The Best Smart TVs of 2026

These days, most TVs come with built-in smart features to help stream movies and TV shows without making a second purchase. However, not all smart platforms were created equal. Currently, Roku is our favorite smart TV platform. We appreciate its intuitive features, impressive search, and vast array of available apps.

As such, the Roku-powered TCL 6-Series takes the trophy for the best smart TV we tested, offering the best combination of overall performance for the price and a killer smart platform.

There are TVs that eclipse the 6-Series for picture quality—LG’s OLEDs, for example—but none come with Roku. If you're looking for something more affordable, TCL's 5-Series is our pick for Best Value, offering the same Roku platform and a great intersection of picture quality and price.

How We Test Smart TVs

The Testers

Our current Home Theater expert is Michael Desjardin, who’s been testing televisions with the Reviewed tech team since 2014. Michael, a Senior Staff Writer, is a film enthusiast and TV expert, and he’s passionate about finding TVs that match peoples’ specific needs.

John Higgins is Reviewed’s A/V and Electronics Senior Editor. In his A/V career that has spanned two decades he has written about TVs, speakers, headphones, AVRs, gaming, and all manner of technology. He is also an ISF Level III-certified calibrator.

The Tests

At our laboratory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, we have a wide array of testing equipment similar to what you would see in a factory that makes and calibrates TVs. Over our years testing televisions, we’ve honed a system that combines complex, fine-tuned measurements on brightness, color and more with tests that make sure a TV is fun and convenient for everyday use.

What You Should Know About Buying a Smart TV

Purchasing a TV will always mean making a trade-off. Sony tends to offer unmatched picture quality, but the price runs higher. Hisense offers a good blend of brightness, color, and features, but the image processing isn’t always as robust. There are similar trade-offs when it comes to smart platforms.

What is a smart TV?

Smart TVs have evolved a lot over the years. Nowadays, their main function is to serve up streaming content from services like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, or Disney+. Some may offer additional features like a calendar function, or integration with the major smart home brands for voice control.

Generally speaking, smart TV bells and whistles can be hit or miss. The most important things to consider are “Does it have the apps that I want to watch?” and “Is it easy to use?”

What kinds of smart TV can I buy?

There are three big platforms that TV makers can license out: Amazon’s Fire TV, Google TV, and Roku. Some brands, like LG and Samsung, use homegrown smart platforms that are exclusive to the TVs that they make.

Amazon Fire TV is one of the big smart platforms that manufacturers partner with. It’s also available via Fire TV devices that plug into your television. It has some neat features, including a robust selection of streaming services and voice commands through Amazon Alexa. However, it doesn’t support playing media from other devices through local casting services like Apple AirPlay or Google’s Chromecast.

Google TV is an Android-based system that’s available on partnered TVs or through Google’s Chromecast devices. It provides most of the popular streaming services, as well as voice commands through Google Assistant. It tends to run smoothly, and you can use Chromecast to push content from other devices to your TV.

Roku was one of the earliest streaming devices available, and they’re also one of the most finely-tuned and easiest to use, whether on a separate Roku device or on a built-in Roku TV. It features a full complement of streaming apps, as well as support for Apple Airplay and Miracast, but not Chromecast. There’s no smart home voice control, but you can do certain voice commands through a Roku Voice Remote.

LG webOS is LG’s homespun smart platform, and it can be used with LG’s ThinQ voice assistant or with Alexa or Google Assistant as part of a larger smart home environment. We love the brand—the LG C2 OLED TV is our top pick for best TV overall. However, webOS tends to run sluggishly, and it’s weighed down with lots of sponsored content. If you’re buying a TV specifically for the smart platform, look elsewhere.

Samsung Tizen OS Samsung’s homegrown smart TV platform is based on Linux, and built to incorporate compatibility with Galaxy phones, SmartThings smart home appliances, and the Bixby voice assistant. (It can also be used with Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant.) It supports local casting and has plenty of streaming apps, with a few omissions like anime streamer Crunchyroll. We find it a little laggy and frustrating overall.

Which brand is best for smart TVs?

Generally speaking, our favorite smart platform is Roku, which makes TCL a great brand overall. We also like the Google TV smart platform, which you can typically find in brands like Sony and Hisense.

We don’t typically care for LG’s smart platform, webOS. However, LG’s 4K TVs are a strong balance of picture, features, and price that they’re our favorite overall, even if we don’t like the smart TV functionality itself.

Likewise, while Samsung makes strong televisions, their smart platform isn’t the best. With both LG and Samsung, we typically recommend getting a separate streaming device like a Roku or an Amazon Fire stick.

What else should I look for in a smart TV?

That depends on what’s important to you. Typically, we focus on aspects of the image quality like brightness, color, and contrast. Resolution is important, too, but since 4K TV is standard now, you’re unlikely to find a smart TV with lower resolution than that.

You might also want to consider gaming features. Features like variable refresh rate and auto low latency mode can help make pictures smoother and reduce input lag when playing video games. Then again, most gaming consoles can also stream video from a wide variety of streaming services, making smart platforms a little less important.

More Articles You Might Enjoy

• The Best Roku TVs
• The Best TVs Under $500
• Which one of these amazing, budget-friendly TVs is the best?
• What is a Roku TV?