It's been a great year for the Indian TV market if quality televisions at reasonable prices are considered. Many new entrants (Thompson, Xiaomi, Vu) made their way to India this year and many of them launched their 4K TVs at much cheaper prices compared to premium line of TVs from Sony, LG and Samsung.
Many of them were gimmicky and left us unimpressed, but we got a chance to try out Mitashi's 4K Smart Curved LED TV and see if it brings something new to the table. Unlike its competitors, this TV stays true to its name and comes with a curved panel. But what about 4K? Find out in the review.
Design
When you look at this TV, you realise why Sony, LG or Samsung set the prices so high. The design is incomparable to high-end TVs, and it isn't the best in the market we've seen so far. Specifically, in comparison to the Mi TV 4, it lags far behind because of its thick shell, broad bezels, and average build. Still, at 12.2kgs, the TV isn't as heavy and can be moved or handled easily by a single person.
It's not as bad either, the plastic used is sub-par in quality and the front design is quite convenient for living room viewing. Since it's a curved display, the viewing angles are wide and can be viewed from any part of the room both horizontally and vertically. However, sitting right in front gives you the best view possible.
The panel covers around 50-inch and leaves the rest for bezels. It ships with wall mount and table stand. While I didn't get to use the mount, the stands did a decent job to hold the body firm and at a right angle. But what didn't go well was when I was unscrewing the stand from the body after almost 2 months, the stand and screws failed to sustain the moisture in Noida (which is minimal) and got covered in rust.
There are no buttons or LED lights around the panel, which is good for seamless viewing without distractions. There's just a tiny LED on the bottom right corner of the TV, which glows in red/green showing standby/power status. The navigation buttons are at the right edge of the TV and are very easy to use.
The rear of the TV is all plastic with a matte finish in black. It resides all the connectivity ports and power port. While the set of ports on the right is very easily accessible, the downward facing ports get a little tricky to use at times. You can't actually fit in any of the connections without moving the TV, especially when there's no gap between the TV and the wall. Also, the highly-used HDMI ports might give you a hard time if you are planning to mount this TV on a wall.
Fortunately, the USB ports and microSD slot is on the right and is easily accessible. But out of the two USB ports, one is always busy with the air mouse dongle, leaving you with just one port. Similarly, the microSD card slot makes it slightly difficult to eject the card inside because of the extra depth.
But we're not complaining much here, considering the price this TV comes at. The design, build quality and ergonomics are much better than the majority of its competitors.
It comes with two remote controls—a qwerty Bluetooth remote/air mouse, and a regular TV remote. Trust us, bundling a qwerty remote with these TVs is like a blessing. Typing on TVs using navigation key and a virtual keyboard is time-taking and annoying, but thankfully, Mitashi took the factor into consideration. The remote is rechargeable via micro USB.
The main TV remote is light and made of poor quality plastic, but it does a decent job with its minimalistic layout and go-to buttons.
Software and features
The TV runs on Android TV 7.0 Nougat, and it offers an easy to use and smooth user experience. Unlike many smart TVs, it has the Google Play store to allow downloads for applications and even side-load international apps.
Thankfully, the TV is void of unnecessary bloatware, but it still packs some local streaming apps like Hotstar and Alt Balaji right from the boot. Additionally, you get a set of video streaming apps like Youtube and Netflix.
What I like the most about this TV is the built-in Chromecast. It allows you to mirror your phone’s screen and cast content on the TV without needing an additional application. But you might need to install additional apps (like VLC) to watch some of the 4K videos as it struggles to support DTS audio in its resident video player app.
Vu bundles two remotes with the TV, where one is to access the basic TV functions and navigate through menu and the other is a Bluetooth remote (you don’t need to point it towards the TV to work), which houses the voice buttons, navigation keys, a toggle for volume and mic button for voice inputs. You can simply press the mic button to say a command to the assistant and it works quite well.
Although, handling two remotes at once is difficult, but while I was using the TV, I realized that the primary remote isn’t necessarily required all the time. The voice remote does almost everything that’s needed to discover and navigate through content.
The only thing that didn’t go down well is the missing support for HDR in 2018. Also, having a pointer to hover over the interface would have made it a lot easier to operate.
Performance and software
The TV says it's 4K, but what it actually means is that its panel supports 4K but you will not be able to play 4K as the processor and codecs present on the TV compatible to produce 4K content. Its peak resolution is limited to 3840 x 2160pixels.
It runs on Android OS and a basic dual-core processor with 1GB RAM. While the Mali GPU does a fine job at playing 1090p content, the hardware lacks support for 4K content.
In order to play 4K content on the TV, you would need an external HDMI input via a player or a dongle like Amazon Fire Stick TV.
The TV has a bunch of smart TV feature, although the UI looks a little unfurnished at the moment. We have seen the same UI used on other TVs from brands like Thompson and Kodak. Still, it's easy to use and you will find all the important options lying right in front or under an easily-accessible menu.
It comes with pre-installed apps like Netflix, YouTube, and Skype to get going as soon as you plug in your TV. Unlike the Mi TV, this does not need sideloading of apps, thanks to the Google Play Store app. Although you can install apps from APKs using an external drive. You just have to navigate to the folder and hit install if it's supported on the TV.
The picture quality was convincing as far as the HD content is considered. It is at par with its competition and also some of the expensive models. Colours look vivid and bright, there's minimal pixelation on the screen and the details are crisp. The only issue I faced is with the light leakage from the edges. When you are watching a dark scene with a high amount of blacks in the picture, I noticed a soft light on the edges, especially in a dark room.
This TV sailed me through the recent FIFA World Cup matches with an ease. I didn't notice any frame-rate issue in the fast-paced game. Unfortunately, I did not get a chance to test it for gaming, but it's most likely not a perfect replacement for a gaming monitor.
Verdict
If your preference is a curved panel that justifies the term "smart" without breaking the bank, then the Mitashi 4K TV is a decent contender. The 4K compatibility and missing in-built Chromecast on the TV are the key downsides in this case.
At Rs 49,999, the Mitashi curved smart TV competes against the Mi TV 4 and Vu 55SU138 4K UHD TV. Among the three, we would still recommend the VU 4K UHD TV (55-inch).
from TechRadar - Technology Reviews https://ift.tt/2MqYwvK
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