If you’re looking for a new 32-inch TV, you’ve come to the right place!
We’ll narrow down your selection to the best and most cost-effective 32″ TVs available, and fill you in on everything you need to know in order to choose the best one for you!
TV | Panel | Resolution | Peak Brightness | Contrast Ratio | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
VA | 1920x1080 | 200 | 3500:1 | ||
IPS | 1920x1080 | 350 | 1000:1 | ||
VA | 3840x2160 | 450 | 7500:1 |
The choice between which of these TVs is the best one for you comes down to your budget and what you’ll be using the TV for.
In the reviews below, we’ll cover what each TV’s strengths and weaknesses are, so that you can pick the best one for your use case with peace of mind.
We’ll also mention if there are any alternatives worth considering, including PC monitors with similar specifications and prices.
If you want to view our changelogs for this particular buying guide, you can do so at the end of this article.
TCL 32S327
Best Budget 32-inch TV
Panel: VA
Resolution: 1920×1080
Peak brightness: 200-nits
Contrast ratio: 3500:1
HDR: N/A
The Pros:
- High contrast ratio
- Low input lag
- Decent pixel response time speed
- Excellent value for the price
The Cons:
- Low peak brightness
- Moderate ghosting behind fast-moving objects, mainly visible in dark scenes
About The TV
TCL’s S325 and S327 series are our top-recommended budget TV series for console gaming due to their low input lag and decent pixel response time speed.
However, these TVs have other advantages too, such as a high contrast ratio and the responsive Roku TV OS, which make it a great budget TV overall!
Image Quality
Now, the peak brightness of the S327 barely reaches 200-nits, so the TV can’t get particularly bright. This means that if you plan on using the TV in a room that has plenty of light, its brightness won’t be very effective at mitigating glare.
In a dark room, on the other hand, the TV’s high contrast ratio takes the spotlight by providing you with deep blacks and vivid details in the shadows of the picture. In this case, the low brightness won’t be as much of an issue.
The TCL 32S327 has a screen resolution of 1920×1080, but it’s also available as the TCL 32S325 with a 1366×768 resolution. Since the price difference is usually only ~$10, we recommend getting the 1080p model.
Whether the difference in image quality between these two resolutions on a 32″ TV will be noticeable mainly depends on the distance you’ll be watching the screen from.
At around 5¾ ft (175cm), you won’t be able to distinguish individual pixels on the 32S325. If you’re sitting closer than that to the TV, get the S327.
Moving on, the TV has a DCI-P3 gamut coverage of around 80%, which makes for standard color quality, nothing spectacular, as expected at this price range.
One disadvantage of VA panel TVs are the viewing angles. Some minor shifts in color, contrast and brightness can be noticed when watching the TV at an angle, but nothing too extreme.
Features
What makes the TCL 32S327 great for gaming is its low input lag of ~12ms, which makes for imperceptible delay between your actions and the result on the screen.
Note that you will need to enable ‘Game Mode’ to reduce input lag.
Pixel response time speed is decent as well, at around ~15ms. There is no prominent trailing behind fast-moving objects, apart from some dark smearing in darker scenes as pixels take longer to change from dark into bright pixels.
In fact, this TV has better input lag and response time performance than many significantly pricier models.
As with most TVs, the TCL 32S327 uses PWM (Pulse With Modulation) to regulate brightness below the maximum level. When setting the brightness to 31/100 or below, there’s a 180Hz dimming frequency that might cause issues to people sensitive to flickering after watching the TV for extended periods of time.
This flicker can also function as a BFI (black frame insertion) feature as it reduces the perceived motion blur of fast-moving objects.
The TV is based on Roku TV OS, which is quite responsive and easy to use. It’s possible to remove 24p judder from DVDs and Blu-rays, but not from streaming apps, PC, or cable/satellite. Framerate interpolation (soap opera effect) is not available either.
Finally, the TCL 32S327 supports 4:4:4 chroma in PC mode, so if you hook it up to your PC, text won’t look smudgy on colored backgrounds.
Design & Connectivity
The TV is reasonably thick, has thin bezels and 100x100mm VESA mount compatibility.
Connectivity options include three HDMI 1.4 ports, USB 2.0, both digital and analog audio inputs, composite-in, tuner and dual 5W integrated speakers.
ARC (Audio Return Channel) is supported over HDMI3, while the supported audio passthrough formats include DTS and Dolby Digital.
There’s no Ethernet port, but WiFi is supported (2.4GHz and 5GHz).
Alternatives
The TCL S325/S327 is pretty much the best budget TV with a VA panel you can get.
- The newer TCL 32S335 model doesn’t have as low input lag, so get it only if you don’t plan on gaming.
- If you’re looking for something similar in a monitor form, check out the Acer XZ320QR with a curved screen or the Samsung M50C monitor with smart features.
Samsung 32N5300
Best Budget 32-inch IPS TV
Panel: IPS
Resolution: 1920×1080
Peak brightness: 350-nits
Contrast ratio: 1000:1
HDR: HDR10
The Pros:
- Good peak brightness
- Wide viewing angles
- HDR support
The Cons:
- Low contrast ratio
- High input lag
- Moderate ghosting behind fast-moving objects, mainly visible in dark scenes
About The TV
In case you want a brighter 32-inch TV, the Samsung 32N5300 is for you as it can reach up to ~350-nits!
Image Quality
The N5300 is based on an IPS panel, so you won’t get as deep blacks. In fact, with a static contrast ratio of around 1000:1, blacks will appear somewhat grayish in comparison to the S327.
However, if you’re watching the TV in a particularly bright room, then black depth and shadow detail clarity are mostly lost anyway.
IPS panel displays also offer superior viewing angles to the VA technology. You can watch the screen at basically any angle without the image degrading in quality.
Unlike the TCL S327, the 32″ N5300 is only available with the Full HD resolution. The color gamut coverage is pretty much identical to that of the S327 with ~80% DCI-P3.
Although the TV supports HDR10, the content won’t look much better due to the limited contrast ratio, brightness and color gamut. In other words, you aren’t getting the true HDR viewing experience – which is, naturally, expected at this price range.
You just get a small boost in peak brightness for HDR content.
Features
Sadly, the TV has a rather high input lag of ~50ms. You would be able to notice delays while playing video games, but this won’t be an issue for other use.
Response time is a bit better at ~18ms, but ghosting will be noticeable, especially in darker scenes of fast-paced games.
To regulate the brightness below the maximum, the TV use PWM at a frequency of 120Hz, which helps clear up motion blur, but might bother those sensitive to flickering.
The TV doesn’t support framerate interpolation and it can’t remove 24p judder from any source, but 4:4:4 chroma is supported in the PC mode.
Based on Tizen 2018 OS, the TV’s interface is not quite as smooth as Roku TV, but it’s still decent and offers plenty of applications.
Design & Connectivity
The TV is not quite slim as the S327 and it has a bit thicker bezels, but it’s not too bulky. It’s also 100x100mm VESA mount compatible.
Connectivity options include two HDMI 1.4 ports (HDMI1 with ARC), USB 2.0, a digital audio port, two 5W built-in speakers, composite/component-in, tuner, Ethernet and WiFi. As for audio passthrough, only Dolby Digital is supported.
Alternatives
- LG 32ML600M – A 32″ 1080p IPS monitor with a wide color gamut, 300-nit peak brightness, low input lag and faster response time.
Samsung 32Q60C
Best 32-inch 4K TV
Panel: VA
Resolution: 3840×2160
Peak brightness: 300-nits
Contrast ratio: 7500:1
HDR: HDR10, HDR10+, HLG
The Pros:
- Good peak brightness
- High contrast ratio
- Wide color gamut
- HDR10+ support
- 4K UHD resolution
- Low input lag and decent response time speed
The Cons:
- Expensive
About The TV
The Samsung 32Q60C is the best 32-inch TV you can buy, but it’s quite expensive at $500. At that price, you can buy a much better 50″ or 55″ 4K TV, such as the Vizio MQ7.
Image Quality
So, what makes this TV so great?
To start with, it features 4K UHD resolution, which on the 32″ screen of the TV results in a very high pixel density of roughly 140 PPI (pixels per inch).
Details are crisp and sharp, but to actually notice these extra details, you’d need to be about 2ft (60cm) away from the TV. The further away you are from it, the less you will see the benefits of higher resolution.
For instance, at 5ft away, the difference between 1080p and 4K resolution on a 4K TV is basically not noticeable.
However, the resolution is not the only thing that makes the image quality on the Samsung Q60C so good. It has a high 7500:1 contrast ratio for deep and inky blacks, solid 450-nit peak brightness and ~95% DCI-P3 gamut coverage for more saturated and vibrant colors!
Unlike the other TVs mentioned in this article, the Samsung 32Q60C also supports 10-bit color depth for 1.07 billion colors (as opposed to 16.7 million colors with 8-bit depth), which makes for less banding and smoother gradients.
In addition to the standard HDR10 support, it also supports the HLG (Hybrid Log Gamma) and HDR10+ HDR formats.
Features
Input lag is low at ~10ms, while the pixel response time speed is decent at ~15ms, which makes the TV great for gaming.
PWM dimming is used for luminance regulation below the maximum, but it uses a 480Hz frequency, which shouldn’t bother most people sensitive to flickering.
The TV supports 4:4:4 chroma, 30FPS motion interpolation and BFI, but it can remove judder from 24p content (native streaming apps and Blu-ray/DVDs).
Most people prefer not to use motion interpolation though, as it creates the soap opera effect, whereas the BFI feature is usually useless at 60Hz since it causes double images.
Just like the Samsung N5300, the Q60C is based on Tizen, but a newer 2023 version.
Design & Connectivity
The TV boasts a very slim design with thin bezels and VESA mount compatibility.
Connectivity options include three HDMI 2.0 ports (e/ARC and Dolby Digital passthrough), two USB 2.0 ports, a digital audio port, dual 10W speakers, tuner, Ethernet and WiFi.
Alternatives
- Samsung M70B – A cheaper 32″ 4K monitor with smart features and a VA panel with a 250-nit peak brightness and 3,000:1 contrast ratio
Conclusion
Did you find the best 32-inch TV for you? Leave us a comment if you need any help picking a new TV!
In short, if you want a cheap but good 32-inch TV for gaming and watching movies in a dark room, the TCL S327 is for you!
If you don’t care about gaming and want a TV that’s better suited for bright rooms, get the Samsung 32N5300.
Finally, if you want a premium 32-inch TV, you won’t find anything better than the Samsung 32Q60C.
Updates +
- November 20, 2023:
– Replaced the Samsung Q50R with Q60C. - November 25, 2022:
– Checked up on the guide to ensure that our picks are still the best options available. - November 25, 2021:
– Checked up on the guide to ensure that our picks are still the best options available.