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This seems down in part to a well-judged white balance that sees peak white sections of a picture looking crisp and pure, rather than murky and subdued as they can on lesser LCD TVs.

Colours as rich as this are usually accompanied by solid renditions of deep blacks, and so it proves here. The L26TP2 mostly (though not completely) avoids the greying over of dark picture parts that characterises many LCD TVs, especially those smaller than 32in.

Next we come to the L26TP2’s sharpness, which impresses through a combination of good fine detail resolution and pleasingly little sign of LCD’s common motion smearing
problems.

Finally in the plus column we really must praise the quality of the recordings the set makes. So far as we can tell they look practically identical to the original digital broadcasts – and you can’t really ask for more than that.

Now for the negatives. Let’s start with the fact that although dark parts of the picture benefit from impressively deep black levels, they also look rather hollow, like black holes ripped from the picture rather than integral parts of it.

Next, while viewing an HDMI output we noticed quite a lot of greenish blocky noise over some parts of the picture – and no amount of fiddling with the brightness and contrast settings managed to completely eradicate this without ruining other aspects of the image. Finally, while watching the TV during daylight hours we couldn’t help but notice that its screen is extremely reflective of any bright objects in your room.

The L26TP2 is a respectable audio performer by 26in TV standards. In fact, it’s quite unusual in that it actually likes to be pushed hard. At low volumes it seems a bit flat and disinterested, but the more volume and audio dramatics you ask it to deliver, the more it springs into life.

Verdict

With all the evidence in, the L26TP2 is a merely solid performer that’s elevated into something much more appealing by its handy, well thought through features and tantalising price.

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