“Bigger is better” may be the television industry’s motto, but not everyone is on the hunt for a massive screen. If you’re looking for a smaller TV that’s suitable for a kitchen, dorm room, or bedroom—or if you just don’t want to spend much money—we recommend the Roku Select Series HD.
None of the 32-inch TVs we tested matched the performance of our favorite premium or budget 4K TVs, but the Roku Select Series HD looks better than the competition, is easy to use, and is even good for video games.
The 32-inch Roku Select Series HD (32R2A5R) is nothing if not well-rounded. It boasts solid picture quality, the familiar and intuitive Roku smart-TV platform, and enough features for most situations. This TV came out on top in our comparison tests, offering the best black levels (which is good for movie fans) and the lowest input lag (which is great news for gamers).
Though we do prefer the Google TV platform overall for media streaming, the 32R2A5R’s built-in Roku platform has a clean, simple interface and supports all the major streaming services. The included Roku remote is equally simple in design but still has the necessary buttons, and it also includes a microphone for voice search.
The screen is limited to 720p resolution, but that’s fine for most kinds of content at this screen size. While the 32R2A5R supports the playback of high dynamic range (HDR) video, it lacks the brightness to do a great job with that format—our runner-up is little better in that respect.
The Roku Select Series is also available in a smaller, 24-inch size and in a larger, 40-inch size that moves up to a 1080p resolution.
Runner-up
This TV’s higher, 1080p resolution makes it a better choice for up-close viewing, and it comes in Fire TV, Google TV, and Roku variants. But its picture quality is worse than that of our top pick.
If you’re specifically looking for higher resolution—either you plan to sit closer than usual or you want to play video games with a more data-centric presentation—the TCL S3 is the best 1080p option we tested in this size. Our review unit, the 32S350G, was equipped with our favorite smart-TV platform, Google TV, but you can also get the S3 with the Fire TV or Roku operating system.
In our testing, the 32S350G was a little brighter than our top pick, and it did a better job of handling the higher brightness of HDR video to make the results look correct. But overall, its picture had worse image contrast and color accuracy, so movies and TV shows lacked the richness we got from the Roku Select Series HD. This TCL TV also has fewer HDMI inputs and higher input lag.
The S3 is also available in larger sizes, namely 40 or 43 inches depending on which smart platform you choose.
