ViewSonic VT4210: A Thin, Attractive LED HDTV

24.03.2011
The ViewSonic VT4210 LED HDTV is simple and unassuming, and it's a decent choice if you're without all the frills common in today's sets. This 42-inch set sports an antiglare, antireflective TFT active-matrix LCD and 1080p image resolution, but it also has zero Web features, few input ports, and less-than-excellent speakers. The VT4210 (about $750 as of March 18, 2011) is surprisingly thin and light, however, so if it's a basic TV you're seeking, this may be the one.

Designwise, the VT4210 is rather unremarkable. Surrounding the HDTV's LED screen is a thin, shiny black bezel with sharp, squared-off corners. The bezel has few embellishments save for the mirrored silver ViewSonic logo at the bottom and a small power light on the bottom left. You can wall-mount the HDTV (it weighs just 29.7 pounds) or place it on a sharply rectangular, shiny black stand. The stand weighs an additional 6.6 pounds and is fixed (it does not swivel). That is just as well, since the TV's off-axis viewing angles are mediocre.

The VT4210 is surprisingly thin--1.4 inches at the thickest point, though the stand widens the footprint to 8.9 inches. That thinness, combined with the light weight of the set, means that you should seriously consider wall-mounting this model. However, if you're looking for ports that run parallel to the TV (rather than perpendicular, which may limit your wall-mounting options), the VT4210 comes up lacking.

On the back left side of the HDTV, you'll find physical control buttons--power, channel up/down, volume up/down, menu, and input--as well as a few parallel-running ports, namely a USB 2.0 port, two HDMI-outs, one TV hookup, a headphone jack, and one digital audio-out. On the back of the HDTV, running perpendicular to the set, are composite and component video hookups, a VGA-in, and a VGA/HDMI1 audio-in.

Obviously, wall-mounting means you probably won't have ready access to the physical buttons located on the side. Luckily, the remote control is small, lightweight, and easy to use.

The buttons are all similarly sized and shaped. That would be a problem if the remote had 60 different buttons, but thankfully it doesn't. Aside from the basic number buttons, volume and channel controls, and menu navigation controls (arrows, Menu, Exit), the remote has mute and input buttons, as well as dedicated buttons for the TV programming guide, closed captioning, and the sleep timer. The only real issue with the remote is its limited range: The remote sensor is located next to the power light on the bottom-left corner of the HDTV, and the remote will respond only if it's pointing directly at the sensor.