Soniq limbos under $500 with a 40 inch Full HD Smart TV

Televisions are getting ever cheaper, and Soniq is proving that this week, with the launch of a 40 inch Full HD LED-backlit TV packing in PVR, Android, and digital TV support for not much over $450.

Sold exclusively through JB HiFi, Soniq is looking to push the remaining CRT owners away from their old sets with a TV that won’t set them back much.

The new LED-backlit TV includes a Full HD 1920×1080 Super Patterned Vertical Alignment (PVA) panel which, while not on the same level as the In-Plane Switching (IPS) displays used by many TV manufacturers, mobile phones, and tablet computers, still aims to offer a solid contrast ratio with decent viewing angles.

Smart TV functionality is also being included, with Soniq tapping the power of Google’s Android Smart TV platform, allowing the budget TV to access the web easily, with a QWERTY keyboard remote included in the bundle.

“This launch goes a long way to meeting the demands of Australian consumers,” said Stathis Georgianos, Marketing Manager for Soniq Australia. “Our vision is to deliver high quality products that do not break the bank of Australians and we believe our 40 inch Smart LED TV does just that.”

The TV should provide enough input options, even with a budget price tag, bringing three HDMI ports, one set of component ports, and a USB 2.0 host port for plugging in flash and hard drives to take advantage of the built-in PVR.

It should also make the budget TV market a little more competitive, with a Smart TV now arriving for well under a grand, quite a fair bit under the big guys and forcing Soniq’s low-end competitors – Kogan and Ohki, for example – to release a better priced Smart TV.