Thomson TV in India Review 2024
Thomson is a renowned French brand making a comeback in India after three decades. And the good news is that it is offering latest of TV technologies at a dirt-cheap price. Though launched last year, it has received good reception with its TV models being sold within a few minutes at the time of launch. Thomson is an online-only TV brand and that too exclusively available on Flipkart for now. Company dwells on its French origins and literally markets it as French product (there’s a French tricolor imprinted on the packaging). Thomson TV company is a subsidiary of Technicolor SA and it offers only LED TV in India between the size 24’ to 65’.
Key Thomson TV Technologies and Features
4K Resolution with A+ Grade Panel
Resolution is one of a most defining parameter of LED TVs these days and 4K resolution is the most desirable resolution. It might sound a little overstatement, but prominent TV innovations would not have been possible if it wasn’t for high definition technology. High-end models like UD9 and 65 OATH 7000 from Thomson comes with 4K resolution. In fact, Thomson TV company offers the cheapest 4K TVs (excluding the obscure Chinese manufacturers). Do keep in mind that the content available on 4K in India is currently limited to a few sports channels and National Geographic. So, unless you watch a lot of 4K movies, you will not get a lot of 4K content in India. The brightness level of Thomson TV is on a lower side with peak brightness being 550 nits. But the good thing is Thomson TV uses A+ Grade Samsung Panel which is one of best in its class. A+ stands for achromatic which means ‘no color’. While manufacturing the TV, base panel is made of a transparent material. It improves color transparency. Upon testing no issues were found with the contrast, but the detailing was missing. This becomes evident upon watching a movie with darker scenes.
HDR10 to Improve Contrast
One prominent factor that has helped the push of 4K TVs is the advent of HDR. HDR stands for High Dynamic Range and it significantly expands the range of two important factors—contrast ratio and color accuracy. Thus, the bright parts of the image get much brighter, so it seems image possesses more depth. The color range expands to show brighter blues, greens, reds and everything in between. Thus HDR-compatible movies push TVs to their limit, with brighter highlights, perfect blacks, and wider color gamut. Combining this with the mesmerizingly powerful 4K resolution, movies look nothing less than stunning.
Thomson 4k models like 55 OATH 0999 come with HDR10. HDR10 is the most frequently used and easily available HDR format. Thomson has tweaked this HDR format to optimize their 4K TVs. One thing which we like about 55′ high-end models like UD9 is that it also supports HLG (hybrid log gamma) HDR which is format for viewing live HDR content.
Advanced Quad Core Processor with Mali GPU
High-end Android 4K Smart TV 55′ amd 65′ models comes with advanced ARM Cortex A53 quad core processor to give TV all the processing power to fluently play 4K content. The A53 processor is known for energy efficiency through its 8-stage pipeline. Besides quad-core processor, TV also comes with 2.5 GB of RAM, 16 GB internal storage and MaliT860 GPU for easy multi-tasking in the premium 55′ and 65′ Android 4K TV models.
Licensed Android TV with Chromecast
Thomson has released a new series of Android Smart TVs–OATH series which comes with certified Android TVs. This series has TVs with screen sizes ranging from 43′ to 65′. As it is Android certified you’ll find all the popular apps like Netflix, Hotstar, SonyLiv, Zee5, Alt Balaji, Voot, Eros Now etc either preinstalled or downloadable from Play Store. It goes without saying that Play Store also comes bundled with useful Google apps like Google Music, Google Play Movies, Google Games etc.
How many times do you feel the urge to view a particular picture/video on your smartphone on a giant screen? The magic of some visuals is best enjoyed on a large screen. Thankfully Licensed Android Thomson TVs come with a Chromecast feature to stream media files from the smartphone or tablet on this TV’s giant screen. So you can directly stream your favourite video from youtube app on your phone directly onto the big screen.
Beautiful Remote Loaded with Controls
We really like the feature-rich remote that comes bundled with licensed Android Thomson TVs. It is beautiful from aesthetic front as well with golden coating on back. Remote has dedicated buttons for the most popular apps like Google Assistant, Netflix and Play Store. Similarly besides the usual controls of TV like channel and volume control there are buttons for play, pause, fast forward and rewind which are required for internet TV shows. So the remote bundles makes browsing and using the TV very smooth.
Is Thomson TV Good or Bad?
Biggest plus point for Thomson 4K TV is that it is most economical 4K TV to be offered by a European brand. So, the price-to-performance parameter is one where Thomson scores well. Also, Thomson would be déjà vu for the millennials who might have grown up watching a cartoon on CRT Thomson TV.
Talking about the negatives is the color accuracy. Yellow color Haldi appeared to be greenish on 4k Thomson TV. Remote also has some glitches as we covered under the remote section. Audio quality is average in case of Thomson TV. Although the bundled speakers are loud, but the Surround Mode overdoes its job by making dialogue more unintelligible by adding phase shifts for a pseudo-surround effect. Finally, its exclusive tie-up with Flipkart is another let down for the users who prefer to test TV in the showroom before making a purchase decision.
Conclusion
In a market largely dominated by Korean and Japanese manufacturers like Sony, Samsung, LG, re-entry of the French giant, Thomson would make the Smart TV market more competitive. Thomson is heavily investing in India and aims to gain over market share in double digits in next couple of years. This means we can expect more variety and improved customer service from Thomson in the future. If you’re looking for a TV with smartness and extra pixels, TV which gives maximum bang for bucks and ready to compromise with the remote and audio quality, Thomson should be your first choice.
About the Author:
Hussain Kanchwala is an Electronics Engineer from University of Mumbai. As an Analyst at BijliBachao he keeps a tab on latest technologies in gadgets and appliances, tracks businesses of white goods companies and monitors the consumer behavior. With a background in engineering, penchant for detail, and flair for writing he regularly write reviews about brands and their products. More from this author.
