Here’s our pick of the best 40-inch screens for your money
You would not have to venture that way back in time to a point where a 40-inch TV could be considered massive. Butadmittedly, that was towards the end of the CRT age when our TVs were equally heavy and incredibly thick.
Well, those days are long behind us. In a brief time, room-dominating 65-inch TVs have come to be the most important staple of American homes (with Europe lagging not too far behind).
The problem with this big believing (besides the price) is that as we all get used to bigger and better screens in our houses, it’s easy to assume that 40-inch TVs are a matter of the remote past.
When you’ve got a small budget, or small residence, then it may make more sense to take a look at our list of the finest 32-inch televisions on offer at this time instead.
But for many of us without large living rooms and large budgets, that is just not true. Most people will find that upgrading from a 32-inch television to a 40-inch screen is a much better choice, as it’s less likely to conquer your living room – not to mention your budget.
The biggest drawback with picking a 40-inch screen rather than one of those larger options is you don’t always get the most recent technology built to a 40-inch TV — such as OLED panels or frequently 4K or HDR. TV manufacturers tend to save the very best performance for the biggest models in their range.
But the fantastic thing is that we all know not all TVs and TV brands have been created equal. There are numerous exceptional 40-inch TVs with 4K HDR at a sensible price and we have done all of the hard work and research for you. The outcome is a list of 40-inch TVs, we’ll be upgrading that we believe represent the finest 40-inch TVs on the industry right now.
How do I pick out a 40-inch TV?
Before we dive to our recommendations, it’s worth going over what we look for when we are reviewing and recommending TVs here on TechRadar.
Ultra HD vs complete HD: That you can not see a difference between Total HD and Ultra HD on a screen smaller than 55 inches is a frequent misconception. If you take your time and look at a picture — especially if this picture is utilizing High Dynamic Range — you will find a difference.
We recommend picking a TV with 4K Ultra-HD and HDR if you can find one. They’re not the norm at this screen size, as the cost can outweigh the advantages for someone shopping for an ultra-cheap TV, but if you’re serious about video, 4K is essential.
Operating system: 40-inch TVs didn’t always come with a smart TV operating system in the past. These TVs were cheap to make and so cheap to purchase, too. However there was a difficulty: as Netflix and YouTube became more and more popular, people desired to stream those services in their TV without resorting to some streaming video device such as a Roku, Amazon Fire TV Stick or Chromecast.
Nowadays, it is rather simple to find good Smart TV on a 40-inch TV. All but the most bare-bones of screens will probably have them. Everything you’re looking for, ideally, is a well-maintained operating system like Roku TV, LG’s webOS or Samsung’s Tizen operating system. If you go with a TV which uses a proprietary operating system (essentially an operating system exclusive to that 1 TV) you might have some serious problems in the future.
Inputs and outputs: Connections look dull, but trust us — this is something most people do not think about until they bring the TV home and get it all connected, simply to realize their new TV only has one HDMI port.
Possessing multiple HDMI ports (along with choices for optical sound out and RCA connectors) allow you to connect most — if not all — of your devices. This will help save time in the long term because you won’t need to get up and switch the cables around any time that you want to change the input.
Now you know exactly what you’re looking for in a brand-new 40-inch display, here are a couple of of our favorite TVs that we believe would be a fantastic addition to your home entertainment center.
What’s the very best 40-inch TV in 2019?
Samsung NU7100 Series
New for 2018, the NU7100 has awesome upscaling, UHD dimming and 4K resolution
Samsung has long led the way in the mid-range and until quite recently was nearly unchallenged for its throne. While TVs like the TCL 5-Series and VIZIO E-Series offer much fiercer competition than we’ve ever noticed before, Samsung still beats all of the rest with its NU7100. While it does not provide as colorful HDR as the TCL or even VIZIO, Samsung’s NU7100 does a better job upscaling content, which means those of you still rocking HD content — cough, cable, cough — may love this TV’s capability to make 1080p content look great in any circumstance.
Though the TV suffers from limited viewing angles and is marginally more costly than the remaining TVs you’ll discover on this listing, the NU7100 is our pick for the greatest 40-inch TV in 2018.
