Best 43 and 42-inch TVs 2024: the top TVs at all prices

The best 42 and 43-inch TVs are understandably popular – these sizes are perfect for smaller rooms, but also can often save you a decent bundle of money compared to larger options like 55 or 65-inch panels. They also provide excellent picture quality on the whole, especially regarding the best OLED screens you can find on the market. If you're shopping for a television set in this sort if price bracket, it's easy to see why.

Okay, TVs measuring 43 or 42 inches don't always come with the latest and greatest features, but they're invariably at least HD quality and smart enough for a modern home. On the other hand sound quality, as with most thin TVs, means you might want to upgrade with one of the best soundbars.

To see what's on offer in the slightly higher-end tiers, check out our round-up of the best 48-to-50-inch TVs and the best 55-inch TVs – these do have significant differences but you will see that reflected in the price. Our recommendation to get the best deal is to purchase one of the older makes and models.

Now that the holidays are upon us, you might also be looking for Christmas gift guides, deal spotlights and more. If that's accurate, check out the T3 Christmas hub to find our best work this holiday season, and potentially save some money as a result!

T3's Top Picks

The best 42-inch and 43-inch TVs in 2024

The best 42-inch TV for most people

Let's get the bad news out of the way first: this C4 doesn't have quite the same almost flawless panel as its larger siblings. But that's all the bad news, because the smallest of LG's superb OLED TVs is still a spectacular performer with all the gaming features and future-proofing you need alongside a truly stunning display.

The C-series is LG's mid-range model, offering the perfect balance of price and performance. It has the same processor as the more expensive OLEDs in LG's 2024 range, and also supports 120Hz refresh rates and HDMI 2.1 with VRR, ALLM and GeForce Now. Refreshingly its HDMI 2.1 features aren't limited to a subset of the HDMI ports: all four are next-gen HDMI.

In our LG C4 review we praise the image processing and the ports, and while you can't expect stunning sound quality from such a small and thin TV, it's still pretty good by flat-screen standards. But this TV is all about that picture quality really, and by bringing its OLED displays to the smallest sizes yet LG has created a TV that outperforms every other panel of the same size.

The best affordable 43-inch TV

A great way to save money on a Samsung TV is to dodge just below its QLED panels to instead grab a Crystal UHD option. You compromise on picture quality a little, but as the CU8000 shows, you get terrific value.

When it comes to detail especially, this really takes advantage of being a 4K set – everything is beautifully sharp and crisp. It's also really strong at upscaling from HD, so the majority of stuff on streaming services still looks great on all those pixels. Colours and contrast are handled better than you might expect for the price, while motion control is also impressive.

Samsung Tizen smart TV platform is one of the best around, combining comprehensive app support with being really easy to use and navigate. Connectivity here is solid, and the extremely low response time in the gaming mode will be really welcome to gamers. It's just a really impressive package overall, with the one exception being the sound, which is average at best.

Make sure you check out our Samsung discount codes for ways to get a cheaper deal.

The best premium 42-inch TV

If you can get past the rather high price for this 42-inch (or 48-inch) OLED television, you'll find lots to like: the picture quality is outstanding, there are a host of connectivity options (including Apple AirPlay and Google Chromecast), and 4K content really shines on this set as well.

The Sony A90K (XR-42A90K) is also to be commended for the way in which it attempts to tweak the picture quality on the fly, thanks to an integrated Cognitive Processor XR chip (which can also be found in Sony's bigger, even-more-expensive TVs). It's particularly good for maintaining the quality of gaming experiences.

There are some areas where the TV is less than stellar – including brightness levels and audio quality – but when everything is taken into consideration it's undoubtedly one of the best television sets at this size that you can buy. We like the simple and rather understated design aesthetic too.

The best subtle 43-inch TV

A stunning 43-inch set you should take a look at is the Samsung The Frame (2024) – it's one of the smallest TVs with Samsung's QLED technology.

The benefits of QLED are far-reaching but to sum it up, you get a wider range of colours, higher peak brightness, and support for HDR10+. It also boasts the AI-enhanced Quantum Processor to upscale HD and SD content, and get the best out of the 4K panel.

You’re guaranteed to be impressed by the image quality but that’s not what makes this TV so special. Samsung has put a lot of thought into making this a part of your living room decor and not an addition to it. Samsung The Frame (2024) has customisable bezels which you can match to your living room, and when it’s switched off, it transforms into an artwork or digital photo frame. You’ll no longer be plagued by a big unsightly slab of glass hanging on your wall, this is game-changing.

You can choose from 1,400 different pieces of art from the Art Store if you pay a monthly subscription fee. Or upload all of your favourite shots from your phone to the set.

So surely there must be a downside right? Well, the sound isn’t amazing. In fact, it’s pretty average, so it could be worth investing in a soundbar as well if you choose this set. Outside of that though, this is an impressive masterpiece of a TV. You can find out more about an older but still very representative model that we tested in our Samsung The Frame (2021) review.

The best smart 43-inch TV

In the UK, the hugely impressive Sky Glass smart TV is available in a 43-inch size (alongside 55-inch and 65-inch versions), making it eligible for this list. It's a smart TV that aims to go beyond a smart TV, including a central hub for all your Sky content as well as your other streaming subscription services.

That's really where Sky Glass shines, in bringing all your movies and shows together in one place – but bear in mind that those monthly subscription costs can soon add up, and you're going to need reliable and steady internet for everything to work properly. There's really nothing else quite like it right now.

On the actual TV side, the set is well designed (albeit a bit big and heavy), and you get a picture that's bright, colourful, crisp and clear – you can really see the 4K Ultra HD detail here. While it's not for everyone (gamers for example), it's certainly going to appeal to streaming and on-demand content enthusiasts.

Best 42-inch and 43-inch TV: What to look for

For many people, a 43-inch or 42-inch TV is the perfect size for smaller living rooms or lounges. It’s big enough to deliver a detailed picture at a sensible viewing distance, but not so big that you feel you’re in the front row of the cinema.

As a general rule, the best viewing distance is around twice the diagonal screen distance. So for a 43-inch smart TV, you should ideally be sitting about seven to nine feet away, though these are only rough guidelines.

A 43-inch TV is the first screen size where you can really begin to enjoy the higher resolution benefits of 4K Ultra HD. LCD panel technology still dominates because the smallest OLED TV is 48 inches, but you will start to see manufacturers employing direct LED backlights and local dimming for a superior picture.

The HDR performance will also improve, with wider colours from technologies such as QLED, and increased brightness.

Some manufacturers will also include their full smart TV platforms, which is a bonus, since it gives you access to catch-up TV and streaming services without any additional boxes needed.

The one thing you shouldn't expect from many 43-inch TVs is blockbuster built-in sound. A few have more impressive speaker systems than others, but the small size and lower price means it just isn't a huge focus for most of them. Their sound will be perfectly adequate, of course, but not cinematic. Our list of the best soundbars has some excellent compact options in a range of budgets, though, if you want to upgrade the audio.

How we test 43 and 43-inch TVs

Much like other devices that T3 covers, testing a TV mostly comes down to actually taking the time to live with it, first and foremost. Our reviewers install review TVs as their main displays and use them for at least a couple of weeks, to really get a sense of how they perform in a wide range of scenarios.

That can mean different lighting conditions, to assess a manufacturer's claims about brightness levels, but it also involves different types of media. A TV that excels when watching sport might not fare as well with darkly-lit moody movies, for example, and gaming is a separate matter, too.

Of course, we're not afraid of specs lists, either, and we'll always keenly assess what a TV offers compared to others in its price range. This might mean the array of ports that it boasts (with HDMI 2.1 ports, for example, now very welcome), or which picture and sound modes it can offer (such as Dolby Vision and Atmos). All of these factors play into our write-ups of TVs.

Once our writer has tested a given TV extensively, it'll come time to assign a score to the panel, with a five-star award being the mark of a truly great display. Of course, there are still plenty of extremely creditable options that fall slightly short of that mark.

Reviewer panel

Stephen Withers

Stephen is something of a guru in the AV world, with decades of experience testing and calibrating displays at the highest level. He's reviewed a wide range of devices for T3, including some of the most impressive TVs on the market.

Simon Lucas

Simon has been testing TVs for years, along with the gamut of other tech, and has penned many reviews for T3. He's expertly places to judge what makes a TV better value than its competitors, at both mid-range and premium prices.

Yasmine Crossland

Yasmine is a former reviewer for T3 and covered a spread of different areas in great detail in her time here. This included a bunch of televisions, which means that she has a great overview of the market, and what the best picks are for most people.