Kiss Coolview 17WS Review

Overall Rating

Great looks
Solid build quality
Pretty crisp picture

No VESA mount (I think)
No SCART
Comedy-translation manual
Resolution
Menu navigation not as intuitive as it could be

Bought a Kiss Coolview as a stop-gap for my Mac, until I can afford a full-size 20" tft, and this would then become my bedroom TV.

Generally I must say, for the money it's pretty good. My Mac thinks it's outputting 1280x960, but even with the interpolation required to squeeze that onto the 1280x768 screen, the picture is not bad at all. Not as sharp as perhaps an Apple, Sony or Samsung, but at almost half the price (got it in a PC World sale) of a "premium" brand, it's much more than half as good. Bright, and with a reasonable viewing angle.

I haven't tried it with a video source yet (Sky or DVD) but I did watch some of "Matrix Revolutions" from the Mac, and sitting back a little, the quality was very good. No blur, clean colours, good contrast.

The OSD is very good, but the front-mounted controls, while adding to the aesthetics, are a bit fiddly. The remote is far better for running through the menus, and is a good addition to the package.

Sound is good (not tinny at all, and handles the sound-effects well for a small unit. If like me you have a small house, you'll be watching things through headphones anyway so as not to disturb East-Enders in the living-room, so the speakers will not get a good try until it gets moved to the bedroom.

Set-up was easy (20 mins from opening box to surfing the web including adjustments etc), packing was good, and everything has a good solid quality feel to it - alright, the remote is a little cheap-looking compared to the rest of the kit, but solid enough. Unfortunately while the tilt is good and holds well, there is no swivel, so you have to drag it around the desk to turn it. Also, there appears to be no way to mount it to a VESA-compliant arm, although the stand itself folds right back and has wall-mount points. The stand also may be removable on initial inspection, and so perhaps I can revive my O-grade metalwork and fabricate or adapt a VESA mount.

The manual however was disappointing, but at least amusing. It does tell you most of what you need to know, if you can handle the pigeon-English. Surely they could get them proof-read by someone with English as a first language to iron out the grammar and layout etc? And where can I find out the response times? Not listed anywhere!!!

But, overall, I'm so far happy with this product - time will tell, once I've used it with a video source, but I'm optimistic it will meet my expectations/needs.