Review of the Philips 20PF4121/05 20
Now that the winter months are closing in, Philips’ 20PF4121/05 20-inch LCD has come just at the right time to brighten up our houses. Although this screen has been awarded some average results in group tests, we decided to get it in for ourselves and see what it was made of. Design |
| We half like the design, and that is just the middle half. Our reason for this is down to the pair of cheap looking grey speakers attached to each end. Other than that the design is nice, with a polished black frame surrounding the screen. The fairly large bezel stand sits below the centre of the frame, and again, is a bit on the tacky side. On the plus side, the stand gives the TV a nice sturdy look. Don’t worry about getting this TV home, as it only weighs 8.8kgs, and measure 594 x 459 x 195mm (WHD). |
| Features |
If you are buying this TV to get up to date in the digital world, you can forget it. Philips 20PF4121/05 20” LCD only has an analogue tuner, and only has a DVI port, which doubles up as HDMI and PC port. So, it seems Philips have concentrated on giving picture performance enhancements over futuristic digital offerings this time. It only has a 500:1 contrast ratio, which is not bad for a small LCD, but not brilliant either. It also has a traditional 4:3 aspect ratio and 640 x 480 pixel resolution, which is surprisingly small to be handling HD pictures. This set is only compatible with 720p, so you can forget 1080i this time. Philips have given the 20PF4121/05 20” LCD its Crystal Clear Technology, to combine picture enhancements like Contrast Plus and colour improvement to improve picture depth. Smart picture and smart sound are also featured, by giving the viewer the option to preset volume and picture settings and choose them at their leisure with a simple touch of a button. The last feature should come like music to your ears, as this LCD has been given a nice Dolby virtual surround sound. It looks like Philips have thrown this TV together, in terms of connectivity its offerings are poor. We like to see more than 1 scart, something that this TV doesn’t offer. But our main complaint is the lack of an individual HDMI socket, so what if it’s got a DVI for PC input, no-one wants to be unplugging and plugging in all the time. Other connections include a S-Video input, Composite Video Input, RF input and a headphone jack. |
| Performance |
| If used as a light source and nothing else, the Philips 20PF4121 is worth buying. The bright screen is one of the brightest we’ve seen in the 20” LCD category. Once we’d got it on and let the auto-tuner do its business, we did have to rub our eyes to check we weren’t seeing things. Even for an SD picture, we were overly impressed by the picture performance. With dynamic black levels and vibrant and realistic colours, we really enjoyed the view. It was all going so well until we seemed to take the road into smeary city. The Philips 20PF4121 didn’t like motion, and reacted by juddering and smearing all over the screen. We carried on with our viewing sesh, slightly perturbed but trying to see the positive side. However, as soon as we got a load of its poor sonic performance, we flipped the control onto the couch and gave up. Don’t be mistaken, the noise is powerfully loud, but it was as flat cake made in a pan. It lacked treble and bass, and just didn’t have the oomph we would have expected. On the plus side, using the menu to set up the auto-tune, and choose and set the smart modes was easy. |
| Overall Opinion |
| Our advice to anyone thinking about spending this amount of money on a TV would be to look elsewhere. Every aspect of the Philips 20PF4121 let us down, including design, connectivity and performance. The picture performance was good, but the sound didn’t back it up enough. |
| By Lisa Malyon |
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Pros + Good picture performance |
Cons - Cheap design - Flat sonic performance - No digital tuner - No separate HDMI |
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Sound Quality 2/10
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Picture Quality 1/10
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Connectivity 2/10
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Future Compatibility 2/10
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Ease Of Use 4/10
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Overall Rating 
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24/11/2006 at 4:31:42pm
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