Roku Select Series HD 32R2E5 32"

The Roku Select Series HD 32R2E5 is a budget 32-inch smart TV with the best streaming platform we've tested, but a 720p panel and reliability concerns hold it back. Prices range from $88 to $130, so shop around and aim for the low end. It's perfect for bedrooms, kitchens, and dorm rooms where ease of use matters more than picture quality. Just be aware that some units arrive dead or fail within weeks, so buy from a retailer with easy returns.

Let's talk about what this TV does well first. The smart platform is the best we've seen in this category, sitting at the absolute top of our rankings. Roku's interface is fast, intuitive, and doesn't bury your apps under layers of menus. The Wi-Fi 4 connection is older tech, but for streaming 720p content, it's more than enough. Apps load quickly, and the automatic software updates mean you're not stuck with a frozen interface two years down the road. The voice remote is a genuine highlight, letting you search across apps without typing with an on-screen keyboard, which is a special kind of torture on budget TVs.

But the picture quality is where the compromises hit. This panel ranks in the bottom third of our database, and the 720p resolution is the main culprit. On a 32-inch screen, it's passable for sitcoms and news, but anything with fine detail, like sports or nature docs, looks soft. The direct LED backlight helps with brightness uniformity compared to edge-lit panels, but there's no local dimming, so dark scenes get that grayish haze. HDR support is basically a checkbox feature here, ranking near the bottom of our data. Don't buy this expecting any meaningful HDR performance. The 60Hz refresh rate is fine for streaming, but gaming is a weak spot, with this TV landing in the bottom fifth of our rankings. It'll handle a Nintendo Switch okay, but anything faster will show its limits.

The TCL Q6-Series 65Q651G is a completely different beast, a 65-inch 4K TV that costs significantly more but delivers a much better picture. If you're shopping for a main living room TV, the TCL is the obvious choice. The Roku 32R2E5 isn't trying to compete there. It's a small-space TV, and in that niche, its main competition comes from other budget 32-inch models and even portable monitors. The Hisense QD7 Series and LG QNED models are also 65-inch 4K TVs, so they're not direct competitors in size or price, but they highlight what you give up by going this small and this cheap.

Where the Roku does compete is on software. The Roku platform is simply better than what you'll find on most budget TVs from TCL, Hisense, or even Samsung's entry-level models. The Sony BRAVIA 2 II K43S20M2 uses Google TV, which is solid but busier and more ad-heavy than Roku's cleaner interface. If you value simplicity and a frustration-free streaming experience over raw picture quality, the Roku has a real edge. But if you care about image quality at all, even a modest step up in price gets you a noticeably better panel.

Here's where things get interesting. The price spread across US vendors is $88 to $130, which is a $42 difference for the exact same TV. That's a huge gap for a budget product, and it means you should absolutely shop around before pulling the trigger. The lower end of that range makes this a genuinely compelling deal for a secondary TV. At $88, you're getting a full smart TV with the best streaming platform in the business for less than the cost of a decent streaming box and a cheap monitor combined.

At the higher end, around $130, the value proposition gets murkier. You're creeping into territory where 1080p panels and better picture quality start showing up from other brands. The Roku platform is worth a premium, but not that much of one. If you can find this at the lower end of the price range, it's a solid buy for a bedroom or kitchen. If you're seeing it at $130, hold off and watch for a sale.

The Roku Select Series HD 32R2E5 is one of those products that makes you realize how weird the budget TV market has gotten. You can get a 32-inch smart TV for under a hundred bucks, and it'll actually work with your phone, your voice assistant, and every streaming app you care about. That's kind of wild. But the trade-offs are real, and they show up fast once you start paying attention to picture quality and build consistency.

This is a TV for bedrooms, kitchens, dorm rooms, and maybe a guest room where nobody's going to complain about black levels. It's not a living room centerpiece. The 720p resolution on a 32-inch panel is fine for casual viewing, but if you're used to 4K, you'll notice the softness immediately. Roku's smart platform is the star here, and it's genuinely the best part of the package. The interface is clean, apps launch quickly, and the voice remote actually works without making you want to throw it across the room.

What makes this interesting is the price-to-smarts ratio. You're getting the full Roku experience, AirPlay 2, Miracast, and voice control through Siri, Alexa, or Google Assistant, all in a TV that costs less than a nice dinner for two. But our data shows a real split between what the spec sheet promises and what owners actually experience. The smart features are top-tier, but the display quality and reliability are where this thing gets shaky.

If you're shopping for a main living room TV, skip this one entirely. The 720p resolution, weak HDR support, and bottom-tier gaming performance make it a poor fit for a primary screen. You'd be much happier with a 43-inch 4K model from TCL or Hisense, which will cost more but deliver a dramatically better picture. The Roku 32R2E5 is a secondary TV, not a centerpiece.

Also skip this if you're sensitive to reliability issues. The rate of dead-on-arrival units and early failures in our data is higher than we'd like to see. If you don't have the patience for a potential return or exchange, spend a bit more on a brand with better quality control. And if you're a gamer, even a casual one, the weak gaming performance and 60Hz panel will frustrate you. Look for something with at least 1080p resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate if gaming matters at all.

For a bedroom, dorm room, or kitchen TV, the Roku Select Series HD 32R2E5 makes a lot of sense, especially if you can find it near the $88 mark. The smart platform is genuinely the best in the business, setup is quick, and the voice remote is a joy to use. It's the kind of TV you can hand to a grandparent or a non-tech-savvy friend and not worry about getting support calls. The 720p resolution is fine for casual viewing at this size, and the direct LED backlight keeps things bright enough for daytime use.

But if you're planning to use this as your primary TV, or if you care about picture quality at all, look elsewhere. The reliability concerns are real, with multiple owners reporting dead units out of the box or failures within weeks. That's a gamble you take with budget electronics, but the frequency here is higher than we'd like to see. For a main TV, spend a bit more and get a 1080p or 4K panel from TCL or Hisense. For a secondary screen where simplicity matters more than pixels, this Roku is a solid pick, just buy it from a retailer with a good return policy.