Finlux 55UT3EC320S review

Decided to upgrade that Full HD fat TV for a trendy 4K job? Looking for something that won't break the bank? Then you're the buyer Finlux wants to bag.

The brand has made a name for itself serving cut-price Full HD to check-list shoppers, and now it's offering curved 4K UHD in the shape of the snappily monikered 55UT3EC320S.

This 55-inch 2160p set has a sibling flatmate, the 55UT3E242S, priced some £300 cheaper. These are the first UHD resolution sets sold by the brand, better known for its budget 1080p offerings.

Finlux has no qualms about marketing the EC320 as a cheap curved 4K telly, so just how much of a bargain is this set?

The cosmetics are nice enough. The screen has a fashionably thin bezel and seamless metallic trim. It glints appealing. However, this edge doesn't appear to be fully bonded to the rear of the set and as a result can be rather sharp to the touch in places.

The set comes with a heavyweight curved stand. This is a substantial chromed affair with the edges neatly matching the side of the panel. The stand's bow is both practical and artistic – to the rear, bolted plastic feet keep everything stable.

Connections and setup

Connectivity includes four HDMIs, three of which are side-facing. Only one of the four is HDCP 2.2 4K compliant, and that's Input One.

The remaining three failed to display an image from an HDCP 2.2 content source.

Other inputs include Ethernet LAN, an AV input for old-fashioned SCART (adaptor supplied), component video and phono stereo, a digital optical audio output for use with the obligatory soundbar, as well as a trio of USBs, one of which is a fast 3.0 variant.

Unusually there's also a PC VGA input – a bit of a rarity in this day and age.

The set has a single DVB Freeview HD tuner. There's also a subwoofer output, should you want to get a little more bass from your gogglebox.

There's a nice selection of inputs around the back

The set ships with a standard IR zapper. There's no voice interaction or gesture control here.

It's a large-buttoned affair that offers one touch access to the Finlux Smart portal, as well as perennial favourites Netflix and YouTube. There's also a shortcut to any connected USB hard drive that might be attached to the set.

The remote control itself is actually curved, obviously to ape the screen. This may be overly cute, but there is some practical benefit: your thumb is in closer proximity to all the keys. That said, the remote does rather roll around in the hand.

The main navigation buttons also creak like stairs in a haunted house. If this controller has been intentionally designed to sound ultra-clicky the effect gets real old real fast.

Connected sources are fast to access, thanks to a simple full-screen input list provided via the uppermost button on the remote.

While top tier TV makers have invested heavily in their user interfaces - from the brilliant simplicity of LG's webOS to the one-size-fits-all app-led approach of Android - Finlux keeps things fairly utilitarian and not a little fusty.

You're guided through the tuning process and network connection with prim efficiency. The onboard Wi-Fi is dual band, so you can get connected either at 2.4GHz or 5GHz.

Navigation is straightforward. A Q.Menu mode throws up an oddball selection of settings, from a power saving Eco mode and scheduled power off, to 3D, assorted picture presets, and your channel favourites.

The main menu is pretty instinctive to use

The main menu is distinguished by vertical graphics. System calls up the Picture and Sound settings, as well as less-used stuff like Network Settings and Parental Controls. You can also dive into the main installation menu, scan and edit the channel list or fire-up a media browser.

File support is good enough. The set will find and stream from any DLNA connected device, be it a NAS media server or PC, as well as local USB.

The set found my networked Plex and Twonky Media servers without a hitch, playing VOB files, AVIs, MKVs, MOVs, WMV, WMA, AAC and MP3s. If you've been building up a collection of FLAC music files though, you're out of luck.

Most of the picture settings offer routine adjustment, such as Contrast, Brightness, Sharpness and Colour via sliders, but the Advanced Picture menu offers some more intriguing tweaks. These include Film Mode and Movie Sense, as well as Dynamic Contrast.

The latter really boosts the picture, although not necessarily in a good way. To avoid unintentional overscan, ensure that the aspect ratio is set to Full, which is selectable from the remote handset.

No place for catch-up TV

Finlux's Smart portal grade is more Primary School rather than Secondary. There's an embedded Twitter widget, but to use this you need to log in via a separate account required by the TV.

Is it worth the effort? Probably not.

Having a Twitter feed on a TV feels a bit old school to me. Throwing social media onto a communal device isn't really reflective of the way people use social media. And yes, Facebook is here too.

It's a bit naff.

The Finlux Smart portal GUI divides between a large live TV window and an app control panel. Here you'll find BBC News and Sport, Flickr, TuneIn Radio, Viewster and DailyMotion. BBC iPlayer, Netflix and YouTube have been segregated below the main selection.

Opt to search for more apps and the live TV window is overlaid with an app store. There's quite a few packages to browse, but I seriously doubt you'll want to install any of them. The set lacks any other key catch-up TV services, so no Channel 4, Demand 5 or ITV Player.

It should be noted that the Netflix client is not 4K capable, not least because the set doesn't have an HEVC decoder. The version of Netflix here is the SDK 3.1.4 release from April 2014.

Navigation does tend to lag somewhat

Navigation feels a little sluggish at times. Often the screen doesn't quite seem able to keep up with your remote controlling, lagging just slightly behind.

It's also curiously impatient, throwing up large No Signal dialogue boxes at the drop of a hat. Watching a Blu-ray, these would pop up even as the disc branched between menu items.

LG 55EG960V review

You can keep your Quantum Dots and your QLED, ditch your Deep Colour and go hang your HDR; OLED is here, now, and it's deserves some serious attention. The alpha male of TVs comes to us this time in a slightly smaller package than the previous OLED outing, but its 55-inches are both easier to house and much, much more affordable.

It's got killer-looks to match, with a 5mm panel depth in the top 80% (the bulkier bottom area stores the electronics and speakers), blade-like chrome corners and a 10mm bezel around the panel itself. The rear of the panel is white, too, which is unusual.

However, the stand is not so good. It uses a transparent plastic column that's supposed to create a 'floating look' that catches too much light to create that particular illusion. There's no swivel in the stand either, though the curved nature of the 55EG960V, along with extremely wide viewing angles, means that really isn't an issue.

Features

Aside from its OLED (organic light-emitting diode) panel, which has a 4K resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels, the 55EG960V also adds a reflection-proof filter, which should prove handy given some of the criticisms of curved TVs.

A curve in a TV is usually awfully counter-productive when it comes to the picture quality, so it's good to see some attempt to redress the balance.

As well as Freeview HD digital and Freesat HD satellite tuners, WiFi and Harman Kardon speakers, LG's brand new WebOS 2.0 smart TV user interface is also on board. Just in case you were wondering (you probably weren't), the 55EG960V is 3D-ready, too, and comes with four pairs of the same passive 3D specs given out at your local multiplex.

Apps

The core apps you want are here – Netflix, Amazon Instant, etc. – but LG doesn't have the widest selection of apps, or the grandest smart TV OS.

In fact, WebOS 2.0 is all about mixing-up the TV's core features with sources and apps, so you'll find the icons along the bottom for the latest TV channel you watched next to the latest apps you used, and so on.

Ins & outs

Just three HDMI inputs on the 55EG960V is a slight cause for concern, though elsewhere there's no such shortages.

Joining that trio on an outwards-facing side-panel are three USB slots, a headphones jack and a Common Interface slot, while below are feeds for the TV tuners, a Scart, a component/composite video adaptor, an optical digital audio output and an Ethernet LAN slot.

Other TVs are also available...

OK, so OLED is out of reach for most of us, but – here's the good news – it is getting cheaper. This 55-inch version of LG's EG960V costs £3,800, while the 65-inch 65EG960V is priced at £6,000. Other OLEDs in the LG stable include the 55-inch – and merely Full HD – 55EC930V and the 65-inch 4k 65EC970V.

The bad news is that there's no reason for LG to drop or discount these prices because no other manufacturer is producing big-screen OLED TVs.

There are some hints that Samsung is getting closer to producing OLED, but we've seen these kind of stories before. Until for-sale models appear, presume that, LG's OLEDs won't get much cheaper for at least a few years. It's also worth contemplating that the lack of competition means that the tech likely won't be developed much beyond where it is now.

The flexible 77EG9900 hints at some (pointless) innovation, but that's about it, so perhaps there's no need to be concerned about that.

Sony KDL-55W805C review

As I went through the motions of unboxing and setting up the Sony KDL-55W805C, I have to admit I found it hard to muster up much enthusiasm.

The thing is, I've been so spoiled this year with outstanding cutting-edge TVs boasting such next-generation glories as native 4K UHD resolutions and HDR playback that the idea of testing a TV with just an HD pixel count already feels like stepping back in time.

• Buy Sony KDL-55W805C at Amazon Germany for €852.99

Fortunately my initial apathy towards the 55W805C didn't last long.

Partly because common sense set in and it occurred to me that with 4K content still thin on the ground HD is still a force to be reckoned with, and partly because it soon becomes apparent that despite not offering a 4K pixel count, the 55W805C is capable of delivering some seriously good picture quality.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's jump back to my first impressions Sony's brave new HD set.

For the most part it sets its stall out well. It's design runs completely counter to that of the previously tested 75X9405C, ditching that model's ultra-chunky surround in favour of a much more on trend ultra-slim frame that's barely a centimetre across along its top, left and right edges.

The 55W805C also sticks out relatively little around the back, and sits on a remarkably thin and unobtrusive metal bar stand.

Build quality

The 55W805C looks better from a distance than it does up close.

The frame around the screen is a bit plasticky, and the TV doesn't sit particularly solidly atop that skinny stand. The space saving design will likely win it many fans, though - even though clearly a set this skinny won't be able to compete sonically with the output of the massive forward-facing speakers built into some of Sony's higher-end models.

Connections on the 55W805C are excellent.

You get four HDMIs, for instance, when a number of TVs we've tested recently have only managed three. Plus there are three USBs on hand to play back multimedia files from USB drives (or for attaching a USB HDD for recording from the TV's tuners), and the 55W805C's svelteness hasn't stopped Sony from finding the room to build in Wi-Fi alongside a network cable port.

It's with its picture specifications, though, that the 55W805C really starts to get down to the business of justifying its relatively high cost for a non-4K TV.

Particularly promising is the provision of Sony's previously impressive X-Reality Pro processing engine, which uses a large built-in database to quickly recognise different types of source content and thus reduce the burden on the TV's picture processors.

This should result - in theory, anyway - in more successful real time results.

Local dimming

The 55W805C also employs local dimming in its edge LED lighting engine to deliver a better contrast performance. Sony has delivered the best edge LED/local dimming results of any TV brand for the past couple of years, so hopefully it will be able to continue this trend with the 55W805C.

Another sign of the high level of processing power Sony has injected into the 55W805C despite its 'mere' HD status can be seen in its MotionFlow system. Its combination of a native 100Hz panel, backlight controls and frame interpolation is potent enough to deliver a claimed 1000Hz effect.

You always have to treat these sort of figures with a healthy amount of scepticism, and it's also the case that you'll rarely if ever find yourself wanting to use any TV's motion processing on its highest setting.

But such figures are, at least, useful for giving you an indication of the sort of processing power a TV is packing.

The 55W805C also supports 3D playback (though doesn't come with any included 3D glasses), but it doesn't get Sony's Triluminos technology for delivering an expanded colour palette. This would have helped seal the 55W805C's premium pricing deal, but its absence isn't really surprising.

Android TV - for better or for worse

When it comes to the 55W805C's smart features, Sony has boldly once again thrown in its lot with Google, despite this relationship not bearing very successful fruit in the past.

Google's latest integrated smart TV system is called Android TV and… it's a bit of a mess, alas. Almost everything about it runs counter to the more streamlined, focussed approach now being adopted by most smart TV engines.

The interface is full screen, there's a focus on quantity of content over quality, there's precious little integration of live TV features, there's no real scope for customising the system, and there's too great an emphasis on the sort of content - especially games - that most TV users will have little interest in.

Ironically the most useful thing about Android TV is its compatibility withChromecast - a much more streamlined Android content sharing system that just emphasises how unnecessary and OTT Android TV is.

Fortunately the 55W805C's smart features aren't restricted to Android TV.

For the set also carries Sony's own Discover system, which actually delivers a much more successful, flexible, focussed and usable way of finding and accessing content. Furthermore, following an imminent update, the 55W805C will carry YouView, providing you with catch-up services for the most popular UK terrestrial broadcast channels - as well as the convenience of an electronic programme guide (EPG) that can scroll back through time to on-demand content as well as looking ahead.

Hisense LTDN50K321UWT review

While a number of once-strong brands have been forced to depart the UK TV scene in recent years, Chinese company Hisense believes there's now space in the market for it to launch a concerted assault on UK living rooms.

As well as throwing vast sums of money at making sure its brand name gets out there – not least by becoming one of the sponsors of the Infiniti Red Bull Formula 1 team – Hisense has also taken the pruning shears to its pricing. So much so that the first TV we've seen from the brand, the horribly named LTDN50K321UWT, offers 50 inches of 4K UHD screen for just £499.

That's a price/screen real estate combination deliberately designed to give the more established TV brands a heart attack. But surely such a large, cheap 4K TV can't also be any good, can it?

Aesthetically it's solid. You can't ignore the fact that there's a lot of plastic in its build quality, but nor can you ignore the fact that its frame is as slim as those wrapped around the majority of the competition. Its deep grey colouring is quite attractive; and the addition of some gloss to the bottom edge is a cute touch that shows Hisense's design department isn't just running on autopilot.

While the pair of feet the TV sits on aren't especially glamorous, they do deserve kudos for being incredibly easy to attach compared with the insanely fiddly efforts you get with the majority of today's TVs.

Connections

The LTDN50K321UWT is much better connected than I would have expected for its money. Its four HDMIs, for instance, is as good as you get with even the most expensive TVs out there right now.

What's more, two of these HDMIs are capable of playing 4K UHD signals at up to 60 frames a second, making them ready for the first generation of 4K broadcasts (delivered via external set top boxes such as BT's latest Humax box and, eventually, the upcoming Sky Q).

You also get a trio of USBs for playing back multimedia files from USB storage devices, and integrated Wi-Fi for both streaming in multimedia from networked DLNA-enabled devices, and taking the LTDN50K321UWT online.

The only disappointment – though it's scarcely that, really, given how affordable the TV is – is that there's no support through the LTDN50K321UWT's connections for high dynamic range (HDR) playback.

4K streaming support

The online connectivity actually goes further than expected in one way by supporting 4K UHD Streaming from both Netflix and Amazon if you've subscribed to their UHD services.

This is a hugely welcome touch for such a budget 4K set, and joins with a BBC iPlayer app in showing that Hisense is up for the challenge of forging content/app relationships with key local players in its push towards a global TV presence.

Before anyone gets too excited about the LTDN50K321UWT's smart features, it must be stressed that the onscreen interface for accessing them is pretty basic by modern standards. Also, while the iPlayer might be present and correct, there's no sign – yet, anyway – of any of the other key UK catch-up services.

Though there is rather too much sign of foreign language apps, which clutter up the interface and run counter to the sense of localisation created elsewhere.

It's hard to gripe too much about the limitations of the LTDN50K321UWT's smart features, though, when you remember that £499 price.

No HDR, no 3D

I mentioned earlier that the LTDN50K321UWT doesn't support HDR, and that's not its only omission; it also can't play 3D. This may upset a few people, I guess, but in truth the lack of 3D isn't a surprise at all now that more and more big-name manufacturers are starting to strip 3D off their entry level and even lower-midrange TVs.

When it comes to getting the LTDN50K321UWT's pictures looking how you want them to look, there's a solid set of tweaks and adjustments at your disposal.

These include noise reduction processing, motion clarity processing, white balance management, an adjustable dynamic contrast system, and a backlight adjustment alongside the usual contrast and brightness controls.

Colour management is fairly limited, though, and as we'll see later, if you're after really 'accurate' pictures the LTDN50K321UWT may not be for you.

Panasonic TX-50CX802B review

While it's certainly managed one or two LCD TV hits over the past couple of years, Panasonic has overall felt like it's been running to catch up with some of its rivals in the years since it pulled the plug on its ever-reliable plasma TV division.

Given how much of a picture quality leap we've seen from its rivals this year, I couldn't help but fear for Panasonic's latest high-end CX802 models - despite the brand going into more technical detail than anyone else in its bid to sell its new TVs' virtues.

Without getting too far ahead of myself, though, I'm happy to say right at the start of this review of the 50-inch, 4K Ultra HD Panasonic TX-50CX802 my concerns prove largely unfounded.

Design

The 50CX802 hits the ground running with a highly attractive design. It combines an ultra-thin, opulently finished deep grey metallic screen frame with an unusual arced-back, bar-style stand that becomes practically invisible when you look at the TV straight on. It means the screen appear to hang in mid air.

This is an effect Panasonic has tried for with previous designs too, but it's got closer to achieving it with the 50CX802 than it has before.

The only catch with the design is that you'll need a stand for the TV that's at least as wide as the TV, otherwise you'll find your precious new 4K UHD TV crashing forwards…

Connections on the 50CX802 are solid rather than brilliant, chiefly on account of there only being three HDMIs when sets near the top of a brand's range ought to be getting at least four now.

The 50CX802 does cater admirably for today's multimedia needs though, as three USBs (one 3.0, two 2.0) are joined by a very handy SD card slot and the now pretty much universal integrated Wi-Fi and wired networking options.

Network options

Exploring these network options reveals that they deliver streaming of multimedia from networked DLNA devices, as well as access to Panasonic's 'walled garden' of online content.

You can even access the TV through your tablet or smartphone when you're away from home - even outside the country - to either set recordings on it or, remarkably, stream to your smart device live broadcasts or shows you may have recorded onto an attached USB drive.

The set additionally supports Bluetooth connectivity with smart devices for simple file sharing, and the available sharing features include the facility to stream video from the TV to your smartphones and tablets for multi-room viewing.

Panasonic's online functionality is impressive.

Or at least it will be once the new Freeview Play 'app' is added via a firmware update in the next few weeks. This app will open up the potential for catch-up TV from all of the UK's main TV terrestrial broadcasting platforms using a strikingly straightforward interface.

Firefox for your TV

Freeview Play is far from the 50CX802's only smart attraction, though.

Its main smart features are delivered, in fact, by an all-new Firefox interface, designed in conjunction with Mozilla.

Having been distinctly underwhelmed by Sony's tie-up with the new Android TV platform recently, I have to admit I started using the Firefox system with a feeling of dread.

Within seconds, though, I'd taken to the Firefox approach like a duck to water.

Unlike Android TV, the Firefox system shows a real understanding of what a typical TV - as opposed to smartphone or tablet - user wants from a smart interface. It combines a graphically rich design with a brilliantly simple structure and, best of all, reams of customisation options to help you quickly get to just the apps you most like to use/watch.

Aside from not being quite as efficient with its use of screen real estate, the Panasonic Firefox TV system is almost as effective as LG's class-leading webOS platform.

Let's just hope looking ahead that the TV version of Firefox applies really strong quality control to apps that might come through from the Mozilla community, so the currently slick experience doesn't start to get weighed down by clutter.

It's good to discover that the apps already supported on Firefox OS include the 4K versions of Amazon Prime and Netflix.

While Firefox gives you the most up-front sign of change from Panasonic's 2014 TVs, the most important steps forward are actually less obvious.

New picture technologies

Where the hardware side of things is concerned, the panel inside the 50CX802 ditches the IPS type used by last year's (and actually currently continuing) AX9 models in favour of a VA-style one. This has resulted in a marginally reduced viewing angle, but as we'll see it's had a profoundly beneficial impact on the TV's contrast performance.

Panasonic has also introduced new wide colour gamut phosphors to the 50CX802 that can allegedly reproduce up to 98% of the Digital Cinema Initiative colourscape - a colourscape previously only found in digital cinemas that's much wider than the 'old' Rec709 colour standard that's followed us around since the days of CRT TVs (remember those?!).

The 50CX802 further enhances its colour rendering potential by using a 10-bit panel rather than the typical 8-bit affair, a feature which enables it to reproduce 64 times more colour gradation.

The 50CX802's LCD panel also features a new highly transmissive 4K UHD panel design to enable it to produce more brightness while consuming less power, and its edge LED system is enhanced by a local dimming system that can adjust the brightness of segments of the lighting individually, to boost contrast.

4K Studio Master processing

These hardware innovations are joined/harnessed by a new proprietary '4K Studio Master' Panasonic video processing system.

The highlight trick among the numerous picture enhancement features subsumed under this umbrella title is the use of 3D Look Up tables - taken from Panasonic's professional monitors division - that enable the screen to render colours against 8000 registry points.

Typical LCD TVs, by comparison, draw their colour palettes from just 100 reference points.

The 4K Studio Master processing also draws on know-how inherited from Panasonic's plasma division to supposedly enhance shadow detail reproduction during dark scenes.

This feature works by combining the 10-bit panel with joined-up control of the backlight and gain settings (typical LCD TVs address these completely separately), resulting in a claimed 1024 steps of gradation versus the normal 8-bit 256 steps.

One other key - if, potentially, controversial for some AV enthusiasts - feature is the 50CX802's Dynamic Range Remaster system.

This works to a) put back into sources the original source brightness that tends to get lost in the video mastering and distribution processes, and b) convert any source into something closer to the contrast-expanded, colour-enriched high dynamic range (HDR) format set to make waves with the arrival of UHD Blu-ray and expected Amazon and Netflix HDR streams.

Today remastered

Some picture enthusiasts won't like the notion of the 50CX802 essentially 'souping up' the look of today's sources - and Panasonic acknowledges this by providing the tools to turn its remastering processing off. But it seems to us that most people will prefer to unlock the capabilities of the futuristic screen they've paid good money for - so long, at least, as the remastering processing doesn't make an unholy mess of things.

It should be reiterated before leaving this section that unfortunately the 50CX802 doesn't yet carry its key HDR playback and Youview Play features - which means we haven't been able to test them. But they are both definitely coming.