Onn Onn - 32" HD 720p 60Hz Smart LED Roku TV 100012589 Review

The Onn 32" Roku TV is the definition of a budget secondary screen. You get a full Roku smart platform for just $125, but the 720p picture is soft and dated. It's perfect for a garage or spare room where you just need background noise. For any serious watching or as a main TV, spend a bit more for 1080p.

Let's be real from the start: the Onn 32" Roku TV is not here to wow you with specs. It's a 720p screen in a world of 4K and 8K, and our database ranks its display quality in the 6th percentile. That's basically as low as it gets. But that's also the entire point. This TV exists for one reason: to be the cheapest possible way to get a Roku-powered smart TV into a bedroom, kitchen, or guest room.

If you're looking for a primary living room TV, you should stop reading right now. This is for secondary spaces where you just need something that works. It's for the college dorm where you watch YouTube before bed, the garage workshop where you want some background noise, or the spare room that only gets used a few times a year. It's a utility player, not a star.

The interesting part is that it packs a full Roku OS into a chassis that costs about the same as a fancy dinner for two. You get all the major apps—Netflix, Disney+, YouTube, Prime Video—without needing a separate streaming stick. For $125, that's a pretty neat trick, even if the screen showing it all is decidedly last-decade.

Performance here is a simple story. The 60Hz refresh rate is standard for basic TVs, and the 720p resolution means you're getting about a million pixels total. For comparison, a 4K TV has over eight million. This translates to a soft, slightly fuzzy picture, especially if you sit closer than six feet. Text won't be razor sharp, and you'll notice the individual pixels if you look for them. Our picture quality score puts it in the 39th percentile, which confirms it's fine for casual viewing but not for anything where detail matters.

Gaming is possible via the three HDMI ports, but our gaming score is also in the 33rd percentile. The 60Hz cap and lack of any variable refresh rate (VRR) or low input lag modes mean it's strictly for very casual gaming. Think old-school console games or streaming from a service like Xbox Cloud Gaming. If you're hooking up a PS5 or a modern gaming PC, this screen will be a major bottleneck. The TV itself is responsive enough for menus and apps, thanks to the Roku platform, which is a small win.

The value proposition is brutally simple. At $125, you are paying for the Roku platform and a screen that turns on. The price-to-performance ratio is... interesting. You're getting maybe 20% of the picture quality of a $500 4K TV for about 25% of the price. So in a purely mathematical sense, it's not a 'good deal' on specs. But it's a fantastic deal on convenience. You eliminate the need for an external streamer, its remote, and its power cable. For a low-use secondary room, that simplicity has a value all its own.

Just know that you are making a significant compromise on image quality to hit this price. There are often sales on 1080p or even 4K TVs from brands like TCL or Hisense that bring them down to the $150-$200 range. If you can stretch your budget another $25-$75, you can get a dramatically better picture. But if $125 is your hard ceiling, this is what's available.

The competitors our system lists—like Sony Bravia, LG OLED, and Samsung Neo QLED—are in a completely different universe. They're flagship TVs costing over a thousand dollars. A more realistic comparison is against other budget 32-inch models. The TCL 3-Series 32" 1080p Roku TV is the direct upgrade. For maybe $30-$50 more, you get full HD (1080p) resolution, which is a massive leap in clarity. The Hisense 32" A4 Series is another alternative, often running Android TV instead of Roku.

The trade-off is always price versus resolution. The Onn is the cheapest. The TCL 32S327 (1080p) gives you a much better picture for a bit more money. If you don't care about the smart platform and just need a monitor, you could find a 1080p computer monitor for around the same price as this Onn, but you'd lose the TV tuner and smart apps. So, the Onn's niche is being the absolute lowest-cost entry point to a smart TV experience, with the understanding that 'smart' is doing a lot of the heavy lifting.

Anyone using this as their primary TV should skip it. If you plan to watch movies, follow sports, or play modern video games, the 720p resolution and complete lack of HDR will make everything look subpar. The soft image will become frustrating quickly.

Also, skip this if you're a stickler for sound quality. The internal speakers are weak, ranking in the 39th percentile. You'll almost certainly need to budget for a cheap soundbar or use external speakers, which adds to the cost and complexity. If you're in either of these camps, your money is better spent on a used 1080p TV from a marketplace, or stretching your budget to a new TCL 3-Series 32" 1080p model. The jump in clarity is worth the extra $30-$50.

Buy this TV if: You need a screen for a bedroom, kitchen, garage, or guest room where no one will watch it for more than an hour at a time. Your budget is absolutely locked at $150 or less. You value the simplicity of a built-in Roku over having a sharper picture. In these scenarios, it does the job without fuss.

Do not buy this TV if: This will be your main TV in your living room. You watch movies or sports and care about detail. You plan to use it with a modern game console or a PC. You sit closer than six feet to the screen. In all these cases, the 720p resolution will be a constant source of disappointment. Save up a little longer and get at least a 1080p TV, or better yet, a 4K model on sale.