Sanyo 32 inch Full HD LED TV – Review – A basic television for basic needs

Televisions have become very affordable these days. Sanyo is no new face to the Television Industry, but they have refreshed their presence in India with a new range of LED TVs. Let us take a look at their entry level Full HD model in India, the XT-32S7100F. In this post, let us review the Sanyo 32 Inch Full HD LED TV.

Installation

In the box you would find Remote, AV Out cable, Pedestal, Screws and instructions booklet along with warranty card. You may not need any specialized assistance to get started. Just fix the pedestals to the TV with the screws and place it on a base, before you connect your cables. It also comes with a free wall mounting bracket from Amazon, but you may need professional assistance for mounting it on the wall. Installation is fairly simple and you can start using the TV within few minutes of taking it out of the box.

Design

The Sanyo 32 Inch Full HD TV is not a slim TV. It has a thick form factor, but it is very light and easy to carry around. The build quality is good and the design looks decent. It may not have a stylish finish or a premium look, it is a basic entry level value for money product. The front has hardware controls placed below the display, incase you are unable to find the remote. The bezels are thin at about less than an inch. The ports are all located at the back. It has AV Out, 2 x HDMI, PC, PC Audio In, Antenna, Headphone, 2 x USB 2.0, AV In and Component In ports. The HDMI ports are located at the bottom and it is a bit difficult to access. The USB ports are placed too close to each other and if you have 2 thick pendrives, it could be a bit inconvenient. This is an entry level TV and it looks like one.

Remote

The remote is made of cheap quality plastic and it won’t survive for long, if you don’t handle it properly. Either get a bumper for it or incase you end up breaking it, you can get a replacement easily from the local electronics market. The buttons are made of rubber and sometimes they need to presses really hard for a response. Using the remote is easy and the letters are all fairly big and easily accessible. I got this as a second TV for my mother and she got used to it in a matter of minutes.

Picture Quality

Immediately out of the box, the picture quality was not impressive. The edges were over sharp and the colors were not right. I tried the different preset and none of them were good. So I choose to manually adjust the setting. After spending about 10 minutes in tuning, I was able to get the right colors and sharpness. I saved this as the user preset and now I am satisfied. The brightness levels are good, the saturation is just about right and the picture sharpness is also impressive. Contrast is something that still troubles me. If you are into a lot of gaming or watching dark movies, you may find the contrast dissatisfying. But for basic media consumption, I am satisfied with the picture quality. I am also happy that I choose the full HD display rather than the HD ready. Picture quality from the HD set-top box (Videocon) is impressive.

Audio Quality

Audio quality is average, but the sound level is really loud. I have a Sony 42 inch LED TV at home and I can barely hear it in full volume. So I had to get a Philips home theatre for it. But this little beast can fill the entire home with its loud speakers. Again there are different preset to play around and none of them offer you a rich sound. I went on to tune the audio preset and found an optimal setting that gives me good voice clarity and rich music. The mids are good, but the highs and lows are not rich. But then it is a basic TV and I don’t expect too much out of it. With what it can offer, the Sanyo TV is quite a little beast.

Supported file formats

I played mkv, mp4 and avi file formats from USB and the TV had no problems playing it. It did not recognize wma audio format, but it played Mp3 files. Also it had no problems opening jpg and png formats. These are the most common types of files you would be playing the TV supports them all. I had one file with x264 codec AAC and the tv was able to play video, but not audio. I guess it did not have enough parsing power to handle it. I also played a 4k clip and the TV did manage to play it with occasional stutters.

Verdict

I am happy with the purchase. My need was a secondary TV for my mom in her kitchen. It would be playing TV from set-top box and she would need that loud volume. This TV fits the requirement. Other competitors in this segment are from VU, TCL, BPL and CloudWalker. But this is the cheapest Full HD LED TV of them all. It is not just cheap, it is a good value for money product. I got 1+1 years of extended warranty from Sanyo. With Panasonic having a major stake in Sanyo, you are assured that you are with a reputed brand. Also Sanyo offers good service and it has a wide spread network for service all over the country. Infact VU, Sanyo and a few other brands are all manufactured in the same factory. Go for the Sanyo 32 inch Full HD LED TV, if you are looking for a basic non-smart TV with decent sound and video quality.

Buy it from Amazon – http://amzn.to/2nYngTV