4 Cheap Smart TVs That Costco Members Swear By – BGR

If you’re looking to upgrade your TV, you have a wide range of options to pick from at Costco. The quality of TV you get is highly dependent on your budget, but whether you can differentiate between cheap and expensive TVs is another matter. In most cases, buying the high-end models is easy because you can just pick a flagship model offered by the top smart TV brands and call it a day. However, when you have a limited budget, it’s quite hard because going cheaper on a smart TV can mean buying a lower-quality product.

Thankfully, you can rely on Costco user ratings to know what to get and what to avoid. To help you make an informed choice, we’ve compiled a list of the top cheap smart TVs, as ranked by Costco members. These TVs include models from brands like LG, TCL, and Hisense, all with solid ratings and selling for about $100 to $350.

TCL’s 55-inch Q77K QLED is a cheap smart TV that is the highest-rated by Costco members, and when you check its specs, it’s clear why. The Q77K uses a QLED panel with support for various HDR formats, such as Dolby Vision, HDR10+, HLG, and HDR10 for better picture quality. As a QLED, the panel has good viewing angles, too. It runs on Google TV, so you get a variety of apps to start with and can install more. 

While it’s a budget TV, it packs some gaming-focused features that can come in handy when you want to play games on a PC or gaming console. First, the panel has a 144Hz native refresh rate, and second, the TV includes TCL’s Game Accelerator 240 feature, which enables variable refresh rate (VRR) to reduce screen tearing. The Q77K also has features like auto-low latency mode and four HDMI 2.1 ports, with one port supporting HDMI eARC. 

The HDMI eARC port is important to let the TV connect directly to a soundbar and deliver better sound quality with its high bandwidth. The Q77K has an average rating of 4.2 out of 5 on Costco from over 130 reviews, the highest on this list. You can buy the 55-inch Q77K QLED TV at Costco for $299.99. Users love the Q77K for its picture quality, easy setup process, rich port selection, and value for money. However, some don’t find the TV’s screen bright enough for HDR, which could be an issue when watching TV during the day.

The 32-inch Hisense A45NF is an LED TV with 1080p resolution. Sure, 1080p resolution isn’t the best by today’s standards, with the proliferation of 4K TVs. Nonetheless, some on Costco love it for the picture quality. This model runs Amazon’s Fire TV operating system (OS), which features a simple and easy-to-use interface that makes finding and watching content effortless. Fire TV OS also provides preinstalled apps, but it pushes more Amazon-specific content. As a result, you’ll appreciate the interface if you’re invested in Amazon services such as Prime Video. 

The TV comes with a companion remote that supports voice control using Alexa. To connect external devices, this TV includes three HDMI 1.4 ports, one HDMI 2.1 port with eARC, and a single USB port. On Costco, this model has a rating of 3.9 out of 5 based on 34 ratings. You can buy the 32-inch Hisense A45NF at Costco for just $99.99, making it the cheapest option on this list. At its price, some users praise the TV as a great value for the money, although some complain about quality issues.

Hisense’s QD6 series is another TV that Costco members swear by. The TV uses a QLED screen, which delivers better brightness and color than plain LED panels. That screen has 4K resolution, and Hisense has a built-in AI upscaling feature to enhance lower-resolution content and make it look better on the big screen. The QD6 has a native 60Hz refresh rate, but Hisense has another trick up its sleeve called Motion Rate 120, which bumps it up to 120Hz — useful in scenarios like playing games and watching sports.

The display has HDR support with main formats like Dolby Vision, HDR10+, HLG, and HDR10 covered. Under the hood, Fire TV OS powers the QD6, and it comes with a remote that has a dedicated Alexa button, which you can press to control the TV with your voice. Several ports are available on the QD6 series, including three HDMI 2.0 ports, with one supporting eARC, and an optical audio output for connecting to an old soundbar or speaker that doesn’t have HDMI.

And with two USB ports available, it’s possible to connect different devices to the TV without using the HDMI ports. The Hisense QD6 series has two TV sizes priced under $350: 43 and 50 inches. Both have a rating of 3.5 out of 5 from 34 reviews. At Costco, the 43-inch Hisense QD6 model sells for $179.99, while the 50-inch variant is only $20 extra at $199.99. Thanks to QD6’s 4K QLED panels, Costco users speak highly of its picture quality for the price, overall value for money, and how the Fire TV OS interface makes the TV easy to use. However, some people disagree and think the Fire TV OS is a weak point.

The LG UA7700 series was released in 2025 as LG’s entry-level series of the year. The series features an LED screen with 4K resolution and a native refresh rate of 60Hz. And like the Hisense QD6 series, it gets an upscaling feature called AI Super Upscaling 4K to make old, low-resolution content look better. For better picture quality when watching HDR content, the UA7700 series has HDR10 and HLG support. Although it misses out on Dolby Vision, it includes Dolby Atmos support for an immersive sound experience.

LG’s webOS smart TV OS powers the UA7700 series, which has fewer apps compared to Google TV and doesn’t let you install apps from outside the LG store. Fortunately, you can play any content from your iOS or Android device on your TV using AirPlay or Google Cast. For gaming, the UA7700 series has variable refresh rate (VRR), which reduces visual artifacts due to screen tearing when displaying content that doesn’t have a fixed refresh rate (like video games and sports). You also get four HDMI 2.1 ports and an Auto Low Latency Mode. 

For control, LG includes its iconic Magic Remote, which allows you to use voice control and gestures for navigation. The UA7700 series has an average rating of 3.4 out of 5 from 55 reviews. If you’re impressed, you can buy the 50-inch or the 55-inch UA7700 model at Costco for $259.99 and $279.99, respectively. Many users reiterate that the UA7700 is great for the price, but several weren’t impressed by LG’s Magic Remote.

The list of smart TVs discussed was compiled by visiting Costco’s TV section and sorting the products based on the current price and average rating from at least 30 reviews. We set the filters to include TVs priced under $350, excluding any models that were out of stock. We then sorted these models based on the star ratings, from highest to lowest, and discussed them in that order.