Thomson Jio TV 43TJQ0012 Review: A highly affordable 4K smart TV with Jio Tele OS

Pros:

Competent Ultra HD smart TV

Good picture quality with vibrant colours

Decent connectivity options

All popular OTT apps available for Jio Tele OS

Easy access to multiple free-to-air TV channels

Dual-band WiFi

Excellent value for money

Cons:

Average sound quality and contrast

Doesn’t support Chromecast

Ports placement could have been better

Pushes a bit too much of JioHotstar content

Overall Rating: 3.7/5

Price: Rs 18,999

The Indian smart TV market is largely dominated by models based on Android/Google TV, Tizen and WebOS platforms. There are a few running Amazon’s Fire OS too, and we now seem to have a new entrant into the space with Jio Tele OS or Jio TV OS as it is interchangeably called. Popular TV brand Thomson has been the first to jump on to the new platform with the launch of the highly affordable 43TJQ0012 model in India. Time to tell you everything you need to know about the smart TV as well as Jio’s new TV OS.

Thomson Jio TV 43TJQ0012 - Design and Connectivity: 8/10

You may call the design modern or standard for this age with a near bezel-less design on three sides of the screen and a more prominent bottom bezel with the company logo. More importantly, it looks good for a budget TV. The bottom edge has a tiny chin at the centre that hosts a power LED and a power button. The TV can be placed on a desk using the bundled plastic stands and screws or wall-mounted. However, a mount is not bundled along.

The connectivity ports are located near the centre and not closer to the edge of the TV for easier access. They aren’t too hard to reach given the size of the TV but can be a chore if you hang the TV on a wall. Connectivity options are pretty decent here and include three HDMI 2.0 ports - one of which supports ARC, two USB 2.0 ports and an optical audio output that are present at the side of the TV.

An AV input, LAN port and a 3.5 mm audio out port are also present but they face downwards and it requires a bit of stretching to reach them. This TV does not have the newer HDMI 2.1 ports, but I don’t think most of its target audience would complain given the price of the TV. On the wireless connectivity front, you get Bluetooth (version not specified) and dual-band WiFi with support for 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz networks.

Thomson Jio TV 43TJQ0012 - Features and specifications: 7.5/10

This Thomson TV has a 43-inch 4K panel with a resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels and 60 Hz refresh rate. The panel type isn’t specified, but the company states that the TV uses a Quantum Dots filter making this a QLED TV. This TV is powered by a quad-core processor with four Cortex A53 cores with 2 GB RAM and 8 GB internal storage for apps and data, a chunk of which is taken up by the OS. HDR format support is limited to HDR10 and HLG.

Audio output is rated at 40 Watts RMS with support for Dolby Audio. Though the Jio TV OS is based on Android, it does not support Chromecast. Screen mirroring is supported though. You get a wireless remote control that’s minimalistic and uncluttered. Other than the usual input, navigation keys and volume control, it also has hotkeys for Netflix, YouTube, JioCinema and Disney+ Hotstar. Guess the remote was manufactured before the merger, else a single JioHotstar key would have sufficed.

This remote is voice enabled, so you can summon the virtual assistant by keeping the corresponding button pressed and issue voice commands. Things are slightly sluggish on this front but get the job done. The build quality of the remote is acceptable, and a pair of AAA batteries is bundled along to power it. The remote communicates with the TV over Bluetooth once you pair it during setup, so you can point it anywhere when pressing a key.

Thomson Jio TV 43TJQ0012 - OS and User Interface: 7.5/10

Let’s talk about the novelty of this TV, its operating system. The Jio TV OS or Jio Tele OS is pretty much like Android/Google TV with little disguise. It is based on the same platform afterall. If you have used either of those Google platforms before, you can adapt to this TV’s user interface straight away. Even if you haven’t, the learning curve isn’t steep. You get apps for all major streaming services like Netflix, Prime Video, JioHotstar, Sony LIV, Zee5 etc. Some of them are preloaded and others can be downloaded from the TV’s app store.

The TV suggests a lot of content for you to watch, some of which is irrelevant to begin with but expected to get better as you watch more stuff on this TV. However, more than 50% of the recommendations are from JioHotstar; no surprises there. I am not sure that would change going ahead even if you barely watch content from that platform; I hope it does.

You also get access to hundreds of free-to-air channels that can be streamed directly on this TV using an active internet connection. The Thomson Jio TV lets you tweak the sound and picture settings on the fly while viewing any content, be it through an app or an HDMI source or even from a USB drive. You get a dedicated settings button on the remote to bring up the quick settings menu and make the changes.

Thomson Jio TV 43TJQ0012 - Picture quality: 7.5/10

The picture quality of this TV is pretty good for the segment, especially when viewing SDR content. The colour reproduction is neat and the picture looks vibrant without boosting the colours too much. There are a handful of picture presets and tweaks to fine tune them further. The presets are worth a try, but for best results, it is advisable to head straight to the picture settings and adjust the brightness, contrast and saturation to suit your taste.

The panel is touted to offer 450 nits of brightness, and it is indeed quite bright for most things, barring HDR content. The black levels are not so great here, and as a result, the contrast is only average at best. Details in dark areas in high contrast scenes in our test videos were just about visible, and increasing the brightness beyond 60% would make the blacks look grey. Changing the colour temperature to cool would make them blue and setting it to warm would make things brown. Best to set the colour temperature to Standard and keep brightness under 50%.

Being a sub-20K TV, it isn’t expected to have major HDR chops and it doesn’t. To its credit, it doesn’t set unrealistic expectations about it either though marketing; so no real complaints at this price point. Getting a 4K TV in this budget is good enough for now. 4K content as well as Full HD videos look sharp and lively on this TV. Anything lower, including 720p videos, isn’t upscaled too well, which is quite strange for a TV this size. You expect that on larger screens but not on a 43-inch TV.

All said and done, the picture quality of this TV is not something that can rival similar sized TVs priced upwards of Rs 25,000 but is perfectly acceptable for its sub-20K selling price after a few tweaks in the picture settings. As long as you have realistic expectations, you won’t be disappointed.

Thomson Jio TV 43TJQ0012 - Audio quality: 6/10

Speaking of disappointment, the sound quality here is a bit of a let down. This TV has a pair of stereo speakers with a total rated audio output of 40 Watts RMS, which sounds great on paper but not in reality. The speakers are fairly loud but not tuned too well, and sound a tad tinny. The output is tuned for vocal clarity and it does reasonably well on that front, but it lacks warmth and doesn’t sound too pleasant to the ear beyond a certain loudness level.

The sound output is passable for general TV viewing like news, sports, or any voice-heavy content, but is found wanting in music and action movies or web series. You do get a few sound tweaks but they do not help much. Best to leave it in standard mode. On the bright side, there are ample audio output options on this TV to connect a good soundbar or speaker system for better audio. You get HDMI ARC, optical out, headphone out and Bluetooth to choose from.

Thomson Jio TV 43TJQ0012 - Overall performance: 7.5/10

The TV takes about 30 seconds to boot up and get to the home screen when you switch it on from the mains, which makes it one of the fastest booting smart TVs around. Post that, if you switch it off and on from the remote control, the TV is up and ready in a couple of seconds from standby mode. Video file format support through USB is fine. If you do not like the default media player, you can download a different one from the app store. All in all, the performance of this TV is more than satisfactory for a budget TV.

Thomson Jio TV 43TJQ0012 - Price and verdict

The Thomson Jio TV 43TJQ0012 is priced at Rs 18,999 with a one year warranty and a few complimentary OTT subscriptions. That makes it one of the rare 4K QLED TVs under 20K in India. For that price, you get a 43-inch Ultra HD smart TV with more than decent picture quality, lots of picture adjustments, good connectivity options and an Android based software platform with support for popular OTT services and apps. What’s lacking here is support for Chromecast, newer HDMI 2.1 ports and quality sound output.

Some of its shortcomings can be overlooked given its highly affordable pricing, and if they do not matter to you, this is a good smart TV to consider on a tight budget. If you seek better picture and sound quality and features like HDMI 2.1, Dolby Vision and Chromecast, you need to set aside a budget of at least Rs 25,000 and consider QLED TV options like the Hisense 43E68N or the TCL 43C655, which are worth the additional capital.