Technika 32-270 review

If you've never heard of Technika, you probably don't shop at Tesco. The supermarket giant has been championing the budget brand for years, sticking a few TVs on its shelves and selling (at the time of writing) no fewer than 27 Technika sets on its website.

Among a large range can be found a 42-inch model, the 42-2030, with a Freeview HD tuner for just £399. The £299 32-inch 32-277, meanwhile, ditches the hi-def broadcasts but adds an integrated DVD player.

Or perhaps you'd prefer to inject a little colour into your life with the 23-incg 23-231 series, which, for just £200, offers DVD drives, Freeview tuners and USB multimedia playback within blue, red, titanium or black bodies.

Your fancy might, on the other hand, be tickled most by the 32-270 reviewed here, with its full HD 32-inch screen, Freeview tuner and surprisingly flexible multimedia capability, all for the startlingly small sum of £279.

The masterplan is, presumably, to make televisions so eye-catchingly affordable that grocery shoppers are tempted to drop one into their trolley alongside the cereal boxes and fresh veg. The surprise is that the latest breed of Technika sets offer a stronger feature set than most ultra-cheap TVs; the hope is that this hasn't been achieved at too great a cost to performance.