What Size TV for A Bedroom?

There are TVs for your home theater, TVs for your living room, and TVs for your bedroom. If you ask home theater enthusiasts, they’ll always recommend a TV that is big enough to give you a cinematic experience. That’s great for the home theater, might be okay for the living room, but seems completely out of place in a bedroom. So, what is the right size of a TV for a bedroom? Let’s discuss.

Bedrooms Are Like Younger Children

Let’s face it: Bedrooms usually get hand-me-downs. Decide to upgrade your main TV to something bigger or better? Take the old one and shove it in a bedroom. This is especially true for guest bedrooms or rooms that won’t see much use.

But sometimes you specifically buy a TV for a bedroom. This leads you to the “what size should I get” dilemma. Even more than that, it becomes a budget concern. You think about how much use that TV will get and the tendency is to want to spend as little as possible. A smaller TV usually means that it costs less. The question, in your mind, is how small can you go and still have it be “good enough.” Well…

Quality Should Be Your Primary Concern

The problem with buying based on price is that you aren’t just sacrificing one or a few features, but all of them. A smaller TV isn’t just less expensive because it is smaller. It is less expensive because it is less capable. It won’t have as good backlighting solution, it won’t be as accurate, and it won’t have as many features. You may not care as you aren’t going to be using it as much. When you do use it, you’ll likely care a lot.

Do You Need a Cinematic Experience in a Bedroom?

Obviously, this depends on the bedroom. Assuming that this is simply an “extra” TV that gets used only occasionally, we can agree that you don’t need an overly large FOV. That doesn’t mean that you should buy the world’s smallest TV for your bedroom.

The often overlooked truth is that these smaller TVs are purchased because they are less expensive. To hit these price points, manufacturers cut as many corners as possible. Just go into your purchase knowing this. If you care about quality, you may end up with a larger TV simply to get the image quality and features you desire.

Remember, when you shrink the image, you aren’t just saving money. You are also making the onscreen text smaller. If you think that this TV might be used at night, consider sound leakage. Does this bedroom share a wall with another room? When the TV is used, will the sound disturb others? If so, the user might consider turning the volume down and using subtitles. If the TV is so small that the subtitles are unreadable from the viewing position (in a bed presumably), then you’ve really put them in a corner. Your inexpensive TV might be available, but it won’t be usable if they can’t see it.

The Perfect Bedroom TV Size

When shopping for your bedroom TV, don’t just look at the size of the models and get the smallest one. Measure your viewing distance in your room and take a tape measure with you to the store. Switch the subtitles on and see how legible they are at that distance. Find the smallest size where you can still read the subtitles and use that as your smallest possible size.

We’d also recommend really paying attention to features and color accuracy. Yes, if this is a room that won’t be used often, it might not be such a big deal that the image isn’t great. But this TV might end up being used more than you think. Your usage changes over time and you might end up moving this TV to a different room or repurposing this room into a space that sees more use. Getting a quality TV will seem like a brilliant move in retrospect.

Or you can just do what everyone else does and upgrade your main TV and use your old TV in the bedroom.