What are the features that make the best TV for bright rooms? For starters, these televisions offer high levels of brightness and screen resolution, so you won’t miss a single detail. These TVs tend to use LCD or LED backlighting and offer HDR compatibility. With these features and more, these are the best TVs for any bright environment around your home.
The top-rated TVs for bright rooms will also give you plenty of connectivity options so you can connect to gaming consoles, soundbars, and Blu-ray players all at the same time.
Keep on reading to learn about the best TVs for bright rooms, what features you should consider the most, and how you can identify the right option for the bright rooms in your home.
Top 10 TVs for Bright Rooms
#1 Samsung QN90B QLED TV for Bright Rooms
Award: TOP PICK
WHY WE LIKE IT: With Samsung’s proprietary Neo QLED technology, this television creates a truly stunning picture with high brightness and vivid colors. It also offers good contrast ratio, excellent gaming functionality, and plenty of smart options and connectivity ports.
- Super bright and colorful picture quality
- Fast response time for gaming
- User interface is easy to learn and use
- No Dolby Vision or DTS support
- Awkward stand design
- Samsung Tizen software is slow
The Samsung QN90B QLED television offers incredible picture quality and performance, thanks to the company’s proprietary Neo QLED technology. Neo QLED combines mini LED backlighting with a quantum dot layer to create an ultra-bright and ultra-colorful picture. In Standard mode, the TV can produce 700 nits of brightness, which is more than enough for any bright room. HDR peak brightness topped out at 1,114 nits, which is even more impressive. Unfortunately, this Samsung doesn’t offer support for Dolby Vision or DTS.
This television is also designed very well for the most part. Yes, the stand juts out just enough to make it awkward for some TV consoles, but it the device looks sleek and attractive. It offers two HDMI 2.1 ports and two USB ports, along with audio outputs and coaxial cable ports. The Samsung QN90B is also a smart TV that utilizes the Samsung Tizen OS, which is normally responsive. However, it feels sluggish with this TV, which is disappointing. All in all, this is the best choice for anyone looking to watch TV in bright rooms.
#2 Hisense U8H TV for Bright Rooms
Award: Honorable Mention
WHY WE LIKE IT: This television is one of the most affordable bright room options today, which is especially impressive considering all of the advanced features it includes. With incredible peak brightness, excellent HDR performance, and Dolby Vision IQ, this TV gives you beautiful picture quality all around.
- Very high peak brightness
- Dolby Vision IQ and Dolby Atmos support
- More affordable than comparable alternatives
- Upscaling isn’t great
- Motion handling could be improved
- User interface isn’t very polished
Hisense televisions have seen a rise in popularity in recent years, and the Hisense U8H isn’t any different. This is the company’s first TV to utilize mini LED backlighting technology to very impressive results, all at a much more reasonable price. Comparable televisions from other brands often cost double what this TV costs. But don’t let the lower price tag fool you.
The U8H performs incredibly well in bright rooms thanks to a peak brightness level of 1,200 nits in standard mode. HDR mode delivered upwards of 2,000 nits during research. The television offers 4K resolution with stunning color reproduction and a good overall contrast ratio. It even supports Dolby Vision IQ and Dolby Atmos for better picture quality. The U8H’s design isn’t as sleek as others, and the user interface is a little clunky, but this is still an excellent option for any bright room.
#3 Samsung QN85B QLED TV for Bright Rooms
Award: Best Quality
WHY WE LIKE IT: This TV for bright rooms delivers excellent picture quality, native 4K resolution, and stunning peak brightness thanks to mini LED backlighting. It’s also designed incredibly well with a minimalistic smart interface that’s very user-friendly.
- HDR mode offers high peak brightness
- Excellent upscaling
- User-friendly smart interface
- Doesn’t include Dolby Vision HDR
- Disappointing black uniformity
- User interface isn’t very polished
The Samsung QN85B is a well-designed 4K TV with a slick design that features thin bezels and a silver metallic frame. The stand is sturdy, making it more reliable even on lower TV consoles or with children around. You’ll get four HDMI ports and two USB ports, along with audio ports and an Ethernet port for connecting directly to your internet.
In terms of performance, the QN85B offers an excellent picture with accurate colors and a high contrast ratio. Unfortunately, the black levels struggle a bit in darker scenes. However, thanks to mini LED technology, this TV offers around 1,000 nits of brightness in standard mode. HDR10+ performance is great, too, but the TV doesn’t include support for Dolby Vision HDR. If you’re looking for a well-built TV, you can’t go wrong here.
#4 Sony A90K TV for Bright Rooms
Award: Best for Gaming
WHY WE LIKE IT: Console gamers will enjoy the low input lag, high refresh rate, and HDR performance of this TV. Plus, it’s an OLED TV that offers enough brightness for playing games in bright rooms.
- Low input lag
- Supports 120Hz at 4K
- Excellent picture quality
- Speakers distort at higher volumes
- Only features two HDMI 2.1 ports
- Expensive for small size
The Sony A90K television is an OLED option that provides a surprising amount of brightness, making it a good choice for bright rooms. This way, you’ll get the best picture quality in both bright and dark rooms. More importantly, this option is a great choice for gamers thanks to a lower 8.5ms response time and support for a 120Hz refresh rate at 4K resolution. You’ll also get stellar picture quality with vivid colors and good contrast.
One of the downsides here is that the TV maxes out at a 48-inch screen size, and it comes with an expensive price tag for that size. You’ll also be limited to just two HDMI 2.1 ports, so you may be restricted if you have more than one gaming console. Other than that, the TV is designed really well with a sturdy stand and good built-in speakers.
#5 TCL Series 5 QLED TV for Bright Rooms
Award: Best on a Budget
WHY WE LIKE IT: This affordable QLED TV offers good brightness, user-friendly smart options with Google TV, and impressive HDR performance, all at an affordable price point. Plus, it’s designed well with plenty of connectivity options.
- QLED on a budget
- Much-improved Google TV interface
- Great HDR performance with local dimming
- Narrow viewing angles
- Average audio quality
- Some blooming in dark scenes
For a long time, TCL has been known as the budget Smart TV option, but it has steadily improved its offering to include advanced functionality, higher resolution, and excellent performance with HDR while still maintaining an overall affordable price range. The TCL Series 5 lineup offers QLED backlighting for increased brightness and impressive HDR performance with local dimming, making it a fantastic option for bright rooms.
TCL has also moved mostly away from the Roku Smart TV interface with the Series 5, favoring Google TV instead. This gives you a more user-friendly option with a ton more app choices and content from which to choose. Just be aware that the Series 5 TVs offer limited viewing angles and only average audio quality, so you may want to think about adding a soundbar to your setup with this TV.
#6 Sony Bravia X95K for Bright Rooms
Award: Best 4K
WHY WE LIKE IT: With hard-hitting HDR performance, excellent brightness, and good out-of-the-box calibration, this TV is the best 4K option on our list. Plus, with a low-profile design and adjustable stand, it looks good anywhere you place it.
- Incredible low-profile design
- Amazing HDR performance
- Compact, intuitive remote control
- Only two HDMI 2.1 ports
- Disappointing viewing angles
- Some blooming in dark scenes
The Sony Bravia X95K is an impressive, 65-inch 4K television for bright rooms that offers high brightness levels and excellent reflection handling. This way, your favorite movies and TV shows will look good, even during the dark scenes, though you may experience some blooming. This TV also provides great HDR performance that really makes the colors pop. Unfortunately, you’ll get rather narrow viewing angles here, so you’ll want to be sure you install the TV in the right place for the best viewing experience.
In terms of design, there’s not much to complain about with the X95K. It sports a sleek, low-profile design with ultra-thin bezels and an unobtrusive stand. Even better, you can adjust the stand legs in either a wide or narrow configuration. This way, you can rest assured that it will fit even on smaller TV consoles.
#7 LG QNED80 for Bright Rooms
Award: Best 4K
WHY WE LIKE IT: This TV is an excellent choice for anyone looking for a high-quality entry-level TV for bright rooms. With tons of connectivity options, good color reproduction, and 4K image resolution, this TV is a good performer in a saturated market.
- Excellent color reproduction
- Tons of connectivity options
- Variable refresh rate for gaming
- Disappointingly low contrast ratio
- HDR brightness could be higher
- Support for HDR10 only
The LG QNED80 television sits between LG’s OLED and NanoCell offerings. As such, it offers a mixture of advanced features with some disappointing performance issues. For starters, this television offers 4K resolution using a standard LED backlighting configuration. This means that it won’t provide as much brightness as QLED or mini LED TVs. Fortunately, the LG can still produce enough brightness to be visible during the day, though we wish the HDR peak brightness levels were higher.
This LG TV is also designed incredibly well. It’s sturdy and offers a sleek aesthetic. You’ll also get four HDMI ports, two USB ports, a digital optical audio output, and an Ethernet port. You can also screen share to the TV using Apple AirPlay. Unfortunately, the LG doesn’t support HDR10+ or Dolby Vision; it only supports HDR10.
#8 Samsung The Terrace TV for Bright Rooms
Award: Best for Outdoors
WHY WE LIKE IT: If you need a TV for use on a back patio or under a pergola, you can’t go wrong with this option. With an exceptionally sturdy build quality, ultra-high brightness, and exceptional picture quality, this is a great option for watching movies or playing video games while enjoying the fresh air.
- IP55 water resistance rating
- Incredibly bright display
- Best-of-class reflection handling
- Very expensive
- Disappointing viewing angles
- No variable refresh rate
The Samsung Terrace TV is an outdoor model built from the ground up to allow you to watch your favorite show or play your favorite games outside. Something like this is very expensive, but it may be worth it for the experience alone. Fortunately, The Terrace television offers exceptional light output levels that can overcome even direct sunlight. You may expect this to lower overall picture quality, but it doesn’t. The Terrace offers a wide range of colors, 4K resolution, and an overall great contrast ratio. Unfortunately, it offers sub-par viewing angles that don’t work great for group viewing parties.
In terms of design, The Terrace offers extra sturdiness along with an IP55 water resistance rating. While the TV may be able to handle some splashing, it’s best to install it under a covered deck or patio so it avoids full soaking from rain or other weather.
#9 TCL Class 3 Series TV for Bright Rooms
Award: Best 1080p
WHY WE LIKE IT: Minimalistic, affordable, and easy to use, this TV is an excellent choice for anyone on a budget who still wants good overall performance. You’ll also get the acclaimed Roku streaming platform built into the TV’s software.
- Roku smart platform
- Good gaming performance
- Excellent smart TV interface
- Uninspired design
- Low overall volume
- Lacks Ethernet
If you’re on a tight budget, you cannot go wrong with the TCL Class 3 Series TV. It’s cheaper than anything else available today, but it still provides Full HD definition, a bright overall picture, and good color reproduction. It also features access to the popular Roku streaming platform for a user-friendly Smart TV experience. This TV also performs well for gaming applications.
On the flip side, the TCL Class 3 Series doesn’t offer much in the way of premium features like HDR support or extensive connectivity options. Ultimately, if you need a cheap TV for your bright rooms, then you can’t go wrong here.
#10 LG UQ9000 TV for Bright Rooms
Award: Best Smart
WHY WE LIKE IT: This TV for bright rooms offers good picture quality with a seamless smart TV interface thanks to LG’s proprietary webOS. It’s also built well and features good viewing angles for group watching.
- Good viewing angles
- Upscales lower resolution content
- Excellent smart TV interface
- Low contrast ratio
- Poor black uniformity
- Limited gaming capabilities
The LG UQ9000 is an entry-level 4K television with overall barebones functionality but excellent picture quality. With 4K resolution, accurate color reproduction, and a good amount of brightness, you’ll be able to enjoy your favorite shows on this TV, even when in bright rooms.
Perhaps the best feature of the LG UQ9000 is the unique and seamless webOS smart TV platform. This is one of the best options available in the smart TV market today. It’s incredibly easy to use and offers tons of variety in terms of apps. If you’re looking for a simple smart TV for your bright rooms, then this is the choice for you.
Beginner’s Guide to TVs for Bright Rooms
What Are TVs for Bright Rooms?
A TV for bright rooms is a television with features and functionalities that allow you to enjoy a full cinematic experience in rooms with a lot of ambient light or artificial lighting. When there is a lot of light sources in a room, it can make it difficult to see the TV and even severely limits the viewing angles at which you can see the TV.
These televisions get brighter than the rest and offer wider viewing angles so you can watch your favorite shows or play your favorite video games, even in the middle of the day, without needing to draw your curtains. Since many sports events take place during the day, these devices are some of the best TVs for sports on the market today. Like other TVs, these options connect directly to media devices using an HDMI cable. Once everything is connected, the TV will display whatever media is coming from the source device.
TVs for Bright Rooms vs. Traditional TVs
In terms of core functionality, bright room TVs are no different than traditional alternatives. They both offer the same general form factor, connectivity options, and user controls. They also use the same general principles of display technology to properly display your media.
So, how do TVs for bright rooms set themselves apart from other types of televisions and display monitors? Ultimately, their secret lies in the specific display features that enable you to still see the picture in bright light or even direct sunlight. These televisions can get brighter than others, and they often employ specific features like full array lighting, wide viewing angles, and anti-glare technology to improve your viewing experience.
Other than these differences, these options typically offer the same additional features and options that other TVs use. You’ll have the same options for screen sizes and connectivity ports, including HDMI ports.
How TVs for Bright Rooms Work
Televisions for bright rooms work in the same way as all options from the best TV brands. First, you’ll connect the TV to a media device like a Blu-ray player or gaming console using a compatible display cable. Once everything is connected and powered on, the media device sends audio-visual signals to the TV, and the TV will display them on the screen.
Most TVs today utilize either LCD (liquid crystal display) or LED (light-emitting diode) technology to recreate images from your source device. Both options utilize two panels of glass to house a layer of liquid crystal. Once you power on the TV, an electrical current runs through the liquid crystal layer and rearranges it in a way that reproduces the color and image data from your source device. LCD TVs usually use cold cathode fluorescent light (CCFL) panels for backlighting, while LED options use arrays full of individual lights for backlighting.
Do You Really Need a TV for Bright Rooms?
If you’ve ever struggled to enjoy your TV in a well-lit room, then you’ll definitely want to consider purchasing a TV for bright rooms. These televisions up the brightness and improve the viewing angles so you can enjoy your favorite shows with no screen glare no matter what time of day it is.
Is a TV for Bright Rooms Worth Buying?
- All of Your Rooms Are Bright: Whether you live on the upper floor of an apartment complex or you don’t have a basement in which to install a home theater setup, you’ll want to consider a bright room TV. This way, you’ll be able to watch TV no matter what the lighting condition is in your room. Sometimes you can’t get a room dark enough, which is where these TVs come into play.
- You’re Installing a TV in an Office Space: Office spaces typically don’t get dark enough for a proper TV setup. In this case, you’ll want to purchase an option that doesn’t need total darkness to function properly. Offices can also sometimes have a lot of ambient light or external light, so these options with an anti-glare feature are usually a good choice. Plus, with the right product, you’ll be able to connect laptops, tablets, and smartphones to your top-rated conference room TV for a better presentation experience.
- You Only Watch TV During the Day: If you work night shifts or simply don’t have time to watch TV when it’s dark outside, then you can rest assured that a TV for bright rooms can help you out. Since you won’t need to draw the curtains or wait for a cloudy day to enjoy your favorite shows on these televisions, you’ll gain a greater sense of versatility in your viewing or gaming experiences.
Why a TV for Bright Rooms May Not Be For You
- You Prefer a Home Theater Setup: If you want a fully-fledged home theater setup, then you’ll want to focus on a TV that offers more color accuracy, a wider color gamut, and better overall resolution. TVs for bright rooms often put more emphasis on brightness and viewing angles over these other features, making them ill-equipped for a home theater setup. Additionally, if you want better sound quality for your home theater, you may want to check out what a soundbar is for an overall better audio experience.
- None of Your Rooms Get Bright: Perhaps the way your home is configured means none of your rooms ever get direct sunlight, or maybe you live in a geographical area that’s always cloudy. Either way, you may not need to purchase a TV for bright rooms in these situations. Most other types of TVs should work just fine for you, like the best TVs for bedrooms.
- You Never Watch TV During the Day: If you never watch TV during the day, then you usually won’t need to worry about how bright it is outside and how that will affect your viewing experience. Instead, pick a TV for your specific needs based on resolution or whether you’re a gamer or not.
How Long Will a TV for Bright Rooms Last?
In general, a television’s lifespan is measured by the length of time it takes for the backlighting to dim past the point of usability. However, according to industry experts, a standard LCD TV should last you anywhere between 30,000 and 60,000 hours. LED TVs last longer, around 60,000 to 1000,00 hours.
In general, this means you’ll get anywhere between 5 and 15 years of total lifespan out of your TV. Of course, a TV can wear out faster than this, depending on things like build quality, how often you use it, and how well you treat it.
How to Choose a TV for Bright Rooms
Choosing the best TV for bright rooms doesn’t have to be a difficult process if you understand all of the key factors that you need to consider. Start by choosing what specific type of TV is best for your needs, and then start looking at features like screen resolution, image quality, and connectivity options. You may also want to consider gaming-specific features if you plan on playing video games on the TV.
Best TV for Bright Rooms Key Factors to Consider
1. What type of TV is best for bright rooms?
There are a variety of different types of display technologies available on the market today. Let’s take a look at the most common display types so you can determine which is best for bright rooms:
- LCD: These models are good all-around TVs that work well in most situations and lighting environments. LCD TVs also offer good viewing angles, and they’re often the most affordable options. However, you typically won’t get the best color reproduction or image quality, especially when compared to more premium alternatives.
- LED: These models are some of the best TVs for bright rooms, especially if you purchase an option with full array backlighting. This feature means that there is an entire panel of LED lights for the TV, leading to brighter picture results. Similarly, you may want to consider a Mini LED TV, which simply offers more LEDs in the same space.
- OLED: These models are also called organic LED TVs, and they excel most in creating a wide range of contrast, which creates deep blacks and even absolute blacks. However, even the best OLED TVs typically don’t perform well in bright rooms. We recommend leaving these for the home theater setup.
- QLED: These models are LCD TVs that utilize quantum dot technology that uses a quantum dot layer between the backlighting panel and the LCD panel. This results in excellent brightness levels on images with rich colors and a realistic picture. In general, a QLED TV is best for bright rooms, but you should expect to pay a premium price for them.
2. What screen resolution is best for TVs in bright rooms?
The screen resolution that your television offers is simply a representation of how many individual pixels are present in the display. With a higher resolution, you’ll get a more detailed and sharper image, which is even more important for bright room TVs since the direct light can eliminate some details from your image quality.
Here are some of the most common TV screen resolutions available today:
- 720p: TVs with a 720p screen resolution give you 1280×720 pixels in the display. These are technically still considered high definition, but you may notice some fuzziness in the overall picture quality. We recommend skipping 720p TVs, especially for bright rooms.
- 1080p: TVs with a 1080p screen resolution give you 1920×1080 pixels in the display. These are considered Full HD televisions. This is the bare minimum resolution you should get for your TV in a bright room.
- 4K: TVs with a 4K screen resolution give you 3840×2160 pixels in the display. These are considered Ultra HD televisions. Their more expensive, but the increased sharpness and detail in the picture are well worth it. We recommend 4K TVs for bright rooms over anything else. If you are still debating, check out our page that aims to answer, is 4K worth it? We think it is, of course, that is until 8K content and televisions become much more common.
- 8K: TVs with 8K screen resolution give you 7680×4320 pixels in the display. These are also considered Ultra HD televisions, but they are much sharper and more detailed than 4K television. They’re also much more expensive. To get the most out of the best 8K TVs, we recommend using them as part of your home theater setup instead of in a bright room. While these screens aren’t very common at the time of this writing, you can check out our page comparing 4K vs 8K to see what the future may hold.
3. What image quality features do you need to consider?
Your television’s picture quality is based on screen resolution and a few other features like contrast ratio, screen brightness, and color quality. Certain features may be more important than others, depending on your content type. Let’s take a look at these other features:
- Contrast ratio: This is a measurement of how well TVs can differentiate between darks and lights. A higher contrast ratio is always better.
- Color reproduction: This is the color performance of the TV. This is a measurement of how accurately your TV reproduces color. For bright rooms, we recommend getting a TV with excellent color accuracy and a wide color gamut.
- HDR: This feature, also known as High Dynamic Range, produces brighter and more vibrant colors. For bright rooms, you should always get a TV with HDR capabilities.
4. What connectivity options should your TV for bright rooms offer?
When it comes to connectivity, your media setup will often determine what ports you need. For example, if you only have one Blu-ray player to connect to your television, you really only need one single HDMI port. However, you’ll likely also want to connect a soundbar or speaker system for better audio. In that case, you’ll want at least two HMDI ports. Take a look at all of the devices you want to connect to your TV and purchase an option that allows you to connect them all at once.
5. Do you want any smart features on your TV?
Most televisions today offer the ability to connect to the internet or compatibility with voice assistants like Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. However, many television brands struggle to create smart interfaces that are reliable and easy to use. If you want to stream content directly from your TV instead of connecting to a streaming device like Chromecast or Apple TV, be sure to find an option with a reliable user interface and good smart features. Keep in mind that certain smart platforms have a more intuitive interface than others
