Verdict

If regular readers of this website are thinking they’ve accidentally stumbled away from TVs and into the PC monitor section, fear not: Acer is no longer just a PC company. As with a number of other traditionally PC brands (Evesham, BenQ, ViewSonic etc), Acer has seen the huge popularity of LCD TVs as a perfect opportunity for translating its LCD PC monitor experience into AV success. But with the demands of video on an LCD screen being very different to the demands of a PC, can Acer really compete with the more established AV brands?

Let’s start with our very first impressions, which find the AT3205 looking… different. It’s certainly not ugly, thanks to its glossy black and silver colour scheme, and boldly rounded edges. But with its ‘bolt on’ speakers and unusually large chassis, it’s also hardly in keeping with the diminutive, minimalist style currently favoured by the Sony and Panasonic’s of this world. Ultimately it kind of looks like some sort of cross between a PC and a TV – which is probably about right, given its heritage.

When it comes to connections, the AT3205 teaches some of the premium AV brands a thing or two. For starters, it sports an impressive two digital video inputs: one DVI flavoured, and one HDMI flavoured. And no, in case you were wondering, neither of these digital inputs is restricted to PC use; both can take a high definition video signal.

The AT3205 also shames many of the other TVs we’ve looked at so far in our epic World Cup countdown by providing three SCARTs, alongside an analogue PC jack, component video inputs, and a digital audio output.

If you’re wondering what the digital audio output’s for, it’s because the AT3205 carries a terrestrial digital TV tuner, and terrestrial digital TV broadcasts might one day start broadcasting Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks. Soundtracks which, without the digital output, you wouldn’t be able to pipe out into a surround sound receiver.

The fact that the Acer carries a Freeview tuner is, if we’re honest, slightly surprising. After all, even one or two really established AV brands have only just got their heads round all the UK-specific issues associated with Freeview reception. But all credit to Acer, as the digital tuner’s inclusion really proves how seriously the company is taking its TV duties here.

Before we get too carried away, though, there are a couple of digital limitations to report. Firstly, there’s no CI slot for adding subscription services like Top Up TV to the Free-to-air channel roster. Second, although the TV supports the 7-day Freeview electronic programme guide, the listings for this guide tend to load painfully slowly.

The TV proudly sports the AV world’s HD Ready badge of honour, meaning it’s got a suitably HD friendly native resolution (1,366 x 768 as it happens) and can handle the necessary 720p and 1080i HD formats. In fact, rather excellently, it goes beyond the call of HD Ready duty by also accepting the 1080p feeds promised from Blu-ray discs and the PS3 – a talent only a small handful of other TVs can match.

Other specifications include a par-for-the-course brightness of 500cd/m2, and a potential reality check in the form of a slightly disappointing-looking contrast ratio of 800:1. But given how notoriously unreliable contrast ratio figures can be, we’ll wait to see how this Acer shapes up in practice rather than prejudging it on paper.

We’ve pretty much exhausted the features in this Acer’s locker already – a touch earlier than we might have hoped. But Acer could reasonably argue that having two digital video inputs, a digital tuner and HD Ready specification are features enough for a 32in LCD TV costing just £900!

Also very acceptable for £900 is the AT3205’s picture quality, as it quickly sets about banishing concerns we may have had about it favouring PC over video sources. The most obvious sign of the Acer’s TV credentials can be seen in its colours; specifically the generally natural tone they adopt. A PC-focussed screen might be expected to show grubby, sickly greens and over-ripe skin-tones when playing video, but this seldom if ever happens with the AT3205.

This tonal accuracy is, however, accompanied by the sort of brightness and colour vibrancy we would often associated with a PC display – and actually, for most of the time this seems more a positive than a negative. Contributing still further to the already enjoyably natural look of the AT3205’s picture is a general freedom from most kinds of video noise. Even the blocking often seen with weak digital broadcasts is well suppressed.

So why does our image quality mark only read ‘7’? First, black levels aren’t up there with the best rivals we’ve tested. So while dark parts of the picture look black enough to give ordinary daytime TV footage a reasonably punchy appearance, the more extreme contrast demands of your average film reveal a gentle grey pall over the darkest parts of the picture that obscures detail and in doing so robs the picture of depth.

Elsewhere the AT3205 doesn’t do quite such a sharp job of rendering all the fine detail in a high definition picture as more expensive LCD rivals, and occasionally LCD response time issues make motion look a touch blurred.

If, however, the AT3205 falls slightly short of the best ‘mainstream’ LCD TVs with its pictures, it humbles many of them sonically. Those bolt-on speakers may be chunky, but they justify their proportions with an exceptionally powerful performance containing loads of lovely bass, sweetly rounded and precise trebles, and the capacity to ‘go to 11’ when necessary.

”’Verdict”’

Acer is to be congratulated on the AT3205. It has clearly gone out of its way to think about what a TV rather than a PC customer wants, and in doing so has delivered a TV which, while not perfect, is certainly better than you’ve any right to expect for £900.

Trusted Score