Small, Sleek & a little bit Special
For those in the know, the last few years have been a troubling time for Sony. The company has experienced possible administration, rumours of the PS4 being delayed and worldwide issues with their Sony Entertainment Network.
Luckily, one thing that Sony will never fail on is creating a great TV for the masses at a good price with decent technology to boot and the 32W706 does not struggle to satisfy.
Design wise it’s exactly what you’d expect from the Japanese, slim, sleek and striking. The bezel is one of the thinnest at this size currently available and given that the stand has the ability to double as a wall bracket it’s extremely practical too.
Let’s move onto the elephant in the room, how does it look when it’s switched on? In a word: wonderful. The screen itself is bright and immersive in it’s quality with great textures and vibrancy shown throughout the colour spectrum. When watching football on Sky Sports HD it holds a good level of greens and skin tones for players and the XR Motionflow processor takes care of motion extremely well. This can be further improved (with a small amount of screen flicker) by activating LED Motion Mode, the difference is huge.
These processors are Sony’s own and always seem to outperform their equivalent rivals so this TV at 200Hz will still be able to stand against basic 3D TV’s and has a much better motion handling ability than any of the other 32″ TVs in that price range.
The Smart hub and settings menus are, however, a little clumsy. Occasionally you will end up pressing the home button more than once and get frustrated by a “PLEASE WAIT” message and a warning sign but this is primarily down to the fact it’s still running off a standard internal processor rather than a Dual core or Quad core processor (this is where Samsung does tend to jump ahead).
In terms of catch up, Sony have a similar offering to most, with BBC iPlayer and Netflix available for streaming alongside a host of other apps from the Sony Entertainment Network. Fans of the Playstation will notice a large similarity to the OS on the PS3 and indeed the PS4 so learning should be quite quick for those who have previous experience.
Speaking of games consoles, if you’re a gamer and have a high definition console, considering this TV if you’re looking for a 32″ is not an option, it is simply the best. The lag response is almost negligible and as such this gives a high end, fast paced sensation during games like Call of Duty and an almost inability to do the wrong trick on games like Fifa.
The speaker system in this TV is also better than most, with slightly larger drivers being used to really hammer home a touch more bass than the nearest rival but it still lacks any true high quality definition. A sound plinth or base would be great as a partner (Minx TV2, Canton DM50).
So overall, you may want to take into consideration the Samsung 32H6400 for a slightly better Smart offering but the Sony is still going to be pushing it all the way for picture quality and will certainly beat it in terms of its responsiveness. The Sony is an all round joy to watch… if not slightly slow at being smart.
Rating: 8.5/10
Pros: great picture, incredible response times, good blacks, motion handling is superb.
Against: Please Sony, use a better processor for the Smart hub, menu’s need to be simplified.
Author – Andrew, Weybridge store
Take a look on our site for the best price and spec list for this brilliant Sony gem
