LG 26LX2R review

This price-busting 26in LCD TV from LG visually impresses as its black and silver colour scheme and triangulated subsection command attention.

The 26LX2R also racks up points with its connections, including two HD video-capable digital inputs, one HDMI and one DVI. Both these jacks can perform video or PC duties and are accompanied by two Scarts and component video ports.

Add the HD bits of this connectivity to a native resolution of 1366 x 768 and compatibility with the key HD formats and you're looking at another HD Ready, inexpensive 26in TV.

The 26LX2R also has interesting features up its sleeve, notably its XD Engine image processing, designed to boost clarity, colour saturations and tone, brightness, colour gradation, frame rate handling and contrast. Picture-in-picture and Cinema progressive mode options are also incorporated into the 26LX2R.

There's a 1,200:1 claimed contrast ratio and specific adjustments for the 'bluetone', 'greentone' and 'fleshtone' elements of the picture

But, when it comes to picture quality, the 26LX2R's black levels show some greying over of external shots while viewing our Troy test DVD. Pictures also soften up more during standard definition viewing. Despite this, the 26LX2R's pictures are still very likeable, not least because they look extremely sharp during high definition viewing.

The 26LX2R's colours are also retina-threateningly vibrant, thanks to impressive brightness output and some forceful saturations.

The LG also scores over most budget rivals in its impressive freedom from LCD smearing over moving objects. Plus it does a remarkable job of suppressing pretty much all types of interference and noise during HD viewing, except for rare occasions when XD Engine's machinations make low-quality sources look a little bit processed.

The 26LX2R's speakers don't look or sound powerful, though. The soundstage is distributed reasonably widely and voices sound quite clean, but even though Troy is hardly the most bass-laden of films, it's still impossible to ignore the TV's shortage of rumble.

Overall, while picture quality isn't perfect, the 26LX2R makes up for the occasional picture flaw with a long features list and impressive future-proof connectivity, all at a bargain price too.