Today, consumers are spoiled for choice when looking to buy a TV. Not only are there a number of brands offering products at competitive pricing, but also TV technology has evolved to the point where there are a number of options to choose from. Should you buy an FHD TV or a 4K TV? Should you buy a TV with support for HDR? Should it run on Android or some other OS? All these factors play a role far more crucial than people think. While a detailed TV buying guide is a story for another day, today we are going to take a look at three 43-inch 4K TVs that you can choose from. Nokia has finally announced the 43-inch 4K TV in India priced at Rs 31,999 and you can check out all the details of the TV here. The TV brings with it a 4K panel with support for HDR including Dolby Vision, and speakers powered by JBL. In the budget space, the Nokia 43-inch TV competes with the Xiaomi Mi TV 4X and the Kodak 43-inch 4K TV. So let’s take a look and see how these three TVs compare.
All the three TVs boast of a 4K panel and support for HDR. However, the Nokia TV and the Kodak TV boast of support for Dolby Vision, Dolby’s premier HDR technology. The Mi TV 4X supports HDR 10 only. Just to be clear, supporting the technology is only half the story. To take full advantage of HDR, the TV needs to have high peak brightness. This is where they differ. The Nokia TV has a peak brightness of 300 nits whereas the Kodak TV has a peak brightness of 500 nits. While the peak brightness of the Mi TV 4X isn’t mentioned in the spec sheet we expect it to be around the 350 nits ballpark.
From the peak brightness spec alone, it is clear that the Kodak TV has the best specs on paper, but things like colour accuracy, dark scene performance, etc. can only be judged once the TVs are in front of us. All the three TVs have LED backlighting.
When it comes to audio, the Nokia TV has speakers powered by JBL. The other two TVs don't bring any big audio name to their TV speakers. All three TVs support Dolby Audio and DTS technology. However, all three speakers differ when it comes to sound output. The Nokia TV has 24W of sound output, the Kodak TV has 30W of sound output and the Xiaomi TV has 20W of sound output. Louder may not necessarily be better, as the tuning of the speakers is important as well.
When it comes to specifications, lets first start with connectivity options. All three TVs come with 3 HDMI ports and 2 USB ports. The Kodak and the Nokia TV don't have 3.5mm ports while the Mi TV does and that's great for connecting wired headphones or connecting it to a pair of speakers via an AUX cable. The Kodak TV and the Mi TV come with 8GB built-in storage for your apps while the Nokia TV has double that storage at 16GB. All three TVs have a quad-core processor under the hood.
While on paper the specifications of the TVs may be homogenous, the 16GB built-in storage will be a plus for those that decide to download a ton of apps from the Google Play Store on the Nokia TV.
All three TVs – the Nokia 43-inch 4K TV, the Kodak 43-inch 4K TV and the Mi TV 4X run on the Android TV UI and bring with them access to the Google Assistant via the remote control and the Play Store, giving them access to popular streaming services. All three TVs come with support for Netflix, Prime Videos and Disney+ Hotstar from the Play Store.
While the Nokia TV and the Kodak TV bring with them stock Android TV UI, it is the Mi TV that gives consumers the option between the vanilla Android TV experience and Xiaomi’s own PatchWall UI. PatchWall is a friendly experience for those that aren’t used to a Smart TV UI. It has content before the service, letting users browse a large catalogue of movies and TV shows. Xiaomi actively updates PatchWall with new features and you can read more about it here.
The Nokia 43-inch 4K TV is priced at Rs 31,999 whereas the 43-inch Kodak 4K TV is priced at Rs 23,999 and the Mi TV 4X is priced at Rs 24,999. Which TV is a value for money proposition is something we will tell you when we have the TVs side by side.