- Kodak Matrix QLED 4K Smart TV is available in 3 screen sizes – 50-inch, 55-inch, and 65-inch
- The review is for the 55-inch screen variant offered at a price of ₹40,999
- The TV supports 4K resolution with HDR10+ and Dolby Vision
The market for affordable 4K Smart TVs is growing rapidly. Especially since we have seen the rise of viable options from brands like Xiaomi, OnePlus, TCL and others. Recently we also reviewed
Philips 8100 series 4K LED TV, a solid product only dwarfed by its price. Since then, the market has raised the bar, and now we see QLED panels in the same price bracket. Enter the Kodak Matrix QLED 4K Smart TV. Kodak, a fairly new brand in this smart TV category, seems to have gotten it right. The TV has a QLED Panel, a decent processor, and Google TV OS. But does this spec sheet translate to a great viewing experience? I answer that in my review.
Price & Availability
Kodak Matrix QLED TV is available in three screen sizes. A 50-inch screen size variant is offered at a price of ₹33,999. The second variant offers a 55-inch screen size priced at ₹40,999. Finally, there is a variant with a 65-inch screen size priced at ₹59,999. The Smart TV is available exclusively on Flipkart.
Design & Build Quality
As with most TVs in this price bracket, the Kodak TV fails to leave a mark aesthetically. It follows a textbook design language that involves an overall black frame with no attempt to break the monotony. Yes, it is minimalistic, but if you have a swanky living room, it might look out of place. I wish brands could take the aesthetics of a TV more seriously and try to adapt small changes, like a silver trim on the chin.
The Matrix QLED redeems itself when we move to the build quality. The TV feels robust and heavy, reassuring of its build quality. This is important since TVs sit in their spots for long periods, generally forever. So, having a strong build quality becomes paramount.
The installation process of the TV is also fairly straightforward. You can either install it on the wall with the bundled mount. Or, you can set it up on a table with the provided metallic legs.
Kodak provides the necessary ports on the TV to connect multiple devices. Three HDMI ports and two USB ports on the TV combined with an AUX port. Port placement is also favorable for cable management and reach. Both in terms of wall mount and a table set-up.
The smart TV comes bundled with a sleek remote, and an IR blaster unit. Like it is generally for smart TVs, the remote also sports a minimalistic design, with shortcut keys for applications. The remote is made of good quality plastic and feels light in hand. The in-built microphone on the remote is also uber-responsive, not missing my voice command even once.
The remote control has an IR blaster unit and shortcut keys for applications. It is responsive, and the in-built microphone works really well, rarely missing out on speech recognition.
Display & Audio
My Kodak Matrix QLED TV review unit features a 55-inch display with a 2160 X 3840 pixels resolution. And it is gorgeous to look at, making you forget about the subdued styling and aesthetics.
And surprisingly, all the variants come with 4K/UHD resolution support. So the native applications on the Google TV OS and third-party OTT apps fully utilize these specs.
Throughout the weekend, I caught up with the House of the Dragon on Disney+ Hotstar. A perfect show to test the prowess of this TV. From the first frame itself, the images rendered are breathtaking when the HDR kicks in. The video output is crisp, with top-notch color accuracy and details. To the point that I could count the feathers on Rhenyra’s dragon.
Since it is a 10-bit panel, it produces 1.1 billion colors and has a peak brightness of 550 nits. And as one would expect, it gets really bright. Rounding back to my experience of watching House of the Dragons, certain frames can be too dark to retain vision. Yet, the brightness control on the TV would help me establish the frame.
Combined with the contrast that QLED technology brings with it makes the experience even more enjoyable. The color banding was also minimal, only noticeable in long intervals or when a frame suddenly shifted from a dark setup to a bright one. Light bleeding was also minimal on the TV.
The TV also supports Dolby Vision and HDR10+. As I mentioned, compatible applications like Netflix and Prime also take full advantage of this. When you start streaming content on these apps, the Dolby Vision logo pops up, and one can observe the image quality jumping up.
The dynamic range on the TV is also satisfactory, with a solid diversification between darker and lighter parts of the display.
There are some interesting presets for display settings on the TV for different types of content. There is a movie mode, sports mode, energy-saving mode, and vivid picture mode. I found the movie mode to work the best across all content genres. It maintains the right balance of contrast and color tones. I switched to user mode, where I had created a dedicated preset for playing games on my console.
Beyond these presets, there are some advanced settings as well. You can control dynamic backlighting, which means you can control the dimming on the TV. You also get Luma control and DI film mode as well. DI film mode is interesting since it allows the TV to recognize the movies done in 24fps and refrains from applying motion smoothing. It lets you watch the film as intended by the filmmaker. While these features are wholesome, I feel many users will never even bother to come up to this menu.
The viewing experience on the Kodak TV doesn’t let you down easily, but it misses a gaming spot. Unfortunately, we don’t see any dedicated game mode or a high refresh rate here. A higher refresh rate would have added a kick to my console gaming. The experience is still decent, and I didn’t face any issues such as input lag.
Before closing this section, it’s important to highlight the audio prowess of the Kodak Matrix TV. It features a 40W stereo speaker setup supporting Dolby Atmos and DTS TruSurround sound. I have used the TV extensively with the default audio settings, and the experience is pleasing. The audio output is loud but lacks a subwoofer so the thump in the bass is flat. Especially for a smart tv without a dedicated subwoofer. The downward-facing speakers deliver crisp details and a sound that could fill my drawing room. The experience gets immersive with TruSurround sound mode. It opens the sound stage for better details, and movies supporting the DTS format get even better. For a drawing room of 20ft x 10ft in my case I did not find the need to use a soundbar. But, if you have a bigger room then you should definitely consider a dedicated speaker set-up.
UI & Performance
I certainly feel that a certified Google TV OS is truly interactive for smart TVs. Kodak has stuck the right chord here. Turning on the TV, we get to see the Google TV animation, and things go only upward from here.
As expected, the UI is clean and shows no signs of bloatware or a third-party skin. To the point and easy to understand, the elders in my family could also find their way around the TV. This is an important factor since that age group generally uses a TV.
Google TV OS also means unprecedented access to the Google Play store. Optimized and loaded with TV-specific applications, it delivers a complete experience to the user. You can download games, music streaming apps like Spotify, Youtube music, and, of course popular OTT apps.
Google TV brings in favorite Google features as well. Like Google Chromecast, and voice assistant, both of which work pretty well here.
All this aside, unfortunately, it retains the same minor annoying issues we are used to on Google TV OS. Most prominently, we can’t change the picture settings while we are watching something in an application. I hope we see this feature soon enough. Coming out to make the switch in picture settings just breaks the flow altogether.
Another problem that is not on Kodak’s end is the fact that you can’t continue watching content on Netflix and Prime Video. This is when you have the same account logged in with your mobile device and TV. So you can consider this a heads-up.
While the UI is mostly stable and clean, I am a bit disappointed with the bootup speed of the TV. After turning it on, it takes about a minute and a half to set up. It doesn’t sound too much, but after a while, it gets annoying.
The lag remains when switching between applications as well, with the TV taking its sweet time to land on an application.
I feel the 2GB RAM on the TV is not enough to handle the software it carries. Storage space, however, is fine at 16GB. Enough to download applications and then some files if you wish to.
Verdict
Kodak Matric QLED TV is an ideal range of smart TVs under a tight budget. Starting at ₹33,999 for the 50-inch variant, they are easy to recommend considering the features they offer. Yes, the audio setup is a bit underwhelming but the TV makes up for it with a solid display prowess, a stable Google TV OS and healthy connectivity options.
