Hi, it's HandyAndy Tech Tips here, and today
I'm going to be giving you my review of the
Sony BRAVIA KDL-32W700C Smart TV.
So let's start with the basics - this is a
really nice looking display.
As the name suggests, it measures in at 32
inches diagonal, and it has a thin bezel and
very nice minimalistic stand.
Now the panel is 1080p, which is absolutely
fine for a TV of this size.
And the image quality is fantastic from the
moment you turn it on.
It has horizontal and vertical viewing angles
of 178 degrees, and it produces sharp pictures,
vivid colours and quite good contrast as well.
So, in terms of sound, you're actually getting
a surprisingly decent set of in-built speakers.
I mean, just like with any other flat-panel
TV, you're not going to be getting the best
sound quality in the world, but I felt that
it was perfectly adequate.
Another thing that's adequate are the inputs.
You'll get component and composite inputs,
if you actually still use them, you'll get
an Ethernet input and you'll get four HDMI
ins - three on the back and one on the side
for quick access.
So you've got this TV, set everything up,
plugged everything in and now you want to
watch some free-to-air broadcasts.
And this works really well.
You can easily change channels, look at the
electronic program guide and even see some
descriptive stats about the station that you're
tuned to - actually, let me change that to
VERY descriptive.
The only thing that annoyed me about the free-to-air
experience is that it takes about fifteen
or twenty seconds after you turn the TV on
until you're able to change channels.
A little bit bizarre at first, but you certainly
get used to it.
Another thing that I've got used to quite
quickly is the in-built PVR function.
You just need to plug in a USB device with
a size greater than 32GB, register it, initialise
it, and then you can just press the Record
button on the remote any time you want to
save a TV show.
But, of course, this is not just a dumb TV
with a PVR built-in, it also has heaps of
internet-enabled features.
To take advantage of these, you just plug
an Ethernet cable into the back, or, more
easily, you can just connect to your Wi-Fi
network.
Then, just press the Home button on your remote,
and you'll see this nicely designed interface
based around a couple of tabs.
Each one of these actually offer a choice
between locally stored and network stored
content.
So, if you go into the Music tab for example,
you can view either music videos from VEVO
or you can listen to MP3 files that are stored
on a connected flash drive.
But I hear you asking, "What about the apps?
How many of them are there, and how good are
they?"
Well, as you can see, there's a few.
Quite a few.
You've got all your big names, like Netflix,
YouTube and, if you live in Australia, catch-up
services like ABC iView, and then there's
all the rest.
TED, Billabong, CNBC, the Huffington Post,
College Humor, I could go on and on and on.
But are any of them any good?
Well, most of them do a really good job at
presenting a 10-foot user interface, which
means that they have big fonts, big icons,
and they're generally very usable at long
distances away from the screen.
But the web browser seems to be a bit of an
exception to that.
I mean, sure, don't get me wrong, it's awesome
to be able to browse websites on your TV,
but there's a couple of things wrong with
it.
For a start, the URL bar, icons and tabs are
just way too small.
And whenever you need to type something into
a page - for example, a search query into
Google - then another problem surfaces.
It's incredibly hard and frustrating to navigate
the on-screen QWERTY keyboard using the D-pad
on the remote control.
And this issue doesn't just affect the web
browser, it makes it hard to enter text in
any app, for example, when you're searching
for videos on YouTube.
Just to clarify, this TV has no Bluetooth,
and trying to connect a USB keyboard was met
with no luck.
So from what I understand anyway, you're basically
stuck with the on-screen one, not so good.
But on a more positive note, the amount of
adjustments and features that this TV has
is nothing short of stunning.
Now, admittedly, some of them are novelties.
One of them is called Social View, which allows
you to display tweets from the program that
you're currently watching down the bottom
of the screen.
Another one is picture-in-picture, so you
can, for example, watch a DVD in any of the
four corners of your screen and watch live
TV at the same time.
And of course, in terms of adjustments, you've
got a full suite of picture enhancements,
including digital noise reduction.
So it might have the odd little quirk, but
in my opinion, the Sony BRAVIA KDL-32W700C
- wow, is that name just a bit of a pain to
say - is a good all-round smart TV, especially
since it costs under 700 Australian dollars.
So I'm actually a really big fan of this Smart
TV, but what did you think?
Please leave your thoughts in the comments
below.
I'm HandyAndy, and, as always, thank you very
much for watching my video.
