HD PICTURE QUALITY. HD picture quality fell short. It did a decent job displaying the detail of HD content, but images didn't look as crisp and sharp as on the better TVs. There was visible loss of fine texture due to noise reduction processing which defaults to active whenever you turn the TV off and back on. Color accuracy was very good, with flesh tones in particular, looking natural. Contrast--the difference between the darkest blacks and brightest whites--was good, so images had depth and dimension. Black level was generally good, though not as dark as better performers on the darkest scenes (though quality does degrade as you move to the sides - see viewing angle). Image brightness was only fair, dimmer than most even with the backlight turned up, and is not the best choice for a bright room. In scenes with subtly shaded light-to-dark areas, such as a sky during sunset, the model did a very good job producing a smooth transition without distinct, coarse bands. The deinterlacing and film mode operations were excellent on HD content; there was little or no trace of jaggies on the edges of objects for video and film-based 1080i video content, such as from cable.
POWER CONSUMPTION SPECIAL NOTE. This TV consumes nearly 14 watts of power while it is turned off.
VIEWING ANGLE. This Westinghouse has a narrow viewing angle overall, below-average performance among TVs for this attribute. Only those seated directly in front of the screen will see the best picture quality. 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 visibly brightened, reducing contrast especially on dark scenes. When viewing the image from above or below eye level to the screen, the vertical viewing angle was good. The picture showed some change in color, contrast, and black level.
ULTRA HD PERFORMANCE. Overall UHD performance was decent and HD-to-UHD upconversion fell short. All native 4K content (non HDR) we played on this model, including movies and test videos, was presented in full 4K detail with excellent fidelity when played back via the TV's HDMI input. Photo playback via the TV's USB port is not supported. With regular HD content, the TV's HD-to-UHD up-conversion processing fell short, revealing some visible jaggies along the edges of diagonals when playing HD content.
HIGH DYNAMIC RANGE (HDR) PERFORMANCE. HDR performance was ineffective and lacked the enhancements in image quality expected from this capability. When playing HDR content, the TV does not trigger new picture settings that are optimized for HDR. Therefore, we couldn't optimize the HDR image without adversely affecting our optimized HD settings so we left the settings as is. The display did not have the peak brightness capability necessary (by HDR standards) to enhance the realism of our test videos mastered for high dynamic range, while revealing little or no contrast between moderately bright and very bright highlights within a scene. It did a good job reproducing a greater range of nuanced shadow detail from black to white, with no obvious banding on areas of the image that have subtle shade variations, but some loss of near-white shadow detail in the brightest areas was noted. Brighter colored objects remained nicely saturated.
MOTION BLUR. This Westinghouse TV has good motion performance, with some blurring on our motion tests. This model does not include a blur reduction feature.
SCREEN REFLECTIVITY. Though not as mirror-like as on some models, this screen surface is glossy and therefore susceptible to reflections from a nearby lamp or window. It does a good job reducing glare from ambient light and maintains contrast in a brighter room environment.
SOUND QUALITY. This model has fair sound quality with below average performance. It's acceptable for typical programming, but shortcomings become obvious with movie soundtracks and music. Bass was adequate, which added some fullness to the sound but a bit lacking in clarity, and treble lacked detail, while the overall sound was closed in. The speakers produced a good volume range so this model should play sufficiently loud in typical room environments, but quality does degrade at high volume settings. Also, at higher volume, dynamic compression kept the sound from distorting, but also limited the clarity of peaks in loudness, which can be distracting on some audio content. If sound quality matters to you, you might want to add a soundbar or other external speaker system.
EASE OF USE. On first power up there is an on-screen guide that helps you through setting up the TV. Westinghouse provides a small, Android remote which includes a reduced set of buttons that support onscreen menu navigation, and a built-in microphone. It does not include a number pad but does provide direct button access to Netflix, YouTube, and Google Play streaming services. Consider the TV's stand is 36 inches wide when choosing a table top to place it on.
INTERNET FEATURES. This TV provides Internet functionality with a selection of applications via its "Android TV" 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, Hulu, HBO Go and HBO Now. Includes built-in Google Assistant, a virtual assistant, which allows you to use natural speech to ask questions, launch applications, and search programming via the remote's built-in microphone.
CONNECTIONS. This model has three HDMI inputs-- one supports ARC (Audio Return Channel), one "component/composite shared" input (which means you can only use one type or the other at a time). It also has two USB ports, an optical digital audio out, a headphone out, an Ethernet port, WiFi wireless networking; Casting, which allows you to send streaming content from your mobile device to the TV via your home network; Screen mirroring, where the image on your smartphone or other compatible device can also appear on the TV.
INCLUDED IN THE BOX. A printed user manual. A remote control with batteries.
ABOUT ULTRA HD TESTING: We test UHD picture quality using 4K movies, videos, photos, and test patterns to confirm these displays deliver performance to this format's full potential. We check the TV's ability to reproduce 4K image detail, as well as high dynamic range (HDR) for TVs that support this capability. Image quality is tested using a 4K movie player connected to the TV's HDMI input, as well as from files stored on flash drive plugged into the TV's USB port. We also check how well the TV can upscale HD movies to the display's higher UHD resolution while keeping artifacts such as "jaggies" along the edges of image content to a minimum. The best UHD TVs, and HDTVs, present high fidelity images that reveal the full quality of the best source content without degradation.
