Finlux 48FT3E242S-T review

The 48FT3E242S-T also supports 3D and comes with two pairs of active 3D glasses in the box. We didn’t encounter many problems, apart from a small amount of crosstalk on Avatar’s Na’vi subtitles. We could still read them, but it was nevertheless a little off-putting. There aren’t any 3D settings to tweak if you experience something similar, although the rest of the film looked absolutely fine, so hopefully it shouldn’t cause too many problems.

^ Finlux’s Smart TV services are fairly basic, but you still get Netflix and BBC iPlayer

Finlux has integrated most of its Smart TV services straight into the remote, with handy dedicated buttons for Netflix and YouTube. A hub button takes you to the main Smart menu, where you’ll find additional apps for BBC iPlayer, BBC News, BBC Sport, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Dailymotion, Viewster and TuneIn Radio. It’s very easy to navigate and menus are comparatively quick to load.

The remote, on the other hand, could be more user-friendly, as its spongy buttons don’t give a huge amount of tactile feedback and the hard navigational dome can be a bit fiddly to press. Still, at least you won’t lose it down the back of the sofa thanks to its large size.

^ The 48FT3E242S-T has a good range of ports, but its coaxial S/PDIF port is a bit of a let-down

The 48-FT3E242S-T doesn’t come with an overwhelming number of connections, but three HDMI ports, SCART, VGA and composite inputs should suffice for most people. You also get two USB ports, a headphone jack and an Ethernet port. Wi-Fi is included too for accessing smart TV services over your home network rather than with a cable. The solitary audio output is coaxial S/PDIF rather than the more common optical S/PDIF, which means you won’t be able to use it with certain soundbars. Fortunately the first HDMI port is Audio Return Channel (ARC) compatible, so HDMI-equipped soundbars and amplifiers will work.

The 48FT3E242S-T has a few flaws, but they’re pretty minor when you consider its price. At just £399, the 48FT3E242S-T is an absolute bargain if you’re looking for a simple large screen TV, as the equivalent size of Samsung’s H5500 costs almost £100 more. Of course, if you’re after a more comprehensive suite of smart TV services and a digital S/PDIF output, the Samsung is probably worth the extra expense, if you’d rather save the extra money, then the Finlux 48FT3E242S-T is a great choice.

Buy Now: Finlux 48FT3E242S-T