I went out and bought an Element 32″ FLX-3210 HDTV. Why did I choose that one? It was cheap. Hooray! $499 when I got it, thanks to Labor Day sales. And thank goodness I decided on this one instead of the one I was originally going to get, because I compared them in-store, and the Ölevia’s quality was terrible.
So here’s my review of the FLX-3210. Keep in mind that I have little to no experience whatsoever with HDTV’s, and no actual HD content to watch on it yet (HDMI cable for the ps3 is in the mail).
Setup:
Setup was very simple, just four screws to keep the stand onto the display (which came in two of the larges pieces of Styrofoam packaging I’ve ever seen). The menus are extremely simple and easy to navigate. Great.
Picture Quality:
The TV is 768p (1360×768), though advertised as 720p, because 768p is not an American standard (being a PAL resolution), so i guess 720p images will be scaled up a bit to fit. I’ll find out when I get my HDMI cable.
The color is amazing, the 1200:1 contrast ration is awesome, blacks are pretty black, whites are extremely bright. There’s no ghosting or anything, the picture is all-around “super”, especially considering the low pricetag.
Sound Quality
However, it’s pretty obvious why Element can afford to make such inexpensive TV’s without losing image quality. The speakers on this box are not the best I’ve ever heard, not by far. They’re somewhat tinny and have an almost complete lack of bass. I’d call the out-of-the-box sound quality “passable”.
However, after some tweaking of the settings (turning off the simulated surround sound helped a ton, as did turning up the bass), I’d give the speakers a solid “decent”.
Other Factors
Inputs: It as 2 composites, 1 RCA component (which I’m using for the ps3 right now), 1 HDMI, 1 S-video, 1 vga (which I hooked my computer up to for some awesome iTunes visualizations action), and maybe some others 😛 In short, a ton of connections. Great 🙂
Remote: Nothing special. Decent.
Overall: Great 😀
