Best TVs under £1000 of 2024: OLED TVs, QLED TVs and more bargains

Our best TVs under £1000 guide is here to provide you with sets that offer a top-notch viewing experience without you having to completely clear out your savings account to be able to afford them. It turns out that you don't have to go ultra-premium to get impressive audio and video in a TV.

We're now in an area where TVs tend to come with 4K as standard, so you're not going to be missing out too much in terms of pixels when going for a cheaper set – you just might see some differences in the panel technology. We recommend checking out QD-LED or QLED TVs, which are not far off OLED technology, but priced much lower – it's a win-win really.  

If you know the specifics of what you want in terms of panel dimensions, we've got dedicated guides to the best 55-inch TVs, the best 65-inch TVs, and the best 75-inch TVs under £1000. And, if you want to find something even more affordable for your next set, check out our guide to the best TVs under £500.

When you're hunting for bargain TVs, the best Black Friday deals are a sure way to find some real steals – especially at under the £1000 mark. For this year's Black Friday the sales are super early, throughout the month of November. T3 will be pulling together the best-of-best options, so keep your eyes on the site for spotlight deals, retailer focuses and considered round-ups too.

T3's Top 3

Best overall

This is a 4K LED TV with an impressive specs list and a picture quality that will have you thinking it costs a lot more than it actually does: during our testing time with the Samsung BU8500 we loved the quality of what our eyes were seeing, and it can easily go up against television sets that cost a lot more.

Perhaps that's to be expected from Samsung – a company that makes some of the very best TVs in the business – but it's still great to see. Samsung's Crystal 4K processing technology is on board, and it means that your content is going to look super-sharp and vivid when it's on screen. HLG and HDR10+ high dynamic range standards are supported, though upscaling could be a little better.

The backlighting is smooth and even, and the design of the set is something to be admired too – it's going to add a touch of style to whatever room you decide to put it into. There is some room for improvement here (the sound quality could be better, for example), but you won't do much better for the price.

Best premium

This is the TV that keeps on giving, because not only is it a high-flier in all of T3's best OLED TVs category, it's now under the all-important four-figure asking price, even in its 55-inch format. As said in our LG OLED C2 review: "this is the best OLED TV for most people", delivering great picture quality at a great price point.

LG is the daddy of all OLED panels (literally, it makes them for other brands) and so knows exactly what it's doing when it comes to delivering top-tier quality. It knows a thing or two about sound, too, except in the C2 it's not the best ever – so try and budget for one of the best soundbars for LG TVs too. 

The presence of multiple HDMI 2.1 ports means this is also one of the best gaming TVs you can buy as well, thanks to excellent variable refresh rate (VRR) support it's one of the best TVs for PS5 too. A great all-rounder that's worth the investment. 

Best Affordable

Having received some impressive price drops since its launch this well-specced 55-inch set from Samsung is the overall best bang-for-buck TV at the time of writing, balancing image quality as well as features. And you get a nice bit of change from our price limit. There are TVs below that beat it in specific areas, but as a total package, this is such good value.

It's a QLED TV with a direct backlight and local dimming, which means it's both impressively bright and really colourful. It can go brighter than any OLED TV that's even close in price, which is ideal for watching in brighter rooms. You get so much dazzle and realism thanks to the bold screen – but it can also makes black areas look deep and richly dark. OLED TVs are still the king of nuance in dark areas, but this TV still acquits itself excellently.

The image processing is fantastic too – Samsung's Quantum Processor 4K is as advanced as anything else in a 4K TV, and upscales images to look good at 4K superbly, while also making motion look natural. The sound is provided by a series of speakers around the edge, with the TV analysing the picture and positioning sounds in the right direction, to add real dynamic action.

Best subscription

While its screen tech won’t compete with some of the best TVs ever made, the Sky Glass is a 4K QLED TV is a decent display and, most importantly, you don't need to drop a chunk of cash on it to buy – it can be bought as part of your monthly Sky package. 

If that isn’t enough to convince you, then the best part about it is that you get everything Sky has to offer built-in. You’ll be able to flick through Live TV, watch original Sky content and access all of the other satellite channels without hooking up a separate box or streaming stick. There’s just one wire to get it all up and running so you’ll be saving on space and cable mess.

You don’t need a satellite dish for it to work either. But, as said in our Sky Glass review, you do need to have decent broadband at home, if not then you’ll be better off sticking to a TV paired with the Sky Q box instead. 

Best 43in

The Samsung QN90A comes with the company's next-gen 'Neo QLED' panel tech, using a 'mini-LED' to create images that are much brighter than a lot of the competition, while at the same being able to create deeper black levels in precise areas of the screen. It's the same screen tech used in the fantastic Samsung QN95A – this smaller model features a few cut-back features, but still delivers the most cinematic images you can currently get from a 43-inch TV.

Samsung's Quantum Processor is excellent at making sure that 4K images look their best, and does a fantastic job of upscaling HD to fill the higher-resolution screen. It also handles motion really well, to ensure that action or sports look clear, but films don't have that artificial effect.

It also has an HDMI 2.1 port, and supports 4K 120Hz and VRR, so is ready for next-gen gaming on the PS5 or Xbox Series X. If you want an affordable set that's able to jump between movies and gaming without any problem at all, then the 43-inch Samsung 43QN90A could be the one.

Best 65in

This Samsung AU9000 is Samsung's highest-end TV from 2021 that isn't a QLED, which means that it doesn't feature quite the same punchy colours and brightness that those sets are known for... but it also means the TV costs a lot less, enabling this model to squeeze into our sub-£1,000 budget at a variety of sizes.

And you won't feel like you buying a budget TV at all. The image quality is still really strong, and in particular the handling of 4K detail and the upscaling of HD mean that things look fantastic at the 65-inch size we're recommending (obviously, you can go smaller and save some cash). It's also really nicely made, and certainly doesn't look like a more affordable model.

The smart TV platform is the same system you get on Samsung's 8K super-TVs, so is easy to use and packed with useful features and streaming service support. And there's a great gaming mode, making this a strong choice for console lovers, despite its lack of HDMI 2.1. The sound quality is the only notable weak spot – if you're going for images this big, you should budget for adding one of the best soundbars for Samsung TVs soon.

Best 75in

This is one of Samsung's most affordable TVs right now, which is why you can get such a ridiculous amount of TV for such a low price. But it won't feel bargain basement – you get really strong image processing, impressive colour reproduction and solid contrast for the price.

Compared to more expensive TVs, you don't get quite the same level of HDR performance, and low-quality daytime TV isn't going to upscale to its full 75 inches quite as well as something with more advanced processing, but in our five-star Samsung AU7100 review we said that it offers "detailed, composed 4K images", so you'l really make the most of its big size with quality video. It also handles motion better than the competition, so if you want something big for sports, it's ideal.

Samsung smart TV platform is one of the easiest to use, and comes with excellent support for streaming services and apps, so you'll have no problem finding what you want to watch, either. You might want to think about adding a soundbar to make sure that the scale of the audio matches the size of the screen, but that's true of most budget TVs anyway.

Best Sony

This is a mid-range blockbuster from Sony, mixing the company's latest and greatest image processing with a really bright and impressive 4K LCD panel. Detail in 4K, and upscaling from HD, is all as good as any TV of any price offers really. It's the same story for handling motion, which is made more clear and crisp, but never becomes artificial.

Colour and contrast are handled expertly too, resulting in seriously impressive HDR performance – everything is super-sumptuous, but remains realistic. Dolby Vision support helps with that, and really gets the most from the X90K can handle when it comes to brightness and local dimming. The backlighting isn't always perfect, mind, but this is a step-down level of TV so it's not a surprise.

The X90K comes equipped with two HDMI 2.1 ports for next-gen gaming, and is actually part of Sony's 'Perfect for PlayStation' brand, which means it not only supports 4K 120Hz gaming, but also offers more precise HDR reproduction from the PS5 than other TVs. We also like the on-board Google TV software. Here's our full Sony X90K review (which, in some territories, is called the X94K).

How to choose

From eye-candy UHD visuals and superior sound to drop dead gorgeous design, these are the TV sets you should be shortlisting right now.

All demonstrably benefit from the extra clarity that 4K offers, a fact that will be particularly noticeable when upgrading from a 1080p telly. The good news is that there’s now less of a shortage of native UHD content to exploit this resolution boost. From Apple TV and the burgeoning UHD Blu-ray catalogue, to Netflix, Amazon and Sky, there’s plenty of stuff to show off your new panel’s prowess.

And of course gaming is increasingly a source of spectacular 4K, thanks to the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X (and soon the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X).

All these TVs feature HDR onboard. It’s worth noting that not all screens that claim to be HDR offer a genuine HDR experience, with properly bright spectral highlights. Many lower cost models are merely 'HDR compatible' (which means they know when they’re receiving HDR content, but they don’t have the wherewithal to do much with it). Naturally, we're looking for the ones that truly make the most of HDR.

The other area where corners are inevitably cut with less flagship TVs is sound, but that's easily solved with one of the best soundbars. You can add one now (just factor it into your budget), or try without for a while and add one when you're ready.

Reviewer Panel

Mike Lowe

At T3 I manage the TV testing, using the voices of experienced freelancers, in addition to my own in-house testing – which I've been undertaking here and at other outlets for the best part of a decade now. So when it comes to a more affordable TV under £1000 I've got the knowledge to suggest the best options, as you'll see in this guide.