HD PICTURE QUALITY. HD picture quality was Very Good, overall. Reproduction of fine HD image detail was Very Good, just shy of 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. Black levels were OK and maintained some contrast in darker scenes, but they 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 moderately low, dimmer than most even with the backlight control turned up—OK for a dark room but not the best choice for a bright room. Its reproduction of smooth edges on image content deinterlacing of 1080i video was Very Good (minimal "jaggies"); and film mode detection from 1080i content was Excellent.
VIEWING ANGLE. This RCA 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 RCA 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. Treble (high frequencies) was satisfactory. The overall sound was on the bright side, thin and 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 27 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 full number keypad for entering channel numbers. It includes all the buttons we typically expect: power, channel up/down, volume control, mute, source input, menu, and exit. The remote has a microphone for accessing a built-in voice assistant feature. It also has dedicated buttons for streaming Netflix, YouTube, Vudu, and Google Play Movies and TV.
INTERNET FEATURES. This TV provides internet functionality via its "Android TV" portal, with access to a library of applications from the Google Play Store. Movie streaming services that can be downloaded to this TV, or are built-in, include Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Disney and HBO Max. Includes built-in Google Assistant, a virtual assistant, which allows you to use natural speech to ask questions, launch applications, and search programming by talking to the remote.
CONNECTIONS. This model has three HDMI inputs (one supports ARC, audio return channel). It also has two USB ports, an optical digital audio out, a headphone out, an Ethernet port, WiFi wireless networking.
WHAT'S INCLUDED. You get with this TV: a printed user manual {and} a remote control with batteries.
