Devi Parameswari (May 1, 2018)
on Flipkart
This is an excellent choice if you're looking for a 43 inch Full HD non-smart TV.
Non-smart is the smarter choice for now, as you can connect it with a Chromecast/Fire TV stick, and enjoy better smart platforms than the ones that ship with TVs. Unlike the world of smartphones, which has converged on Android and iOS, smartTV platforms are still in their nascent stages, and with Google, Apple and Amazon joining the battle, it's unlikely to turn out any differently than the world of smartphones. If you plan on keeping your TV for upto a decade or more, a smartTV is unlikely to receive updates for that long. It makes more sense to go with a dumb TV and use streaming media devices for the smart functionality.
So, what do you look for in a non-smart TV? The very basics - the picture quality, and audio quality and this delivers on both counts.
The IPS panel beats the VA panels found on most budget TVs. Information on the refresh rate isn't mentioned anywhere officially, and the 60Hz mentioned by Flipkart seems to be nothing more than conjecture. A minor hiccup when you start using it, is you find the images to be a little weird and off-putting. This is because the default sharpness is set to 25. Lowering it to 10 or below does the trick, and produces normal imagery. Setting the picture mode to 'Cinema' does it as well, except the color is a little too warm on that preset. The presets seem to be tuned for DTH input and the like, so you might want to play around with the settings for something more to your taste.
Audio is the stand-out feature of this TV. I've seen LG TVs with normal 2 channel outputs rated highly for their audio quality, but this goes a step further with an inbuilt woofer, so you won't need an external speaker setup to feel that bass. Virtual surround is a fine addition too. It supports both Dolby and DTS formats, so if you have video files with audio encoded in those formats, you'll have no trouble playing them through the USB port.
A word about the interface: The layout is intuitive, pretty and easy to use, but could've been of higher resolution. I feel the arrow buttons on the remote are located a little inconveniently. A little higher up would've been better.
So, there you have it. If you're looking for really good picture quality and sound in a 43-inch format, this is an excellent choice. And as far as I'm aware, doesn't seem to have any competition in its price category with comparable features.
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