Electronics Reviewed

Now let us go ahead and review the wonderfully cool specs of the Westinghouse W4207. We're confident you'll go crazy over it. Really you'll absolutely love it. As every other single time, we'll try to find and also present the greatest finds gettable in any place on the web just below the specs.

Review By: Russell Weathersby

The elusive $1,000 barrier is about to be broken once again, and this time by the Westinghouse W4207, the least expensive 42-inch flat-panel LCD we've ever reviewed. This monitor lacks a tuner, so you'll need to connect a cable or satellite box to watch TV, but otherwise there's nothing missing. Decent picture quality, plenty of inputs, and understated style mark the W4207 as tough competition for the former champions of the LCD price space: Vizio's GV42L HDTV and L42 HDTV models.

We gave those sets higher overall scores, but that's only because they include HDTV tuners. If you don't plan to connect an antenna, the Westinghouse W4207 is the best big-screen LCD bargain around, at least for now. The Westinghouse W4207 presents an understated look, with a black frame surrounding the 42-inch screen and a thicker section below the picture. That section seems like it should consist of perforated speaker grille openings, but instead it's solid plastic; the speakers' sound emanates from openings on the bottom edge of the panel.

The included stand is also matte black, and the only accents are provided by a small, subtle W and a bright blue LED that illuminates when the display is turned on (it can be disabled). The set measures about 42x29.2x8.9 inches (WHD) including stand; detaching the stand results in dimensions of approximately 42x27.3x4.9 inches. Westinghouse's medium-size, silver remote is fine for such a budget set. We loved the direct-access buttons for each input, and the four-key constellation around the central cursor control mostly makes sense, although the Guide and Favorites keys are useless on a monitor.

The numeric keypad itself is also of questionable value, since the clicker can't control other gear and can't tune channels itself, but at least you can use the numbers to jump directly to items in the internal menu. The menu itself offers the standard array of options arranged logically enough, and includes selections for PIP as well as aspect ratio control, so you can access these items without needing the remote (there's a set of front-panel buttons). One quirky issue: we noticed that changing the non-numeric settings usually didn't engage the change until we pressed the Enter key, whereas most TVs change settings as soon as the menu option changes.

The feature set on the Westinghouse W4207 is slim, but the only major omission doesn't matter to many people. We're speaking, of course, of the missing ATSC tuner, which would allow the W4207 to receive over-the-air digital and high-def broadcasts if it were included. Since it's not, you'll need to connect another HD source, most likely a cable or satellite box, to watch HDTV. Most users have cable or satellite anyway so this isn't a huge issue for them.

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Westinghouse W4207 Well let us go right ahead and have a look at the wonderfully superb stats of the Westinghouse W4207. I'm sure you'll love it. Truthfully you should revel in it. As every other single time, I do my best to locate and show the coolest finds procurable in any place on the [...]