Daiwa 43-inch 4K TV review: Good panel for the price, strong smart features

Daiwa 43-inch 4K TV Detailed Review

A 4K HDR TV isn’t just for the premium customer anymore. There are 4K TVs available for every budget. Today we have a 4K HDR TV from Daiwa. The TV boasts of 4K resolution with support for HDR. The TV is available in screen sizes ranging from 43-inch to 65-inch, but the 43-inch variant we have today costs just Rs 26,490. The size of the TV is ideal for a small bedroom, but should it be considered?

Key Specifications at a Glance

Panel Size: 43-inch
Panel Type: IPS
Panel Resolution: 3840 x 2160 – 4K
Panel Refresh Rate: 60Hz
HDR 10 Support: Yes
Dolby Vision Support: No
HDMI Port: 3
USB Port: 2
bluetooth: no
Wi-Fi: Yes
Ethernet: yes
Speakers: 2 x 10W
CPU: Cortex A73 Dual Core 800Mhz
GPU: Dual Core Mali450-540MHz
RAM: 1 GB
Built-in Storage: 8GB
OS: Android 7 (AOSP)
Price: Rs 26,490

create and design

Starting things off with the build of the Daiwa 43-inch 4K TV, it’s not the thinnest which is fine. You will see 2 protrusions for the wall mount on the back of the TV. They’re not a hindrance by any means, just their presence isn’t something we’ve seen on other TVs.

The TV has a plastic casing, which we have seen in a large number of budget TVs. The borders of the TV around the display are black and plastic. Since they have a matte finish, they don’t really interfere with the viewing experience. Considering the price, the borders are relatively thin and the logo on the bottom bezel is small and minimal. You can either choose to wall mount the TV or place it on a table top. We placed the TV on the table top using the two feet that came in the box, which are also made of metal. The metal legs are very well made, hold the TV firmly in place and are quite slim. The space between the table and the bottom bezel is large enough to hold a set-top-box or PS4. If you have a PS4 Pro or Xbox One X, you may want to move things around as it won’t fit under the TV.

Overall, the build of the TV is sturdy, especially the table top stand that comes in the box. Its design is minimalistic. Considering the price of the TV, its build and design is good.

Ports & Connectivity

When it comes to connectivity, the Daiwa 43-inch 4K TV has three HDMI ports with HDMI 3 ARC enabled, and two USB ports. All these ports are placed on the side of the TV for easy access. If you want to use the keyboard feature on the remote control, you’ll need to use the supplied dongle which will take up a USB port, so keep that in mind. Around back, the TV has an Ethernet port, optical audio out port, 2 AV inputs, an RF input for good old antennae, and a 3.5mm out if you want to connect a pair of headphones. The TV also has Wi-Fi but sadly no Bluetooth.

Once again we’re happy with the selection of ports on the TV. There’s ARC and 3.5mm for your audio options. There are 3 HDMI ports which is more than enough at this price and 2 RCA inputs for your old PS2 or DVD player or set-top-box.

Display and picture quality

The Daiwa 43-inch 4K TV features a 10-bit IPS panel made by LG. Thanks to the 10-bit panel, the TV boasts of 4K capabilities with HDR10 support. A 10-bit panel will help the TV produce more colors which is essential for HDR content. The TV also needs to be bright enough to make the most of HDR content. Daiwa tells us the TV has a peak brightness of 350 nits, which isn’t a lot especially when you consider that the HDR10 standard requires 1000 nits of brightness. We will discuss how the TV performs in the following sections. Below we’ll highlight the TV’s performance using three types of content – ​​4K HDR, 1080p, and gaming content.

The Netflix UI above is from the Xbox One X

4K and HDR playback

For 4K HDR content we played our standard slew of clips from Netflix including Daredevil, Star Trek and more. Daiwa tells us the TV’s brightness is 350 nits, which is well below what HDR requires, but in line with what we’ve seen on other TVs in this price segment. The good news is that the content is viewable well even in a lit room, while the downside is that scenes are less visible in the dark when watching HDR content. You can turn off HDR playback through the TV’s settings to get SDR playback, and this can help with some content in low-light situations. That being said, the HDR performance of the TV is marginally better than the Mi TV 4A Pro. review of, The Mi TV is a Full HD TV with HDR capabilities which has an 8-bit panel while the Daiwa we have here has a 10-bit panel. So yes, the colors look better on the Daiwa, along with the HDR performance, in comparison.

HDMI source recognizes when HDR content is playing

1080p content

Daiwa TV shines when it comes to Full HD content from sources like Netflix, Prime Video, Hotstar and YouTube. It produces bright images that are easy to see even in a dimly lit room. Movies like Blade Runner 2049 and Spider-Man: Homecom play with vibrant colors. There is some blurring here and there in Spider-Man Homecoming, especially during the night scenes, but that can be attributed to the internet connection at the time. However, that doesn’t change the fact that you can watch it while streaming content.

For watching TV from your set-top-box or even streaming services, the Daiwa 43-inch TV is value for money for the picture quality. Colors are good, brightness is good, bright and preset modes are easy to control.

Talking about the modes, whether it is for 4K HDR content or Full HD content, you might want to stick with Dynamic or Vivid preset as both of them give the best results. There’s also a ‘soft’ and ‘eco’ mode available but they dim the backlight too low for a pleasant experience. The one downside is that there are very few picture settings for you to manually tinker with if you want to set the picture yourself.

Gambling

When it comes to gaming, we played Doom in 4K SDR. For indoor scenes, the game scenes look detailed and the gray and silver techie interior mixed with the monstrous presence is immersive. However, shift out into the wastelands of Mars and you’ll notice that the saturation on the TV feels off. The orange planet of Mars needs to add a little more red to the mix to get the right colour.

For 4K HDR gaming, we turned to Gears of War 4, which features huge overcast skies that display lots of deep shades of red, with bright lightning attacks thrown into the mix. When playing games, the visual fidelity of bright and dark areas is maintained decently well and although it’s not quite as good as a TV three times the price, most people will still feel that it’s a great addition to their SDR gaming experience. is upgrade. ,

Overall, gaming on TV is fun. There are plenty of games that let you tinker with the game brightness and HDR settings, and I recommend keeping the TV in Vivid mode. Only tinker with the display settings in games if you absolutely must.

Audio

Daiwa 43-inch 4K HDR TV has 2 down firing 10W speakers. I’m generally not a fan of speakers on TVs, but the ones on the Daiwa are decent and work for everyday viewing. Watch the Cyberpunk 2077 E3 2018 trailer on YouTube and you’ll see that at 60 percent volume, it sounds loud and room-filling. If you watch the news through your set top box or Young Sheldon or The Big Bang Theory or anything where the vocals are more important than the background score then you should be fine. There is a ‘News Mode’ which enhances the tone of the content you are watching. It works well for soap operas and news content but takes away the enjoyment from movies. Using modes like ‘Standard’ and ‘Theatre’, you can enjoy the occasional movie but for a good immersive experience, you will need to invest in a soundbar like the Xiaomi Mi Soundbar. You can read our review of the soundbar Here,

UI

The Daiwa 43-inch 4K TV runs Android 7 out of the box but it’s not Android TV. This is AOSP. We’ve reviewed a few AOSP TVs in the past with their own custom launchers and the UI experience has been acceptable with one source of frustration coming from the apps. Apps like Netflix and Prime Video are only capable of running their mobile versions and not the proper Android TV versions. This makes the UI of the app more cumbersome and also reduces the quality of content playback. You can log in to your Google account if you want, but it’s easier to update and download new apps through the Aptoide app store, especially for streaming services.

The TV also has a Sensi remote. The Sensy UI reminds me of the baby version of PatchWall that runs on Xiaomi TVs. You have access to the TV channels right in the UI and the UI shows you what’s playing on each channel and how much time is left until the content ends. So if you see that Game of Thrones is playing on HBO, you’ll also see how much time is left for the episode to end. Sensy gives you access to a celebrity database and clicking on a celebrity will show you content about it as well as information about it that is about to start or is currently running on a TV channel.

Overall, the Sensy is good for those who want an Internet enabled experience using their set-top-box as a source of content. However, if you want to stream content from services like Netflix and Prime Video, you’re better off investing in a device like the Fire TV Stick or a gaming console.

remote controlled

Talking about the remote control, it has functions on both sides. On one side you have a traditional remote control with functions like power, number pad, source, settings, along with shortcuts to YouTube and Netflix. The other half of the remote is the full QWERTY keypad. This is extremely helpful when logging into services like Netflix or Prime Video (native apps on TV OS). As mentioned above, those services are mobile versions since the TV runs on AOSP so the login process can be quite cumbersome. The remote control’s QWERTY setup is a bit wide for my liking but that’s the compromise of being a 2-in-1 setup. The buttons are rubbery and require you to press them with some force which is a good thing. This ensures that you won’t accidentally press the wrong key when using the other side of the remote control.

On the other hand, the traditional controls are easy to use with one hand and the buttons are equally as rubbery and clicky as the other (QWERTY) side.

One thing to note is that to use the traditional side of the remote control, you have to point the remote at the TV. However, since the QWERTY side works backwards the USB dongle doesn’t require you to point it at the TV which is nice.

Overall, the remote control is working. The remote adds functions like the mouse pointer and the QWERTY keypad which really helps in navigating the UI which can be frustrating at times.

ground level

There are a bunch of 4K TVs available around the Rs 25,000 price point. We have a few 43-inch 4K TVs from Thompson and Kodak. The Thompson UD9 runs on AOSP and as far as the UI is concerned, the experience is similar to what we had on this TV. We haven’t reviewed the new Kodak 43-inch 4K yet, so stay tuned if you want to know when to get yours. As far as the Daiwa 43-inch 4K TV is concerned, it has a decent panel for consuming Full HD and 4K content and is average for HDR content. If you want to watch content from your set-top-box, then this TV will be fine. If you want to delve into the world of Smart TV capabilities, I suggest investing in a device like the Fire TV Stick to get a decent Smart TV experience. TCL has a 43-inch 1080p Android TV that runs on Google certified Android TV OS.

About Me: Sameer Mitha lives for gaming and technology is his driving force. When he is not busy playing with gadgets or video games, he delves into the world of fantasy novels.
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