Business Standard

Bare essentials

- KHALID ANZAR

The Thomson Oath Pro is one of the three Android-certified smart TVS launched by Super Plastronic­s, the brand licensee for Thomson in India. It comes with both Dolby Vision and HDR10 support, a combinatio­n rarely seen in budget TVS. It also has Google Play Store for TV, Chromecast and Google Assistant all built in. The Thomson Oath Pro is available in 43-, 55- and 65-inch screen variants. I reviewed the 55inch, which has thin screen bezels with a rose-gold strip at the bottom. Its I/O ports are easy to access even if the TV is wallmounte­d. A minimal, functional design.

The TV has a 10-bit LED panel of a UHD 4K resolution. The panel supports Dolby Vision, HDR10 and HLG. It has a rated brightness of 550 nits and contrast ratio of 500000:1. The panel is glossy and has 178-degree viewing angles. But the display suffers from backlight bleeding and image ghosting issues. And there is no option for auto brightness or auto dimming.

The speakers — bottom-facing dual 30W stereo speakers with DTS Trusurroun­d and Dolby Digital Plus audio support — are loud, with decent treble and bass. Suitable for casual viewing, but inadequate for documentar­ies or music videos.

A quad-core processor, paired with 1.75GB RAM and 8GB built-in storage, powers the TV. The performanc­e is nothing spectacula­r. The set does not support quick boot and there is a software glitch. Some OTT apps automatica­lly shut down as the TV enters standby mode. Also, the 2.4GHZ Wifi limits its overall utility, especially if you have IOT devices connected to a dual-band Wifi router and want them to connect with the television.

Verdict

Priced at ~32,999, the Thomson Oath Pro 55inch is a barebones smart Android TV. It’s a hard one to recommend. You might instead like to try the Vu Premium Android TV 55, which costs less and performs better.

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