Long nights mean more time in front of the tube, but squinting to see your outdated screen isn’t very festive. If your home theater isn’t doing the job anymore, now’s the time to pick up a new model. With 4K resolution, fast refresh rates for gaming, streaming support through built-in software platforms like Amazon Fire and Google TV, and much more, these top-rated displays will bring you all the shows, movies, and gaming you could possibly need. Enjoy these nine delicious discounts on the top-rated smart TVs for November.
The Hottest TV Deals for November
The Best Small Screen TV Deals
If you’re working with a tight space or just want a screen that doesn’t dominate a room, these are the TV deals to go to. Measuring under 50 inches on the diagonal, they still deliver solid picture quality and brightness. This is also where the crazy cheap prices hang out—imagine paying under a hundred bucks for a flat screen just 10 years ago.
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Toshiba C350 43″ 4K Smart TV
Specs: 43″ screen | 4K resolution | Fire TV | Alexa support
An already budget-focused 43-inch TV getting a 57% discount is a serious bargain. The Toshiba C350 is an entry-level 4K display, but you get a lot of value for the price. PCMag’s review noted that this set “benefits from an affordable price and the feature-filled Amazon Fire TV platform, and surprises with its incredibly low input lag,” also praising its good color quality. Contrast is a weak spot, so make sure you’re watching in a dark room for optimal picture quality.
Credit: Amazon
Amazon Fire 40″ HD Smart TV
Specs: 40″ screen | 1080p resolution | Fire TV | Alexa support
Amazon’s in-house electronics have perfectly decent displays, and this is a nice price on the 2-series Fire TV. With one of the simplest streaming platforms on the market, it’s a breeze to get to all your content, and setup only takes a few minutes. While the design isn’t anything to rave about, this is a great pick for a second set for a garage or game room. PCMag’s review praised its good color performance and said it was a solid value for the price, so a 40% discount makes it an even better budget option.
Credit: Amazon
TCL S5 43″ 4K Smart TV
Specs: 43″ screen | 4Kp resolution | Fire TV
For something a little more robust, this TCL model gets the job done with bright colors, crisp and clear 4K resolution, and Amazon’s easy-to-use Fire TV platform. PCMag’s review of this model said it “features a sleek design and wide color range with good accuracy out of the box,” but but the TV lost points for slightly low brightness and contrast. Support for HDR PRO+ with Dolby Vision, HDR10+, HDR10, & HLG color modes make it good for movies, sports, gaming, and more. For the price, the S5 is hard to beat.
The Best Midsize Screen TV Deals
Need a little more size in your display? Midsize TVs, from 50″ to 70″, are where you can get the most bang for your buck. These are typically optimized for home theater use and come with advanced image processing, modern LED types like QLED, reduced glare, and other cool stuff. This month brought more price drops, so shop fast and shop hard.
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Hisense U6 55″ 4K Smart TV
Specs: 55″ screen | 4K resolution | Fire TV
PCMag gave an Editors’ Choice award to this solid mid-range smart TV, saying in its review that “its color levels are generally excellent, its contrast is far superior to the U6H thanks to its mini-LED backlight, and it has much lower input lag than its predecessor.” They only dinged it for brightness, so keep that in mind if you watch a lot of TV in well-lit rooms. With the simple and robust Fire TV platform, you get swift access to all your streaming content, and low input lag makes it a good choice for gamers, especially at 47% off.
Credit: Amazon
Amazon Fire TV 55″ 4K Smart TV
Specs: 55″ screen | 4K resolution | Fire TV | Alexa support
Probably the most affordable mid-range options out there, Amazon’s 4-series Fire TVs are dependable and simple to use. PCMag’s review pointed out that this set offers “a pleasant enough picture despite limited contrast and color range,” noting that the Fire TV Alexa Voice Remote Enhanced was easy to use and incorporates a built-in microphone for voice control. Software-wise, the Fire TV platform is relatively fast and capable, with easy access to Amazon’s library, other streaming services, and Apple AirPlay for getting content from iOS devices. A $100 price cut is choice.
Credit: Amazon
TCL QM7K 65″ 4K Smart TV
Specs: 65″ screen | 4K resolution | Google TV
Looking to spend a little more for vastly improved image quality? PCMag gave the TCL QM7K a rave review, saying that it was “an excellent TV with impressive contrast and wide, if not quite perfect, color,” with deep blacks, minimal light bloom, and improved brightness over the last model. It’s also great for next-gen console and PC gaming thanks to a 144Hz refresh rate that supports VRR and AMD FreeSync Premium Pro. The Google TV platform is fast and easy to use, and the onboard microphones let you change channels without using your hands.
The Best Large Screen TV Deals
These huge displays are at the top end of the TV market, big enough to be used for spacious home theaters or man caves. These screens typically support 4K resolution with near-perfect color quality and brightness and have wide viewing angles for group enjoyment. Yes, the price tag is higher, but these discounts will take some of the sting off.
Credit: Amazon
Hisense U7 85″ Mini-LED 4K Google TV
Specs: 85″ screen | 4K resolution | Google TV
Let’s get big. The Hisense U7 is a super solid screen, with impressive picture quality, nice brightness, and lots of cool features. PCMag has a review of the 75-inch version of this set, where it said that it was “an excellent TV and a great value considering its price.” The review praises this TV’s simple and stylish design, image optimization (courtesy of the Hi-View AI Engine Pro), and gaming features, including AMD FreeSync Premium Pro, Auto Low Latency Mode, and Low Latency MEMC.
Credit: Amazon
TCL QM8K 85″ 4K Smart TV
Specs: 85″ screen | 4K resolution | Google TV
Really want to splurge on a room-defining screen that’s big, bright, and colorful? You won’t find a better price drop than 33% off the exceptional TCL QM8K. PCMag’s review said this display was “a bright, colorful mini-LED TV equipped with a 2.2.2-channel Dolby Atmos spatial audio speaker system, along with every premium feature you’d expect in its class.” There’s almost too much cool stuff to list off here, but to start, you get Wi-Fi 6 support for lightning-fast streaming, hands-free Google Assistant, HDR support for Dolby Vision, HDR10, HDR10+, and hybrid log gamma, anti-reflective design with wide viewing angles, and more.
Credit: Amazon
LG 75″ QNED 4K Smart TV
Specs: 70″ screen | 4K resolution | FireTV
It’s one of the worst-kept secrets in tech that LG manufactures most of the OLED panels that are used in TVs and monitors for other brands, so you might as well go to the source and save a few bucks while you do it. PCMag reviewed this model and said it was a good pick for the price, with typically excellent picture quality and contrast. If you want to plug your PC in to game on the big screen, the peak 144Hz refresh rate also supports AMD FreeSync to lock to your compatible graphics card. Amazon has a very impressive 21% price drop right now.
TV Buying Guide
Shopping for a new display? Here are some important things to keep in mind.
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Resolution keeps on rising, and as games and media push higher pixel rates, your TV will need to follow along. At this point, going for anything less than 4K on a midsize or large TV is a mistake. Full HD is typically fine for a smaller screen unless you’re going to be right up next to it, and 8K is probably not a good investment yet.
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Consider external audio. Because screens are thinner and lighter than ever before, there’s less room in most modern TVs for good speakers. Investing in a soundbar is an inexpensive way to take advantage of the powerful multichannel audio that most media comes with these days.
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Pay attention to the refresh rate. The base refresh rate—60Hz—is perfectly decent, but once you make the jump to 120Hz, you’ll never go back. It makes motion smoother and more impactful and removes blur and jitter—something prized in gaming on the latest consoles but less so for television viewing.
Frequently Asked TV Questions
What Is the Difference Between a $500 TV and a $2,000 TV?
If you browse the deals above, you probably notice a massive range in prices. The cheapest on the list came in under $100, and the most expensive has a base retail price of $5,000. Why wouldn’t you just buy 50 $100 sets and glue them together? The key difference is in the screen technology. Cheaper sets typically use basic LEDs for their displays, which are perfectly capable but suffer in direct light and have less vivid colors. More luxe models use OLED or Quantum LED, which ensures smoother transitions, more vibrant hues, and deeper blacks. That picture quality is going to be the main difference.
When Are the Best TV deals?
Although online retailers offer discounts throughout the year, there are three essential times for TV shopping. The first is in January or February, when people flock to the stores to get a new screen for the big game. In the Spring, manufacturers typically release their new models, so you’ll find stores putting the older ones on sale to clear out inventory. Finally, Black Friday after Thanksgiving is dependably the best time for deals on just about everything, television sets included.
What Is the Difference Between LED and OLED TVs?
LEDs, or light-emitting diodes, have been around for decades. A traditional LED screen image is created by a transparent LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) panel. An array of LED lights behind and around it provides the brightness. The more precise the array is, the more accurate the image will be. OLED or Organic LED screens allow the individual LED lights to serve as color and brightness-changing pixels. These sets typically pull more power and deliver deeper blacks but have slower refresh rates.
Which Is Better: OLED or QLED?
Organic LED and Quantum LED technology are the two most common next-generation picture-making methods on the market. They’re both capable of creating bright, colorful images with solid contrast. OLED screens are thinner because they require no backlight, and you won’t see the distracting bloom effect around bright objects. They’re also more expensive than QLED screens. In comparison, QLEDs typically have brighter screens, which makes them work better in well-lit rooms. In general, we’d opt for OLED for most home theaters, but they’re very close in quality.
What Is the Best Resolution for a Smart TV?
If you can afford it, opt for a 4K television. The vast majority of content is going to be optimized for that moving forward, and a 4K TV can upscale lower-resolution programming a lot better than a 1080p TV can downscale higher-resolution stuff. The price differential between resolutions is getting thinner all the time, so if you can afford 4K, that’s the way to go.
What Is the Best Smart TV Refresh Rate?
The refresh rate determines how many times per second the display can update the image. This is measured in hertz, with the number directly corresponding, so a 60Hz TV updates 60 times a second. 60 is the general baseline refresh rate for most TVs on the market, but more advanced models are pushing that higher, to 120 or more. While you won’t notice a difference on most content, for things like console gaming and high frame-rate video, you’ll see smoother motion and less blurring.
What Is the Difference Between a Smart TV and an HD Smart TV?
A smart TV is a set with Wi-Fi connectivity included, allowing it to connect to your home network and stream programming from the outside world. That content can come in a variety of resolutions. Standard smart TVs operate on the 720p or 1080p resolution, while HD smart TVs are higher, up to 4K resolution. Most modern content streams at higher resolutions, but many people may not notice the difference.
How Do I Know What Size Smart TV to Get?
The ideal screen size for most people is a matter of personal preference, but there is a mathematical calculation that can give you a good place to start. Measure from the place you sit the most often to the location of the screen in inches. Multiply that by 0.84, and you’ll have a rough estimate of the ideal screen size. For instance, if you’re sitting seven feet (84 inches) from the screen, that equation comes out to 68 inches, so a 65″ or 70″ set will give you the best experience.