Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2010/05/29/review_hd_tv_john_lewis_jl22lcd/

John Lewis JL22LCD HD

High street favourite's own brand telly

By Niall Magennis

Posted in Personal Tech, 29th May 2010 08:02 GMT

Review John Lewis may have some odd traditions, such as the one about the chairman being the only person in the partnership allowed to write in green ink, but the posh store has also long been popular with canny TV buyers. Besides a decent selection of tellies, the other reasons are because of the company’s price match promise and free five year extended warranties. Now, taking things a step further, John Lewis has launched its own range of branded TVs, with the 22in model looking like a possible option as a second set.

John Lewis JL22LCD HD

The duvet diving companion: John Lewis' JL22LCD HD

From the front, the John Lewis JL22LCDHD TV doesn’t look half bad, as the glossy black finish and silver highlights are pretty inoffensive to the eye. The speaker grille at the bottom of the set does look a tad old fashion in today’s world of ‘invisible’ TV speakers, but it’s the thickness of the chassis that’s the most off putting aspect of the design. I’ve seen a fair few portable TVs with built-in DVD players that are slimmer than this model.

The TV may only have a rather small 22in screen, but this still hasn’t stopped John Lewis from packing in the pixels because this set boasts a Full HD 1080p panel. Around the back it also has a decent line up of ports for a portable set.

There are two HDMI sockets for hooking up high definition equipment like set top boxes and Blu-ray players, plus a set of component inputs, a Scart socket and a VGA port for use with a PC to function as a monitor.

Once you’ve tuned the Freeview channels – it’s an SD tuner only, rather than a new DVB-T2 HD version – you’ll find that both the main menu and the EPG are beautifully presented in a light green and blue colour scheme.

John Lewis JL22LCD HD

Handy selection here with headphone, card slot and composite access on the side too

However, the EPG only fills the central two thirds of the screen, so if you’re viewing it from a fair distance it can be a little difficult to read. Also, the smaller size of the layout means that only two hours of programming are shown at any one time.

The remote control may look a little bit cheap, but it actually feels very comfortable to hold and the buttons layout is reasonably good. I especially liked the way the different inputs have individual buttons so you can quickly jump between a HDMI attached Blu-ray player and the Freeview tuner without having to cycle through lots of inputs as you do on most TVs.

John Lewis JL22LCD HD

Not much to look at, but comfy and functional

However, the Info button, which calls up a text summary of the current program, is a tad awkwardly placed as it’s down at the bottom of the remote. It would have been much better if it was next to the Guide button towards the middle of the zapper as this is where your thumb tends to hover when you’re holding the remote.

When watching X-Men Origins on Blu-ray, the set produced strong, vibrant colours and was good on sharpness and detail. Freeview pictures look impressively crisp too. However, there’s a certain amount of backlight bleed visible at the top and bottom of the screen and blacks have a slightly grey hue.

That said, it does pick out a decent amount of detail in darker scenes, which is something that cheaper TVs often struggle with. Nevertheless, motion isn’t as smooth as it could be, as there’s some judder visible on fast camera pans when watching footie matches, for example. On the whole, though, the picture performance isn’t bad for a small sized screen in this price range.

John Lewis JL22LCD HD

Sound usually isn’t a highlight of smaller sets either, but the JL22LCDHD doesn’t actually fare too badly in this area. The speakers are rated at a lowly 3W and do sound a bit on the tinny side, but they’re louder than you would expect and have good presence for mid range frequencies, so day to day shows on TV sound more than adequate.

John Lewis JL22LCD HD

EPG display size limits schedule viewing range

When up and running the TV draws about 39W, which isn’t too bad, but in standby mode it uses about 1.4watts. While not exactly a large power draw, most big name manufacturers have now reduced standby drain to under a watt.

Verdict

The JL22LCDHD may be a tad chunky but its picture performance with both Freeview channels and HD material isn’t half bad and its onscreen menus are attractive and easy to use. If you’re looking for a second set for the bedroom or kitchen with a reasonably affordable price tag, it’s a pretty good buy. ®

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