Recent months have seen major and overdue price corrections in the television segment in India, with most models costing slightly more than they did in 2020. You can expect to buy a well-specified 55-inch Ultra-HD TV for less than Rs. 40,000 not so long ago, but such deals are hard to come by as many popular brands including Xiaomi, Hisense and Vu are now priced starting at Rs. 45,000 marks for a 55-inch LED TV. Naturally, this new Thomson 55-inch Ultra-HD TV costs less than Rs. 40,000 caught my eye.
Although sold under the Thomson brand, the 55-inch Oath Pro Max (55OPMAX9055) is manufactured and marketed in India by Noida-based Super Plastronics Private Ltd., an original equipment manufacturer that also sells TVs under the Kodak, Blaupunkt and Westinghouse brands. Priced at Rs. 36,999 on Flipkart, the Thomson 55OPMAX9055 has an Ultra-HD display and HDR support and runs on Android TV OS. Is this the best value big screen TV you can buy right now? Find out in this review.
The 55-inch Thomson Oath Pro Max TV checks all the boxes when it comes to specs, with an Ultra-HD LED display and HDR10+ support
Thomson Oath Pro Max 55 inch Ultra-HD LED TV (55OPMAX9055) design and specifications
Virtually all 55-inch televisions today share a core set of specifications, including a 60Hz Ultra-HD (3840 x 2160 pixels) display, support for HDR content and smart connectivity. The Thomson Oath Pro Max TV offers just that, with support for the HDR10+ format on its IPS panel. It misses out on the Dolby Vision format that’s popular on other affordable options from brands like Redmi, Xiaomi, and Vu.
In many ways, this Thomson TV is like any other television of its size in the budget category you can buy right now. It has thin bezels around the screen, reasonable thickness and the ability to be bracket or wall mounted. What stands out in the design is a prominent rose gold band below the screen with a grid-like texture, the Thomson logo, the infrared receiver and a status indicator. The speakers are bottom-firing, with a nominal output of 40W.
Two desk mount brackets as well as a wall mounting kit are included in the box, with Flipkart offering free delivery and installation of this TV. While I am reviewing the 55-inch variant, this TV is available in other sizes – the 43-inch and 50-inch variants are priced at Rs. 27,999 and Rs. 34,999, respectively.
The power input socket faces to the right, while the ports face to the left of the TV and were a little difficult to reach once wall-mounted. Connectivity on the Thomson TV includes three HDMI ports (one supports eARC), two USB ports, an Ethernet port, an optical audio output, an antenna socket and a composite AV input which must be used with an included three-to-one adapter.
The 55-inch Thomson Oath Pro Max TV runs on Android TV 10, with the new content-first UI
Notably, there’s no 3.5mm socket for wired audio output (despite it being mentioned in the specs), but you can connect Bluetooth headphones or speakers to this TV. Weirdly, the port layout on my review unit was completely different than what was shown in the screenshots of this TV’s official listing on Flipkart.
Powering the TV is a quad-core Mediatek processor, with 2GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage for apps and app data. It is rated for 500nits of maximum brightness and supports Dolby Audio and DTS TruSurround audio formats. Unfortunately, it only supports 2.4GHz Wi-Fi connectivity.
Thomson Oath Pro Max 55-inch Ultra-HD LED TV remote and features (55OPMAX9055)
While the design of the television itself is a bit adventurous, the 55-inch Thomson Oath Pro Max TV comes with an excellent remote control. It’s well equipped in terms of buttons and controls, it’s nice to hold and it looks good too. Important buttons like the D-pad and home key are white to help you find them even in a dark room, and there are dedicated shortcut buttons for Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, YouTube and Google Play.
As is usually the case with televisions with Android TV, the Thomson TV supports Google Assistant, with a button to invoke it and a microphone to receive voice commands on the remote control. This worked as expected, with Google Assistant being able to fetch content from the TV, as well as answer general questions, among other things.
This Thomson TV’s remote is well designed and has handy controls for most functions, including an ‘i’ button that boosts resolution and connection information
The Thomson Oath Pro Max TV is also expected to have Chromecast built-in as well as the very useful Apple AirPlay functionality. The first works through apps and you can mirror your device’s screen directly through the interface, while the second needed an app to work. I used AirScreen, which worked well with iOS and macOS devices. AirPlay needs a fast internet connection to work well, but the lack of 5GHz Wi-Fi may cause stability issues for some.
Thomson Oath Pro Max 55 inch Ultra-HD LED TV (55OPMAX9055) software and interface
Like many televisions in this price segment, the 55-inch Thomson Oath Pro Max LED TV runs on the Android TV operating system. Android TV 10, the current version of the software on the TV, worked fine for me and I had immediate access to the new Android TV UI thanks to a firmware update that was available as soon as I set it up.
As described in my review of the Hisense 55U6G TV, the new interface puts more effort into discovering and recommending content, but still maintains the core feel and familiarity of the operating system and the apps built for it.
For anyone used to Android TV, the Thomson TV experience will be familiar. All major apps and streaming services are available, some like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and YouTube pre-installed while others can be downloaded from the Google Play Store for Android TV.
Basic picture and sound settings can be accessed from anywhere in the user interface, even while streaming content, and I was also impressed with the native availability of real-time information about the resolution and connection of the stream by pressing the ‘i’ button on the remote control. The software worked well and I had no notable issues with functionality during my time with the Thomson TV.
Thomson Oath Pro Max 55-inch Ultra HD LED TV (55OPMAX9055) performance
When it comes to specs and features, the 55-inch Thomson Oath Pro Max TV is impressive for the price; most LED backlit TVs with a similar feature set cost closer to Rs. 50,000, while Thomson offers all this for less than Rs. 40,000. However, its performance offers an explanation for this price difference.
In my experience, Thomson TV fell short in some key areas. The core experience is straightforward, but unlike other similar televisions I’ve used, the Thomson TV didn’t seem to do much with its HDR support. HDR content, including the first season of The Book of Boba Fett and the latest special of The Grand Tour, felt dull and oddly bleak.
Colors looked grayish and this TV didn’t look as bright as the 500nits rated brightness would suggest. Strangely, full-HD SDR content looked slightly brighter and less opaque than HDR content. Black levels on the TV weren’t great either, with darker tones tending to look grey. Night scenes were often difficult to watch except in a completely darkened room.
While the picture was sharp, Ultra-HD HDR content such as The Book of Boba Fett looked a little dull and dreary.
Even vibrant and colorful TV shows like Formula 1: Drive to Survive looked considerably duller on this TV compared to the 55-inch Mi TV 5X. While it’s possible to tweak the image to make things a little brighter, the black levels never improved. The picture looked better at lower brightness levels, and turning off the lights or closing the room’s curtains made for a better viewing experience.
While glare was an issue, the Thomson Oath Pro Max is a big-screen Ultra-HD TV, and it’s hard to argue with the sharpness and level of detail that this resolution offers. The picture was sharp and detailed for the most part, and motion was handled properly without any significant artifacts or glitches visible even in the fast-paced action scenes in The Book of Boba Fett.
Interestingly, the lack or inadequacy of technology in the Thomson TV resulted in much nicer motion blur compared to some of the half-baked attempts I’ve seen in this segment. This even seemed to apply to SDR content, as not having to invoke HDR meant the TV seemed more at ease with just delivering a crisp, detailed, smooth picture.
Full-HD content was passable on Thomson TV, with shows like Kim’s Convenience and Schitt’s Creek on Netflix looking decent despite dull colors and gray tones. Live television such as sports content streamed over Disney+ Hotstar was decent, but Hotstar’s weaker signal quality compared to Netflix and Amazon Prime Video was much more obvious on this television, at least in terms of sharpness.
Sound quality on the 55-inch Thomson Oath Pro Max LED TV was very good for the price. The 40W speaker system is capable of getting quite loud. I experienced some high-pitched volume spikes with soundtracks and certain action scenes in movies, and needed to quickly lower the volume, but dialogue was clear and audible even at low volumes, and background scores sounded decent.
Given that this TV is aimed at buyers looking for value for money, the sound from the TV’s speakers is good enough for basic use. While a soundbar or speaker system would obviously help, I didn’t feel the need to look beyond the TV’s audio capabilities for most things.
Verdict
Many affordable 55 inch televisions from big brands cost upwards of Rs. 40,000 now and hence Thomson Oath Pro Max 55 inch LED TV seems to be an attractive deal at Rs. 36,999. On paper it’s an excellent choice thanks to an Ultra-HD display, HDR support, a good remote control and useful features such as AirPlay and Google Assistant support, as well as Android TV 10. In practice, though, the considerable price difference between this TV and most of its competitors shows in the performance.
Dull video, grayed out colors, ineffective HDR, and poor brightness and black levels hold this Thomson TV back, though the screen’s sharpness and lack of interference from the TV’s processing seem to help to some extent.
This TV is worth considering if you absolutely don’t want to spend more than Rs. 40,000, but still want a 55-inch Ultra-HD TV. However, keep in mind that options like the Mi TV 5X are worth checking out if you can push your budget a bit.