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A Samsung Q60B QLED TV displaying 4K/HDR content in a living room setting Credit: Reviewed / Betsey Goldwasser
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The Best 40-Inch TVs of 2026

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A Samsung Q60B QLED TV displaying 4K/HDR content in a living room setting Credit: Reviewed / Betsey Goldwasser

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Editor's Choice Product image of LG Evo OLED42C3PUA
Best Overall 40-Inch TV

LG Evo OLED42C3PUA

Check Price at Amazon

With an exquisite picture and exhaustive features, the LG C3 OLED is an incredible TV for movies, gaming, and everything in between. Read More

Pros

  • Incredible contrast
  • Vivid, accurate color
  • All the gaming features you’ll need

Cons

  • So-so smart platform
  • Not as bright as competitive OLEDs
Product image of Samsung QN43Q60BAFXZA
Best Value 40-Inch TV

Samsung QN43Q60BAFXZA

Currently
Unavailable

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

Pros

  • Decent dark-room performer
  • Bright enough for casual viewing
  • Easy-to-setup design

Cons

  • Not cut out for next-gen gaming
  • Narrow viewing angle
  • HDR performance is lacking
Editor's Choice Product image of Samsung QN43QN90CAFXZA
Best 40-Inch TV For Bright Rooms

Samsung QN43QN90CAFXZA

Currently
Unavailable

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

Pros

  • Incredibly bright and colorful
  • Impressive local dimming
  • Perfect for dedicated gamers

Cons

  • Off-axis viewing isn’t as sharp
  • Cluttered smart platform
  • No Dolby Vision
Editor's Choice Product image of Samsung QN43QN90DAFXZA

Samsung QN43QN90DAFXZA

Check Price at Amazon

The Samsung QN90D delivers a bright, colorful picture and a long list of features. It’s perfect for HDR movies and gaming. Read More

Pros

  • Spectacular for HDR
  • A terrific gaming TV
  • Posh design

Cons

  • Difficult-to-use software
  • Less refined SDR year over year
  • No Dolby Vision
Product image of TCL 43S455

TCL 43S455

Currently
Unavailable

The TCL 4-Series offers 4K performance at a price that won't break your budget. Read More

Pros

  • 4K resolution at affordable price
  • Available with Roku or Google TV operating systems
  • Compatible with HDR

Cons

  • Native refresh rate of 60Hz
  • Lacks HDMI 2.1 inputs

  • LG C3

  • Samsung Q60B

  • Samsung QN90C

  • Other Top 40-Inch TVs We Tested

  • What to Consider When Buying a 40-Inch TV

  • More Articles You Might Enjoy

  • Best Overall 40-Inch TV LG C3
  • Best Value 40-Inch TV Samsung Q60B
  • Best 40-Inch TV For Bright Rooms Samsung QN90C
  • Other Top 40-Inch TVs We Tested
  • What to Consider When Buying a 40-Inch TV
  • More Articles You Might Enjoy
Michael Desjardin
John Higgins
Written by
Michael Desjardin, Senior Staff Writer who's reviewed and compared over 100 TVs.
John Higgins, managing editor with twenty-plus years experience testing headphones and TVs.

Updated April 12, 2024

The Rundown

  • Our favorite 40-inch TVs are the LG C3 and the Samsung Q60B.
  • The LG C3 offers an exquisite 4K OLED picture with advanced gaming features, while the Samsung Q60B provides a sleek design and dependable performance for bright rooms at a great value.
  • Consider display type, resolution, smart platform (Roku or Google TV are preferred), and gaming features like HDMI 2.1 for optimal viewing in smaller spaces like bedrooms or guest rooms.

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 Amazon for $838.99) . 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 LG C3 OLED TV displaying 4K/HDR content in a living room setting
Credit: Reviewed / Tim Renzi

The 42-inch LG C3 OLED is our pick for Best Upgrade, thanks to its incredible picture and laundry list of features.

Best Overall 40-Inch TV
LG C3
  • Screen size: 42”
  • Resolution: 4K (3,840 x 2,160)
  • Display type: OLED
  • HDR support: Dolby Vision, HDR10, HLG
  • Smart platform: LG webOS 23

With its incredible picture quality and extensive selection of A/V- and gaming-related features, the 42-inch LG C3 OLED is one of the best TVs you can buy in this size range.

Like its predecessor, the C3 pairs picture-perfect black levels with punchy highlights and rich, voluminous color. It’s brighter than the C2, but only by a hair, due to new picture processing enhancements that manage light output.

The C3 is at its best when displaying HDR content, covering an impressive 99% of the HDR color gamut (DCI-P3) and doling out highlights as bright as 800 nits. Picture purists will appreciate the TV’s out-of-the-box accuracy and Dolby Vision support, and everyone in the room will appreciate the C3’s remarkably wide viewing angles (a hallmark of OLED displays).

Few TVs offer as many gaming-related features as the LG C3 including ultra-low input lag, four HDMI 2.1 inputs that support 4K/120Hz gaming, Variable Refresh Rate (VRR), and Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM). The C3 also supports AMD FreeSync Premium Pro and Nvidia G-Sync compatibility. LG’s Game Optimizer is back, too, which gives gamers an easy-to-access menu for adjusting the TV’s picture and toggling its gaming-related enhancements on the fly.

See our full LG C3 review.

Pros

  • Incredible contrast

  • Vivid, accurate color

  • All the gaming features you’ll need

Cons

  • So-so smart platform

  • Not as bright as competitive OLEDs

$838.99 from Amazon


$698.00 from Walmart


$853.32 from Best Buy

The Samsung Q60B displaying 4K/HDR content in a living room setting
Credit: Reviewed / Betsey Goldwasser

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.

Best Value 40-Inch TV
Samsung Q60B
  • Screen size: 43”
  • Resolution: 4K (3,840 x 2,160)
  • Display type: Dual LED with quantum dots
  • HDR support: HDR10+, HDR10, HLG
  • Smart platform: Tizen OS

The Q60B is Samsung’s most affordable OLED TV with quantum dots. It’s a sleek, dependable TV that’ll hold its own in a relatively bright room.

Thanks to its quantum dots, the Q60B is bright enough for daytime viewing in sunny rooms. It performs better in dark-room settings, offering respectable brightness with deep black levels. People looking for a cinematic HDR experience, may want to consider another option because the Q60B doesn’t get bright enough for HDR content to really pop.

The Q60B has a native refresh rate of 60Hz and lacks HDMI 2.1 support, so 4K/120Hz gaming isn’t possible. It supports Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM) but not Variable Refresh Rate (VRR), so the Q60B will optimize an input for gaming whenever a console is detected, but it doesn’t offer the ability to match your output device's frame rate.

Still, the Samsung Q60B, which features a sleek design and reasonable price tag, is a good all-around good pick for people upgrading an older television, especially people looking for 4K resolution.

See our full Samsung Q60B review.

Pros

  • Decent dark-room performer

  • Bright enough for casual viewing

  • Easy-to-setup design

Cons

  • Not cut out for next-gen gaming

  • Narrow viewing angle

  • HDR performance is lacking

The Samsung TV displaying an aerial shot of a beach.
Credit: Reviewed / Timothy Renzi

The impressively bright picture and excellent picture processing make the Samsung QN90C a worthwhile investment.

Best 40-Inch TV For Bright Rooms
Samsung QN90C
  • Screen size: 43”
  • Resolution: 4K (3,840 x 2,160)
  • Display type: Mini-LED with quantum dots
  • HDR support: HDR10+, HDR10, HLG
  • Smart platform: Tizen OS

As we've come to expect from Samsung's Neo QLED line, the 43-inch QN90C is sensationally bright and colorful. It's one of the brightest TVs in its class, making it a great choice for folks with sun-soaked living spaces.

Most impressive, however, is the QN90C's local dimming, which does a remarkably good job of keeping all of that brightness in check. Rarely did we notice any light bloom around brighter objects, including bright, white subtitles during darker shows and movies. Simply put, if you have your heart set on a mini-LED TV, the QN90C is one of the best at implementing that display technology.

Gamers will feel right at home with the QN90C, as it offers a full slate of HDMI 2.1 inputs that support 4K gaming up to 144Hz, Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM), and AMD FreeSync Premium. Like many high-end Samsung TVs this year, the QN90C also supports Samsung's cloud gaming software suite, Gaming Hub. This allows users to access a host of popular cloud gaming services—no console required.

Like all LED TVs, the QN90C doesn't look quite as good when viewed from an off-axis position. We also find the overall software experience to be fussier than Google TV. Nevertheless, the QN90C is one of the best 43-inch TVs money can buy.

See our full Samsung QN90C review.

Pros

  • Incredibly bright and colorful

  • Impressive local dimming

  • Perfect for dedicated gamers

Cons

  • Off-axis viewing isn’t as sharp

  • Cluttered smart platform

  • No Dolby Vision

Other Top 40-Inch TVs We Tested

Product image of Samsung QN43QN90DAFXZA
Editors' Choice
Samsung QN90D
  • Screen size: 43”
  • Resolution: 4K (3,840 x 2,160)
  • Display type: Mini-LED with quantum dots
  • HDR support: HDR10+, HDR10, HLG
  • Smart platform: Tizen OS

The latest Neo QLED from Samsung is the QN90D. Like the QN90C, the 43-inch QN90D blends the brightness- and color-boosting properties of quantum-dot technology with some of the most impressive mini-LED backlighting the industry has to offer. It’s a fantastic pick for folks with brighter-than-average homes.

The QN90D pairs sensationally bright highlights with deep, rich black levels. Thanks to an array of mini-LED zones and excellent local dimming control, the darker areas of the picture stay mostly free of light bloom. HDR movies, games, and shows look fantastic on the QN90D, as the display is capable of breaking 2,000 nits when showcasing small, scintillating highlights, and its colors are stunning, too.

Rounding out this QN90D’s impressive resumé is one of the most robust selection of gaming features you’ll find in a TV this year. There’s a full slate of HDMI 2.1 inputs to support 4K console gaming at 120Hz (or 144Hz for PC gamers), as well as ALLM, VRR, and AMD FreeSync Premium Pro. The QN90D is also a gateway to console-free cloud gaming, as it comes with Samsung’s Gaming Hub platform built right into the software. With a compatible Bluetooth controller, users can enjoy cloud-based gaming from services like Xbox and GeForce Now.

Our only complaints have to do with the TV’s lack of Dolby Vision support, Samsung’s confusing, difficult-to-navigate smart platform, Smart Hub, as well as the QN90D’s SDR performance when the Local Dimming setting is maxed out. For most people, these shortcomings shouldn’t be deal-breakers. The QN90D is a fantastic TV for just about everything and everyone (though we recommend taking a look at a discounted QN90C first).

See our full Samsung QN90D review.

Pros

  • Spectacular for HDR

  • A terrific gaming TV

  • Posh design

Cons

  • Difficult-to-use software

  • Less refined SDR year over year

  • No Dolby Vision

$676.00 from Amazon


$1,297.99 from Best Buy

Product image of TCL 43S455
TCL 4-Series (S455)
  • Screen size: 43”
  • Resolution: 4K (3,840 x 2,160)
  • Display type: LED
  • HDR support: HDR10, HLG
  • Smart platform: Roku (S455) or Google TV (S446)

While the 5- and 6-Series have moved away from smaller screen sizes, TCL still has some excellent options available. The 4-Series is their most affordable 4K TV, is compatible with HDR signals, and works with Siri, Alexa, and Google.

We prefer the S455 version that uses Roku, our favorite streaming OS for years. It’s fast with loads of available apps, and its sponsored content is unobtrusive—as much as it can be. If you prefer the Google ecosystem, TCL also offers the S446 which has Google TV instead of Roku. In the past couple years, Google TV has greatly improved its functionality and measures up well against Roku with its zippy interface.

The smart platform isn’t the only difference that makes us prefer the Roku version, though. The S455 also includes four HDMI inputs (as opposed to three on the Google TV S446) and its built-in speakers are slightly more powerful. Both include eARC so you can send Dolby Digital Plus audio from the streaming apps to a connected soundbar.

Still, unless you plan on connecting a plethora of devices, either version of the TCL 4-Series will serve you well at a price that’s hard to beat.

Pros

  • 4K resolution at affordable price

  • Available with Roku or Google TV operating systems

  • Compatible with HDR

Cons

  • Native refresh rate of 60Hz

  • Lacks HDMI 2.1 inputs

Product image of TCL 40S355
TCL 3-Series (S355)
  • Screen size: 40”
  • Resolution: Full HD (1,920 x 1,080)
  • Display type: LED
  • HDR support: No
  • Smart platform: Roku

TCL’s entry level TV is the 3-Series. It’s an update to a favorite of ours from 2021 and delivers good performance for the price.

The S355 is a simple, striped-down TV that’s a perfect addition to a guest room, dorm room, or anywhere space prohibits a larger set. It’s a Roku TV, so you get our favorite streaming platform to access all of the best content available from Disney+, Hulu, HBO Max, or any other streaming app out there.

It’s the only 1080p model on our list (which is also why it’s the least expensive) and it doesn’t support HDR, but at this size that’s not as much of an issue as with larger TVs. As a secondary TV that offers a nice picture, the 3-Series S355 gives you what you need.

Pros

  • Inexpensive

  • Roku OS

  • Decent picture for small room

Cons

  • 1080p resolution

  • Does not support HDR

$320.04 from Amazon

Product image of Vizio M43Q6M-K04
Vizio M-Series Q6 (2022)
  • Screen size: 43”
  • Resolution: 4K (3,840 x 2,160)
  • Display type: Full Array LED
  • HDR support: Dolby Vision, HDR10+
  • Smart platform: Vizio SmartCast

Vizio has long been a mainstay of the bargain TV market catering to multiple use situations with a variety of performance levels and sizes. The M-Series Q6 is a lot of TV in a small package.

The 43-inch M-Series Q6 is a 4K that supports all types of HDR, including Dolby Vision, HDR10+, and HDR10. It also has a suitably wide color gamut thanks to quantum dot technology. The panel doesn’t get incredibly bright, so the HDR won’t pop like it will on the Samsung QN90B or Q60B, but you’ll still get a good looking image in a dark room. Gamers will also appreciate the inclusion of FreeSync.

As with all Vizio TVs, the M-Series Q6 runs on Vizio’s own SmartCast streaming platform. It’s not our favorite due to its sometimes sluggish performance and limited app availability, but it still gets the job done. If you’re looking for a 43-inch TV with Dolby Vision support for a reasonable price, the Vizio M-Series Q6 deserves a look.

Pros

  • 4K resolution

  • Supports HDR

  • Uses quantum dot technology

Cons

  • Does not get incredibly bright

  • Uses Vizio's SmartCast streaming platform

$329.89 from Amazon

What to Consider When Buying a 40-Inch TV

Size

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.

Display Type

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?

Resolution

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 TV

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.

Gaming Features

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.

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Meet the writers

Michael Desjardin

Michael Desjardin

Senior Staff Writer

@Reviewed

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.

See all of Michael Desjardin's reviews
John Higgins

John Higgins

Managing Editor, Tech

@johntmhiggins

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.

See all of John Higgins's reviews

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