Over the past decade, the number of TV manufacturers has grown exponentially. Thanks to this, consumers have a huge selection of solutions for a wide variety of needs and wallets. Today we will talk about a device from a relatively young brand. KIVIexclusively engaged in the development and production of SMART TVs.
This brand entered the Russian market in 2018 with the opening of production at the Telebalt plant in Kaliningrad. We recently received a TV from him for a test. KIVI 55U710KB, which was studied and tested.
The cost of a model in online stores in the Russian Federation starts from 30 thousand rubles.
PACKAGING AND COMPLETE SET
KIVI 55U710KB is packed in a traditional tall box made of thick thick cardboard, decorated with colorful printing, which tells us that this is a SMART TV with voice control. Among other features, the manufacturer mentioned 4K HDR support, 24/7 technical support and a 3-year warranty.
Inside, the TV is traditionally packed in formatted pieces of styrofoam. In addition to the screen itself, the box contains neatly laid out two separate legs, 4 screws for the legs, a hexagon, a remote control, two AAA batteries, a power cable, an AV cable, as well as visual instructions for unpacking and connecting, a warranty card and operating instructions. In general, the kit is complete – there is everything you need.
APPEARANCE, CONNECTORS AND REMOTE
In terms of design, the KIVI 55U710KB is hardly trying to surprise anyone. The manufacturer uses a well-established look for LCD TVs of the last 5-10 years with thin minimalistic bezels and light, neat legs. The frame on the front side is plastic – its thickness is 12 mm at the top and sides. It is slightly thicker at the bottom – 19 mm – and the KIVI logo is located in the middle of it. In addition, towards the left you can see the infrared TV control box. In standby mode, it glows blue, and also has a functional joystick at the bottom. The latter allows you to move up and down through the TV menu and select a section by pressing in the middle. If you move the joystick to the right or left, you can only adjust the sound.
The thickness of the TV case is 65 mm without legs and 270 mm with their installation. The installation of the legs is quite easy and quick. They are fastened with four complete screws using a hexagon, which the manufacturer also did not forget to put in the box. The design is generally reliable – the TV does not try to fall if you accidentally hit it while passing by inadvertently.
If you are a fan of hanging TVs on the wall to save space on the cabinet, then there will be no problems – the manufacturer has implemented support for wall mounts according to the VESA 400 x 200 standard. The weight of the TV with legs is 12.3 kg.
The back wall of the KIVI 55U710KB is made of matte black plastic with a sanding texture. The creators placed all the connectors at the lower left corner of the TV. Part is directed downwards, while the other is accessible from the side. There are 4 HDMI v2.0s in total – three are downward facing and one is on the side and has ARC audio return channel support. An AV connector is provided for connecting old devices – for example, a VCR or a classic PlayStation 2 console can be connected to it via a composite cable. There are also three USB 2.0 ports – two are directed downward for connecting a mouse / keyboard, and the third on the side is used for connecting external drives …
In addition, the KIVI 55U710KB received a slot for connecting a wired Internet – the RJ-45 port is directed downward, and next door you can connect external acoustics of a digital optical connector, as well as a power cable to power the TV itself.
To connect the terrestrial antenna, a corresponding port is installed from below. Traditionally, the CI + slot for connecting CAM modules can be found on the side – there is also a 3.5 connector for connecting headphones.
There is a remote control for controlling the TV set. It is lightweight and compact enough. Offers a number pad, navigation and playback controls, and quick access to YouTube, Netflix, and domestic Okko. The cover on the back of the remote sits tightly enough, as you need to make an effort to open it and install the batteries. The main thing is to be careful not to overdo it and break it.
The remote control supports two types of device control – infrared and Bluetooth. The first one works on the condition of aiming at the sensor on the bottom of the TV, and for the second one, you first need to register the remote control (in the settings of Bluetooth devices, start the search, and on the remote control, hold down the “Left” + “Menu” buttons).
Thanks to Bluetooth, the remote supports the ability to interact with the voice assistant Google Assistant, which means that users can control various functions using their voice and not have to worry about manually typing in the search bar using the keyboard built into the system. Activation of the voice assistant is possible by pressing a special button between adjusting the volume and alternately switching channels.
SCREEN, SOUND, SPECIFICATIONS, SOFT
This TV uses an 8-bit 4K (3840 x 2160 pixels) IPS IPS panel with a maximum refresh rate of 60 Hz. The surface of the screen is semi-matte. The manufacturer uses Direct LED backlighting, which is good for its high brightness and lack of glare in dynamic scenes. However, in static tests on a black background, we still noticed a backlight leak. The viewing angles are excellent and the colors are vibrant and rich.
The maximum brightness of the matrix is 400 nits, and the contrast ratio is 1000: 1. To display content in high dynamic range (HDR), the TV uses FRC (Time Dithering) technology, which displays missing colors using the available palette. In general, these indicators are enough for a nominal display of HDR content.
Response time (black to black) is about 18ms, which is normal for cinematic games and not suitable for competitive projects where minimal latency is important. Playing Cyberpunk 2077 from a connected PC on the KIVI 55U710KB was comfortable.
To output sound to the TV from the bottom of the screen, fairly standard equipment is used in the form of two speakers of 12 W each, and the SRC audio processor is responsible for sound processing. The speakers have a very large headroom. No wheezing or distortion was noticed at high volume levels. Highs and lows are well pronounced, but the bottom end is not enough acoustics. Also, the TV has support for Dolby Digital surround sound technology.
Under the hood of the KIVI 55U710KB is a 4-core processor from MediaTek with a clock speed of 1.4 GHz and 1.5 GB of RAM. The KIVI A.C.E Pro Engine graphics processor assists in image processing using 4K Upscaling technology and is responsible for the quality of the picture displayed on the screen. The built-in DVB-C and DVB-T2 decoders are designed to receive free terrestrial channels, but we could not test the quality of their work due to the banal absence of a television antenna in our studio. This model does not support satellite signals.
In addition to a wired Internet connection via an Ethernet channel, the KIVI 55U710KB supports Wi-Fi 5. During testing of various streaming sites, it showed itself well in conjunction with studio Internet at a speed of 700 Mbps. While using the wireless connection, we did not notice any overload or decrease in image quality.
This model uses Android TV version 9 Pie as the operating system. Like all modern TVs on Android, the KIVI 55U710KB received support for Chromecast and the already mentioned Google voice assistant. The interface is standard for Android solutions.
The TV has 8 gigabytes of storage, but taking into account the already installed system and third-party applications for the user out of the box, there is only 2.8 GB. In addition to the standard western services Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, YouTube and TuneIn Radio, domestic applications such as ivi, Okko, Wink, more.tv, “Kinopoisk HD” and “Look” are immediately installed in the KIVI 55U710KB. More can be downloaded from the Google store.
RESULTS
The KIVI 55U710KB is a good option for those looking for a comfortable large TV for consuming content at a low price. For its money, it offers decent image quality, a large number of services, very loud speakers, a convenient remote control with two connection options, as well as a wide range of connectors that allow you to connect not only new devices via HDMI, but, if necessary, old ones through tulips. It is generally perfect for a dacha.
Author: Sergey Dyakonenko (Madnfs)
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