HDTV Reviews

As Dell enters the world of HDTV going on it’s knowledge from PC inductry Trustedreviews takes a look at the W3202MC 32-inch LCD. Dell currently has two fully fledged LCD TVs available: the 37in W3702MC, and the 32in W3202MC we’re looking at here. First impressions, though, suggest that this supposed TV is in fact still a PC monitor, as its simple grey bezel design smacks much more of the office than of the living room.

Dell really may have taken its TV duties seriously with the W3202MC become impressively apparent with its connections. HDMI and component options make sure the TV meets the connectivity part of the AV industry’s HD Ready specifications, while a pair of Scarts, an RF aerial jack and the usual S-Video and composite video fluff meet with our ‘normal’ TV expectations.

Before getting into how the W3202MC actually performs, it’s worth quickly looking at some of its key specifications. Its native resolution of 1,366 x 768 is fair enough, as is its claimed contrast ratio of 1000:1. Plus, to our surprise, its video processing is bolstered by the application of PixelWorks’ DNX scaling system. The only slight concern is the claimed brightness of 450cd/m2, which is a touch lower than normal.

Even with pristine high definition feeds from Sky, an Xbox 360 and a now aging imported JVC D-VHS deck, the W3202MC struggles to shine thanks to two rather overwhelming problems. First, dark areas of the pictures tend to look seriously ‘greyed out’, making dark scenes feel flat and low on background detail. This seems to have a knock-on effect with colours too, leaving many tones, especially darker ones, looking muted and unnatural.

Dell’s W3202MC may be aggressively priced and reasonably well specified, but in performance terms it’s the proverbial game of two halves. Which might have been OK had the good half contained picture rather than audio quality.