The best 43-inch TVs

The best 43 inch smart TV for most UK buyers in 2026 is the Hisense 43E78QTUK PRO. The Hisense 43E78QTUK PRO is a 4K QLED with a 144 Hz panel, VRR, HDMI 2.1, Dolby Vision, HDR10+ and Dolby Atmos, and it cost £345 on Amazon UK at the time of writing (September 2026). The Samsung QN70H 43" is the pick for Samsung fans who want a Mini LED backlight, the LG 43QNED70B6C is the best LG, the Samsung Q7F 43" is the cheapest Samsung QLED, and TCL 43V6D is the cheapest 4K set worth buying at £219.

A 43-inch TV is a bedroom, kitchen or small-lounge screen, so this guide ranks on what matters at that size: panel type, refresh rate, HDR format support and the smart platform. It also works out the price per inch of every pick, the seating distance a 43-inch screen suits, and what the same TV costs one size up. For the full-size ranking, see Best TV UK 2026.

What is the best 43-inch TV to buy?

The Hisense 43E78QTUK PRO is the best 43-inch TV to buy because the Hisense 43E78QTUK PRO is the only 43-inch set under £500 on Amazon UK that combines a 144 Hz panel with Dolby Vision and HDR10+. Most 43-inch TVs are built to a price and stop at 60 Hz, HDR10 and a basic speaker. The Hisense adds gaming features found on 55-inch sets, which matters because a 43-inch TV often doubles as a bedroom console screen.

• Resolution: every pick here is 4K (3840 x 2160). At 43 inches, 4K detail is visible from 0.85 m and Full HD detail from 1.70 m, so 4K still earns its place at desk and bedroom distances.
• Panel: QLED adds quantum dot colour; Mini LED adds a brighter, more controllable backlight. There is no 43-inch OLED TV on sale in the UK; the smallest OLED TVs are 42 inches, and they cost roughly double the Hisense.
• Refresh rate: 60 Hz is fine for TV and film. 120 Hz or 144 Hz matters only for a PS5, Xbox Series X or PC.

1. Hisense 43E78QTUK PRO - best overall

The Hisense 43E78QTUK PRO is the best 43-inch TV Compare Electronic tracks in September 2026. Hisense rates the 43E78QTUK PRO at 144 Hz with VRR, ALLM and AMD FreeSync Premium Pro, so a PS5 or Xbox Series X can run 120 fps games without tearing, and a PC can push the full 144 Hz. Dolby Vision, HDR10+ and HLG cover every HDR format UK streaming services use, and Hisense adds Dolby Vision Gaming on top.

The Hisense 43E78QTUK PRO runs VIDAA with Freely built in, so BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 live channels sit in one guide over broadband, alongside Netflix, Disney+ and YouTube. The 20 W speakers decode Dolby Atmos and DTS Virtual:X. The weak point is brightness: UK retailer spec sheets list 330 nits, which is enough for a bedroom but modest in a sunny lounge.

2. Samsung QN70H 43" Neo QLED - best Samsung

The Samsung QN70H is Samsung's smallest 2026 Neo QLED and the only 43-inch Samsung TV on Amazon UK with a Quantum Mini LED backlight. Mini LED packs thousands of small LEDs behind the panel, which lets the Samsung QN70H hold more brightness in HDR highlights than a standard QLED. Samsung pairs it with HDR10+, Motion Xcelerator, Tizen with Gaming Hub for cloud games, and Alexa built in.

The Samsung QN70H 43-inch runs at a native 60 Hz. Samsung's Dual Line Gate mode doubles that to 120 Hz by halving the vertical resolution, which is a workaround rather than true high-refresh gaming. Samsung does not support Dolby Vision on any TV, so the Samsung QN70H relies on HDR10+. At £499 it costs £154 more than the Hisense, and the extra money buys the brand, the backlight and Tizen rather than more features.

3. LG 43QNED70B6C - best LG

The LG 43QNED70B6C is the best 43-inch LG TV of 2026 and the cheapest way into a MiniLED backlight at this size. LG builds the 43QNED70B6C around the alpha7 Gen9 processor, which handles 4K upscaling from Freeview and iPlayer HD, and adds Filmmaker Mode, Google Cast and Apple AirPlay 2. webOS 26 is the most polished interface on this list, with a clean home screen and fast access to every UK catch-up app.

The LG 43QNED70B6C runs at 60 Hz and supports HDR10 and HLG, but not Dolby Vision or HDR10+. That makes the LG 43QNED70B6C a film, TV and streaming set rather than a gaming TV. At £329.99 it costs £15.01 less than the Hisense, so the choice comes down to webOS and the MiniLED backlight versus 144 Hz and wider HDR support.

4. Samsung Q7F 43" QLED - cheapest Samsung

The Samsung Q7F 43-inch is the cheapest Samsung QLED on Amazon UK at £255.93 (September 2026). The Samsung Q7F uses quantum dot colour, the Q4 AI processor and HDR10+, with three HDMI 2.0 ports and 20 W speakers. It is the 2025 model, and it is the TV to buy for a Samsung household that wants SmartThings and the same Tizen interface in a second room.

The Samsung Q7F has no local dimming, no VRR and no HDMI 2.1, so it is a TV and streaming set first. For £89.07 more, the Hisense 43E78QTUK PRO adds 144 Hz, VRR and Dolby Vision; for £36.93 less, the TCL 43V6D adds VRR, ALLM and Dolby Atmos decoding but drops quantum dot colour.

5. TCL 43V6D - cheapest 4K worth buying

The TCL 43V6D is the cheapest 43-inch TV worth buying at £219 on Amazon UK (September 2026). The TCL 43V6D is a 2026 model with 4K, HDR10+, Dolby Atmos, DTS:X and TCL's Game Master mode, which adds VRR and ALLM at 60 Hz. Fire TV is built in, so the Alexa remote, Prime Video and every UK catch-up app are there from the first switch-on.

TCL lists the 43V6D at 5.3 kg without the stand, the lightest TV here, which makes wall-mounting in a bedroom simple. The TCL 43V6D has no Dolby Vision and no quantum dot layer, so colour is flatter than on the QLED picks.

Best 43-inch TV UK 2026 spec sheet

Every TV in the table is 4K (3840 x 2160). The Hisense 43E78QTUK PRO is the only pick that ticks every row, and the Samsung QN70H is the only 2026 Mini LED at 43 inches from Samsung.

How much does a 43-inch TV cost per inch?

A good 43-inch 4K TV costs between £5.09 and £11.60 per inch of screen diagonal on Amazon UK in September 2026. A 43-inch 16:9 screen measures 95.2 cm wide by 53.6 cm tall, about 790 square inches, so the table also shows the price per 100 square inches, which is the fairer way to compare across sizes.

Compare Electronic's price-per-inch breakdown

What the extra money buys

The best-value step on the 43-inch ladder is the last £15.01 from the LG to the Hisense 43E78QTUK PRO, which buys 144 Hz and Dolby Vision. The worst-value step is the £154 from the Hisense to the Samsung QN70H, which buys a brighter backlight but gives up gaming features.

What size room is best for a 43-inch TV?

A 43-inch TV is best in a room where the seat sits 1.3 to 1.8 metres from the screen: a bedroom, kitchen, study, student room or small lounge. SMPTE's 30-degree viewing guide puts a 43-inch screen at 1.78 m, and the more immersive 40-degree THX figure puts it at 1.31 m. Past about 2.2 m a 43-inch picture fills too little of the view for films.

Compare Electronic's viewing distance table

The last two columns use the one-arcminute limit of 20/20 vision: beyond that distance, the eye cannot separate individual pixels. At 43 inches, 4K detail is fully visible only within 0.85 m, and the difference between 4K and Full HD disappears beyond 1.70 m. 4K still helps at 43 inches because streaming services send their best bitrates and HDR only in 4K.

Will a 43-inch TV fit the furniture?

A 43-inch TV panel measures about 95 cm wide. Budget sets such as the TCL 43V6D and Samsung Q7F use feet near the outer edges, so the stand or unit needs to be at least 100 cm wide unless the TV is wall-mounted. For a smaller space, see Best 32 inch smart TV UK 2026; for sofas further back, see Best 65 inch TV UK 2026.

Which smart TV platform is best on a 43-inch TV?

LG's webOS 26 is the most polished smart TV platform on the best 43 inch smart TV UK shortlist, while Hisense's VIDAA with Freely gives the most live TV for the money on the £345 Hisense 43E78QTUK PRO. Every platform here carries BBC iPlayer, ITVX, Channel 4, Netflix, Prime Video and Disney+, so the choice comes down to voice control, casting and the rest of the household's devices.

• VIDAA: fast and simple, with Freely built in. VIDAA has fewer niche apps than Google TV.
• Tizen:Samsung's platform adds SmartThings control and Gaming Hub cloud games. Samsung promises seven years of Tizen OS upgrades on its 2024 and newer smart TVs.
• webOS:LG's interface is the least cluttered of the five and supports both Google Cast and Apple AirPlay 2.
• Fire TV: puts Amazon content and Alexa voice control first, which suits homes with Echo speakers.
• Google TV: the widest app store and built-in Google Cast. None of the five picks here runs it; TCL and Sony sell 43-inch Google TV models.

A streaming stick in a spare HDMI port can replace any of these platforms later, so the panel matters more than the software over the life of a 43-inch TV. The streaming stick options are compared in Best streaming stick UK 2026.

What are the best brands for a 43-inch smart TV?

Hisense, Samsung, LG and TCL are the best brands for a 43-inch smart TV in the UK in 2026, because those four make current 4K models at 43 inches with a full UK app line-up. Sony's 43-inch BRAVIA 2 II is listed at £549 on Amazon UK at the time of writing (September 2026).

• Hisense: the most features per pound, with 144 Hz and Dolby Vision at 43 inches, and Freely built in.
• Samsung: the only 43-inch Mini LED from a big brand, plus Tizen and SmartThings. No Dolby Vision on any model.
• LG: the best interface in webOS 26 and a MiniLED backlight at £329.99. HDR10 and HLG only on the QNED70.
• TCL: the lowest prices, with Fire TV or Google TV built in. The TCL 43V6D is a 2026 model at £219.

For a full brand-by-brand breakdown across every size, see Best TV brands UK 2026.

Which Samsung 43-inch TV is best?

The Samsung QN70H is the best Samsung 43-inch TV for picture quality, and the Samsung Q7F is the best Samsung 43-inch TV for value. The Samsung QN70H adds a Quantum Mini LED backlight for £499; the Samsung Q7F keeps quantum dot colour and HDR10+ for £255.93. Samsung also sells a 43-inch U7020H Crystal UHD at £249, only £6.93 less than the Q7F, so the Q7F is the better buy of the two cheaper models.

Samsung's 43-inch The Frame (LS03F) adds Art Mode and a matte screen, and it is listed at £599 on Amazon UK at the time of writing (September 2026). No 43-inch Samsung runs above 60 Hz at 4K, so a gamer on a Samsung budget should look at the Hisense 43E78QTUK PRO instead.

What is the best 43-inch TV under £500?

The Hisense 43E78QTUK PRO is the best 43-inch TV under £500 at £345 on Amazon UK at the time of writing (September 2026). Every pick in this guide is under £500, so the budget question at 43 inches is really about which features each extra pound buys.

• Under £250: TCL 43V6D at £219.
• Under £300: Samsung Q7F 43 at £255.93.
• Under £350: LG 43QNED70B6C at £329.99 and Hisense 43E78QTUK PRO at £345.
• Under £500: Samsung QN70H 43 at £499.

For a console, the Hisense 43E78QTUK PRO is the only sub-£500 43-inch pick with 144 Hz. The full gaming TV shortlist is in Best TV for PS5 and Xbox Series X, and cheaper sets at every size are in Best budget TV UK 2026.

UK buying notes for 43-inch TVs

• Freeview: all five picks have a built-in digital tuner for aerial Freeview. The Hisense adds Freely for live channels over broadband.
• Returns: the Consumer Rights Act 2015 gives a 30-day right to reject a faulty TV for a full refund.
• TV licence: watching live TV or BBC iPlayer needs a licence, which costs £180 a year from 1 April 2026.
• QLED versus OLED: the panel differences are explained in OLED vs QLED.

Who should skip a 43-inch TV?

A 43-inch TV is the wrong buy for a main living-room screen viewed from a sofa more than 2 metres away. At 2.5 m a 43-inch panel fills about 21 degrees of view, well short of the 30-degree SMPTE guide, and the TCL V6D and Hisense E78Q PRO both cost only £40 to £50 more at 50 inches.

• OLED buyers: there is no 43-inch OLED TV. The nearest size is 42 inches, at roughly double the price of the Hisense 43E78QTUK PRO.
• Bright-room buyers: none of the 43-inch picks is a high-brightness TV. A sunny lounge needs a Mini LED with zoned dimming, which starts at 50 inches with the TCL 50C6K.
• Tight spaces: for a kitchen worktop, caravan shelf or small desk under 100 cm wide, a 32-inch TV fits where a 43-inch TV does not.

Verdict

The Hisense 43E78QTUK PRO is the best 43 inch TV in the UK in September 2026: 144 Hz, VRR, HDMI 2.1, Dolby Vision, HDR10+ and Dolby Atmos for £345. The Samsung QN70H is the Samsung pick for its Mini LED backlight, the LG 43QNED70B6C is the best LG, the Samsung Q7F is the cheapest Samsung QLED, and the TCL 43V6D is the best 43-inch TV for £219. If the seat sits further than 1.8 m away, the same Hisense costs £50 more at 50 inches.