LG 32LA6200 Review

The 32LA6200 is just one of the many smart TVs LG has launched in 2013. The new series is more of a refinement of last year’s smart TVs and we have many of same features making a comeback along with some new ones. Apart from the lower end models, all its TVs now feature an updated dual-core processor for quicker navigation and support for Miracast, Intel WiDi and MHL. Some models also have built-in Wi-Fi, the ability to record TV programmes, NFC Tag On support and lots more. The 32LA6200 is one of those models that pack in everything but the kitchen sink. Let’s see if it’s worth the premium it commands.      

Design and build
The first thing you’ll notice as soon as you unbox the TV is that it no longer has the Cinema Screen Design of the “LM” series, which had a bezel-less look. The new design has a prominent bezel but is still fairly slim and looks good. The frame and the rest of the chassis is built really well with absolutely no flexes or creaks when pressed. We also really liked the new stand, which gives the illusion of a floating display. Despite being LED backlit, the TV is nowhere near as slim as one would hope. This was a necessary design choice in order to accommodate the 20W speakers.

Good design

The 32-inch panel has a glossy finish, which makes it reflective with strong ambient light in the room. The IPS panel is not protected by any glass and isn’t fitted very well either. The bottom portion of the screen wobbles when you tap it; you can actually see the screen moving about due to the improper fit. This was quite worrying and not something we expected from LG.

Plenty of ports

The back-facing buttons are placed on the right and can easily be used without having to swivel the TV around. Most of the digital ports are placed on the left side of the TV, which include 3 HDMI 1.4 and USB 2.0 ports. Around the back, we have a LAN jack, SPDIF-out, RF-In, Composite/Component combo port and headphone-out. LG ships the 32LA6200 with the standard LG remote as well as the new Magic Remote. The refreshed Magic Remote also features a built-in microphone for voice commands and the gestures work a lot better compared to last year’s models.

Also bundled in the box are four FPR 3D glasses, an NFC tag and a setup guide. The TV also supports Dual Play, but those specific glasses aren’t bundled.

Features
If you’ve used/owned an LG TV in the last couple of years, then you’ll be right at home with the new line-up. The UI is pretty much the same as LG’s 2012 line-up, except that it’s slightly snappier now. In the picture adjustment settings, LG lets you change individual RGB settings to fine tune the colours even further. Not many companies offer this feature on their mid-range TVs, so it’s nice to see LG making an effort here.

The Tag On feature is gimmicky at best

The two features that piqued our interest the most was Time Machine II and Tag On. The former lets you record TV shows and even schedule recordings. The biggest kicker here, however, is that you cannot record anything over HDMI, which is a real shame since most of our digital equipments these days work best over HDMI. It would have been really cool to be able to record your gaming skills from your game console, but sadly, this feature only works over Composite/Component connections. The TV has about 2GB of built-in memory and you can also opt to use a hard drive for longer recording sessions. Scheduled recording didn’t seem to work with the Sun TV HD we had connected.

The Smart World landing screen

The Tag On feature lets you use the bundled NFC sticker to sling media directly from your smartphone to the TV. There’s a catch here too. The NFC tag only activates the LG TV Remote app on your Android phone instead of being able to beam stuff to your TV by touching the tag. This is simply a novelty feature and is not very functional as all it does is cut the miniscule step of you having to open the app yourself.

The TV also supports MHL (via USB) for viewing content on the TV from your phone and Micracast, which lets you mirror your phone on the TV, provided your phone supports it. LG’s App World gives you the option to download apps like Facebook, YouTube etc while 3D World lets you access a host of 3D content including trailers and couple of full length movies, all streamed from the Internet. The FPR 3D works just as before and native 3D content looks good. However, there’s still no getting around the headaches after prolonged exposure. 

Performance
Out of the box, the tone of the image is on the cooler side, adding a bluish tinge to the image. After switching from “Standard” mode to “ISF Expert”, we were able to fix this. After running through the Lagom test before calibration, it was nearly impossible to get the whites and blacks accurate at the same time. Getting the black levels right would throw the white saturation off and vice versa.

The ability to adjust RGB colours individually is a big bonus

After calibrating it using the Spyder 3 Pro colorimeter, we were able to achieve accurate black and white levels. The panel is pretty good overall, however, we did notice slight greyscale banding and colour shift when viewing the screen from the sides. Other than that, the panel is capable of displaying rich colours and inky blacks. We noticed little dark patches near the corners of the display, which is due to the edge-LED lighting. This isn’t noticeable with regular TV (Sun Direct HD was used for testing) or video content, but can be seen on the screen when you just switch the TV on.

The 32LA6200 is able to reproduce good audio thanks to the two down-firing speakers (20W total). There’s good amount of bass and the highs are well defined. The mid-range is lacking a little, but the overall sound is loud and can easily fill up a medium to large hall.

Verdict and price in India
The 32LA6200 is certainly packed to the gills with features, but we feel the asking price of Rs 51,900 is a bit much, especially for a 32-inch television. The TV manages good picture and audio quality and there’s a boatload of extra features that you may or may not end up using. The new Magic Remote works a lot better and the overall UI feels a lot more snappy. However, areas where the LA6200 falls a bit short include the inability to record over HDMI (using Time Machine II), the questionable fit of the panel itself and the gimmicky NFC capabilities. We’d recommend the Sony KDL-W650A , which is a cheaper and better performing smart TV, sans the 3D bit.