Best TV brand 2022: who to consider when buying a new television
The best TV brands around in 2022
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Given the recent rise in the cost of living, TechRadar wants to highlight products that provide high value along with high performance, and Vizio TVs fit that bill precisely.
This TV brand guide has, therefore, been updated to include Vizio. It’s a primarily US-based brand, but it specializes in budget-friendly TVs that are well-built and deliver great picture quality and features.
Al Griffin, Senior Editor, Home Entertainment
Knowing the best TV brands helps you whittle down that seemingly endless list of TV options. Not that it’s hard to parse through the options and pick the very best, but knowing which brands are trustworthy and deliver great quality will save you time and headache when purchasing a new television.
Many big players, including market leaderSamsung, are obvious shoo-ins, as they do make many of thebest TVson the market. However, there are also many mid-weight TV brands that are worth checking out. That’s especially if you’re looking for thebest TVs under $500in which Hisense or TCL dominate, rolling out cheap TVs with some key premium technologies snuck in.
Each TV maker has something about them that makes them a little better (and maybe a little worse) than the competition. Want one of thebest OLED TVs, for example?LG,Sony, orPanasonicare the best TV brands for that, with the last two offering superior built-in audio features to deliver thebest TVs for sound.
So, depending on what you’re after, this guide will help you find a TV brand that’s ideal for you. Or, if you’re not too picky, it should narrow down your list of options as well as steer you away from brands that do not deliver great quality. And, as we’ve tested many TVs over the years, we know exactly which brands to trust and which brands to skip.
We’ll run you through all the best TV brands in 2022, and how their offerings tend to vary – from panel technologies andhigh dynamic rangeformat support to more humdrum considerations like pricing, smart features and more. Naturally, we’ll help you get thebest TV dealsfrom these brands as well.
The best TV brands 2022
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1. Samsung
Samsung is a TV brand you’ve almost certainly already heard of, given its position as the biggest seller of TVs worldwide – as well as all kinds of other tech products. The South Korean electronics manufacturer has a large user base for a reason – it offers a wide range of sets at a variety of price points, with a base level of quality above more budget brands.
Samsung is also a big backer of LED/LCD TVs, with a wide range of mid-price4K TVsthat sees new models every year. It mainly sticks with quantum dot LED (or ‘QLED’) panels in its premium, high-contrast displays – with thousands of nits brightness making for dazzling output.
WhileOLEDTVs offer stiff competition, breakthroughs like Samsung’s Ultra Viewing Angle technology – and more forgiving pricing – are helping it keep the edge. For 2022, Samsung has made the jump into also offering OLED TVs – specifically aQD-OLED hybrid– that could see Samsung cement its dominance further.
Samsung is also pushing the adoption of8K TVs, ensuring its flagship QLED each year uses the ultra-ultra-high resolution panel tech, even if the average shopper probably won’t have anything more than4Kin their sights for now.
Samsung is also the only TV manufacturer to have its own in-house voice assistant, Bixby. It isn’t particularly widely used beyond a handful of Samsung devices, unlikeAmazon’s Alexa AI orGoogleAssistant, given Bixby’s lesser capabilities. However, you will find it installed in thebest Samsung TVsto allow for voice recognition and navigation of Samsung’s Tizen interface.
2. LG Electronics
If your eye’s been caught by an OLED television, you can thank LG. The manufacturer makes OLED panels for both itself and competitors, and has enabled the resurgence in OLED years after interest in the technology was waning.
Does that mean LG makes the best OLEDs? Possibly. TheLG CX OLEDtopped our best OLED TVs guide for a while until the company’s 2021 range added a new 83-inch size and42-inch models to go with it, allowing for a wider variety of budgets, sizes and consumer needs. For 2022, the latestLG C2 OLEDis now our top OLED pick, and is also the top pick in our guide to the best TVs of 2022 overall.
Why go with an LG OLED? You’ll be getting brilliantly vivid colors, strong contrast, gorgeously deep blacks, and LG’s leading webOS smart platform tying the whole experience together. LG sets also tend to have a bit more ‘pop’ to the colors, compared to the restrained tone mapping of sets sold by Panasonic.
LG doesn’t supportHDR10+like Samsung or Panasonic, but you’ll find plenty ofDolby VisionandDolby Atmossupport across thebest LG TVs.
Check out ourLG promo codesto get the best deal on your next purchase.
3. Hisense
Hisenseis a name you’ll be hearing a lot if you’re after a bargain TV. The budget TV brand offers premium technologies like 4K/HDR and quantum dots for a decent cut below what you’d usually pay, making the TVs of tomorrow far more accessible for hordes of people. For 2022, it also plans to release Mini-LED models.
Processing issues aren’t uncommon withHisensesets that don’t quite have the power to maintain smooth images, or the dedicated dimming zones to prevent light blooming – and whether you go with a Hisense TV will depend on how important those visual artefacts are. Somehalf-baked featuresin Hisense’s Vidaa Usmart TVplatform, too, show what happens when you cut corners while trying to create a premium experience.
But there’s no denying the sheer value of manyHisense TVs, while the brand has also branched out with some television designs that really push the envelope – like the ultra-thin Sonic One or its L9G Tri-Chroma Laser TV projectors–among the first projectors to offer Dolby Vision HDR. There’s also now another OLED TV, theHisense A9G, which offers a cheap and capable screen above what its predecessor (theO8B OLED) was capable of.
4. TCL
Heard of TCL? You should have – with around 10% share of the global TV market, this Chinese electronics manufacturer has stormed into our homes over the past few years and sits just behindSamsung and LGin terms of scale.
Like Hisense, it specializes in low-cost televisions, hoping to bring an equivalent picture of more expensive mid-range sets while cutting corners in the right places. The processing and picture quality may take a hit, but not nearly as much as you’d think – and for what you get at the price point it’s hard to complain much.
TCL’s most out-there TV designstend to be reserved for its home turf in China, but its5-Seriesand6-SeriesTVs in the US are some of the best you can get on a budget, especially with theRoku smart TV platformin so many of its sets. 2021 saw the arrival ofthe cheapest 8K TV ever made, too.
It’s not quite as big in the UK, though the introduction of theC71 and C81 QLEDsin 2020 increased its presence there.
5. Sony
Sony makes some truly breathtaking TVs, with sets like theA90Jand new-for-2022A80KOLED models delivering great picture quality with stunning design to match.
Possibly to be expected from a brand so involved with music –through, you know, Sony Music– these sets really deliver on audio technology. High-end sets feature Sony’s proprietary Acoustic Surface Audio+, which uses strategically placed drivers to emit sound from the TV panel itself, rather than through downward, rear, or upward-firing speakers, and they have built-in woofers for extended bass.
The direction of the audio is tricky when the visuals need to be front and centre, and while other TV brands have figured out some workarounds – such as theTV standon the LG C Series, which funnels downward-firing audio towards the viewer – Sony definitely has a unique solution.
Like Samsung, Sony has made the leap in 2022 to selling hybrid QD-OLED sets. These hold the promise of even-better brightness than its latest OLED models, along with an enhanced color range and even wider viewing angle than what current OLED tech offers.
6. Panasonic
Angling after a Panasonic TV? While this Japanese brand doesn’t sell commercial sets in the North America – orAustralia these days– its incredibleJZ2000TV is used as a monitor for professional Hollywood colorists, given its high-contrast output and custom OLED panel. It’s really that good – which it’s why it’s currently on our list of the best TVs of 2022 – and speaks to the cinematic quality of Panasonic’s displays and the power of its HCX Pro Intelligent processor.
For those in the UK, Europe or Canada, though, Panasonic sets offer a huge array of advantages, from their accurate color mapping to extremely wide HDR format support – includingHLG (hybrid log gamma)broadcasts, and both HDR10+ and Dolby Vision dynamic HDR, even on mid-range LED sets like the PanasonicHX800.
Panasonic’s OLEDs are also unique in their focus on cinematic sound, with the range scaling up in price as the Dolby Atmos speaker system increases from a reasonable 30W to a massive 140W system – that will probably require 2-3 people to safely lift onto a counter at home. Panasonic’s hand in camera manufacturing also led to the introduction of an HLG Photo Mode on newPanasonic TVs, giving budding photographers a way to see their images in HDR quality up on a TV screen.
7. Philips
Another TV brand that isn’t licensed to sell its sets in the US – but Philips has plenty to recommend it. Its high-end OLED TVs focus a lot on sound quality, with Bowers & Wilkins powering built-insoundbarsin its premium sets – and support for both HDR10+ and Dolby Vision meaning Philips’ premium sets don’t slack in the HDR department either.
But possibly the most unique thing toPhilips TVsis theirAmbilighttechnology, which projects onscreen colors onto the wall behind the television when in use. It may not change what’s happening in your favorite TV shows, but boy is it immersive – with sets that use three-sided or four-sided Ambilight depending on how fancy you go.
Our top-recommended Ambilight TV is currently thePhilips OLED 806, which we called “a good-looking, well-madeOLED TVwith an absolute stack of functionality, a unique selling point and periodically splendid picture quality. And it’s done all this for a real-world price.”
Get the best deal on Philips products with ourPhilips coupon codes.
8. Vizio
Vizio is a brand that’s enjoyed great popularity in the US due to its wide range of TVs in terms of screen size, features and prices. The company’sP-Series Quantum Xmodels are its top TK offerings, and they pack all of the high-performance features you’d expect from a flagship TV. Stepping down, there are the P-series, M-series, and V-series 4K models, followed bybudget setsthat are limited to regular HD resolution.
Vizio also sellsOLED TVsin 65- and 55-inch screen sizes that, in keeping with the company’s value-oriented ethos, are priced below OLED TVs from LG and Samsung. The latestVizio TVsare itsMQX-series. These sets are endowed with a wide range of gaming-friendly features such as 120 Hz display, VRR, and ALLM. They are also very affordably priced for what you get.
9. Polaroid / Sceptre
Depending on where you shop, you’re likely to see some different logos on your television. Polaroid (UK or US) and Sceptre (US) are two TV brands you’ll find on sale in supermarkets such as Walmart or Asda, offering television displays at a truly minimal price.
You won’t get the picture performance of most brands on this list – you get what you paid for – but their low price and ability to be put in a shopping cart along with your groceries naturally translate to strong sales. Be wary of any of these sets that promise high-end features like Dolby Vision HDR, though, as the processing is often not advanced enough to really deploy them as intended. For cheap and low-resolutionsmall TVs, however, it’s definitely an option – with some Ultra HD models like thePolaroid 4K TVbeing surprisingly capable for the price.
What is the best TV brand to buy?
There are dozens of brands out there, but we typically only recommend seven or eight brands to our readers. Among them are Samsung, LG, Sony, Vizio, Panasonic, TCL, Philips and Hisense. Each have different product ranges, offerings, and strengths, though most TV brands will sell a mix of cheap, mid-tier and high-end televisions, so there’s always a variety of models to choose from.
What are the best quality televisions?
The best TV brands should offer the best TVs, and you’ll see each of these companies push a unique combination of premium features for the most expensive sets. For LG, it’s OLED screens, some of them even with 8K; for Samsung, 8K TVs are the standard for high-end screens, with QLED panels and Mini LED backlighting alongside – with TCL having a similar strategy, though Samsung is generally viewed as a maker of higher-quality models.
Hisense toys with a mix of QLED, ULED, OLED, and laser TV technologies, though again its competitive pricing reveals some corners cut compared to the best screens out there from quality brands such as Sony or Panasonic.
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Al Griffin has been writing about and reviewing A/V tech since the days LaserDiscs roamed the earth, and was previously the editor of Sound & Vision magazine.
When not reviewing the latest and greatest gear or watching movies at home, he can usually be found out and about on a bike.
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