 "LG 32LS4600 Review")
Lately, we’ve seen quite a few 32-inch TVs at tech2 and they’re priced all over the place. One of the higher-end, yet affordable ones we called in for is the LG 32LS4600. Priced at just around Rs. 35,000 in the market, it’s an interesting product for a number of reasons, even though it lacks smart TV capabilities and 3D functionality, for example. Of course, the price is attractive, so we’ll now see if the LG 32LS4600 is good enough for everyday non-3D usage.
Features
The 32LS4600 uses a full HD (1920 x 1080) LED-backlit IPS panel. In terms of connectivity, there are three HDMI inputs and one component which should take care of all your primary HD sources: DTH, HTPC, gaming console, etc.
Connectors at the rear and some on the side
There’s also an Ethernet port. This isn’t a smart TV, but it lets you stream content over a home network and is DLNA compliant. There’s also one USB port so you can connect a USB storage device. We tried using a 500GB hard drive formatted with NTFS file system and the TV was able to read it just fine.
Design and build quality
In terms of looks, it’s one of the sleeker TVs we’ve seen recently. While most of the TVs have plastic backs, the LG 32LS4600 uses metal when it comes to the rear. The screen is surrounded by a thin bezel. The stand is attractive and sturdy and it also offers some amount of flexibility—you can swivel the screen.
Physical buttons replaced with touch-sensitive ones
The TV also uses touchscreen controls instead of traditional physical buttons like on all other TVs in this range. Most of the connectors are positioned at the back, with only one HDMI port and USB port on the side.
Remote
The remote control design also comes from some of the high-end TVs from the brand. We wish LG would work on the build quality of the remote itself or at least make the feel better than it currently is. The remote has a good size and a very easy-to-understand layout. It’s the same case with the user interface.
Not much has changed with the remote – typical LG button layout
The interface is actually very attractive and isn’t the least bit intimidating. The TV starts up with a wizard-based system that takes care of most of the settings for you. The user interface on the TV is identical to other models from LG. It has large icons and numbers, which are all very easy to identify and get used to. If you’ve used a recent LG TV, you’ll feel right at home. The interface isn’t sluggish either.
Performance
When it comes to performance, it’s pretty impressive as compared to other TVs in its price range. Before we actually went all out viewing content on it, we decided to calibrate it using our Datacolor Spyder colorimeter. It helped us set up the TV at a level playing field as the other TVs that we test. It also gives us an idea of contrast ratios and evenness of backlighting on different areas of the screen.
When it comes to evenness of the backlighting, we weren’t very pleased with the LG TV. But in all other areas such as colour and complex pattern rendition, we faced no issues. In fact, it was better than most of the 32-inch TVs in this price range that we have reviewed so far. It’s only when you turn off the lights that you notice the slight backlighting issues; there is some cloudiness with a black background.
Pretty slim for its size
With the lights on, however, these issues are hardly noticed. Colours on the LG 32LS4600 appear natural but vibrant too. 1080p content looks crisp. We expected most of the TVs to match up to this level of detail, but only one or two models were able to pull it off this well. Full HD content looks good and the detail is maintained when you pause a video clip. It’s not just videos, the crispness of images is so impressive that this could make a good monitor replacement for your PC. Text rendition is also sharp and there were no anomalies noted. Reading text is easy and there’s hardly any input lag either. The fact that this is an LED-backlit display means that you can even mount it really close to the wall to save space.
Media Playback
Media playback support within the TV is great too. The TV is able to play pretty much every single format there is. Even TS files of 1080p 60fps content play fine on this TV. The user interface is quick and skipping between files and through the movies is a breeze. DLNA is also supported out of the box and you’re easily able to stream content from your smartphone to the TV in seconds. It can even stream content from other media sources including network-enabled DLNA devices without any problems. The only real things missing that you can think of is 3D capability and smart TV features. Apart from that, this looks and feels like one of the high-end TVs.
Verdict and Price in India
Quite an attractive design – the LG 32LS4600
Priced at Rs. 34,500 in the market, the LG 32LS4600 offers great value for money. In terms of overall performance, the LG 32LS4600 is almost identical to the Samsung 32D550. If you’re looking for a good LED-backlit TV without the extras such as 3D, you’ll find this one well worth your money.
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