Taking battle neck-on-neck, Vu, a television brand known for launching affordable TVs in the country has introduced three 4K Smart TVs running on Android Nougat. Based out of Mumbai, Vu has announced new ActiVoice lineup of Smart TVs in India in three different display sizes- 43-inch (42SU128), 49-inch (49SU131) and 55-inch (55SU138). The 43-inch model is priced at Rs 36,999, followed by the 49-inch model at 46,999 and lastly, the 55-inch model carries a price tag of Rs 55,999. And all the three models feature a 4K panel, which is a surprise, especially considering the price of the 43-inch model.
Coming to the features of the Smart TVs, the resolution of the 4K panels is 3840 x 2160 pixels. However, none of these TVs has support for HDR though, in which the Xiaomi Mi LED TV 4 has the upper hand. However, Vu says that these panels offers display features such as dynamic contrast, high bright mode, pixel mapping and a wide viewing angle. Also, they come with 20W (10W x 2) speakers. And they even have support for Dolby and DTS TruSound.
Technical specifications in all the Smart TVs include a quad-core processor, 2.5GB of RAM and 16GB of onboard storage to store files on the TV.
As mentioned above, the Vu ActiVoice lineup runs stock Android 7.0 Nougat operating system and comes preinstalled with all the applications such as YouTube, Facebook Video, Sony Liv, ALT Balaji, Netflix, etc. Devita Saraf, Vu TV CEO, at the launch event, said that Xiaomi's Mi TV 4 is not a Smart TV because it lacks Netflix support. Furthermore, she added that Xiaomi is not going to be a competition to Vu, and she even quoted that Xiaomi will take away market share from brands such as Micromax and not from them or Samsung or Sony.
They come with full-fledged Android support, meaning we get all the Google services including the Google Play Store, which allows users to install applications directly. This is something Xiaomi's Mi LED TV's lack.
All the three televisions come with the option of two controllers- a standard 11-button voice remote and a standard complexed remote. The 11-button voice remote comes with Bluetooth connectivity support, while the second remote comes with IR-based connectivity support. That said, you won't get that seamless integration of television and digital content support with Vu televisions though. Xiaomi's PatchWall interface has an added advantage over the Vu ActiVoice lineup of TVs.
Connectivity options in the TVs include two USB ports, 3.5mm headphone jack, 3 HDMI ports, an Ethernet port, HDMI ARC/CEC, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth support.
All the three TVs will be made available on Flipkart from March 16. Vu ActiVoice lineup of TVs are impressive, however, they fall short of Xiaomi's PatchWall interface, but scores on full-fledged Android support. It will be interesting to see how this intense battle between Xiaomi and Vu goes on. We will get a winner in the next five to six months though.
