I’m a senior staff writer at Wirecutter covering TVs and other AV equipment. I oversee all of Wirecutter’s TV guides, as well as our guide to 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 this guide:

• We selected the 40- to 49-inch variants of the best TVs we tested for our guides to OLED TVs and LCD/LED TVs, as well as lauded standalone budget models.
• The AV team has spent years testing dozens of smaller TVs from both popular and lesser-known brands to find the best combination of picture quality and price.
• 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.

Perhaps more so than in any other TV category, in this size range models tend to group toward either end of the quality bell curve: You can find a few 40- to 49-inch TVs that are as basic as smaller, 32-inch models and some that land in our guides to the best LCD/LED TV or best OLED TV. This guide will help you identify the best options for various situations.

If you’re buying a TV for your guest room, bedroom, or den, you’ll probably be fine with a more budget-oriented model. However, if your living room is on the smaller side, and this will be your primary TV, spending more gives you substantially better picture quality.

You don’t have many options in the 40- to 49-inch size range because most people are buying larger TVs these days. For that reason, in our search for models to test, we didn’t exclude any TVs based on price or specs; we evaluated models priced from $200 to more than $1,000.

Because Wirecutter already favors TV series (the whole range of TV sizes nestled under a given name) that are available in a wide range of sizes, we primarily scoured our favorite series from other guides to find good options in this size range, while skipping the 40- to 49-inch options from series that we had already dismissed.

From a features, specs, and performance standpoint, we aimed to identify the TVs in this size range that boasted the best combination of picture quality, HDR compatibility, user-friendly smart platforms, and extra features.

We tested these TVs using the same methodology that we employ in assessing larger, fancier TVs: We took each TV out of the box, set it up, and measured it using Portrait Displays’s Calman software, in conjunction with a C6 HDR2000 colorimeter and a VideoForge Pro test-pattern generator, to measure the color, the color temperature, the light output, and more. We then did direct side-by-side comparisons of TVs using a variety of sources.

For more details, read about how Wirecutter tests TVs.

Important specs

If you want the best performance and features available in this size range, LG’s 42-inch OLED42C4PUA and 48-inch OLED48C4PUA check off every box. Only within the past few years has OLED TV manufacturing finally become efficient enough to produce viable screen sizes smaller than 55 inches. Now that they’re here, they represent the best 40- to 49-inch TVs you can buy—but they’re priced like it.

The C4 Series offers the best picture quality in this size range. It’s hard to overstate just how much better the C4 looks than the average 40- to 49-inch LCD TV. Our objective testing revealed deep black levels, good brightness, excellent color accuracy, smooth motion, and wide viewing angles.

The C4 is compatible with most of the major HDR formats (HDR10, Dolby Vision, and HLG). While its peak brightness is not as high as that of our pick from Samsung below, we measured around 1,300 nits, which is more than acceptable for most viewing conditions.

Plus, if you still watch a lot of lower-resolution content, the C4 does a better job of upscaling it than other 4K TVs in this category.

It’s an excellent choice for gaming. The C4 has four HDMI 2.1–compatible inputs, which is ideal for those who use the latest and most advanced video game consoles. And even if you haven’t upgraded yet, having four such inputs goes a long way toward future-proofing your TV.

In our tests, this TV produced low input lag (12 milliseconds with a 4K 60 Hz signal) and was very responsive during gameplay. That, combined with its excellent picture quality and helpful gaming dashboard, makes this model a terrific choice for hardcore gamers.

The 42-inch size, in particular, is ideal for desktop gaming, and the 4K resolution offers a welcome visual upgrade over a 1080p desktop monitor.

These TVs are light but durable. If LG did anything to please TV reviewers everywhere in the past couple of years, it was upgrading the material of its C Series OLEDs to a very light carbon fiber. The 42-inch C4 weighs just 22.3 pounds, while the 48-inch model is around 37 pounds.

Despite their light weight and hyper-thin screen profiles, however, the C4 TVs feel robust and sturdy. The larger, 48-inch model utilizes a reliable center-placed stand for a smaller footprint, while the 42-inch C4 sits on two separate feet.

For more specifics about the C4’s performance and features, check out the full discussion in our best OLED TV guide.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

You can’t watch 4K over-the-air broadcasts without an additional device. The C4 is equipped with an ATSC 1.0 tuner, instead of a newer ATSC 3.0 (also called NextGenTV) tuner. If you want to receive 4K broadcasts, you need to buy a separate ATSC 3.0 tuner.

Important specs

If 43 inches is the ideal screen size for your AV or gaming setup, the Samsung QN43QN90D is one of the best LCD TVs you can buy right now. It’s great for both movies and gaming, as it incorporates all the high-performance LCD technologies necessary to produce picture quality that almost rivals what you can get from an OLED TV … almost.

It’s brighter than our OLED picks, but its overall contrast isn’t as good. We measured a peak brightness of over 2,000 nits on this TV. Combine that with a screen designed to cut down on ambient-light reflections, and this TV is a better choice than an OLED model for use in a very bright room. It also employs quantum dots, so HDR colors look a bit more vivid than they do on the LG OLEDs.

On the flip side, although the QN90D delivers good black levels with the help of its local-dimming capabilities, this LCD TV can’t rival OLED in its ability to produce the deepest, darkest black levels and to handle precise shading in darker movies and games. If you mostly watch movies or play games in a darkened space, an OLED TV is the better choice.

This TV has very low input lag for gaming. In our measurements, the QN43QN90D had just 9.8 ms of lag with a 4K 60 Hz signal (in contrast to about 12 ms for the LG C4). You get even less lag if you game at 120 Hz.

Plus, Samsung offers a helpful gaming dashboard, and all four of the TV’s HDMI inputs are HDMI 2.1–capable.

It has a sleek yet durable build. Compared with other LCD TVs, the QN43QN90D feels more sturdy and polished, but it still weighs less than 30 pounds. It feels nice and stable on its center-oriented stand, and it has a more robust speaker configuration than many cheaper LCDs do, so you get better-than-average audio.

For more specifics about the QN90D’s performance and features, check out the full discussion in our best LCD/LED TV guide.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

It doesn’t support Dolby Vision HDR. One of Samsung’s biggest shortcomings every year is the company’s refusal to pay to license Dolby Vision support for its TVs. It’s a bit absurd to buy a TV that’s so good at HDR and not get support for what is arguably the most premium HDR format.

The QN90D does support the similar HDR10+ format, and in our tests HDR10+ content looked dazzling on this TV—in our comparison with Dolby Vision content on other TVs, we found no huge differences. But there’s less HDR10+ content available, especially on Ultra HD 4K discs.

It doesn’t upscale sub-4K content as well as the LG C4 does. In years past, Samsung has struggled to implement good sub-1080p upscaling in its TVs, and the QN90D still has a ways to go in that regard. While most of what you stream is likely to be in 4K or at least 1080p resolution, media such as DVDs, lots of YouTube content, and even Samsung’s own free TV channels are usually at lower resolutions, and they can look grainy or pixelated on this TV.

Over-the-air broadcasts are limited to 1080p. Like the C4, the QN90D is limited to an ATSC 1.0 tuner, so it can’t receive 4K over-the-air broadcasts. That isn’t ideal, but you can always buy a separate ATSC 3.0 tuner if you need one.

Important specs

If you’re on a budget but want something bigger than 32 inches, the Roku Select Series 4K is a solid choice. In our testing, the 43-inch Roku Select Series 4K 43R4A5R bested its rivals in picture quality, and the intuitive built-in Roku platform and useful features gave it an edge over the competition.

This TV boasts solid contrast for the price. Contrast—how dark and bright a TV can get—is the most important aspect of a TV’s picture because it’s what gives the image a sense of richness, depth, and dimension. It’s an area where OLED TVs vastly excel, but LCD/LED TVs in the $150 to $300 range tend to, frankly, suck. Fortunately, in this regard the Roku Select Series 4K ain’t no slouch.

During our comparative testing, the 43R4A5R produced better contrast than its price-matched competitors, displaying bright lights amongst shadowy backdrops with the most realism. During films with letterbox bars, this TV produced the cleanest, most consistent shades of black, while competitors tended to show patches of ugly, visible blue light.

Although this TV can’t get anywhere near as bright as our top picks, we measured about 400 nits in our tests, which is better than the results we saw from similarly priced competitors.

The picture looks good right out of the box. When we test TVs in the lab, we measure crucial picture metrics such as color saturation, how warm or cool the color temperature looks, and how quickly or slowly a TV adds light as it moves from black to peak white (aka gamma). All of those elements are vital if you want movies, TV shows, sports, and video games to look their best.

Although this Roku TV wasn’t completely error-free, it was more accurate in its Movie picture mode than its closest competition. That means you don’t have to tinker with a lot of settings to get your TV looking its best.

The Roku smart platform is delightfully easy to use. Roku has made a name for itself in the media-streaming game due to its simplicity. The interface is super clean and easy for anyone to navigate, and setup takes just a few minutes. And that’s true whether you’re using a Roku Streaming Stick or a Roku TV.

This TV comes with the standard Roku Voice Remote, which is simple to use and has built-in voice-search functionality, and it’s compatible with Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit, and Google Assistant.

It offers a much snappier video game experience than average. Gaming enthusiasts looking for higher resolutions or frame rates are much better served by our top picks, but if you’re hoping to get a decent gaming TV in this size without spending a lot, you’ll be happy to know that this Roku TV produced lower input lag than its entry-level peers in our tests. In fact, it was roughly twice as responsive as the closest competition.

Just note that it’s limited to a 60 Hz refresh rate, so you won’t be able to use the 120 Hz video settings on the most advanced consoles.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

It’s not ideal for HDR video or a bright room. Even though the 43R4A5R is brighter than its competitors, it isn’t as bright as our top picks, or even the best budget 4K TVs we recommend in larger screen sizes. It also doesn’t use quantum-dot technology, so it can’t produce the richer, more vivid hues that are possible in HDR content.

This TV is best suited for secondary viewing spaces where you have some light control. To view content in bright rooms or to really enjoy the benefits of HDR, you need to spend more.

Important specs

Lots of modern TVs come equipped with “ambient” settings to show photos or artwork when you aren’t watching TV, but Samsung’s The Frame line has been the champion of the television-set-as-artwork approach for the past several years.

While the cost of entry is high—the 43-inch Frame, the QN43LS03BAF, retails for $1,000, and customizing the bezel color or accessing the full range of art options involves an additional cost—there’s nothing else like The Frame in this size range. You won’t find much like it in other size ranges, either.

Design and aesthetics are front and center here. With most higher-end TVs—such as our top picks above—manufacturers often overlook the TV’s physical design in favor of adding the technologies necessary to deliver blue-ribbon picture quality. By contrast, The Frame is as much a pleasingly designed object as it is a fully functional TV.

My review unit came equipped with the standard black bezel (it’s also available in much more interesting color variations, such as white, brown, or teak), but I still found it fetching. The Frame is roughly the same thickness as a traditional art frame, about 1 inch, which allows for extra care in the finish and brushing of the bezel.

The Frame is made to be wall-mounted, and its art-frame-inspired shape goes a long way toward the objective of passing as artwork at first glance. The package includes a slim-fit wall mount that holds The Frame flush against the wall, just like a painting. The box also includes tabletop feet, but this TV really comes alive on the wall.

The final piece of the puzzle is the OneConnect box, a separate piece of hardware containing all of the TV’s connections (such as HDMI and USB), which you can install up to 16 feet away. Though this component can introduce some planning difficulties because you need to run a single wire between the box and the TV, it’s what makes such a flush, on-wall aesthetic possible. You simply couldn’t plug cables in directly and achieve the same effect.

You can find better movie-night TVs, but The Frame is a good performer. Samsung has been updating and redesigning The Frame for the past six years, and though it hasn’t changed drastically in that time, the company has clearly attempted to keep its picture quality on pace with that of more contemporary TVs.

The company has outfitted the 43-inch Frame with as much advanced TV tech as possible without compromising its design intentions. Like our Samsung top pick above, this model is a 4K/HDR TV equipped with quantum dots for better color and software dimming to improve its screen contrast. In our testing it proved to be almost as bright as the LG C4 and capable of decent color saturation.

But because it uses edge-mounted LEDs instead of a full-array backlight in order to be thinner, it isn’t a great choice for watching darker movies in a very dim or dark room. The backlight’s operation is easy to see, which can spoil the sense of immersion.

The Frame also has a matte screen finish, which works impressively well to mitigate ambient light but keeps colors from popping with the same vividness as they do on bright TVs with glossier screens.

However, what most impressed me was how dim this TV could get without losing image fidelity. When it was displaying artwork, I could turn the screen brightness down so only a scant hint of illumination was perceptible, and the whole image maintained uniformity. Combined with the matte screen, this dimming function really bolsters the TV’s ability to masquerade as artwork on the wall.

It would be a shame not to game on The Frame. Despite The Frame’s artsy emphasis, it’s a surprisingly good choice for gamers, too. Our testing revealed very low input-lag numbers, around 10 ms when we were gaming in 4K at 60 Hz, and on this TV you get the same gaming dashboard found on the Samsung QN43QN90D.

However, the sometimes-obvious backlight fluctuation can be exposed more often when you’re playing fast-paced video games with rapidly changing scenes and light levels. The effect is less noticeable in a room with lights on, but for immersive gaming, Samsung’s The Frame comes nowhere near the level of our top picks.

If you do decide to plug in a video game console, you’ll at least have plenty of options: The Frame is equipped with four HDMI 2.1 inputs, so it plays nice with the latest gaming features such as variable refresh rate (VRR) and auto low-latency mode (ALLM).

Note, however, that you get a 120 Hz refresh rate only on the 55-inch and larger Frame versions. The 43-inch model is limited to 60 Hz.

Samsung’s art store is impressively robust. The Frame uses the same Tizen-based Smart Hub platform found on all Samsung smart TVs, but it replaces the standard Ambient hub with a unique Art hub where you configure and control the art experience.

Within that hub, you can find art to display across a huge range of categories and collections, including holiday themes, the Met, the Tokyo National Museum, or specific artists such as Degas, Renoir, and Van Gogh. You can even upload your own photos over USB or via smartphone.

While some aficionados have lamented the store’s lack of more modern artists such as Jackson Pollock and Andy Warhol, it offers plenty of choices for $5 a month (or $50 annually). But don’t take my word for it: New Frame owners get a two-month free trial to decide for themselves.

You can also buy individual works of art, but ownership doesn’t come cheap. Depending on what you’re buying, standalone artwork could cost as much as $25, which is already half the price of the annual subscription.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

The smart-TV platform could be snappier. I found that the Tizen smart-TV software wasn’t as smooth and responsive on my 43-inch Frame as it was on Samsung’s top-end TVs. Although that might not normally be surprising, we think it’s especially important that the software—which controls the various aspects of the TV-as-artwork functionality—be as reliable as possible.

In The Frame’s defense, the art-complementing features do require a potentially taxing amount of processing. The Frame needs to maintain a connection to Samsung’s extensive art store, for starters, and by default it employs both brightness and motion sensors (both of which you can shut off) to adjust its artwork to the ambient lighting in the room and to either wake up when it senses movement or shift into art mode when it doesn’t.

The good news is that everything works as it should, which can make for a luxe-feeling experience: Walking into the room and having The Frame wake from its convincing art display to resume TV operations is pretty snazzy.

The OneConnect box is ridiculously huge. Perhaps in order to remove as much hardware from the TV chassis as possible, Samsung has made the OneConnect box absolutely massive—almost as big as a shoebox. Tucking it away inside a TV stand or entertainment center wouldn’t be difficult, but where I mounted The Frame—on a wall in my kitchen near the dining table—I really had no good spot to place the massive box without rearranging furniture.

While the box’s large size may be an engineering necessity, it seems at odds with the design and intention of The Frame in general.

Our previous 40-inch 1080p TV pick—the 40R2A5R from the Roku Select Series HD—has been discontinued, but we plan to test the new version soon.

There’s also a 2024 version of the Samsung Frame TV, which we hope to test.

TCL’s 43S551G is a value-oriented 43-inch 4K TV that uses a direct LED backlight, has a 60 Hz refresh rate, and runs Google TV. The TCL 43Q651G adds quantum dots for better color performance. We’ll see how these TVs stack up against the Roku Select Series 4K in a head-to-head comparison.

Sony released the 43-inch Sony X77L in 2023, but the TV received notably poor reviews from trusted sources due to its disappointing contrast (attributable to the use of an IPS-style LCD panel). We chose to dismiss it without testing.

LG’s UR9000 is available in a 43-inch size, but we chose not to review it for this guide. We previously dismissed this TV while conducting research for our best 4K TV on a budget guide due to poor review scores from sources we trust, and we don’t expect the 43-inch version to be worth it, either.

We dismissed the 43-inch Samsung CU8000 for the same reason as the LG UR9000.

You may find a variety of especially affordable Amazon Fire TVs in this price range, such as the 40-inch Amazon Fire TV 2-Series. We have tested versions of these TVs previously and found them to be disappointing performers, so for this guide we excluded the 2-Series from testing.

During our testing, we found that the TCL S3 was a worse performer, in a number of areas, than the Roku Select Series. Likewise, sources we trust listed the 43-inch TCL S4 as a worse choice, as well.

This article was edited by Adrienne Maxwell and Grant Clauser.