Published On: June 2, 2022

Best 42 & 43 Inch 4K TVs 2022

Author

BY: Home Theater Review
BY: Mark Henninger
I’m an AV enthusiast, equipment reviewer, photographer, videographer and drone pilot. I’m also a THX-trained video calibrator with extensive experience reviewing consumer displays including TVS, projectors, monitors and smartphones. I have a keen interest in audio as well as video and founded plus run the largest home audio Facebook group, Audiophiles on a Budget—with over 60K members. For fun, I like riding a OneWheel around Philly while capturing cool images and videos to submit to Google Maps.

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Published On: June 2, 2022

Best 42 & 43 Inch 4K TVs 2022

A small TV can still be a great TV with one of these compact options

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While the more visible trend among TVs is ever-larger screens, you'll also find more options on the smaller end of the scale, and in particular 4K models at the 42" screen size, which truly straddles the line between PC monitor and TV.

A 42-inch TV is equally useful on a home office desk, a bedroom dresser, a garage workbench, in a kitchen, or a dorm room. It's a TV that's light enough to pick up and move, but large enough to enjoy the detail found in 4K. New in 2022, there's even a 4K OLED option at this size.

Best Picture Quality

LG 42" C2 OLED

The perfect choice for videophiles seeking the best possible picture quality on a smaller size screen. This feature-packed TV really shines when the lights are out, where it achieves near-infinite contrast thanks to an ability to create the deepest blacks.

Pros

• Unbeatable native contrast and black levels
• Extremely wide viewing angles
• Thin, sleek design

Cons

• Not as bright as LED and QLED TVs

OLED technology revolutionized the TV business by achieving the long sought after goal of achieving black levels so deep, that they are almost unmeasurable. The resulting native contrast capability makes just about anything you watch on an OLED seem to pop off the screen. As long as you take care to dim the lights, OLED will surpass your expectations of what a TV can do.

This OLED has broad HDR support including HDR10, HLG, and Dolby Vision. With HDMI 2.1 it supports eARC for high-quality audio output to a soundbar or AV receiver. It's ready for serious gaming, too, with features like variable refresh rate (VRR) and auto low latency mode (ALLM). The only catch with OLED is that despite the high contrast, it is not nearly as bright as FALD LED, especially FALD backlit QLED models. OLED does its best work under controlled lighting or in a dark room, viewing environments where it is unbeatable.

The 2022 C2 series OLEDs from LG are an impressive evolution of the technology.

Best Affordable Model

TCL 43" 4-Series LED

This TCL is a budget-friendly option and is an edge-lit LED design. It's best at playing regular broadcast TV content and also acting as a PC monitor, which is a great use for a TV this size.

Pros

• Good anti-reflective properties
• Runs on Google TV
• Displays PC graphics properly in 4K

Cons

• HDR capabilities are limited

There's nothing particularly fancy here, just a budget-friendly compact 4K TV with a slick and speedy smart interface thanks to Google TV. The compromise you make at this price is it does not do much with HDR, due to limited peak brightness and color gamut, and therefore is not an optimal choice for watching movies. But these limitations are not an issue for regular TV viewing, and that is something that this TV does well. This is a perfect choice for any spot where you just want a nice, affordable, attractive TV that streams content easily and reliably.

Most Stylish

Samsung 43" The Frame QLED

Samsung's most stylish TV looks like artwork hanging on the wall when it's not showing a video. This 4K QLED has an incredibly effective anti-reflective screen coating that gives it the appearance of fine art paper.

Pros

• No gap wall mount
• Interchangeable bezels
• Looks uncannily like fine art hanging on the wall

Cons

• Edgelit

With The Frame, you get the best of form and function. This TV looks fantastic when playing movies, TV, sports, video games and more thanks to its QLED 4K panel. But it also has the amazing ability to show artwork and make it look like a framed print hanging on the wall, not a TV. This is achieved with a matte anti-reflective coating that is incredibly more effective than what you find on most TVs.

The anti-reflective properties are not just useful for creating the illusion of artwork on the wall. It also suppresses room refections when the TV is turned on, so you see a clearer picture.

With HDMI 2.1 and QLED capabilities, The Frame is even a good TV for gaming, and the anti-glare screen will be familiar to PC users who have seen a similar texture featured on monitors.