Kodak 65-inch QLED Smart TV (65MT5033) Review: Huge 65-inch QLED TV At Entry-Level Price

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Kodak 65-inch QLED Smart TV (65MT5033) Review

Rating:
3.5/5

Kodak recently announced its first QLED Smart TV line-up in India to take on Xiaomi, OnePlus, VU, and other TV brands. The new Smart TV lineup includes three competitively priced QLED TVs (50-inch, 55-inch, and 65-inch) that are significantly less expensive than similarly sized QLED TVs and even some smaller QLED TVs from other TV brands on the market.

 

A 55-inch QLED TV from OnePlus, for example, costs Rs. 60,000, whereas Samsung's (the QLED TV industry's pioneer) most basic 55-inch 4K Ultra HD Smart QLED TV (QA55Q60TAKXXL) is currently selling for Rs. 75,000 on Amazon.in. VU's 65-inch 4K Ultra HD QLED TV (Glo Series), on the other hand, costs up to Rs. 93,000. In comparison, Kodak is charging Rs. 59,999 for the largest 65-inch panel in its new QLED TV lineup.

A big 65-inch QLED TV for the living room for INR 60K sounds exciting. But how does it fare? Let us investigate.

Kodak Matrix QLED Smart TV Design

Kodak Matrix QLED Smart TV Design

The large 65-inch TV has a standard all-black panel with extremely thin bezels on three sides and a slightly thicker chin at the bottom. The screen-to-body ratio remains impressive at 96%, providing you with a wide-screen viewing experience. To emphasize its relatively thin border appeal, Kodak has given this bezel-less design a unique name: Airslim.

For the asking price, the build quality is adequate. The large TV unit did not have any loose fitting or flexing issues. However, Kodak could have played around with colors or the material finish to add a premium touch to the design. Some chrome or silver finish at the bottom chin would have added a nice touch to the front fascia of the big TV. Sinceit is a large TV, you will most likely keep it in the living room. Make sure you have a large and sturdy TV cabinet to accommodate the 65-inch screen.

Free Of Cost Installation
 

Free Of Cost Installation

Kodak isn't charging extra for the wall mount, which other brands should emulate. Furthermore, the company will send an engineer to install the TV within 48 hours of its delivery. The service technician will install your new television for free. You can either wall mount the large panel or keep it on a TV cabinet with the included tabletop stand. The engineer will also demonstrate the features of the television.

Kodak Matrix QLED Smart TV Connectivity

Kodak Matrix QLED Smart TV Connectivity

The 65-inch QLED TV has got a fair share of connectivity ports. The TV panel has two USB 2.0 ports and three HDMI 3.0 ports. The second HDMI port supports eARC. You also get the headphone jack, AV Input, Antenna port, Optical port, and network connector. For wireless connectivity, the 65-inch Kodak TV features Bluetooth and Dual Band (2.4 + 5GHz) Wi-Fi. The Smart TV also features integrated Google Assistant for Chromecast video meetings and screencast functionality to wirelessly stream music, and videos and display photos from a connected Android device.

QLED TV Technology And Its Benefits

QLED TV Technology And Its Benefits

Kodak chose QLED for its new Smart TV lineup. If you're unfamiliar with QLED technology, it stands for Quantum dot LED TV and is known for having higher luminosity (peak brightness) and longer shelf life (negligible image retention) than OLED screens or traditional LCD panels. Furthermore, QLED TVs are well-known for producing higher contrast ratios as well as more dynamic and vivid colors, thanks to ultra-fine semiconductor materials (Quantum dots) of nanoscale size. These dots emit precise colored light for better light emission and vivid colors.

In short, a QLED screen outperforms competing display technologies in terms of overall visual experience. However, there are some drawbacks of an entry-level QLED panel, such as mediocre contrast ratio, which we have discussed below.

Kodak Matrix QLED Smart TV Display Specifications

Kodak Matrix QLED Smart TV Display Specifications

Kodak has unveiled its first QLED Smart TV lineup in three screen sizes, with the 65-inch panel being the largest. The Smart TVs feature 10-bit 4K QLED panels that can produce 1.1 billion colors. The TV panel has excellent brightness, though Kodak has not provided exact peak luminosity figures. The screen refreshes at 60Hz and is equipped with MEMC technology to reduce blurry images. In terms of certifications, the 65-inch QLED TV supports HDR10+, HLG, and Dolby Vision.

Kodak Matrix QLED Smart TV Picture Quality

Kodak Matrix QLED Smart TV Picture Quality

The strength of the 65-inch QLED panel is its impressive brightness and vivid color reproduction. The 10-bit panel can produce more colorful and vivid visuals than the 10-bit panels found on the market's mid-range non-QLED TVs (LCDs). That said, the content streamed on the 65-inch Kodak QLED TV appears more vibrant and colorful. And, because the TV panel has a high level of brightness, the images appear more vibrant even when there is a lot of ambient light.

Contrast Ratio And Black Levels Could Have Been Better

Contrast Ratio And Black Levels Could Have Been Better

A good QLED panel should have a high contrast ratio and deeper black levels; however, this is not the case with the TV under consideration. Our findings lead us to the only conclusion that Kodak did not use the best-in-class QLED panel on its new Smart TV line-up. Because this is an entry-level QLED TV, some cost-cutting has been done, which is fairly understandable at this price-point. Colors still pop in any lighting, but the 65-inch QLED could have aced the visuals with a better contrast ratio and deeper blacks.

Numerous Picture Settings

Numerous Picture Settings

  • The QLED TV includes a plethora of picture settings that allow you to customize the color output to your liking. To begin, you can select from vivid, standard, sport, movie, user, and energy saver modes. Each mode has a distinct color profile, which is clearly visible in the output.
  • We liked the 'User' mode as it seemed to offer a good balance of contrast, saturation, sharpness, and color hues.
  • You must enable the dynamic back light if you have uneven lighting in the space where the TV has been kept. The feature will automatically set the appropriate brightness level to cut the glare and it works admirably well.
  • You can then tweak the basic picture settings such as contrast, brightness, saturation, and so on.
  • Gamma settings should be set depending upon the light conditions. Keep it dark if you are consuming content in pitch dark light conditions.
  • You can also tweak the color temperature settings and do the 20-point white balance correction to further tune the color hues output on the QLED.
  • Lastly, there's an advanced settings section offering some more important settings. The list includes- DNR (Keep it medium), Luma control, local contrast settings, color space, etc.
  • The plethora of picture settings may be overwhelming at first, but once you get the hang of it, you will realize their usefulness in achieving the desired output based on the content being streamed on the QLED TV.
Kodak Matrix QLED Smart TV Audio Performance

Kodak Matrix QLED Smart TV Audio Performance

The audio is handled by a 40W speaker system, which is more than adequate for a mid-sized living room; however, if you have a large living space, you may feel the need for an external sound system. Dolby Atmos and DTS TruSurround sound are supported by the TV. Dolby Atmos is enabled by default, and the sound mode is set to standard, resulting in a clean and melodious output. Even at maximum volume, the audio does not distort, and this TV is quite loud.

The music mode increases the output's treble and adds some reverb. The sports mode keeps things neutral and eliminates the surround sound character. The audio profile of the movie mode is similar to that of music, but with a booming effect.

Customize Audio As Per Content Type

Customize Audio As Per Content Type

You can also tweak DTS Studio Sound settings, which gives you three options- Enable, Surround, and TruVolume. It is worth mentioning that if you enable DTS settings, the Dolby Atmos disables, leaving you with very limited options. We tried multiple settings and found the best audio output with Dolby Atmos > Sound mode > Music. You can tweak the settings depending on the content being streamed on the TV.

Kodak Matrix QLED Smart TV Hardware

Kodak Matrix QLED Smart TV Hardware

The new Kodak Smart TV line is powered by the MT9062 processor and includes 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage. For a change, Kodak chose the Google TV platform to power the QLED TVs rather than the standard Android TV software, which makes the UI slightly more accessible and easier to use. The hardware isn't cutting-edge, but you'll rarely run into performance issues.

Because there is no additional content discovery engine built on top of the Google TV platform, such as the Patchwall UI on Xiaomi TVs, performance is generally smooth and lag-free. Apps launch instantly, and there are no lags in UI navigation or content streaming. The hardware can also handle large files from external storage devices and high-resolution content from streaming apps with ease.

Kodak Matrix QLED Smart TV Software Performance

Kodak Matrix QLED Smart TV Software Performance

This slightly modified version of the standard Android TV platform is designed to provide a personalized TV viewing experience. In comparison to standard Android TVs, the Google TV platform offers more customization options and content recommendations to build your own library on the big screen. Movies and TV shows can be saved to your Google-backed profile, which can be synced to your smartphone for easy access.

Google TV Platform Offers Personalized Home Screen

Google TV Platform Offers Personalized Home Screen

The Google TV platform is better suited for a large-screen living room TV because it supports multiple user profiles and allows each user to have a unique home screen with his or her own content library. Furthermore, you can set content restrictions on child user profiles, which is a very useful feature if you have children at home who have access to an internet-connected large display.

Verdict

Verdict

Kodak has surprised us with its new Smart TV lineup. The QLED TVs are reasonably priced and offer a good balance of features and performance. The asking price of INR 60K seems reasonable for the massive 65-inch variant. The large-screen TV transforms your living room into a cinema-sized big-screen viewing experience. Yes, the entry-level QLED panel used has some shortcomings, but the overall return on investment is justified.

The following are the model-specific pricing and availability information for the new Kodak QLED TVs. The price of the 50-inch QLED model is Rs. 33,999, while the 55-inch model is Rs. 40,999. Kodak charges Rs. 59,999 for the massive 65-inch QLED TV. The new Smart TVs are available on Flipkart.com.

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