Best QLED TVs of 2026

Mini LED is the reason this Samsung looks different from everything else in the group. Rather than one sheet of LEDs behind the panel, the QN70F uses a dense array of small ones that dim in zones, so a starfield keeps its blacks between the stars and a subtitle does not smear light into the letterbox bars. The matte finish does similar work on the other side of the equation, soaking up a lamp reflection that would sit on the glossy panels of the cheaper sets.

It is the set we take when the room can be darkened and the budget can stretch, and it has the best picture in this roundup by a clear margin — deeper blacks than the TCL, better dark-scene contrast than any of the 60Hz sets, and enough color volume that a bright scene does not go chalky. The NQ4 AI Gen2 processor upscales a 1080p broadcast cleanly enough that it does not look soft beside a 4K stream.

One gap to know about: there is no Dolby Vision. Samsung backs HDR10+ instead, so a Dolby Vision title falls back to HDR10 here even though the same show plays properly on the TCL and both Hisense sets. If your watchlist is mostly premium streaming drama, that is a real trade. Gamers, meanwhile, get a listed 1ms response time, VRR and four HDMI inputs, which covers a console, a soundbar and two sources at once.

Four HDMI inputs, a 4K QLED panel and Roku's own software, at a price that makes a second television easy to justify. That is the pitch, and it holds up: this is our budget pick for a spare room, a first apartment or a kids' room where a flagship would be wasted. Nothing here feels stripped — the panel is a real QLED, the on-screen interface is the same one Roku puts on its streamers, and there is a voice remote in the box.

The trade-off is brightness. The published figure is 250 nits, and a room with sun falling on the screen will look washed out next to the brighter sets here, so aim it away from a window or plan on a blind. Wi-Fi is the other thing to plan around: these sets sometimes drop the connection and need a reboot, and if the router is within cable distance, a length of Ethernet sidesteps the whole question. Setup itself is the smoothest of any set here — sign in with a Roku account and your apps and preferences appear, with one remote running the television and the streaming.

Dolby Vision at a budget price is why this one earns a place. The E6SR decodes it alongside HDR10 and HLG, and it wraps that in Roku OS — the same interface as our budget pick, with the same uncluttered remote — so a 55-inch set lands in a room without a learning curve. At 20.5 pounds it is light enough that two people can hang it without much discussion.

The panel is 60Hz and there are three HDMI inputs rather than four, which are the two places the money went instead of into the screen. Audio is 16 watts of DTS Virtual:X: clear on dialogue, thin on anything with an orchestra, and a reminder that this is a set built to a number rather than to a spec sheet.

What we appreciate here is the balance. It does not chase a specification it cannot afford to do well — color is vivid without going neon, the AI 4K upscaler keeps older content watchable, and the picture holds together in a normally lit room. Brightness is the limit: place it where sun hits the screen and it washes out, so a blind or a different wall makes more difference here than any picture setting. Against the TCL you give up refresh rate and ten inches; against the 43-inch Hisense you gain a proper main-room size.

Patience is the price of admission here. The Fire TV interface on this Hisense takes its time — waking from standby, loading the home screen and switching between apps all ask you to wait — and the remote's button presses do not always land first time. Open one app and stay there and you will barely notice. Move between four services a night and it wears thin.

What you get in trade is a genuinely good picture for the least money in this group. Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos are both on board, the HDR support runs all the way to HDR10+ Adaptive, and 43 inches is the right answer for a bedroom, a kitchen or a study where a 55-inch would dominate the wall. What we did not expect at this price is how little the panel gives away: color is vivid, 4K content looks sharp, and the screen is clearly not where the savings were made.

Some rooms do not have a television problem, they have a wall problem. A 32-inch set is what fits between a kitchen cabinet and a doorway, on a desk, or in a guest room that was never wired for anything bigger, and this Samsung is the one we point to when that is the constraint. It is a real 4K QLED panel rather than a small-screen compromise, and the AirSlim chassis sits close to the wall on a mount.

The Q4 AI Processor does the work behind the picture: 4K content is crisp, upscaled HD does not smear, and Tizen is the same platform as Samsung's larger sets, so Samsung TV Plus and a broad app selection are there from the first boot. At 11.9 pounds it lifts onto a stand or a bracket without help, and the 100 x 100 VESA pattern fits almost any small mount.

The honest trade is price against size. This costs more than the 50-inch Roku here, which is the tax on a small 4K panel — you are paying for the screen, not the inches. Buy it because nothing larger fits, not because you want the cheapest Samsung. If the room can take 43 inches, the Hisense E6QF gives you more screen for less money and a much slower interface with it; if it can take 50, the Roku is the better buy.