Acer 43-inch UHD i-Series Smart TV (AR43AR2851UDFL) Review- Value For Money Deal

Acer 43-inch UHD i-Series Smart TV Design & Build

The new 'i-Series' 43-inch 4K UHD Smart TV reminds us of Acer's Frameless series as the new models also flaunt edge-to-edge panels with a high screen-to-body ratio. The 4K UHD panel is surrounded by a metal frame with almost zero bezels on three sides; however, the chin is slightly prominent to house the branding, light indicator and other critical electrical components. A nearly frameless screen creates a very expansive viewing experience.

The back of the TV has an all-black plastic build; however, there's no compromise in the material used. The overall build quality and the fit & finish are pretty good for the price. The connectivity ports and connectors are also thoughtfully placed for easy accessibility.

The 43-inch TV, like all Smart TVs these days, can be wall-mounted or simply placed on a table. Acer only includes the table top stand in the box, and wall-mounting the TV will necessitate the purchase of an additional metal stand. The wall-mount typically costs between Rs. 300 and Rs. 400, depending on the market.

Acer 43-inch 4K UHD i-Series Smart TV Connectivity Features

The 43-inch 4K UHD Smart TV has Dual Band Wi-Fi and 2-way Bluetooth 5.0. for wireless transmission. The TV also gets a built-in Chromecast and Google Assistant support. As far as the physical ports and connectors are concerned, the Smart TV has 2x USB 2.0, 1x network port, Antenna, S/PDIF, 3x HDMI ports (1x ARC), AV IN and a headphone jack.

Acer 43” UHD i-Series Smart TV Picture Quality

If you think a full HD panel is more than sufficient for a 43-inch panel, try a 4K UHD panel. You will instantly notice the difference in the overall picture quality. The 4K UHD resolution (3840×2160 pixels) ensures a much sharper picture and crisper visuals, especially on smaller screen sizes. And since Acer has used a 10-Bit panel for its i-Series TVs, the display is capable of producing 1 billion colors. The combination of a 4K UHD resolution on a 43-inch screen size flaunting a 10-bit panel truly brings alive the content.

Vibrant Color Reproduction

Color pop really well, especially if you are streaming animated movies. We streamed the Spider-Man, Into the Spider-Verse and loved the picture output. The new Avatar sequel trailer looked phenomenal. The 43-inch 4K UHD panel is also capable of efficiently rendering darker scenes. The underground fight scene between Michael Morbius and his friend Milo was full of rich details and looked sharp, thanks to the panel's deeper blacks and vivid contrast.

HDR10+ & HLG Compatible But Lacks Dolby Vision

The 43-inch 4K UHD panel also supports HDR10+ and HLG to ensure uniform delivery of color and contrast while watching compatible content on OTT platforms. The compatible content looks more vibrant and brighter on the 4K UHD panel. We couldn't spot the Dolby Vision support, another HDR format, which has become increasingly popular in the recent times.

Moving on, if you are streaming 1080p content, the built-in 4K upscaling makes the required changes to the video feed to enhance the standard full HD content, thus adding more life to the visuals.

Lastly, the Acer 43-inch 4K UHD Smart TV also has an intelligent frame stabilization engine for motion enhancement. The technology calibrates the incoming signal to produce a smoother blur-free picture. Since the panel offers a 178-degree wide viewing angle, you can enjoy watching the content from extreme angles in the room.

Acer 43” UHD i-Series Smart TV Sound Quality

Most 43-inch TVs come fitted with a 20W sound setup, which isn't very effective on any panel size, to be honest. We were glad to see Acer upping the ante with a 30W sound setup, even on a 43-inch screen size, which does make a huge difference. The 30W high-fidelity speaker setup (15W x 2) with support for Dolby Audio truly complements the 4K UHD panel. It delivers loud and clear audio and you won't feel any urge to connect any dedicated sound system to the TV, especially if you have kept the unit in a bedroom.

Acer 43” UHD i-Series Smart TV Performance

The 43-inch 4K UHD TV runs on Android 11 and is powered by a 64-bit quad-core CPU with ARM Mali G31 GPU. There is 2GB RAM and 16GB internal storage, which isn't setting any grounds but didn't let us down with the day-to-day performance. The UI navigation is smooth and applications load in a jiffy.

Last but not least, the bundled remote controller contains all of the keys required for a smooth TV user experience. You get dedicated hotkeys for Netflix, Youtube, Prime Video, Disney+ Hotstar and a voice-assistant button to invoke Google Assistant. Acer could have also added hands-free Google Assistant support to make it further easy to operate the TV.

Verdict

The 43-inch 4K UHD Smart TV from Acer's new i-Series is a good overall product. It delivers on picture and sound quality and also ensures smooth overall performance. It is currently selling at Rs. 24,999 on Amazon.in, which is an excellent price for the 4K UHD TV. Sadly, the sale offer ends today so make sure you make the purchase today if you want to save as much as Rs. 10,000 on the 43-inch TV.