realme is one of the quickly growing tech brands on the internet; the company is gradually releasing budget phones and developing to midrange up to flagship with some accessories like earphones and power banks.
realme is now entering AIoT (Artificial Intelligence of Things) with their smart android TV.
realme Smart TV is an entertainment device with several features you’d expect from a modern TV, like built-in Chromecast, Wifi connectivity, Android TV OS, and more.
UNBOXING
Inside the box, you find the smart TV with a power cable. Inside the plastic comes the remote, 2xAAA batteries, two plastic stands, and the screws. You also have the documentation that no wall mount is included in the box.
DESIGN
The TV is slightly heavy, and the design is neat. It has slim bezels or borders of the display with a thicker bottom that houses the LED indicator, IR receiver, and the logo. The shell and the TV stand are made of plastic, but it holds the TV firmly in place.
There are the ports and connectivity in the back located on the left side; you get the three HDMI ports, two USB 2.0 ports, Digital audio out, AV input, LAN or ethernet port, and the antenna port. It is easy to reach even if you all mount it. As for wireless connectivity, you will have Bluetooth 5.0 and wifi with 2.4GH bandwidth only supported.
PICTURE AND DISPLAY
The TV has a 32-inch IPS panel with a Full HD resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels with a 60HZ refresh rate in a 16:9 ratio. The viewing angles and peak brightness are decent. When watching TV from sharp angles, the viewing angles are entirely enough with little color shift.
Darker scenes appear less black since there is no local dimming in this panel as opposed to OLED screens, which causes this smart TV to have less than true blacks. Color reproduction is good but sometimes oversaturated. However, you can adjust the picture quality to your liking in the settings.
You have access to the standard controls for brightness, contrast, saturation, and sharpness as well as more complex choices for gamma, white balance, and a sophisticated color tuner.
A very convenient screen is using HDMI to connect your laptop and extend your display. It all appears clear and readable. The display and picture quality is pretty good for a budget TV.
AUDIO
The TV has two pairs of bottom-firing speakers with Dolby audio supported.
The audio output is surprisingly powerful, loud, and clear with decent bass. The loudness can vary depending on the source, but 50% of the normal volume is usually loud enough in a medium-sized space. The TV speakers can handle basic audio requirements like watching sports, news, the occasional online series, or listening to music. Keep in mind that you can still attach or plug in a soundbar or speaker system for better audio quality output.
REMOTE
The TV’s included remote has a compact shape that makes it simple to grip and might be easy to lose in your area. The standard realme wireless remote control is provided, and it works well. However, I’d like to have a mouse button option in the remote, where you can navigate with a hand gesture that serves as a mouse for navigation. The inbuilt mic and Google Assistant button give you the functionality of giving commands to the TV directly from the couch with your voice. Along with the typical navigational keys, volume control, and hotkeys for Netflix, Prime Video, and YouTube, this remote also contains dedicated keys for settings, input selection, and mute.
SOFTWARE
The smart TV comes with Android 9 out of the box with Android TV OS stock experience; however, small bloatware apps are installed, but some are for RealMe essentials apps. You could access pictures and sound settings on the fly from any input or app. In addition, the UI is easy to use. You can see rows for the installed apps you choose as well as the most recently watched or suggested material from different sites. Along with a few well-known Google services, Netflix and Prime Video apps are pre-installed on the device. You can access a lot more apps through Google Play Store as well.
PERFORMANCE
A quad-core MediaTek chip powers the TV. You get 1 GB RAM and 8 GB of internal storage, and some of the space is taken up by the official Android TV 9.0 OS.
The TV boots up in approximately less than a minute when you turn it on from the home screen, which is typical for an Android TV, but after that, if you turn it off and on with the remote, the TV turns back on quickly from standby mode, so there are no problems there. Operating the TV is smooth, whether using the UI or watching content; however, there is a bit of a glitch when switching or navigating to more recent apps. The voice assistant occasionally responds with a tiny lag, but this is not an unacceptably slow reaction time.
The TV’s built-in media player is fairly impressive, and it could play most of our test videos in various codecs without any issues, except 4K quality or resolution.
It has Chromecast built-in and lets you cast content to the screen from compatible apps on your phone or tablet.
Given that this is a Full HD screen, few people would care about it, but having the option would have been good. Beyond that, there were no other obvious problems to mention.
VERDICT
realme Smart TV establishes itself with a strong speaker, an improved remote, and slim bezels. I agree. The display is, at best passable. In conclusion, you should consider realme if you want a budget TV that can fill your living room. You can get the realme smart android TV 32 inch at the price of 9999 PHP on their official e-commerce store; you can also purchase it on their official retail and partner stores nationwide.
