A couple of years ago when Xiaomi launched their Mi TV in the Indian market it took the entire space by a storm, over the past few years we have seen other companies such as Vu, Kodak, and now even Realme joins the budget TV space. Kodak is one such company that gives a tough fight when it comes to specifications and value for money. The latest launch from the brand is the Kodak CA series featuring 4K LED Smart TVs, the range is available in four sizes starting from 43-inch to the 65-inch variants. We got the 43-inch variant from Kodak for review which is priced at just Rs 23,999 and will be detailing the features and performance of the same.
The Kodak CA series features 4K LED Smart TVs and runs on Official Android TV 9 Pie and comes with support for Dolby Vision making this the most affordable television in India with Dolby Vision and HDR certification. The TV also supports Dolby Digital Plus and DTS TruSurround for audio, the in-built speaker has a rated output of 30W. The Kodak CA TV comes with built-in support for Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, and more on the Android TV platform with the remote featuring hotkeys for these apps. As we have seen with other Android TVs these days, the Kodak CA series smart televisions also come with built-in Chromecast and also has three dedicated HDMI ports with support for HDMI ARC on the HDMI 1 port.
Generally, there isn’t much to expect from the budget smart TVs in terms of design as most of the investment generally goes into the display, software, and other performance-related aspects. Kodak’s older smart TVs have lacked a premium design and looked very simple, luckily, the brand has made good improvements with the CA series and offers a much better and revamped design. The most notable difference in the TV is the width of the bezels which has been reduced to almost half when you compare it to some of the older models from the brand, this design makes the TV look almost bezel-less. The TV comes with a stand to put it on a tabletop or a TV cabinet, there is also a bundled wall mount frame if you want to mount it from the wall.
The overall build quality has improved a lot, and this has also reflected in the stand and the overall unit, the metal stand feels much more robust and reliable in terms of carrying the weight of the TV unit. Kodak has managed to improve the overall design without increasing the price point which is a commendable achievement by itself.
The 43-inch variant also comes with a 4K resolution panel and has a peak brightness of 500 nits with support for HDR10 and Dolby Vision. We tried streaming Our Planet, Dynasty, and other shows that have Dolby Vision and HDR support, and the content looked vivid and sharp. The picture quality is impressive, and the sound quality well compliments the display. The colors do pop out well on the Kodak smart TV but the contrast could have been a little better as the black levels felt pretty underwhelming. This was even more evident when compared to the offering from Mi as it offered better contrast levels with deeper blacks and good color vibrancy. The Kodak CA 43” Android TV only flaunts an 8-bit panel which explains the slight reduction in display quality.
There are multiple picture modes to fine-tune the colors and we recommend setting it to Vivid and Dolby Vision Bright for better visuals. The audio quality on the TV did impress us and the TV comes with support for Dolby Digital Plus and DTS TruSurround. The built-in speakers give a total output of 30W which is enough for a medium-sized room, this is better than the Mi TV which comes with only 20W speakers. The audio is clear, and we tested out some soundtracks which all sounded pretty decent. There are four different audio modes to choose from based on the situation and the type of audio you are listening,
This new smart TV comes with a new remote controller which is surely an upgrade from the previous offerings. The company is now offering all important functions on the remote for easy access which makes a bulky offering, it includes hotkeys for YouTube, Play Store, Netflix, and Prime Video for quick access. There is also a Google Assistant button to give voice commands easily. We did not face any app issues while streaming the content and Google’s Android runs everything smoothly without any glitches on the TV. Android support on the TV has come a long way and feels much more refined from the previous offerings and now makes this a good choice for a lot of users.
Kodak has been selling half-baked TVs in India for a while now and it is nice to know that the company has finally introduced a much more refined version with Google Android Support. The new Kodak Smart TVs are priced very aggressively and offer good audio and video support. The TV supports the common streaming apps natively and the audio performance is very impressive and better than Mi TV in our testing experience. The newly designed remote controller makes access extremely easy with the additional hotkeys. While the TV does lack a little in picture delivery the 4K LED panel on the Kodak Smart TV is good with minor issues in contrast ratio and color vibrancy.
