Not Sony, Not Roku: Consumer Reports Names The Top TV Brand For 2026

Consumer advocacy stalwart Consumer Reports has put together all the pieces and considered a number of factors in assembling a list of the top TV brands for 2026. So, if you're about to buy a new TV or replace one that's on its way out, they are the experts you want to listen to. Samsung garnered the highest brand score, a separate metric from performance and reliability metrics used by Consumer Reports to evaluate individual television models. The manufacturer edged out LG, Roku, and Sony in what might reasonably be considered a fairly level field of TV brands.

Consumer Reports rates brands based on the overall quality of their offerings as determined by a survey of members, the company's own rigorous laboratory testing, and predicted reliability ratings that are gleaned from TV owners' reliability and satisfaction ratings. They also note whether members recommend a brand based on their experiences. Consumer Reports and other professional reviewers evaluate TVs based on criteria like overall picture quality, HDR performance, sound quality, resolution, and refresh rate, as well as additional features. Some of these metrics are determined with measurement devices that produce extremely uniform and accurate results, while others are the result of subjective observations by highly trained professionals. As an example, the Samsung QN65S90F, which Consumer Reports describes as a "65-inch mid-tier model" and which retails for about $1,299.99, received the organization's highest-tier rating as well as high scores in its performance in picture, HDR, and sound quality evaluations.

Other respected reviewers with access to the same sorts of equipment and expertise found similar results to Consumer Reports' favorable opinion of Samsung. Samsung had the highest rated television analyzed by four of the five organizations we examined; the remaining reviewer didn't select an overall favorite.

When it comes to how Samsung stacked up against competing brands, though, there were some notable differences. TCL (which recently offered at 65-inch smart TV for less than $400 through Costco) and Hisense didn't fare well in the Consumer Reports brand ratings, but were held in fairly high regard by Rtings. CNET, PC Magazine, and Wirecutter all selected either TCL, Hisense, or both as leaders in at least one TV category. Meanwhile, Roku TVs performed better in the Consumer Reports rankings than in the others, taken as a whole. Rtings, in fact, excluded Roku altogether because it says the manufacturer doesn't issue many models each year. The variability in ratings of TCL, Hisense, and Roku TVs is meaningful, and we'll discuss that in a moment. It is also notable that, while LG generally performed almost as well as Samsung across all reviewers, Sony was only highly rated as a TV brand by Consumer Reports and Rtings. 

Whether you choose to go with a Samsung TV or another brand, Consumer Reports, Rtings, CNET, and PC Magazine all listed Samsung among their top brand choices for TVs in 2026. They also all offer a word of caution for those looking for a budget television: Don't expect a stellar performance from a bottom-tier TV model, even from the top-rated TV brands. The consensus is that you should evaluate a specific model based on the specific performance and reliability ratings of that model, not of the brand as a whole.

So, if you are looking for a budget TV, should you go with a budget brand? You might as well. You're likely to have the same experience whether you buy a budget model from a well-rated brand or you go with a model of the same price from a budget brand. Here's why: Even the bargain models offered by even the top TV brands overall are often in a different quality universe, sharing none of the quality parts that gave a brand its high-quality reputation. Often, they are even made by the same manufacturers. 

So, if Samsung is the best TV brand for 2026, what about its other appliances? Unfortunately, this rating doesn't automatically translate to the best appliance brand in every category. Within the past year, for example, reviewers have consistently warned consumers to think twice before buying Samsung refrigerators.