Cheap TVs That Aren't Worth the Money
An inexpensive TV is no bargain if the picture quality disappoints you. CR tells you which sets to avoidāand what to buy instead.
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It can be hard to resist an ultralow price on a new 4K TV set, but as Consumer Reportsā TV ratings show, not all cheap TVs are great deals. You can often get a better set by spending just a little more moneyāor sometimes even less.
The low-rated TVs listed below donāt cost a lot, but they lag behind most of the 300 or so other models in our ratings in terms of picture quality.
None of these cheap TVs are from major brands, such as LG, Samsung, and Sony. But donāt write off a lesser-known brand just because one of its models landed on this list. Some of these brands also offer better-performing models that might be worth consideringāand we even recommend a few.
We buy every TV we test at retail. We donāt accept freebies or hand-picked models from manufacturers, so every tested model is just like one you might take home.