Philips 42 PF 5421

Author's product rating:   

How is the Picture Quality?	Excellent
How is the Sound Quality?	Excellent
Range of Features	Excellent
Durability	Excellent
Value for Money	Excellent

Advantages:	jaw dropping picture & colour depth, mind blowing sound, lots of plugs and sockets, reasonably priced
Disadvantages:	no headphones socket

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

My first ever television was a portable Philips, the exact model escapes me at this moment in time but it served me brillliantly from the age of 5 to 17, so when the chance came to finally get my hands and feast my eyes on my very own plasma screen televsion I jumped at the Philips 42 PF 5421 despite the £720 pricetag as the first time I clapped eyes on it the price was an eye watering £1500. Oh how prices have fallen, I'm glad I waited. The Philips 42 PF 5421 has a 42" HD ready widescreen plasma display and comes as a complete unit, so far as it doesn't have a stand as such, but sits on a support strut. This is good for me as I have a DVD cabinet that the television slots onto very nicely thank you.

42" is just about big enough for me and as it came out of the box I breathed a sigh of relief I didn't go for something much larger as it would have completely dominated my lounge. Putting into into position was quick and easy as I had a friend helping me. The screen might not be big at 42" but it is a lot wider as the 2 speakers are positioned either side of the display and the 31.5kg weight isn't evenly distributed so on my own I would have struggled and/or broken it.

If readers take a cursory glance upwards at the picture in the top left hand corner of the screen you will get a feel for the look of the television. The model I have is identical and I am impressed by 3 things:

1. It has 2 HDMI input sockets to hook up my laptop so I can play strategy game slike Axis and Allies on a huge display.

2. The remote pretty much controls everything and is very straightforward. Some would say basic but I would rather refer to it as an example of how user friendly a remote control should be. I know its hard to get excited about a remote control but the buttons are quite big, well marked out and evenly spaced.

3. The televsion tunes itself in and detects all the channels automatically. I know this sounds sad but the last televsion I had refused to store channels so every time I turned it on I had to tune it in again. Most annoying but this just seems like heaven. I'm sure the attraction will wear off eventually!

With its 3 SCART connections, jaw dropping picture and mind blowing sound quality evvery time I turn the television on it is like I'm sucked into a parallel universe, the quality and realism of the picture makes you feel like you are there. The only drawback is the lack of headphone socket so I can watch televsion without waking others in the house up late at night.

£720, if I could afford to I would probably pay double. Mt mate has just bought a 72" widescreen and in comparison to the Philips 42 PF 5421 it is the poor relative. Size might be important to some, but now I have the quality I'll be sticking with it. You can't go wrong with this baby, its the bees knees.