content. We also consider how they perform in relation to the more expensive models we test for our best LCD/LED TV guide.

We take each one out of the box, set it up, and measure it using Portrait Displays’s Calman software, in conjunction with a C6 HDR5000 colorimeter and a VideoForge Pro test-pattern generator, to measure the color, the color temperature, the light output, and more.

For details, read more about how Wirecutter tests TVs.

Important specs

The Hisense U6N Series stands out as the only TV in this price bracket to offer performance-enhancing technologies like mini-LED backlighting, full-array local dimming, and quantum dots. This fact, combined with its full feature set and intuitive Google TV smart platform, makes the U6N this year’s best value-oriented 4K TV.

It has better brightness, contrast, and color than other budget TVs. While LCD TVs are ubiquitous, and features like 4K resolution and HDR support are now mainstream, most budget models still use standard LED backlighting with no ability to precisely adjust different parts of the screen to improve contrast. The U6N, meanwhile, uses the same mini-LED technology that most high-end LCD TVs use. The LEDs are almost twice as small and, combined with the TV’s local-dimming abilities, allow it to achieve much more granular control over the bright and dark picture elements; to maintain more consistent darkness within shadows even when other parts of the screen are very bright; and to cut down on some of the more egregious shifts in color quality when you’re watching the TV from off-center.

The U6N doesn’t incorporate as many mini-LEDs as a higher-end LCD TV (that’s one reason it’s more affordable), which means it can’t get as bright overall—but the boost to picture quality compared with other budget models is still highly appreciable. Even compared with our previous top pick, the similarly equipped Hisense U6K, the U6N gets considerably brighter. In our tests, it measured about 650 nits with HDR video, compared with the U6K’s peak of around 450 nits.

Another major technological upgrade is the use of quantum dots to improve color performance. These little dots were originally developed to enhance medical imaging, and they’ve been one of the most valuable additions to TV tech to come along in the past decade. Without getting too into the weeds about how they work, what you need to know is that quantum dots enhance the saturation of a TV’s colors. Think about it this way: Every TV can show off the deep blue shades of the Atlantic Ocean. Quantum dots let a TV show off the richer green-blue hues of the Caribbean.

The U6N looks particularly good when displaying 4K HDR content. It supports all the major HDR formats and looks especially good when showing Dolby Vision content. I did a lot of side-by-side comparisons between the Hisense U6N and its closest 2024 competitor, the TCL Q68. That model is also a Google TV with full-array local dimming and quantum dots, but it lacks the U6N’s mini-LEDs. I also compared the U6N to Hisense’s step-up model, the U7N, which is the budget pick in our guide to the best LCD/LED TV.

Watching Interstellar on an Ultra-HD Blu-ray disc proved to be a great way to showcase the U6N’s strengths and weaknesses. During the scene where the crew is circling the black hole Gargantua, the U6N’s mini-LEDs helped it achieve impressive onscreen contrast that the TCL Q68 couldn’t match. The U6N also maintained more consistent shadow levels during the scene’s brightest moments, and its wider color palette helped add yellow-gold hues to Gargantua’s event horizon that were missing on the TCL.

However, when compared with the pricier and much brighter Hisense U7N, the U6N looked almost dim. The U7N also did a better job keeping up with complex light patterns as they moved from dimming zone to dimming zone across the screen, a testament to its more advanced backlight compared with the U6N.

But while the difference between the U6N and U7N was fairly pronounced during scenes with higher dynamic range and brighter colors, there were also plenty of instances where the two TVs looked very similar—which is a testament to the U6N’s use of hardware normally reserved for pricier TVs.

Essentially, whether you’re watching SDR or HDR video, you can expect the U6N to do a solid job with 4K movies and TV shows, especially in a room where you have a modicum of control over the lighting.

You don’t get 120 Hz, but this TV is otherwise great for gaming. Gamers who like to play competitive online video games should probably aim for a TV with a native 120 Hz refresh rate, but this 60 Hz TV is a good choice for gamers who are on a stricter budget. If you’re more concerned about getting a big-screen cinematic gaming experience than maximizing frames or refresh rates, a TV like this one will literally dwarf a gaming monitor of the same price. It just won’t be as zippy. (If getting a 120 Hz refresh rate is important to you, check out the step-up U7N, described below.)

Of course, that doesn’t mean your overall gaming experience won’t be smooth. The U6N performed admirably during our input lag test (which measures how long it takes for a TV to display an action once you’ve pressed a button on a controller), measuring just 9.5 milliseconds of lag while in its Game picture mode with a 4K 60 Hz signal. That’s as good a result as the best TVs on the market.

Although it only has HDMI 2.0 inputs, the U6N is equipped with Hisense’s “Game Mode Plus” suite of gaming features, which gives you auto low-latency mode (or ALLM, a function that automatically switches into game mode when you start playing a game) and variable refresh rate (VRR). The latter is of questionable use on a TV that’s capped at 60 Hz.

I played a bunch of PS5 games on the U6N—including newer titles like Star Wars Outlaws and the Silent Hill 2 remake—and thought they looked and played great.

Google TV is our favorite smart-TV platform, though this version is a bit slow. Years of testing various smart-TV platforms have made it clear that Google TV is one of the best options right now due to its intuitive app layout, superior cross-app search abilities, customizability, and minimally intrusive advertisements.

All of that remains true for the U6N’s Google TV platform, but the TV itself is not the most powerful when it comes to processing. Every time I turned on this TV, I found myself growing impatient waiting for the initial home screen to load everything in. This is a common trait for all budget TVs.

Searching for and launching content from apps like Netflix or Prime Video works as well as it does on pricier Google TVs, but the U6N is just a lot slower whenever it needs to load an initial “hub” full of content, whether it’s the Google TV home screen or the top page of Disney+.

Of course, this is my impression of the U6N’s speeds on the tail of having used much pricier TVs (with better processing power) and dedicated media streaming devices, both of which tend to be much more responsive than what you can get from a budget TV. Other than those initial load times, the U6N’s Google TV platform worked splendidly, but it might try your patience a bit.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

It’s not as bright as our favorite higher-end TVs. As I mentioned above, when I conducted side-by-side comparisons with the similarly featured Hisense U7N, the budget pick in our guide to the best LCD TVs—which measures a whopping 1,000 nits brighter—the U6N’s performance limitations were more apparent. It isn’t bright enough to fare well in rooms with lots of windows or lamps. It’s a better fit in a room where you have a modicum of control over the lighting.

The viewing angle is limited. During comparison tests, I found that the U6N did a better job than other budget TVs of avoiding color shifting when you’re sitting far to one side or the other, but its overall viewing angles still aren’t as good as you’d get from a brighter, more expensive LCD TV model. This is another area where the step-up U7N is the superior choice.

Like other TVs in this price range, the U6N’s screen also doesn’t handle reflections from light sources very well. If the TV is positioned opposite windows or lamps, those reflections will show up clear as day when you’re watching darker content.

Some settings are locked away in certain picture modes. One of the first things I watched on this TV was Cyberpunk 2077: Edgerunners on Netflix, an animated TV series that is available in Dolby Vision. By default, the U6N will use the Dolby Vision IQ picture mode, but I found that this mode wouldn’t allow me to adjust its motion smoothing, which was creating the  soap opera effect.

Switching to the Dolby Vision Custom mode allowed me to both turn off motion smoothing and to adjust the TV’s other settings in a way that resulted in a much better experience overall. I’m hoping this is something Hisense will address in a firmware update—alongside the mute icon staying on the screen forever when you set volume to zero.

You can’t natively receive 4K over-the-air broadcasts. Like most budget-oriented TVs, the U6N doesn’t have an ATSC 3.0 (NextGenTV) tuner, just the last-gen ATSC 1.0 tuner. Although 4K broadcasts aren’t prevalent nationwide, they are available in a lot of areas. You’ll have to buy a separate ATSC 3.0 tuner to get those broadcasts on this TV.

It’s not a great choice for a PC monitor. Since its smallest screen size is 55 inches, the U6N is already dubious for traditional desktop use. But on top of that, it also uses a non-traditional BGR subpixel layout (rather than the standard RGB layout) that can cause website text to be blurrier than it should be. You can read more about why in this explainer.

Recommended settings

The U6N looks the most accurate (read our “TV Buying Guide” to see what we mean by “accurate”) in the Filmmaker Mode, but that mode’s brightness is very limited (under 200 nits) when viewing standard dynamic range (SDR) video, so it might not be the best choice to use during the day. The Theater picture mode averages more than 500 nits with SDR yet is still accurate enough for daytime viewing.

When you’re watching HDR—specifically Dolby Vision HDR—the TV defaults to the Dolby Vision IQ mode, which may introduce motion smoothing, depending on what kind of content you’re watching. If you don’t like how that looks, change the picture mode to Dolby Vision Custom, then turn off motion smoothing by going to Picture > Advanced Settings > Motion Enhancement.

If you want a 120 Hz refresh rate: We bought and tested the 55-inch version of the TCL Q68 Series and found it to be generally worse in picture quality than our top pick, with lower peak brightness, worse black-level consistency, higher input lag, and worse color shifting during off-angle viewing.

It does have one advantage, however: The Q68 is the only TV in this price bracket that sports a native 120 Hz refresh rate, which could be crucial if you have a PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series S/X, or want to ensure your Blu-ray discs (which typically play at 24 frames per second) are judder-free.

If you’re willing to spend a little more, we recommend checking out the Hisense U7N, the budget pick in our guide to high-performance LCD/LED TVs and an excellent 120 Hz TV for not a whole lot more money. But if you’re looking for a 120 Hz refresh rate for less than $500, the TCL Q681G is your best bet.

If you prefer the Roku smart-TV platform: We tested the Roku Plus Series TV in 2023 and felt it was too expensive for what it offered. Its price has since been reduced, making it roughly $50 cheaper than our top pick. While the Plus Series is a decent performer overall, our tests showed it to be dimmer than the Hisense U6N, and it yields less vivid colors. Its local dimming isn’t as good, either. But if you strongly prefer the Roku platform, this is a decent choice.

We tested the 65-inch version of Amazon’s Fire TV Omni QLED TV, and though it proved to be a solid performer, it didn’t quite match our pick in picture quality. This TV’s chief failing is that it doesn’t get especially bright, sustaining only a little over 400 nits even in its brightest HDR picture modes. Where the Fire TV Omni QLED does shine is in its hands-free Alexa and Fire TV operation, which works as smoothly here as on the more powerful Fire TV devices we’ve covered in our guide to media streaming devices.

Samsung’s Crystal TV lines are its most affordable offerings. We don’t intend to test them because they’re edge-lit LED/LCD TVs that lack local dimming, quantum dots, and other advanced features that we believe are crucial to good LCD TV performance.

We also don’t intend to test LG’s more affordable UT Series LCD TVs for the same reason: These TVs lack contrast- and color-enhancing technology and cannot achieve the level of picture performance we look for.

Ditto for TCL’s Q651G or S551G lineups, as those TVs also lack advanced features like full-array local dimming. Reviews we trust have confirmed that these TVs are worse performers than the Hisense U6N.

Vizio has not announced any new TVs for 2024.

This article was edited by Adrienne Maxwell and Grant Clauser.