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How good are TVs under £450 and under £750, or do you need to pay more?
Come Black Friday, scores of people will be looking for the right TV at the right price. But the right price is different for everyone.
TVs from LG, Panasonic, Samsung, Sony and more will all be on offer - from 40 and 43-inch 4K LCD TVs up to 65-inch OLEDs and even bigger models.
Nobody wants to pay more than they need to for the features and quality they want. So, based on the scores from more than 170 TVs we've fully lab tested and reviewed in 2021, we've determined how good the TVs are in your budget.
Want to quickly find the right model for you? Head to our expert TV reviews.
How good are the TVs under £450?
- Average score: 61%
- Average picture quality star rating: four (only just)
- Average sound quality star rating: four (only just)
- Most common screen size: 43 inches
If you're looking for a 4K TV, then between £400 and £450 is around the lowest price you can expect for a model from one of the main brands.
Generally, TVs at this price tend to be 43-inch, but there are some larger ones available, too. It's unlikely you'll see a 55 or 65-inch TV for less than £450 though.
What sort of features can you expect at this price?
No matter what you pay, there are a few features you should always get and you shouldn't buy a TV without them.
- It should be 4K
- Support HDR10 and HLG HDR formats (these are the more basic ones, but can still improve the picture when used well)
- The TV should be smart with access to an app store to download more apps. You shouldn't be restricted to the ones built-in.
You're less likely to get voice control or advanced gaming features. You're only going to see LCD TVs at this price, too. QLED and OLED TVs cost more.
See our pick of the best cheap TVs.
How good are the TVs between £451 and £750?
- Average score: 61%
- Average picture quality star rating: four (only just)
- Average sound quality star rating: three (only just)
- Most common screen size: 50 inches
At this sort of price your options balloon. There are dozens of TVs to choose from, but spending more doesn't necessarily get you a better TV.
There's a far greater difference between the best and worst models and, as our tests prove, the average sound quality is worse than what you get with TVs under £450.
There's a greater range of sizes, too. You'll find TVs from 43 inches up to 65 inches in this bracket.
What sort of features can you expect at this price?
As with TVs under £450, whichever model you buy should be 4K, support HDR10 and HLG formats, and be smart with the ability to download more apps.
You'll find some models in this bracket with advanced HDR formats, too, such as Dolby Vision and HDR10+.
Some also have voice control. This is usually because they have better remotes with built-in microphones. You're unlikely to get high-end gaming features though.
Discover the best TVs for every budget.
How good are the TVs between £751 and £1,000?
- Average score: 62%
- Average picture quality star rating: four
- Average sound quality star rating: three
- Most common screen size: 55 inches
You're probably expecting the average quality to start to leap up as we reach four figures, but you'd be wrong. The average only improves by one percentage point.
It's another broad selection of TVs that run the gamut of quality. It's not like the TVs closer to £750 are dragging down the average, as there are rough tellys at the top end, too.
TVs tend to be bigger at this price point. More than half the TVs in this bracket are 55 and 65 inches.
What sort of features can you expect at this price?
The majority of these TVs have Dolby Vision or HDR10+, so you have HDR that can adjust contrast to suit each scene. You should be getting a TV with voice control, too.
You see more QLED and NanoCell TVs in this bracket and there are even a few OLED displays. High-end gaming features are still rare, but a few of the TVs do have 120Hz displays, so they can display 120 frames per second to help video games look smoother.
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How good are the TVs between £1,001 and £1,499?
- Average score: 67%
- Average picture quality star rating: four
- Average sound quality star rating: three
- Most common screen size: 65 inches
Once we get over £1,000, we start to see better average scores. But there are still outliers that badly let the side down. That's why the average sound quality is still stuck at three stars out of five.
Most of the TVs are 55 or 65 inches. There are no 40 or 43-inch TVs in this bracket and very few 50-inch sets.
What sort of features can you expect at this price?
OLED and QLED sets are common at this price, but there are still some high-end LCD TVs, too. Advanced HDR formats are a given, and you'll start to see FreeSync and G-Sync gaming software, which helps the TV respond quickly to button presses on the controller and reduce the judder than can be irritating when gaming.
You'll find more HDMI and USB inputs, and there's often some fancy sound processing. Usually they try to create a surround sound effect or may simulate sound coming from overhead.
Need help deciding on the rights size TV? Use our free tool at which size TV should I buy
How good are the TVs that cost more than £1,500?
- Average score: 70%
- Average picture quality star rating: four
- Average sound quality star rating: four
- Most common screen size: 65 inches
Every TV we've tested that costs more than £1,500 is 65-inch and it's here that we get the highest average score. There are a handful of 8K sets in this bracket, too.
Sound quality is best here, but even then it's not without problematic sets. More TVs in this bracket scored a full five stars for sound than in any other, but there are still TVs that only score two stars.
What sort of features can you expect at this price?
There are no purely LCD TVs at this size, they are either NanoCell or QLED and there are plenty of OLEDs, too.
You should expect brands to have thrown every feature possible into these TVs and you shouldn't need to make any compromises.
Keep up with our Black Friday TV deals
We're updating our TV deals daily, so make sure you keep an eye on our Black Friday TV deals to see our pick of the best ones. You can also get a head start and see some of the TVs we think will be on offer on Black Friday.
- Best Black Friday deals
- Expert shopping trips plus how to spot fake deals - see our Black Friday Insider's guide
