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Techwood 50AO1SB Review - Sound Quality and Verdict Review

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Techwood 50AO1SB – Sound Quality

While the 50AO1SB delivers surprisingly good pictures for its money, it’s much more par for the cheapo course in the audio department. Its speakers deliver an at times painfully thin, compressed sound that distorts readily under pressure, causes wince-inducing harshness when there’s any serious amount of treble. It struggles to keep voices sounding rounded and clear, even with undemanding content. You’ll probably want to add a soundbar or soundbase at some point, in other words.

SEE ALSO: Best Soundbars Round-up

Other things to consider

If you’re after an inexpensive TV that can double up as a proficient gaming monitor, the 50AO1SB is a very credible option. For as well as delivering more contrast and motion clarity than the majority of its uber-cheap rivals, our tests also recorded an input lag of just 36ms when using its gaming mode. This is pretty low by LCD TV standards, and shouldn’t severely hamper your gaming skills.

Should I buy a Techwood 50AO1SB?

If you fancy some big-screen action but you’re on a tight budget, or you want a crazily cheap big-screen TV for a second room, the Techwood 50AO1SB should definitely be high on your list of options.

If you can find another £120-£150 then the attractive (but slightly smaller) Samsung UE48H5500 comes within your grasp, along with the decent Sony 48W605. But there’s really nothing else around at quite the 50AO1SB’s price that gets the budget TV job done as effectively.

Techwood 50AO1SBSide and front view of a black television remote control.

Verdict

There’s no doubt that the 50AO1SB is a cut above the ultra-budget competition – especially if you stick with HD as much as possible. In fact, AO’s cut-price champ even teaches some TVs from much bigger brands a trick or two.

We test every TV we review thoroughly over an extended period of time. We use industry standard tests to compare features properly. We’ll always tell you what we find. We never, ever, accept money to review a product.

Find out more about how we test in our ethics policy.

Used as the main TV for the review period

Tested for more than a week

Tested using industry calibrated tools, discs and with real world use

Tested with broadcast content (HD/SD), video streams and demo discs

Trusted Score

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Score in detail

  • Features 7
  • Value 10
  • Smart TV 7
  • Image Quality 7
  • Design 8
  • Sound Quality 5

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