Evesham V32ELBB review

Evesham isn't the first traditionally PC-oriented brand to use the popularity of LCD TV to move into the AV market,and it won't be the last.But will this aggressively-priced screen at least make it one of the best?

Aesthetically,the V32ELBB is unexpectedly bold,clad all over in deep,uniform black.The glossy finish to the screen frame is fashionable too. That said,there's something a bit too plasticky about the overall look,as if Evesham has tried slightly too hard to hide the budget build quality.

Even though this TV costs just £800, it carries all the necessary HD Ready connection options in the form of an HDCP-enabled DVI jack,and a set of HD-capable analogue component jacks.These 'next-gen'connections are joined by a pair of Scarts,a VGA PC input,S-video/composite video inputs,and a subwoofer line out.

Internally, the Evesham boasts hit-and-miss specifications.On the upside,the native resolution is 1366 x 768.Less inspiring is a claimed contrast ratio of just 550:1,although the brightness output of 500cd/m2 and 16ms response time is better. The only feature worth mentioning beyond the standard basics is a backlight brightness adjustment.

Without any further ado,then, let's take a look at the V32ELBB's performance.Which,at first glance, looks really quite good. Immediately striking is the picture's sheer brightness and vibrancy,as the set serves up every bit of the claimed 500cd/m2 light output,together with impressive,richly-saturated colours.

The picture is also likeably free of common LCD noise problems,be it dot crawl or colour banding.This helps forge a pleasingly direct link between you and what you're watching,and helpfully applies across all sources,including HD (which can look grainy on some rival budget screens).

However,the V32ELBB's pictures have a few problems - one major,the rest relatively minor,and none very surprising at this price.The major one is a fairly fundamental lack of black level response.Dark areas of a picture are clouded over and flattened by cloudy grey overtones way more drastically than with most other large LCD TVs we've seen recently.

The first more minor problem concerns movement,with the V32ELBB suffering gentle smearing and occasional judder with motion, especially in the horizontal plane. Elsewhere,colours sometimes look slightly unnatural,especially with lower-rent sources;and we suffered some picture interference while viewing Scart 2.

The V32ELBB's speakers are about average.They hold up okay with most ordinary TV viewing,but film soundstages lack frequency response, especially at the bass end.As usual, this means things can become harsh and muddy when there's any action scene or musical score to deal with.

Overall,we guess the V32ELBB deserves praise for delivering a respectable performance,full HD Readiness and 32in of LCD pictures for just £800.But there's also no denying that the performance level is some distance below that of £1,200 'step-up stars' like Samsung's LE32R41BD or Toshiba's 32WL56.