Samsung Vs LG: Which Brand Makes The Better Smart TV? Here’s What The Experts Say

Moneynetar/Shutterstock Add SlashGear on Google: Preferred Source Google Discover If you’re in the market to get a new television, two brands you’re likely looking at are LG and Samsung. The two brands sit atop Consumer Reports’ ranking of every major TV brand, and the Samsung QN65S90F is CR’s top TV to buy in 2026. They both offer a wide variety of TV technologies in a bunch of different sizes, and depending on the model, they can often fit many different people’s budgets. While a TV’s visual specs often get debated when choosing a new TV — and it’s obviously a crucial consideration — one of the more underrated factors is how well it functions as a smart TV.

It’s rare to come across a new TV from a big brand that isn’t a smart TV. Some people would rather use a streaming device for their smart TV functionality, but others just want to rely on what the TV itself has to offer. Every brand has its own operating system and features, and while there’s ultimately a lot of crossover in what they’re able to do, experts have plenty of opinions on which brand has the superior smart TV functionality, however small the difference between them may be. Here, we’re going to look at what Samsung and LG have to offer on that front. Both of them have generally well-liked smart TV operating systems, but experts have views on everything ranging from the design layout of their respective home and settings pages to the voice assistant capabilities to visual settings that can affect certain smart TV features.

LG Both Samsung and LG have their own operating systems for smart TV features. Samsung’s OS is called Tizen, and LG has its webOS. You may already be familiar with these operating systems because both companies actually license them to other smaller TV brands. For the most part, the two OSes have very similar functionalities and aesthetics. Each one has its homepage where you can access a variety of different apps, see your recently viewed content, and find recommended media from your connected apps. Both use a tile-based system to scroll through all of your options.

While Rtings ultimately has the comparison come down to personal preference, both TechRadar and Pocket-lint ever so slightly prefer LG’s webOS to Samsung’s Tizen. TechRadar found it a bit more difficult to find particular apps on Tizen’s interface. Pocket-lint went beyond LG’s homepage to its settings page and liked that the quick menu for settings shows up in a column on the left side of the screen rather than a box right in the center. If you’re adjusting picture settings, having the menu on the left gives you more space to see the image that you’re adjusting to make sure it’s correct.

8th.creator/Shutterstock One area where experts had LG outpacing Samsung smart TVs was with their AI voice assistant capabilities. The reason for this was because LG had the ability to have Google Assistant natively supported by the TV at a time when Samsung had ended that functionality. Well, in 2025, LG also dispensed with Google Assistant capabilities. Both brands do still support Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant though.

Samsung and LG actually opted to replace Google Assistant with Microsoft Copilot. This decision was not well-received, particularly by LG customers, who initially couldn’t remove the AI assistant icon from their TV. LG promised to change that in December 2025. You can now hide the icon, but Copilot is still available. As for Samsung TVs, the outrage doesn’t seem to be as widespread, even though you seemingly cannot cleanly remove Copilot from those TVs either, and some Redditors are coming up with convoluted ways to get it off.

Each company also has AI voice assistants, Samsung’s Bixby and LG’s ThinQ AI, and they aren’t exactly lighting the world on fire. Tom’s Guide was particularly scathing about Bixby, which was unable to answer a simple question like “What’s on TV tonight?” with anything helpful. Samsung has also expanded Vision AI, which includes AI upscaling and broader AI-assisted features. The Sunday Guardian was not a fan. Expert reviews of ThinQ AI are incredibly scarce. Since many positive reviews of LG’s voice controls dated from its Google Assistant integration, LG no longer appears to have that advantage. Overall, experts seem to place more weight on OS usability than voice assistants or generative AI. The expert reviews give LG’s webOS a slight edge for ease of use, but the difference is small enough that Samsung’s Tizen remains a strong alternative.