Noble Skiodo 42SM40P01 40-inch LED TV Review

Televisions have come a long way from just being able to play a handful of channels in black and white to basically morphing into giant sized smartphones. Along with the addition of features, the number of zeros in the price has been increased. At such times few companies rise to break the norm and deliver big for the cost of small. One such company from across the sea, Noble Skiodo, has taken up the task of delivering TVs packed to the brim with features but still costing much less than the competition. We get our hands on the Noble Skiodo 42SM40P01, a 40 inch Full HD Smart LED TV.

The TV comes nicely packed with thermocol and within this casing are the TV and a pack containing documentation like user manual and warranty card. There is remote and two batteries to power it and you also get all the wall mounting accessories.

The TV boasts some really sharp and sleek looks. It is not too fancy on the styling and rather chooses to be elegant. The large 40inch screen occupies most of the front and there is a decently wide bezel along the sides. The side is very thin as well so do not expect a lot of surface for some good old slapping. Most of the connection points are docked on the left and bottom of the small protrusion at the back of the TV. These include 2 HDMI, 2 USB 2.0, 2 sets of AV inputs, an RJ45 port for LAN and a headphone jack. The Magic Remote 2.0 that comes bundled with this TV has a QWERTY keyboard on the back and normal remote keys on the front. You also get a USB receiver which when plugged into the TV allows you to use your TV remote just like a mouse. In case you cannot find your remote you can use the buttons situated on the lower right side of the back of the TV. These buttons allow you to change the volume, change the channel, enter menu and change the source of playback.

The 1920X1080p resolution fits nicely on the 40 inch LED panel and viewing cable TV or content on the web is a great experience. The viewing angles are wide and you can see the display clearly even from some extreme angles. Altogether the screen is satisfactory at this price point but if you compare it to some of the more expensive 1080p TVs you will feel that the Noble Skiodo TV lacks a certain amount of life and punch in its picture quality. Sound output is decently loud thanks to the dual 8W speakers built into the TV. The speakers favour the high end more thus one should not expect this TV to output a lot of bass. If you want to properly enjoy music then you will need to connect a separate sound system to the TV.

The hardware that powers the TV includes a dual core Cortex A7 processor coupled with 1GB of DDR4 RAM and a Mali 400-2 GPU. This setup facilitates for a mostly lag free experience in the user interface however proved to be incapable of doing some 'smart' things that a Smart TV should be able to do. We tried running games like Subway Surfers and Temple Run, both of which got installed but we could not make it past the 'Tap to play' screen. Some apps also crashed all of a sudden. Web browsing and watching videos on YouTube and Netflix was mostly fine and if that is what you want from this TV then you won't have a problem. The 4GB of onboard storage is not much and thus you will have to connect a pen drive or a hard disk to the TV in order to install apps or store your multimedia content. The fact that you need to have a storage device connected to the TV at almost all times and you also have the USB receiver for the remote in the other slot makes you wish that there was another USB slot.

This TV runs on Android 4.4.4 KitKat OS and you do get an app for Play Store. You can sign in with your Gmail account and get alerts for your mails right on your TV screen. You can even read and reply to e-mails from the TV itself. The built-in browser lets you surf the internet and the combination of a QWERTY keyboard and mouse like functionality of the remote add to the experience. You get an application manager in the interface which you can use to install or uninstall apps. There is an option for mirroring your mobile screen on to the TV but to use that the mobile needs to have support for the feature. Connecting to the WiFi is easy and I did not come across any instance where it dropped the signal or suffered slow speeds.  

At Rs 24,999 this TV might be a no brainer buy for some people who just want a to get a taste of Smart TVs and enjoy content on a large 1920X1080p screen. The premium looks and a smart remote only add to the deal. However if you want to experience the full capacity of a Smart TV then you would want to skip this one and find a much more expensive alternative.