Display technology is always progressing, and since the companies that make TVs and monitors are constantly finding ways to one-up each other, keeping up with who's on top can be a dizzying experience. Which brand should you go with for your next purchase?
To get some answers, we reached out to our audience for this month’s PCMag Readers’ Choice survey to learn which television and monitor makers deliver the most satisfaction. Read on to find out the screen brands that come out on top.
PCMag Readers' Favorite TV Brands 2023
TVs continue to get bigger, display technology improves, and prices keep dropping, but one thing that remains constant is that Sony is the preferred television brand for PCMag readers. For the fifth year in a row, Sony wins the PCMag Readers’ Choice award for televisions. Last year, Sony received the highest ratings for overall satisfaction and likelihood of recommendation, but were barely better than those of LG. This year, readers continue to be very satisfied with LG, but Sony has more of an edge.
(Note: Click the down, left, and right arrows in our interactive charts to view the various elements of our survey results.)
You don’t buy Sony if you’re looking for a bargain. In fact, Sony has the lowest satisfaction with cost, just as it did last year. Instead, readers point to TCL and Hisense for value. What Sony does deliver is top marks in satisfaction with picture quality, reliability, and the quality of viewing 4K programming. (Some of those wins for Sony in the past came from breaking out 4K TVs separately; we stopped that last year since it's almost impossible to buy a TV today that isn’t 4K.)
In addition to its category best rating for satisfaction with cost, TCL also comes out on top for satisfaction with ease of use and smart TV streaming capabilities. TCL integrates the streaming smarts from Roku TV, Google TV, or Amazon Fire TV, depending on the model you buy.
PCMag Readers' Favorite PC Monitors 2023
Six companies, all household names in consumer electronics, received enough responses to be considered in our monitor survey analysis. In general, all of them rate very well, especially when it comes to reliability, though Acer lags a bit behind. In the face of stiff competition, we give the edge to LG, which wins its first Readers’ Choice award for monitors since 2018.
LG ties with Asus for the highest ratings from our readers for overall satisfaction and likelihood of recommendation. However, LG sets itself apart by also receiving the top marks for satisfaction with picture quality, cost/value, and reliability. On reliability, LG’s rating is tied with Dell.
Dell also receives the highest rating for satisfaction with ease of use and it ties LG and Asus in likelihood to recommend, but it has the lowest rating for satisfaction with cost/value, which may be why readers rate it slightly lower in overall satisfaction.
Samsung, last year’s Readers’ Choice award winner, sees most of its ratings drop to the middle of the pack this year. While readers are generally still very happy with Samsung, the company’s overall satisfaction, ease of use, and reliability scores all decline a bit. When it comes to picture quality, however, it comes in second only to this year’s winner, LG.
Full Results
The PCMag Readers’ Choice survey for TVs and monitors was in the field from October 16 to November 5, 2023 For more information on how we conduct surveys, read the survey methodology.