Weston 55-inch Ultra HD 4K LED Smart TV review: A premium price for a budget offering

Weston 55 Inch Ultra HD 4K LED Smart TV Detailed Review

There are a good number of 55-inch 4K HDR TVs available in the market today. In the budget of Rs 35,000 to Rs 40,000 you can get many TV brands that offer 4K and HDR capabilities. we have brands like Xiaomi, shinko, KODAK, tcl, iFFALCON, cloudwalker And more are fighting for your attention in this space. Each TV brings with it some unique features that offer you bang for your buck. For example, the Shinco TV has a decent panel for viewing content, but the Xiaomi has better smart TV capabilities, and so on. Today we have a TV from Weston. Its 55 inch variant costs Rs 59,990. This places it in the mid-range where you can get TVs from brands like Sony, Samsung, Panasonic, LG and others. The TV has features that we have seen in other TVs before. Is it worth your attention?

Key Specifications at a Glance

Panel Size: 55-inch
Panel Type: VA
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
Speaker: 2 x 8W
CPU: Cortex A53 Quad Core 1.5GHz
GPU: Mali450 Penta Core 750MHz
RAM: 1 GB
Built-in Storage: 8 GB
OS: Android 7 (AOSP)
Price: Rs 59,990

construction and design

The build and design of the TVs are very familiar to what we have seen in the 35k to 40k price range. In fact, some design elements, such as the metal legs, are similar to Shinko and Daiwa TVs we’ve tested in the recent past. The only difference is that the feet have a gunmetal gray finish. One very interesting feature about the TV is that it has two placement options for the feet on the bottom. One is standard placement closer to the two ends and the other is slightly closer. So, if your entertainment system or tabletop where you want to place the TV is small, you may be able to fit it there because of the narrow placement option of the legs on the TV.

The bezels around the panel of the TV have a gunmetal gray finish which gives it a premium look. It’s a nice change from the black borders we’ve seen on so many TVs. However, the back panel of the TV is completely black, normal and what we have seen in this price range.

When placed on a tabletop, there’s enough room to comfortably fit your gaming console under the TV, which has been a problem with many TVs we’ve reviewed recently.

There’s really nothing to complain about in the build of the TV. The gunmetal gray finish on the bezels and feet is a welcome change from the standard black and the TV has an overall functional design which is nice.

Ports & Connectivity

When it comes to connectivity, the Weston 55-inch 4K TV has three HDMI ports out of which one is ARC enabled. The sides of the TV have two USB ports, an SD card slot, 3.5mm port, HDMI 3 port and an optical port. At the back, you have an antenna port, 2 HDMI ports, 2 AV ports, and an Ethernet port. The power cable is not user removable. On the right side of the TV, you have the physical controls. The TV supports Wi-Fi but sadly misses out on Bluetooth.

Connectivity options are standard, in line with what we’ve seen in TVs priced much lower than the Weston TV.

Display and Picture Quality

The Weston 55-inch 4K TV features a 10-bit VA panel that is made by Samsung. Thanks to the 10-bit panel, the TV boasts of 4K capabilities with HDR10 support. We believe the panel has 350 nits of brightness (Weston couldn’t confirm the brightness to us) but in our testing, we found the TV to be bright enough for content consumption. However, there was a problem with the TV. The backlighting lacked uniformity and was visible in some scenes if you knew where to look. We’ll talk more about this in the Picture Display Breakup below. Below we’ll highlight the TV’s performance using three types of content – ​​4K and HDR, 1080p, and gaming content.

4K and HDR playback

Starting off with 4K and HDR content, the Netflix show Altered Carbon Season One Episode 7 features a very intense slow-motion fight sequence. The sequence begins with a group of soldiers wearing camouflage and walking into a well-lit abandoned warehouse. The slow-paced action soon becomes a fast-paced sequence that leads to much bloodshed. On TV, the sequence’s performance is clean and honestly quite enjoyable. In some dark sections, the panel becomes reflective, but not any more than we’ve seen with competing TVs.

The Netflix film Polar which is also in HDR has a fight sequence towards the end where Mads Mikkelsen gets away. The antagonist has a bright red suit and most of the fighting takes place in a dimly lit corridor with few light sources and very fast paced action. This is where you’ll notice that bit of uneven backlighting we talked about. A casual viewer might not notice it, but if you’ve seen this movie on a more expensive 4K HDR TV, you’ll be able to tell the difference.

1080p content

Moving on to 1080p content, we played the opening sequence of Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. It has a nice green environment and streams movies on Netflix in FHD. For some reason the colors on the display looked wrong. The greenery of the leaves looked pale and the overall image looked a bit bland.

We tried tweaking the picture mode, but the lack of detailed manual controls for basic things like brightness, contrast, color, etc. left us with precious few options to tinker with. We could only change the HDR, 4K and picture presets, and after much tinkering, we felt that the Vivid setting worked best for FHD and 4K HDR content. Other settings such as Standard made blacks appear gray in dark scenes.


Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, another HD movie on Netflix, had an interesting effect on the preset colors in the motorcycle chase sequence. Actors’ skin tones looked more accurate in the Dynamic preset, but chase sequences looked more alive in Vivid. In this case, the Standard mode is the one to go for as it tries to retain the natural skin tone without making the desert and highway look a bit vivid. This essentially ensures that the colors don’t pop too much.

Gambling

When it comes to gaming, we played Doom in 4K SDR and Gears of War 4 for 4K HDR evaluation. In Doom, for indoor scenes, the game’s visuals look detailed and the gray and silver interiors mixed with the monstrous presence are immersive. Outdoor looks a bit oversaturated even when shifted to the Standard preset, and it was in the Soft preset that Doom’s Wasteland looked playable. Go indoors, however, and you’ll need to switch to the Standard preset to enjoy the game.

Gears of War, on the other hand, is best played in the Vivid preset. The game gives you the option to see how it looks in HDR and SDR in split screen and there are some sequences where the SDR display makes the image brighter and elsewhere HDR brings more details with it. Since the game has some sequences set in the dark, this is where you’ll also notice the uneven LED backlighting

Audio

This is where things get a bit interesting. The Flipkart listing page for the TV says that the TV has 20W audio output but the official website says that the TV has 2 x 12W speakers (24W output). So which one is correct? Well, we reached out to Weston and they told us that “the TV has 2 x 12W speakers and the audio output is 2 x 8W. This is a marketing gimmick. So we know the TV has an overall output of 16W as we have seen on the Mi As seen on TV 4 (Read our review) Here, It is surprising why the company would not go for the full 2 ​​X 10W output considering that is the industry standard for these TVs and the TV is not as slim as the Mi TV, so clearly space is not an issue.

The speakers are down-firing, as we’ve seen on other TVs. If you watch the news or a TV show like Young Sheldon where the vocals are more clear, they’ll get the job done. But switch to movies like Altered Carbon or Mission Impossible, and you’ll find yourself needing at least one soundbar. When it comes to movies, no one preset does the trick. In Altered Carbon, the dialogue seemed a bit slurred and the sequence, which had a sad tune, was completely missed. Even the thuds and bangs of weapons and explosions in the movies lacked bass.

If you’ll be using this TV to watch regular TV first and the occasional movie, you should be fine. But for a great movie watching experience, you need to invest in a pair of speakers or a soundbar

UI and Remote Control

The Weston 55-inch 4K TV runs on Android 7 out of the box but it’s not an Android TV. Here’s the thing – Android TV, as the name suggests, allows apps to take advantage of the TV’s screen and form factor. On the other hand, AOSP makes content look bad on large screens as it is only running mobile apps. Sadly, the Weston TV runs on AOSP and brings with it the same problems we’ve seen in the past. Another thing to note is that the UI is the same as what we saw on Shinco’s 55-inch TV. Put the two TVs side by side and hide the logo and you’ll be hard-pressed to tell one from the other. Identical twins with UI is the best way to describe them.

AOSP UI on Weston TVs, streaming 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. At least on Shinko TV’s remote controls, you get a QWERTY keyboard on the remote control, but here, you don’t get that and are left with a disappointing navigation experience.

Overall, the UI is the weakest aspect of the TV. To get the most out of it, you must use it with a 4K capable Streaming Stick.

remote controlled

The TV’s remote control has a very familiar form factor and design. This is what the remote for the Kodak 50-inch TV looks like that we reviewed earlier and you can check out our review Here, It has a traditional rectangular design with some smart functions at the top, number pad below it, navigation and settings in the middle and playback controls at the bottom. The buttons on the remote control are rubbery and flimsy and the power button lights up whenever you press a button on the remote. There’s not much to say about the remote except that it’s functional, requires you to point it directly at the TV, has a traditional layout and gets the job done. There’s also a “mouse” control on the remote control and that’s a godsend for navigating the UI at times, but unlike the Daiwa or Shinko TVs we reviewed, it doesn’t function like it needs to. You have to use the directional buttons to control it and that’s a bummer.

ground level

The Shinco 55-inch 4K HDR TV with the same UI, front-firing speakers and a decent 4K HDR display is priced at Rs 36,990. The Weston comes with all the same features and is priced at Rs 59,990. So I wonder why would anyone pay Rs 23,000 more for a similar product. For around 35k, you can get TVs from brands like TCL, iFFALCON, Xiaomi, Thomson and others. So if screen size is something you’re seeking, you can get similar performance from much cheaper TVs like the Shinco 55-inch 4K HDR TV we reviewed earlier. You can use the extra cash to get a 4K streaming stick like the Fire TV Stick 4K to enjoy a better smart TV experience, and even a soundbar to amplify audio from the TV. For less than 60k you can get 50-inch 4K TVs from the likes of LG, Panasonic, Samsung and others that give you a better panel. In short, there are better value for money TVs to choose from at the 60k price point.

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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