Tag Archives: Blaupunkt

Blaupunkt 43-inch Ultra-HD LED CyberSound Android TV (43CSA7070) Review: 4K Smart TV with Good Sound

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Most new budget televisions boast of popular features and specifications related to visuals, such as Ultra-HD resolution, support for HDR formats, and also smart connectivity to enable easy streaming of content from numerous online sources. However, few tout their sound capabilities; affordable options often have only basic speaker systems, and as a result, fairly basic sound quality. The latest range of TVs from Blaupunkt hopes to change that. In India, the Blaupunkt brand has been licensed by local manufacturer Super Plastronics for televisions, and it has recently launched the CyberSound range of affordable smart TVs.

The TV I’m reviewing here is the 43-inch model in this range, the Blaupunkt 43CSA7070 Ultra-HD LED Android TV, and it’s priced at Rs. 30,999. It checks all the boxes when it comes to basic specifications, with a 43-inch Ultra-HD LED-backlit screen, support for HDR content, and Android TV 10 powering the smart connectivity.

However, there’s also a key additional specification that gives the TV its name: the 43CSA7070 TV has a rated sound output of 50W through its built-in speaker system. Is this the loudest and best-sounding budget 4K TV you can buy right now, and can it also match up to the competition in terms of video quality? Find out in this review.

The Blaupunkt CyberSound 4K TV range is available in sizes of 43 inches, 50 inches, and 55 inches

 

Blaupunkt 43-inch Ultra-HD LED CyberSound Android TV design and specifications

Most affordable and reasonably priced televisions in India right now look fairly plain, with simple plastic frames and slim borders that allow for viewers’ focus to remain on the screen. The Blaupunkt CyberSound TV largely adheres to this formula, but has a thin silver-coloured strip at the bottom that helps it stand out a bit. The company logo is on this strip, with a module for the status light and IR receiver right below it.

The television isn’t very thick, and can be wall or table-mounted, with the former compatible with standard VESA mounting hooks, and the latter using the stands included in the box. A wall-mount kit is included in the box, and Blaupunkt provides free installation for this TV with your purchase. The stands, if used, need to be placed near the outer edges of the TV, so you’ll need a wide enough table to place it on.

The power socket for the cable faces to the right of the screen, while all ports face to the left. If you have the TV wall-mounted, these ports might be a bit difficult to access since they are near the centre of the TV at the back. The television isn’t very heavy, weighing about 6.5kg, which makes it easy to lift and even install yourself if you choose. I do, however, recommend that you opt for professional installation if you aren’t familiar with the process.

While I’m reviewing the 43-inch model, there are also 50-inch and 55-inch options in the same product range, priced at Rs. 36,999 and Rs. 40,999 respectively. The 43-inch, 50-inch, and 55-inch models are all Ultra-HD televisions with support for high dynamic range content up to the HDR10+ format, and are almost identical in terms of the rest of their specifications. Naturally, the size you pick would depend on the viewing distance and space in your home.

The TV has a 43-inch Ultra-HD (3840×2160-pixel) LED-backlit IPS LCD screen, with a standard refresh rate of 60Hz and a rated peak brightness of 450 nits. High dynamic range content up to the HDR10+ format is supported on the TV; the lack of support for Dolby Vision content is notable here, especially since competing products such as the Realme Smart TV 4K 43 and the upcoming Mi TV 5X do have this.

This is an Ultra-HD television with support for HDR10+ format content, but no Dolby Vision

 

Connectivity options include three HDMI ports, two USB ports, Ethernet, Optical (Toslink) audio out, an antenna connector, and a single composite AV input socket to be used with a three-way RCA adapter. Oddly, while the specifications do state the presence of a headphone jack for external audio connectivity, this wasn’t present on my review unit. As mentioned, the 43-inch Blaupunkt CyberSound TV has a rated sound output of 50W through a box speaker system with four speaker units.

HDMI ARC, Dolby Digital and Dolby MS12 processing, Bluetooth 5, and dual-band Wi-Fi are also supported. The TV is powered by a quad-core processor, and has 2GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage for the Android TV 10 software and apps.

Blaupunkt 43-inch Ultra-HD LED CyberSound Android TV remote and features

Small remotes with few buttons might be in fashion for affordable televisions, but the Blaupunkt CyberSound doesn’t have one of those. The remote of this TV is big and has lots of buttons including a number pad; D-pad for navigation; hotkeys for Netflix, YouTube, and Google Play; a Google Assistant button; and playback controls. This isn’t a bad thing at all, since it means that you can do just about everything you need with just a couple of button presses.

The remote runs on two AAA batteries (included in the box), and has dedicated buttons for all key functions such as changing the source, and accessing the picture and sound settings from any screen. An info button shows basic technical details in supported apps. Although it’s bulky and looks rather ordinary, it’s extremely functional and useful; I’d much rather have function over form when it comes to TV remotes.

It’s possible to change key picture and sound attributes plus some miscellaneous hardware settings using the remote, even from within content being played. Usefully, there is also Google Chromecast functionality built in, as well as support for Apple AirPlay. Getting AirPlay to work was a bit tricky, and needed a third-party app (AirScreen) from the Google Play Store, as the TV wasn’t able to connect with a source device from the Android TV home screen.

I was able to get it to work eventually, and it functioned normally with both a MacBook Air and iPhone once properly set up. Google casting worked pretty much as expected with both screen mirroring and direct content. There is also Google Assistant on the TV, which can be invoked using the button on the remote, and this works as expected too.

Blaupunkt 43-inch Ultra-HD LED CyberSound Android TV software and interface

The Blaupunkt CyberSound TV range runs Android TV 10, with only the stock Android TV launcher. If you’ve used Android TV devices before, this is the same familiar smart TV experience you’ll already be used to. Even if this is your first smart TV, the Android TV experience is among the easiest and best of the various available smart TV platforms.

Apps and games can be downloaded through the Google Play Store for Android TV, and certain apps are needed for you to fully use all the features of the TV, such as the AirScreen app mentioned in the previous section. Some apps come preinstalled on the Blaupunkt CyberSound TV, including Netflix, YouTube, and Google Play Movies.

The Cybersound TV runs Android TV 10, with the stock Android TV user interface

 

Most popular apps and streaming services are available to download, and the remote is fully optimised to control them. Usefully, the television boots up from standby in only around five seconds, and it takes around 45 seconds if you’re doing a full reboot, or turning it back on after the main power was turned off.

While the entire list of settings can be accessed through the Android TV home screen and settings menu, certain core settings for picture and sound can also be pulled up by pressing the ‘Menu’ button on the remote from anywhere within the interface, including when content is playing. This lets you tweak things on the go, and also immediately see how any changes affect the performance of the TV. There are specific picture modes for HDR, with the TV automatically detecting HDR content and choosing an appropriate one.

Blaupunkt 43-inch Ultra-HD LED CyberSound Android TV performance

As the name suggests, the Blaupunkt 43-inch Ultra-HD LED CyberSound Android TV is focused on sound performance, but this television does also match up to the competition when it comes to picture capabilities. It has an Ultra-HD screen with HDR support up to the HDR10+ format, with a standard refresh rate of 60Hz and support for Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby MS12 processing, and DTS TruSurround.

That said, the superior Dolby Vision HDR format and Dolby Atmos sound format are not supported. This is a bit disappointing given that options such as the Realme Smart TV 4K 43 offer support for these formats at around the same price.

Despite its size, the Blaupunkt 43-inch CyberSound TV delivers a reasonably detailed picture when playing high-quality content, and differences between full-HD and Ultra-HD content were visible easily enough. High dynamic range content didn’t look significantly different from standard dynamic range content. This partly has to do with the lack of support for Dolby Vision, and partly because of the somewhat low peak brightness of the TV.

While colour accuracy was decent enough and the picture remained sharp and clean with Ultra-HD HDR content, the Blaupunkt CyberSound TV fell a bit short when it came to brightness and punch. Watching various episodes of Street Food: Asia on Netflix, the vibrant colours and activity of various food markets around Asia weren’t suitably reproduced by this TV.

The remote of the Blaupunkt CyberSound TV is big and bulky, but has buttons for practically everything you need

 

The picture was often difficult to discern clearly if bright daylight was hitting the screen, and turning up the brightness and backlighting only worsened things by creating a grey haze. Although darkening the room a bit by drawing the curtains did help improve the picture, night scenes were still often unwatchable in regular conditions; many scenes in the Cebu episode of Street Food: Asia appeared completely grey to me, with no reasonable level of detail visible at all.

This brings me to the black levels of the Blaupunkt CyberSound TV. The odd brightness management and the effect the backlighting has on the picture together made for blacks that didn’t look black at all. Instead, most nighttime and dark scenes appeared to have a grey wash over them that made viewing them quite difficult. I also found that HDR performance was a bit inconsistent, while standard dynamic range content tended to look a bit more visually exciting and harmonious.

I did notice that these flaws seemed to show more prominently in content with low production value, with the TV doing virtually nothing to enhance fast-moving video or anything shot in settings that weren’t necessarily photogenic. On the other hand, watching TV shows and movies shot on carefully constructed sets, such as Comedy Premium League on Netflix and some episodes of Loki on Disney+ Hotstar, was considerably better. Despite these issues with colour and brightness, the Blaupunkt TV did enough to ensure a sharp picture with clean motion, and I had no serious complaints with that.

I found that full-HD content on the Blaupunkt 43-inch CyberSound TV was nearly as good as Ultra-HD content; the TV did a good job of upscaling, particularly episodes of The Good Place and Parks and Recreation, as well as Fast and Furious: Hobbs and Shaw. Interestingly enough, sharp, in-studio shooting techniques and bright sets and colours seemed to bring out the best in this TV. Lower-resolution content, particularly kids’ videos on YouTube, looked decent enough, with reasonably good upscaling. The issues with brightness and colours did persist, but content that is colourful and bright enough on its own didn’t hassle the TV too much.

Sound quality is pitched as a key feature of the Blaupunkt CyberSound TV series, with the 43-inch model having a rated output of 50W through a quad box speaker system. The speakers fire downwards, and are indeed as loud as the number suggests. Even at low to medium volume levels, the Blaupunkt CyberSound TV was very loud. Reasonably good tuning for voices made it easy to listen to the dialogue in movies and TV shows.

Turning the volume all the way up made for very loud sound, but did lead to some quirks in the sound quality which you wouldn’t typically face from a good soundbar with front-firing speakers. Volume levels were consistent, and there weren’t too many spikes in loud scenes or with music. Keeping the volume at medium to slightly high levels made for a pleasant and enjoyable sound. This Blaupunkt TV is quite easily the loudest…

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Revisión de los auriculares inalámbricos verdaderos Blaupunkt BTW100: momentos divertidos con un presupuesto

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Aunque Blaupunkt es más conocido en el segmento de audio para automóviles, ha ganado cierta reputación en el espacio de audio personal y doméstico en los últimos años. Su gama de productos ahora incluye barras de sonido, parlantes y sistemas de parlantes inalámbricos, y auriculares y audífonos, la mayoría de los cuales tienen un precio asequible y se venden principalmente en línea en la India. Entre los lanzamientos recientes de la compañía se encuentra el verdadero auricular inalámbrico BTW100, que promete brindar una experiencia de presupuesto competente con un enfoque en la calidad del sonido.

Con cancelación de ruido ambiental, controles táctiles y carga USB tipo C para el estuche, el Blaupunkt BTW100 cubre lo básico a un precio competitivo de Rs. 1.299 en la India. ¿Es este el mejor auricular inalámbrico real asequible que puede comprar en este momento? Descúbrelo en esta revisión.

El Blaupunkt BTW100 no tiene cancelación activa de ruido, pero hay soporte para el códec Bluetooth AAC

Blaupunkt BTW100 diseño y especificaciones

El Blaupunkt BTW100 tiene un precio muy asequible, pero el diseño realmente no lo revela. Este es un buen par de verdaderos auriculares inalámbricos, con un ajuste adecuado en el canal y vástagos largos. Hay detalles cromados y logotipos de Blaupunkt claramente grandes en los auriculares a lo largo de los vástagos, junto con luces indicadoras en la parte superior. Los puntos de contacto de carga están en el lado interior del vástago y los micrófonos están en la parte inferior de los auriculares.

Hay dos opciones de color para el Blaupunkt BTW100: blanco y negro. La variante negra que me enviaron no mostraba suciedad ni huellas dactilares con facilidad, y encontré el ajuste cómodo incluso para largas sesiones de escucha. Los lados exteriores de los auriculares son sensibles al tacto para los controles, pero la falta de compatibilidad con aplicaciones significa que estos controles no se pueden personalizar.

Un solo toque en cualquier lado reproduce y pausa la música, un doble toque salta a la pista siguiente o anterior, y un triple toque le permite ajustar el volumen. El gesto de tocar y mantener invoca el asistente de voz predeterminado en su teléfono inteligente emparejado. Hubo bastantes ocasiones en las que los toques no se registraron correctamente; un toque doble o triple registrado como un solo toque, por lo que deberá tener cuidado al realizar tales gestos para asegurarse de que los controles de toque funcionen correctamente.

El estuche de carga de los auriculares inalámbricos verdaderos Blaupunkt BTW100 es simple, tiene forma de concha y es lo suficientemente pequeño y liviano como para deslizarse en un bolsillo o bolso. Hay tres luces indicadoras en la parte delantera para el nivel de la batería, y la parte trasera tiene el puerto de carga USB tipo C. Los auriculares y la tapa encajan magnéticamente.

Aunque el Blaupunkt BTW100 es un verdadero auricular inalámbrico económico, las especificaciones y características que se ofrecen son decentes. Los auriculares utilizan Bluetooth 5.1 para la conectividad, con soporte para los códecs Bluetooth SBC y AAC. La cancelación de ruido ambiental para mejorar el sonido en las llamadas también está presente en los auriculares. Los auriculares tienen clasificación IPX5 de resistencia al agua.

Hay cancelación de ruido ambiental para llamadas en los auriculares Blaupunkt BTW100

El Blaupunkt BTW100 admite una latencia baja de 80 ms, pero dado que no hay forma de activarlo a través de los auriculares, se supone que los auriculares siempre están en modo de latencia baja cuando están en uso. El auricular tiene controladores dinámicos de 10 mm y el paquete de ventas incluye un total de tres pares de almohadillas de silicona y un cable de carga corto.

Blaupunkt BTW100 rendimiento y duración de la batería

Aunque es posible comprar verdaderos auriculares inalámbricos con características como cancelación activa de ruido y soporte de aplicaciones para alrededor de las Rs. Con un precio de 2,000, se espera que los auriculares más asequibles sean un poco más simples en la operación. El Blaupunkt BTW100 no tiene muchas funciones, pero es técnicamente experto en su funcionalidad principal, y el aspecto más importante, la calidad del sonido, es lo suficientemente decente por el precio.

Útilmente, el Blaupunkt BTW100 admite el códec AAC Bluetooth además de SBC, y esto marca la diferencia en la calidad del sonido. Al escuchar Back To Life de Croatia Squad, los auriculares revelaron un sesgo de gama baja muy obvio en la firma sónica. El sonido fue contundente y agresivo con el ritmo de esta pista de house progresivo llamando mucho la atención, y los fanáticos de la música electrónica o popular definitivamente disfrutarán el ataque de graves en los auriculares. El auricular se vuelve bastante ruidoso, lo que se siente más con pistas rápidas y agresivas.

Si bien esto a veces parecía demasiado, el ataque parecía no llegar a sonar fangoso o autoritario. Con 24K Magic de Bruno Mars, a pesar de los fuertes ritmos inspirados en el hip-hop, las voces y los elementos de synth-pop tenían mucho espacio para avanzar, creando un sonido agradablemente agresivo que tenía un sonido y una imagen razonablemente buenos.

La duración de la batería es decente por el precio del Blaupunkt BTW100, con un total de 23 horas de tiempo de escucha por ciclo de carga

Hay un buen grado de separación en el audio, pero eso no quiere decir que el Blaupunkt BTW100 suene muy detallado, ya que, después de todo, es un auricular asequible. El bajo fuerte tiende a distraer y hace que sea difícil escuchar los aspectos más finos de las pistas, pero hay cierto nivel de cohesión y definición para escuchar en los elementos más suaves de la pista, particularmente en el rango medio y alto.

También vale la pena señalar que el bajo tiende a causar cierta fatiga en el oyente durante largas sesiones de escucha a un volumen alto. En volúmenes más bajos, encontré el Blaupunkt BTW100 cómodo, pero considerablemente menos emocionante y divertido de escuchar.

La calidad de las llamadas en los auriculares fue promedio, pero lo suficientemente útil para llamadas cortas en interiores. Si bien la cancelación de ruido ambiental pareció mejorar la calidad de la voz, todavía había mucho sonido de fondo que se colaba cuando estaba al aire libre. La calidad de la conexión fue buena, con el Blaupunkt BTW100 manteniendo una conexión estable con el teléfono inteligente emparejado a distancias de hasta 3 m.

La duración de la batería del Blaupunkt BTW100 fue buena para un auricular asequible. Los auriculares funcionaron durante un poco menos de cuatro horas por carga, y el estuche de carga agregó casi cinco cargas adicionales, para una duración total de la batería de alrededor de 23 horas por ciclo de carga a volúmenes de escucha de moderados a altos. Esto es un poco más bajo que la cifra de 40 horas declarada por la compañía, pero es bastante bueno dado el precio de los auriculares BTW100.

Veredicto

Los verdaderos auriculares inalámbricos asequibles tienden a ser demasiado básicos y carecen de brillo, pero el Blaupunkt BTW100 es un cambio refrescante en un segmento de precios en el que normalmente encontramos productos mediocres. Los auriculares no están particularmente llenos de funciones, pero cosas como el diseño decente y la calidad del sonido, la compatibilidad con el códec AAC Bluetooth y la buena duración de la batería hacen que valga la pena considerarlos si tiene un presupuesto de alrededor de Rs. 1.500.

Este segmento de precios es competitivo y, de hecho, gastar solo unos cientos de rupias más puede brindarle opciones con cancelación activa de ruido, como Realme Buds Q2. También puede valer la pena mirar los auriculares Bluetooth estilo banda para el cuello en este rango de precios, pero si está seguro de que quiere auriculares inalámbricos verdaderos y tiene un presupuesto ajustado, el Blaupunkt BTW100 es una elección decente.

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Blaupunkt BU680 4K Smart LED TV (BLA43BU680) Review

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Although better known for its car audio equipment, Blaupunkt is also very popular for its home and audio products. The company now has a range of televisions in India, which are positioned as value offerings priced affordably for what’s on offer. One of the company’s latest series in India is the Palladium BU680 range, which features 4K resolution screens, HDR, smart connectivity, and more. With affordable pricing, the Palladium series is meant for buyers looking for a premium option at a fraction of what the more well-known television makers charge.

On review today is the smallest and most affordable model in the range, the Blaupunkt BLA43BU680 4K HDR Smart LED TV. Priced at Rs. 21,999, it’s one of the most affordable 4K smart televisions available in India today, and promises more than what similarly priced televisions from many competing manufacturers do. We find out if the Blaupunkt BLA43BU680 television is as impressive as it seems in our review.

The frame of the television has a metallic silver finish

 

Blaupunkt 4K Smart LED TV (BLA43BU680) design and specifications

Most affordable televisions go with a standard look involving glossy plastic borders around the screen, but Blaupunkt has adopted a different approach with the BLA43BU680. The television has bright silver borders; it’s plastic, but with a coating that gives it the appearance of being metal. The Blaupunkt logo is at the bottom, just above a module that holds the IR receiver and indicator light.

There isn’t much else to this television when it comes to the look and feel. The borders are about as thick as you can expect on a modern budget television, and the unit on the whole is neither too slim nor too thick. The silver borders might appeal to some, but we found them a bit distracting due to the contrasting colours, particularly in shows and movies with a lot of dark scenes. Perhaps a darker shade of silver would have helped in this case.

The sales package includes stands to table-mount the Blaupunkt BLA43BU680 television, but no wall mount. Blaupunkt does offer standard installation for free with the television, so it is possible to have it wall-mounted when requesting installation (the technician will bring the wall-mount kit at no extra cost). The table stand legs are easy to install and don’t take up a large footprint, so you can safely place the television even on a smaller table.

The Blaupunkt BLA43BU680 has two clusters of ports. Facing downwards close to the bottom are two HDMI ports, one set of AV sockets, VGA, Ethernet, Antenna, and Audio In, and facing to the left you’ll find a second set of AV sockets, two USB ports, an Audio Out socket, and a microSD card slot. The positioning of the ports and sockets near the edges has its pros and cons – it makes for easy access even when the TV is wall-mounted, but cables and dongles attached are quite visible as they stick out the side or bottom of the television.

In terms of specifications, this television is on par with competing options at around the same price. The Blaupunkt BLA43BU680 has a 43-inch 4K screen with support for HDR; a 1.4GHz quad-core processor and 1GB of RAM for the Android-based Smart TV interface; Wi-Fi and Ethernet connectivity; 30W of sound output; and a standard 60Hz refresh rate.

The 4K screen supports HDR content

 

Blaupunkt 4K Smart LED TV (BLA43BU680) remote and features

While we have seen some good remotes with televisions priced below Rs. 25,000, we’re more used to seeing old-school remotes that just get the basics right. The Blaupunkt BLA43BU680 has a standard infrared remote with no smart functionality, and lots of buttons. While many of these buttons are useful, we found that we never used some of them.

The remote felt a bit tacky to us, and we weren’t happy with the button layout either. The navigation buttons are placed too close to the ones around them, and we often pressed the wrong button when trying to navigate around the smart interface. Other useful buttons such as volume control, source, and mute were too small and not in convenient spots.

The remote has a mouse mode, which is needed for some of the apps on the smart interface of the Blaupunkt television. This enables a cursor on screen, which has to be moved using the navigation buttons. It’s slow and clunky to move around, and we only used it when absolutely necessary. The remote and smart interface in general didn’t work too well with each other, which was quite bothersome during our review.

The Blaupunkt BLA43BU680 doesn’t have much else in terms of features. You do get the rather useful Miracast for screen mirroring with compatible smartphones and tablets, but the television has nothing beyond the basics, not even Chromecast or AirPlay which are offered on some other televisions in this price segment.

The Blaupunkt BLA43BU680 runs on a custom interface based on Android 6

 

Blaupunkt 4K Smart LED TV (BLA43BU680) software and interface

Blaupunkt’s smart televisions in India run on Android with custom interfaces, and we’d have preferred the use of the official Android TV software. The current implementation tries to come close, but doesn’t quite have the same level of quality. Our experience with the smart functionality of the Blaupunkt BLA43BU680 was far from good.

This television runs on Android 6, which is rather dated when you consider that other options in this price segment run Android TV or custom interfaces based on Android 8 or 9. The interface itself is quite a mess – it seems to have been designed for phones and modified somewhat for a television. There are multiple app stores including the Google Play Store. Some apps are preinstalled, but they didn’t always work for us. On some occasions, we had different versions of the same streaming service; YouTube and Amazon Prime Video had multiple apps depending on which store the app was installed from.

The interface is slow and confusing to navigate around. There are odd video recommendations and unwanted pop-ups, and for some reason the location and weather displays insisted that we were in Brisbane, Australia no matter how hard we tried to convince the TV otherwise. Apps such as Netflix worked using the clunky mouse mode, but Amazon Prime Video would only work till we tried to play something, at which point it would crash or state that the TV had connectivity issues even when the connection was fine. Even the settings menus didn’t have too many options and were rather confusing to move through.

The YouTube app didn’t work initially, but we fixed this by updating it through the Google Play Store. All of these might sound like small problems, but we think that usage will be too confusing, buggy, and chaotic for the average consumer. No one should have to figure out and troubleshoot so many problems. As such, we’d recommend this TV only as a display for your other source devices, such as a streaming device, set-top box, or gaming console. As a smart TV the Blaupunkt BLA43BU680 was frustrating and unusable for us.

The remote is basic with no smarts, and has awkward button placement

 

Blaupunkt 4K Smart LED TV (BLA43BU680) performance

While the Blaupunkt BLA43BU680 has its issues when it comes to design, features and smart connectivity, it does to some extent make up for all that with performance. At Rs. 21,999, it’s one of the most affordable 4K HDR televisions you can buy today, priced at around what other full-HD options of the same size go for. Our experience with the television was largely positive in terms of picture quality, particularly with top-quality content.

We started with the best kind of content the Blaupunkt BLA43BU680 can handle – 4K HDR. This naturally brought out the best the TV could offer, with decent colours and contrast levels. Watching season three of The Crown on Netflix, we were impressed with how well bright and dark parts of the same frame worked with each other. Bright parts of the frame were incredibly bright, while dark segments of the same scene were detailed and could show different shades of the same colours.

However, we weren’t entirely convinced with the black levels even with HDR content, but this is an LED-backlit TV after all and we haven’t typically seen good black levels on any affordable LED options. We also weren’t very impressed with motion handling; video appeared shaky and jarring in scenes with rapid motion, such as the fast-moving scenes in the first episode of The Grand Tour Series 4 on Amazon Prime Video. The built-in interpolation was poor, and there was nothing we could do to make rapid motion less jarring.

However, the sharpness and detail were impressive, particularly when watching the visually striking Our Planet on Netflix. These same qualities were visible even with regular 4K content without HDR, and we liked how detailed and crisp the viewing experience was with War (the movie starring Hrithik Roshan and Tiger Shroff). While the issues with motion remained, another big differentiator was the contrast. Without HDR and the ability to get brighter when (and where) needed, the black levels were poorer and the general difference between bright and dark was a bit more pronounced on this TV.

Going down a notch to full-HD content, we watched multiple episodes of The Office and The Purge. Sharpness, detail, and colour were impressive, largely because the 43-inch screen of the Blaupunkt BLA43BU680 isn’t big enough to reveal the lack of detail in lower-resolution content.

Black levels are a bit weak on the Blaupunkt BLA43BU680 TV

 

While we’ve obviously seen better full-HD performance on full-HD televisions, the Blaupunkt BLA43BU680 still handles 1080p content well given that it is a 4K TV at this price. Motion issues were less jarring with full-HD content, but watching sports on Hotstar wasn’t as clean a viewing experience as on full-HD TVs at this price.

However, lower-resolution content is not a strong point of this TV. Performance with 720p video was mediocre at best, and standard definition videos on YouTube and through the NDTV app on an Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K was far worse than what we’d expect from an affordable television. Considering that this kind of video is what the majority of viewers in India still largely watch, we found this to be an issue.

Detail and motion issues tended to combine unfavourably on the Blaupunkt BLA43BU680 with SD content. The image was completely lacking in sharpness and showed far too many artefacts and pixelation issues. The television is unsuitable for this, and it would perhaps make sense to spend on an equivalently priced 43-inch full-HD TV such as the Vu Ultra Android TV if you heavily depend on your set-top box, YouTube, and local streaming services for most of your viewing.

Blaupunkt is best known for its audio products, and some of that background seems to have gone into the BLA43BU680 television. The TV is loud (with a rated 30W of output), and the sound tuning is properly geared for most television viewing. We found speech and voices to be crisp and clear, with decent performance from the television’s speakers even for music-based content. Naturally, it doesn’t quite hold up as well as a good soundbar or speaker system for action-driven scenes in movies, but you do get above-average sound on the whole.

While affordable, the Blaupunkt is best used with a separate source device rather than as a smart TV

 

Verdict

Blaupunkt’s expansion into the affordable television and personal audio segments has been good for the company; the fact that it’s a German brand with a proven record in car audio has been enough to entice buyers. Although its car audio products are considered premium-grade, the company has approached other segments sensibly, taking on the budget space first. This TV is in line with what we’ve experienced from Blaupunkt so far – it’s very good for the price, offering what few others can for this kind of money.

4K televisions are typically priced at around or above Rs. 30,000, so the idea of a 43-inch 4K TV for closer to Rs. 20,000 is enticing. Blaupunkt largely delivers your money’s worth, offering good picture performance and sound. The design is polarising, the remote and features are a bit dull, and the software is plain terrible, so users will have to find ways to cope with these issues if they go for the Blaupunkt BLA43BU680.

If you have and rely on source equipment such as a streaming device, full-HD set-top box, or gaming console for your viewing or gaming, the Blaupunkt BLA43BU680 will suit you just fine. If you’re looking to…

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