HD PICTURE QUALITY HD picture quality was Very Good, overall. Reproduction of fine HD image detail was Excellent. Color accuracy was Very Good, with flesh tones in particular, looking natural. Very Good contrast—the difference between the darkest blacks and brightest whites—gave images convincing depth and dimension. However, black levels were OK and maintained some contrast in darker scenes, but fell short of the better TVs. The quality appeared worse as we viewed from the sides—see our Viewing Angle results, below. Image brightness was Good (with the backlight control turned up), making it a suitable choice for all but the sunniest rooms. Its reproduction of smooth edges on image content deinterlacing of 1080i video was Very Good (minimal "jaggies") film mode detection from 1080i content was Excellent.
VIEWING ANGLE This Insignia model has a narrow viewing angle overall, below-average performance among TVs. Only those seated directly in front of the screen will see the best picture quality. We examined the image quality at various viewing angles—its image quality notably decreased as we moved away from the center position. When we viewed the TV from the sides image quality degraded significantly. The picture showed a strong loss of color, so flesh tones looked very washed out. Black levels brightened significantly, and made dark scenes look hazy. We viewed the image from above and below center screen, and noticed Good vertical viewing angle performance, with only slight changes in color, contrast, and black level.
MOTION BLUR In our motion tests, this Insignia TV had Good motion performance, with some blurring. It does not have a special feature to minimize motion blur.
SOUND QUALITY We got sub-par sound quality, with below average performance. It could be acceptable for typical programming, but its shortcomings would be obvious with movie soundtracks and music. In our listening evaluations, we found the bass (low frequencies) to be lacking in depth and definition, and had a slight amount of rattle or buzzing during our bass-heavy sound clip. Treble (high frequencies) was satisfactory. The overall sound was closed in. This TV should be OK if the room isn't too noisy—we found the speakers could produce a Good volume level and without obvious distortion. If sound quality matters to you, you might want to add a soundbar or other external speaker system—but if this smaller-screen set is a secondary TV, you might find its sound quality acceptable.
EASE OF USE Consider the TV's stand is 28 inches wide when choosing a table top to place it on. On first power up, an on-screen guide appeared—which you could choose to follow when setting up the TV. The remote controls the TV via an RF signal and doesn't need to be pointed at the TV. It has a simplified design with a reduced set of buttons. It includes many of the typical buttons: power, channel up/down, volume control, mute, menu and exit buttons. But annoyingly it lacks a source input button. The remote has a microphone for accessing a built-in voice assistant feature. It also has dedicated buttons for streaming Prime Video, Netflix, Disney+, and Hulu.
INTERNET FEATURES This TV provides internet functionality via its "Fire OS" portal, with access to a library of applications. Movie streaming services that can be downloaded to this TV, or are built-in, include Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Disney, Apple TV and HBO Max. It includes a built-in Amazon Alexa virtual assistant, which allows you to use natural speech to ask questions, launch applications, and search programming by talking to the remote. Claimed support for external voice assistants (not built in to the TV) include Amazon Alexa.
CONNECTIONS This model has three HDMI inputs (one supports ARC, audio return channel ). It also has one USB port, an optical digital audio out, a headphone out, an Ethernet port, and WiFi wireless networking.
WHAT'S INCLUDED You get with this TV: a quick start guide, an electronic user guide via the TV's menu, and a remote control with batteries. No printed manual is included.
