The best TVs under £500 in 2024, tried and tested with expert recommendations

Rewind just a few years and the best TV under £500 would have been a mere 32-incher with fairly pedestrian features. Quite simply, the technology required to create an ultra-high definition image was too expensive and generally reserved for models with far more painful price tags. But thanks to the trickle-down effect of tech, high-end features that used to be touted by Sony, Samsung and LG televisions costing over £2,000 can now be found on much more affordable options.

“Premium 4K TV technology has started to become more commonplace in these televisions,” explains Katrina Mills, category lead for TV and audio visual at John Lewis.

“This has been driven by the customer, who generally wants the crisp and rich picture quality previously seen in much larger TVs, without the need to bring home something that simply doesn’t fit into the domestic setting,” she adds.

Although OLED TVs, where every pixel emits light independently, remain well outside the £500 budget, QLED screens, which use a metallic filter to enhance the picture quality, are becoming more commonplace on more affordable televisions.

For this review, we only considered 55-inch TVs, big enough to be a main, living room TV. While we consider these the best 55-inch TVs under £500 you can buy right now, you can of course find some excellent performers at smaller sizes. The best cheap TV is sometimes just the one that fits on your bedside table.

Read on to find out how we made our recommendations and, at the bottom of the page, for some advice on how to shop for TVs. But if you’re in a hurry, here’s a quick look at our top five:

Which are the best TVs for under £500 in 2024? At a glance

• Best overall: Samsung CU8000
• Best value: Hisense U6K
• Best smart TV under £500: Amazon Fire
• Best QLED TV under £500: Toshiba QF5D53DB
• Best TV for gaming under £500: LG UR78

Which type of TV is best for watching sport?

From Euro 2024 to the Olympics, this summer is jam-packed with top notch sport, meaning this could be the perfect time to upgrade your TV set. There are a number of factors you should consider.

Resolution isn’t an issue, since Euro 2024 will only be broadcast in standard HD (1080p) rather than the 4K offered by most modern televisions. Rather, the key element is how your TV handles motion.

In the UK, most sport is broadcast at a screen-refresh rate of 50Hz (the US often enjoys the action in 60Hz). Most of the TVs in this list are capable of 120Hz refresh rate. They can fill in the gaps between those 50 frames so that, during fast-paced action, the ball or athlete don’t become an on-screen blur.

Colour is also important, so that team strips and other sporting details ‘pop’ from the screen. Expensive OLED TVs offer superior colour differentiation and their refresh rate is also more impressive, but under £500 you should be looking for QLED screens. These use a layer of nanocrystals to enhance the colour quality. The Toshiba QF5D53DB below, for example, handles sporting action well and uses its QLED tech to the max when the screen is set to its specific Sports mode.

Finally, if you’re not going to invest in a separate sound bar, it’s worth selecting a TV that has been rated for its built-in audio. Nothing in the £500 price bracket is going to blow your socks off, but models like the Samsung CU7100 in our guide impressed with their audio capabilities right out of the box

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How I tested the best TVs under £500

Testing at home is the only way to get a good feel for how each TV is to live with, how easy it is to set-up and how well it works with peripherals like games consoles and soundbars. So, one by one, I have been borrowing the best TVs currently on sale, and where that wasn’t possible, seeking advice and consultation from John Lewis’s Katrina Mills and AO’s Kevin Walmsley, both expert TV buyers.

Sound quality regularly comes up as a problem with cheaper TVs, so this was a major consideration during testing, alongside picture quality – especially high dynamic range – when viewing movies, sports and those dark Scandinavian detective dramas.

Inputs matter, too. I plugged in the Xbox, Nintendo Switch and an existing sound bar through an optical input (after testing the built-speakers, of course), just to see how much difference that made to the overall viewing experience.

Finally, the operating systems used, such as Google Android or Amazon Fire, can make or break a modern TV, so I took note of how simple these were to initially set up and how easily my three-year-old could navigate to his favourite episode of Blippi without throwing a massive tantrum.

Best TVs under £500

1. Samsung CU8000

£449 for 55-inch model, Samsung

Best overall, 9/10

We like: the great, punchy visuals

We don’t like: the tinny sound

• 43”, 50”, 55”, 65”, 75” and 85” sizes available
• Display type: 4K LED
• High dynamic range types: HDR, HDR10+, HLG (see FAQ below for explanations of these terms)
• Sound: 20W 2-channel speaker
• Inputs: 3 HDMI (including eARC/ARC), 2 USB, Digital Optical out, Ethernet
• Alexa built-in

Tested at home

Korean electronics giant Samsung has been a leader in the budget-friendly TV market for some time now. As Katrina Mills at John Lewis puts it: “Samsung’s premium technology often filters down into its more affordable TV offerings. While the Crystal Color system found in the CU8000 can’t match QD-OLED or Mini LED, its Crystal UHD technology is very good”.

The initial thing to notice when testing this TV is just how solid it feels when you lift it out of the box. Compared to the Sharp Roku and Amazon’s Fire TV below, which are surprisingly light for their size, this 50-inch model weighed in at over 11kg with the stand. It feels like you get a lot for your money here.

Despite the weight, the AirSlim design ensures it melts into any domestic setting, regardless of whether you choose to mount it to a wall - where it will sit flush - or use the slender metallic feet. Out of everything I had hands-on with, this was easily one of the most handsome sets.

The attention to detail is followed through in the picture quality, where Samsung harnesses its knowledge of full frame dimming and edge LED lighting to create scenes with deep blacks (impressive at this price point) and vibrant colours that really leap off the screen.

A Crystal 4K Processor is bespoke to this range of TVs and handles the colour well, with Samsung claiming it offers over a billion shades for more natural, more realistic on-screen hues. This chip also handles native 4K and upscaled HD content brilliantly, making even fairly basic streams look punchy and much sharper.

It is by no means perfect though and at this price point, there will be some compromise. I found you have to be sitting pretty much straight-on to get the most out of the screen. Anyone unlucky enough to be sitting at an angle really does get a poor show.

Secondly, the sound quality was surprisingly weak, given the fact the CU8000 boasts a 20W speaker output. Bass notes were tinny, the high notes sometimes shrill and everything just sounded a bit flat. A shame given the fantastic picture quality, as it drains the suspense and drama out of a good action movie. You’ll need a good soundbar.

2. Hisense U6K

£499 for 55-inch model, Curry’s

Best value TV under £500, 8/10

We like: it’s the first mini-LED TV of this size to dip below £500

We don’t like: operating system is a bit clunky

• 55”, 65”, and 75” screens available
• Display type: 4K Mini-LED
• High dynamic range type: Dolby Vision, HDR10+, HDR10, Hybrid Log Gamma (HLG)
• Sound: Dolby MS12, Dolby Atmos
• Inputs: 3 HDMI 2.0 , 2 USB 2.0, Digital Optical, Composte input
• Amazon Alexa built in

Tested at home

If the name Hisense has been buzzing around your brain of late, that’s because it is one Euro 2024 official partners and it hasn’t been shy about advertising its TVs ahead of this summer of sport.

The U6K was actually launched last year, but a recent price cut has made it the first 55-inch mini-LED television you can get for under £500. Mini-LEDs, each the size of a grain of rice, allow far greater control of light and dark areas onscreen. That results in a more visually pleasing image, particularly when watching in the evenings with the lights dimmed. The blacks appear blacker and there’s more clarity in the shadows.

Equally rare at this price point, the U6K uses quantum dot technology for improved colour processing. Watching the Euros, we found the action “popped” fantastically. A Dynamic Mode, which employs Smooth Motion technology, works fantastically well for sports as well as fast-paced action scenes. You do have to remember to turn it off for anything else though. It made an episode of Bluey look so unnatural that even my four-year-old noticed.

The remote is what lets the package down here. It’s plastic and festooned with big shortcut buttons to a number of unpopular apps (do you really need a Deezer shortcut?). The TV is also predominantly made of plastic, including the feet. But props to Hisense for offering a narrow-set option for them, allowing you to sit it on smaller furniture.

A slightly more serious downside was the narrow viewing angle. When viewing with friends, anyone sat on the far edges of the sofa got a less impressive picture. The big, flat screen also struggles with reflections – although it is plenty bright enough to offer a bold picture in daylight.

To continue with the niggles, the Google TV interface is easy to use but we found a quirk where the TV wouldn’t store settings after it had been turned off, forcing us to change the speaker output to the ARC soundbar every time we used the television. (TCL tellies also do this, strangely.)

The picture quality alone makes the U6K easy to recommend, though. It offers lifelike colours, solid motion smoothing and and an excellent HDR picture in a variety of situations from sports to movies. The 60Hz screen refresh rate also makes it a good budget option for gaming, and we found it offered an impressively low input lag – much to the delight of my Fortnite-obsessed eight year-old.

About a year ago, TVs like this cost well over £1,000. That they’re now available at this price is good news for anyone thinking of upgrading to watch this summer’s big events.

Update: The U6K is a year old. The brand new Hisense TVs, recognisable by the N on the end, are the first in the country to include the Freely app for live-streaming BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5. It’s quite a game-changer. The 55-inch A6N is £530, meaning we can’t yet include it in this guide, but prices are sure to fall.

3. Amazon Fire TV 4-Series

£379.99 for 55-inch model, Amazon

Best smart TV under £500, 8/10

We like: Amazon’s easy-to-use interface

We don’t like: the flimsy construction

• 43”, 50” and 55” models available
• Display type: 4K LED
• High dynamic range types: HDR10 and HLG
• Sound: 8W stereo speakers, eARC (enhanced Audio Return Channel) HDMI to sound bar
• Inputs: 3 HDMI 2.0, 1 HDMI eARC 2.1, Wi-Fi or ethernet
• Alexa built-in

Tested at home

The first thing to note about Amazon’s 4-Series Fire TV is how irritating it is that the clearly superior Omni-Series, which has a QLED screen and made it into our best 4Ks of 2024 list, is only slightly over our £500 budget. It would have been great to include it in this list. It won’t be long before the price dips.

The second thing to note is that Amazon has cut corners on things like the bezel (plastic), the legs (plastic) and the Fire TV Alexa Voice Remote (you guessed it, flimsy plastic). That said, Amazon hasn’t scrimped on the technology and this rather uninspiring-looking chassis houses no fewer than four HDMI inputs, two USB, optical and ethernet inputs, all conveniently running down one side, making it simple to plumb in a host of peripherals.

Initial set-up is also a doddle and anyone with an Amazon Fire Stick can port over their preferences and set the TV from an existing back-up, so you won’t have to worry about downloading all of your favourite apps again. Even if you don’t, the user experience is slick and painless.

During testing, I made sure to digest some 4K content, selecting Barbie, of all things, to put Amazon’s TV through its paces. The saccharine world of Greta Gerwig’s smash hit looked fantastic, and the TV proved it could handle vibrant colour with ease. The definition and detail in Gosling’s abs was crisp and it handled fast-paced scenes without motion blur. Of course, Dolby Vision IQ or something similar would be better, but the viewing experience was still impressive at this price.

Sports were also handled well, especially when viewing the Rugby World Cup in 4K, while the sound was respectable given the relatively measly speakers. I’d still definitely recommend a sound bar, but I’ve tested TVs at this price with much poorer rigs.

As I previously mentioned, Amazon’s Fire system is very easy to navigate and, more importantly, it updates and moves with the times. The only downside is that a lot of the settings are buried in menus on the Amazon Fire home screen, which is annoying when you want to adjust the sound settings or picture presets. The latter can only be applied to HDMI and aerial sources, anyway.

4. Sharp Roku

£369 for 55-inch model, Richer Sounds

Best budget 4K TV, 7/10

We like: the user experience

We don’t like: the ultra-wide feet

• 43”, 50”, 55” or 65” available
• Display type: 4K LED
• High dynamic range types: Dolby Vision, HDR10, HLG
• Sound: 10W speakers, DTS Studio Sound compatible
• Inputs: 3 HDMI 2.1, 1 USB, Digital Optical out, Composite video input
• Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant built in

Tested at home

It might sound petty, but I just can’t forgive the foot placement on Sharp’s 55-inch Roku TV. You need a huge surface to stand it on. I barely managed to squeeze it on my corner stand for testing and would have had to replace the furniture if it was to be housed permanently.

This might not be an issue for large furniture lovers, who can focus on the good stuff. Top of that list is the extremely easy Roku interface, which comes complete with purple-clad Roku remote. It looks like a kid’s toy, but it makes interacting with your favourite movies and shows an absolute doddle. Plus, there’s a headphone jack so you can watch TV or play games without disturbing others.

Initial set-up requires the creation of a free Roku account (unless you already have one), but this opens up a world of streaming possibilities, with favourites like Apple TV+, Disney+, Hulu, Netflix and Amazon Prime all conveniently housed in one place.

Picture quality is good for the size and price, able to handle 4K content, while HDR compatibility is offered here. That said, we struggled to tell the difference between SDR (standard dynamic range) and HDR when flicking between the two. Sharp doesn’t go into detail about its HDR technology, suggesting it’s not very good.

The same can be said for the blacks, which are far from deep and rich, while the panel’s colour palette errs on the cool side. Even when watching typically vibrant kids programming and movies, the hues never visually “popped” or stood out as particularly excellent - even after extensive fiddling with menus.

Similarly, the sound is neither awful or mind-blowing. This sort of middling overall experience (aside from Roku’s excellent interface) essentially sums up the TV. It’s good for the money, but nothing to write home about.

5. Toshiba QF5D53DB

£369 for 55-inch model, Argos

Best QLED TV under £500, 8/10

We like: the punchy bass from the built-in subwoofer

We don’t like: lack of premium gaming features

• 43”, 50”, 55” and 65” models available
• Display type: 4K QLED
• High dynamic range types: Dolby Vision, HDR
• Sound: Dolby Atmos, internal subwoofer, Onkyo design
• Inputs: 3 HDMI (including eARC/ARC) , 2 USB, Digital Optical out, Ethernet
• Alexa built-in

Tested at home

The Toshiba 55QF5D53DB QLED TV was the first model I tried to really impress me with the audio performance, thanks to its Onkyo-designed internal speaker array. Where many other models desperately require a soundbar, you can get engrossed in a Hollywood blockbuster straight out of the box here, with plenty of opportunity to play around with the Dolby Atmos and surround sound settings to get things just right.

It won’t win many awards for its looks, but there’s a reassuring heft to the set when you first lift it out of the box. I was also impressed with the thin metallic slivers that act as the feet. When viewed head on, they neatly disappear and feel a lot more elegant than some of the cheaper plastic iterates found on rivals.

Toshiba (actually owned by Hisense these days) has its own TRU picture engine technology which upscales and smoothes the image for a more cinematic feel. This was put to the test when watching Top Gun: Maverick in 4K, with the QLED TV doing a great job of handling the fast-paced action sequences. It pays to delve into the settings and alter the image, as I preferred running the Cinema mode to kill off some of the coolness that affects the Standard mode.

Colours are rich, thanks to the Quantum Dot technology at play here (rare at this price) and the image is nice and sharp. Alas, like many TVs in this test, it doesn’t handle blacks particularly well and despite boasting Dolby Vision, the darkest hues can appear a little washed out.

Amazon’s Fire takes care of the operating system, which is becoming increasingly popular with the big manufacturers because it’s good for navigating to your favourite shows from one consolidated homescreen. If you can’t be bothered with the manual inputs, you can always use your voice thanks to Alexa integration, which I found to be accurate most of the time.

With a refresh rate of 60Hz, it’s not the slowest television out there, but it’s a long way off the 120Hz demanded by hardcore console gamers. But when spending less than £500, it’s very difficult to hit those lofty gaming expectations. I found it perfectly good for casual sessions on the Nintendo Switch or Xbox One - which should give you some indication of how often I pick up a controller these days.

6. TCL C645K

£358, AO

Best 55-inch TV under £500, 8/10

We like: vibrant QLED at this price

We don’t like: slow operating system

• 50” and 55” models available
• Display type: 4K QLED
• High dynamic range type: HDR10 HDR10+, HLG, Dolby Vision
• Sound: 2 x 10W speakers, Dolby Atmos
• Inputs: 3 HDMI 2.0 , 1 eARC HDMI 3,1 USB, Digital Optical out, Ethernet
• Google Assistant built in

Tested at home

Another QLED television on this list that makes you double-take at the price tag, the 55-inch 55C645K from Chinese manufacturer TCL manages to deliver a heavy dose of picture quality technology in a package that belies the budget.

For once, there has been some consideration for foot placement, with TCL understanding not everyone wants to mount these massive TVs on the wall. Here, the salender plastic feet can be mounted in multiple positions, depending on the size of your TV stand or furniture. It’s a neat touch.

Image quality is given a helping hand by QLED technology in tandem with full-array backlighting and pretty much every HDR standard going. TCL’s AiPQ 3.0 processing engine is the beating heart of the television and boasts a few neat tricks up its sleeve.

Firstly, it handles sports and other fast-paced scenes with aplomb thanks to MEMC (Motion Estimate, Motion Compensation) and the 60Hz panel means the refresh rate isn’t too shabby for gamers, either.

That said, there are a few minor quibbles. Firstly, there is only one HDMI 2.1 slot, which also happens to be the eARC input. This makes it tricky to plug in the latest soundbars and your next-gen gaming consoles.

Secondly, the sound is pretty pants from the underwhelming speakers and the Android interface isn’t the quickest or easiest to use. It doesn’t come preloaded with many apps, so the initial set-up can be more painful than others on this list.

7. LG UR78

£220.99 for 55-inch model, LG

Best TV under £500 for gaming, 8/10

We like: auto Low Latency Mode for smoother gaming experience

We don’t like: LG’s webOS can be slow and tricky to navigate

• 43”, 50”, 55”, 65”, 75” and 86” models available
• Display type: 4K LED
• High dynamic range type: HDR10, HLG
• Sound: 20W, two-channel speakers
• Inputs: 3 HDMI 2.1, 2 USB, Digital Optical out, Ethernet
• LG Voice Assistant built in

Expert recommended

Although sitting at the entry level of LG’s TV range, the UR78 benefits from a number of ‘trickle down’ features including the firm’s a5 processor, which uses AI to upscale non-4K content to make it appear sharper, clearer and generally easier on the eye.

Rare at this price point, it also has Filmmaker Mode, allowing you to view movies exactly as the directors intended, with the brightness, colour balance, dynamic range and other parameters set by them. It never fails to improve the movie experience.

“But the attraction for gamers,” says AO’s audio/visual buyer Kevin Walmsley, “is its built-in ALLM (Auto Low Latency Mode), which specifically reduces game lag.” There’s a Game Dashboard where gamers can quickly adjust settings while playing, too.

LG has also worked with HGiG, which stands for ‘HDR Gaming Interest Group’ and has seen some of the biggest names in the gaming and AV world come together to work out best practices for high dynamic range in gaming. According to LG, the result is a gaming experience with more depth and clarity, resulting in a more “immersive experience”.

Finally, the generous allocation of three HDMI 2.1 ports on the rear will appeal to those wanting to plug in plenty of next-gen peripherals, while HDMI eARC allows cinema quality audio if you invest in a decent soundbar.

Downsides? The webOS platform feels a bit awkward and overly complicated if you are used to enclosed ecosystems like FireTV. It does offer plenty of personalisation, though. It’s possible to have multiple accounts running, each of which can pin ‘tiles’ to the homescreen, as well as favourite apps and services so they appear when you log in.

8. Samsung CU7100

£425 for 55-inch model, Amazon

Brightest picture TV under £500, 7/10

We like: Samsung’s image processing abilities

We don’t like: Tizen operating system isn’t the best

• 24”, 32”, 43”, 50”, 55”, 65”, 75” and 85” models available
• Display type: 4K LED
• High dynamic range type: HDR10, HDR10+, HLG, Dolby Vision
• Sound: 20W, 2-channel speakers
• Inputs: 3 HDMI 2.0 , 1 eARC HDMI 3,1 USB, Digital Optical out, Ethernet
• Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant built in

Expert recommended

Once again, we find ourselves talking about a Samsung and the way it handles image processing. PurColour, Crystal Processor 4K and the full gamut of HDR support mean this is a great investment if you are looking for the best image quality for your money.

“There will be some compromise with the £500 budget and one of things to notice compared to much more expensive Samsung models is the build quality. But actually, a lot of these brands are drastically minimising the bezel anyway, so there’s less ‘cheaper’ material on show anyway,” explains Katrina Mills, Category Lead for TV and Audio Visual at John Lewis.

“Samsung is one of the best manufacturers for bringing elements of design found in its premium range to much more affordable units,” she adds.

Arguably the Samsung CU8000 we mentioned earlier in the article is the slightly better looking TV, with its thin metallic slivers for feet working nicely for anyone who doesn’t want to wall-mount their device. Here, the feet are larger and generally more awkward, but you do get a bit more screen real estate for the money.

The ultra-bright display arguably doesn’t handle colour quite as well as the CU8000, while the inputs aren’t as cutting-edge, making the CU8000 better for gamers and owners of the latest peripherals. Still, this is a little cheaper and you do get a larger screen for the money.

9. Panasonic MX800

£449, Amazon

Best TV under £500 for streaming, 8/10

We like: Dolby Vision content looks great

We don’t like: The sound is a little weak

• 43”, 50”, 55”, 65” and 75” sizes available
• Display type: 4K LED
• High dynamic range types: Dolby Vision, HDR, HDR10+, HLG
• Sound: 20W 2-channel speaker, Dolby Atmos
• Inputs: 4 HDMI (including eARC/ARC), 2 USB 2.0, Digital Optical out, Wi-Fi or Ethernet, analogue video, 3.5mm audio
• Alexa built-in

Reviewed by Christopher Hall

Tested at home

The Panasonic MX800 was launched in 2023 and thanks to price reductions, this capable TV now finds itself under the £500 mark. What this really means is that you’re getting an £800 TV for less than £500, with all the benefits that a more expensive TV brings with it.

First and foremost, the Panasonic MX800 is a Fire TV, so it runs on Amazon’s smart TV platform. Setup, therefore, involves hooking up to the internet and signing into an Amazon account to get started. As such, this TV offers both Wi-Fi and Ethernet connections and pretty much all the settings are changed via the Fire TV interface.

The advantage that Fire TV brings is that all the streaming services are in place and easy to get to, while it supports Alexa voice searching and controls via the supplied remote. That remote is a combination of Panasonic and Fire TV controls and it’s easy enough to use – but crucially includes more buttons than you’d get on a normal Fire TV Stick.

This is an edge-lit LED and in some instances you might spot that the edges are a little brighter, I found this particularly noticeable watching sport and in the user interface, but it doesn’t spoil the viewing. The best quality is preserved for Dolby Vision sources, and that’s because there’s plenty of brightness to make HDR content look great. You also get an on-screen notification when playing HDR content which I like.

There’s a full Freeview Play offering accessed via the Live TV section of the interface and at this size you really want to be watching the HD versions of channels – otherwise they look a little soft, even with upscaling. Panasonic has provided a number of screen modes that you can access via the remote. I found that the Sports mode was well worth using when I tested the TV with football via a connected Sky Stream device. Tinkerers will also like that there are picture control settings for each of the inputs, including the aerial and for apps, so you can customise to your heart’s content.

The sound is a little thin, despite offering a “visualised” Dolby Atmos setting – you’d be better off pairing this TV with a soundbar to complete the package, but it’s a TV that’s capable of great performance.

FAQ

What to consider when buying a TV under £500

4K resolution

“Although OLED and mini-LED panels are still out of reach at this price, customers should still expect a full 4K television,” explains John Lewis’s Katrina Mills. “In fact, image optimisation technology like Samsung’s Crystal UHD can now be found at this price point, providing exceptional picture quality.”

Be aware that on small TVs of 32 inches or less, the difference between Full HD and 4K is hard to detect. As a result, most manufacturers don’t sell 4K TVs in the smallest sizes.

High dynamic range (HDR)

“HDR formats such as Dolby Vision are now available at this price point,” Mills says. “They make the viewing experience as rich as possible, by constantly optimising the way the picture is delivered. Anyone upgrading a five-year-old TV will notice a huge difference in the image quality.”

There are four different HDR formats. HDR10 is the original and you should expect any 4K TV to support it. Dolby Vision is better, balancing the dynamic range frame by frame instead of scene by scene. HDR10+ is Samsung’s version of Dolby Vision which has since been adopted by many other manufacturers. HLG is the high dynamic range format used by broadcasters like the BBC and Sky, so is supported by most modern TVs.

Sound

Sound is often an issue on modern televisions, as the drive to make ever lighter and thinner packages means there is often little room for powerful speakers. The problem blights even high-end TVs, but it is even more pertinent at this price point, as manufacturers look to make savings with smaller and cheaper speakers.

“As a rule of thumb, the more you spend on a television set, the more features it will have,” says Kevin Walmsley. “By spending a little more you can combat the issue of poor sound with features like Dolby Atmos, a technology that provides greater surround sound, and compliments Dolby Vision, which amplifies colour and heightens contrast.”

Inputs and connections

Those looking to hook up the latest gaming consoles and additional peripherals should look for plenty of HDMI inputs, preferably the latest HDMI 2.1, which can transmit at speeds of up to 48gbps for improved resolution at higher frame rates. Most televisions at this price will sport at least one HDMI 2.1 connection.

Screen size

If you’re specifically looking for a 55-inch TV, it’s obviously great that they are now available for under £500 from some manufacturers. But bigger does not always mean better.

A 32-inch television is actually a better choice for a bedroom or kitchen where you’re viewing from just a few feet away. You won’t lose any detail in the picture. In a small living room, where you’ll be sitting about eight feet away, the ideal screen size is 43 inches. For a large living room where you’ll be sitting 10-11 feet away, buy a 55-inch TV.

Much bigger TVs are available for bigger rooms, but not for under £500 - unless you find a very good deal in the sales.

Smart TV operating system

The operating systems that power today’s more affordable TVs are constantly connected to the web, typically update themselves and can do much more than just stream your favourite content.

“A great thing about today’s options is that almost all TV’s on the market are now smart and TVs below £500 are no exception,” explains Kevin Walmsley, head buyer for AV at AO. “These sets offer the latest apps and allow households to easily access subscription channels like Netflix or Amazon Prime via an internet connection, with the ability to update the software over-the-air, rather than having to completely replace the set.”

One advantage of smart TVs is that you can stream shows over wi-fi without the need for an aerial. However, they will come from the broadcasters’ catch-up services, rather than being shown live. You still need a TV licence to watch BBC iPlayer.

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