There has been a significant shift in how we consume content on our TVs. Cable and DTH offer little in the way of choice. Thanks to OTT services, people are demanding a lot more from TV makers too. Great audio and video capabilities are a must and people are getting aware of the role played by the operating system on offer. Blaupunkt forayed into India’s blossoming smart TV market a while ago and its latest arrival is one that has caught my eye. The Blaupunkt 55-inch QLED 4K Google TV is priced currently on Flipkart at Rs 41,999, which I think is very competitive with respect to the current offerings in the market. Let’s dive into the smart TV’s features and specifications to see if it is truly worth your consideration.
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The lowdown
Blaupunkt’s build quality is quite satisfactory when it comes to smart TVs. Like the Cybersound 43-inch (review) from last year, the 55-inch QLED version implements razor-thin bezels across three sides of the TV. While the overall build is plastic, the TV has the trademark polished silver finish on the bottom where Blaupunkt’s branding is visible. With its 55-inch profile, the smart TV does occupy a significant amount of space whereever you place it. The legs provided inside the box screw in easily and keep the device stable enough on a flat surface. Of course, you also have the option of mounting the TV on a wall as well.
In terms of ports, the device has three HDMI ports, two USB Type-A slots, a LAN port, and an antenna port. All of them are lined on the same side at the back for ease of use and proper cable management. For wireless connectivity, the smart TV offers Bluetooth 5.0 and support for dual-band Wi-Fi.
Also, keeping in line with previous Blaupunkt TVs, the 55-inch QLED has a rather large remote with a variety of functions that you will likely not need. I do like the dedicated keys up top for opening Netflix, Prime Video, and YouTube. For the Indian audience, having a Hotstar key would’ve served even better. In any case, you have buttons for menu navigation, Google Assistant, settings, back, home, and volume controls. Below are a number of keys that will come in handy if you are watching cable television. The voice assistant works well and generally has good recognition capabilities.
The performance of the Blaupunkt 55-inch QLED is handled by a quad-core MediaTek processor, which is mated to 16GB of internal storage. My experience with the UI was average. Quite a few times I noticed the interface freezing when switching between OTT services. The Google TV interface is intuitive enough but navigating through it showed some lag. However, once inside an app, the performance was good. Videos streamed without buffering and I could move around the app to change settings without any issue. The TV works on Google TV Android 11 and has built-in Chromecast for casting.
As for the TV’s core aspects, which are audio and video quality, there’s very little to complain about. The QLED 55-inch screen has a 4K resolution and displays up to 1.1 billion colours. Brightness levels were excellent as were the viewing angles and the colours really punched above the TV’s weight class. I ran the standard Costa Rica HDR 4K video on YouTube to test the quality and was left mesmerised by the amount of detail visible in each shot along with the dynamic range.
There is support for both Dolby Vision and HDR10+ content and I have to say that the latest episodes of House of the Dragon are an absolute joy to watch on the screen. There’s MEMC smoothening, and the TV automatically scales up any content to 60fps without a hitch. For audio, you get a stereo speaker setup that has a maximum output of 60W and is Dolby Atmos tuned. I cranked up the volume to its maximum levels and still, the sound had a lot of depth to it without a hint of crackling. The TV’s audio setup is perfect for your living room without having to shell out more money on a separate speaker setup.
Verdict
The Blaupunkt 55-inch 4K QLED smart TV is a capable choice in the sub-Rs 50,000 market. It does have the audio and visual traits that set it up competitively with other products. I was impressed with how good the picture quality on the TV is compared to its price tag. Apart from that, the setup process and build quality on the device is quite good. The few areas of improvement revolve around the interface which can get a bit laggy at times but apart from that, you would be hard-pressed to find a better alternative than Blaupunkt’s 55-inch offering.
Editor’s rating: 3.5 / 5
Pros:
- Good picture quality
- Decent audio
- Sturdy design
Cons:
- Performance could be improved
