Stiftung Warentest has tested nine televisions from discounters, supermarkets and hardware stores with a quick test.
The results are hardly surprising.
Berlin - "If you buy cheap, you buy twice" - this truism is familiar to most.
Stiftung Warentest has checked whether it also applies to cheap TVs from the discounter.
Nine televisions from 32 to 43 inches had to pass the consumer organization's quick test procedure.
The prices of the “bargain TVs” range from just 130 euros to 400 euros.
This is a tempting offer for one or the other.
Stiftung Warentest: quick test with nine televisions from discounters and hardware stores
Large televisions over 50 inches have been on the rise for many years.
Hardly anyone buys a smaller television.
The small formats are often neglected by the well-known manufacturers.
Therefore, the small models from 32 to 43 inches can often be found in supermarkets and discounters at promotional prices.
However, the brand names of the TVs tested are well known.
"We checked models from JVC, Nokia, OK, Telefunken and Toshiba, but the brand and manufacturer are rarely identical," said the product testers.
And that is the first problem.
The televisions from JVC, Telefunken and Toshiba are all manufactured by Vestel, a company from Turkey.
OK is the house brand of MediaMarkt and Saturn.
The licensee for Nokia televisions is the company Streamview from Vienna in Austria, as
test.de
informs.
Stiftung Warentest: picture and sound quality of the nine "bargain TVs"
The product testers describe the picture quality of the televisions as "poor". The lack of adjustable moving image optimization is particularly noticeable in action-packed and fast scenes, such as sports. It can jerk a lot there. Only one of the tested models has this feature, the Telefunken XU43K521. "The 43-inch device is one of two devices that also offers UHD resolution (3840 x 2160 pixels) - and the best image quality in its size class."
There is still room for improvement in terms of sound.
Most of the small televisions sound "below average".
Distortion would often occur even at low volume.
However, the sound can be improved on all of them with external speakers.
There is simply no space for decent speakers on devices of this inch size.
After all, the equipment of the devices is contemporary.
Almost all of them could be connected to the Internet via LAN or WiFi in order to be able to use the apps of the popular streaming services.
"Airplay" does not support any of the devices, a shame for all Apple users.
If you want to record the TV program on a connected USB hard drive, you can only do so with two models: the Nokia Smart TV 3200A
and the Toshiba 43UA2B63DG.
For series models this feature belonged almost standard, so
test.de
.
Conclusion from Stiftung Warentest: "Moderate performance is not really surprising"
The result of the quick test procedure did not surprise the product testers.
In 2018 there was an examination of televisions from special offers.
Even then, the cheap models did not do well.
The reason: "The providers are concentrating almost exclusively on the large televisions when it comes to further development."
Larger screens are usually better for a big evening at the cinema with an action film and popcorn.
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