The exponential growth of the smart TV segment in recent times is quite understandable, given people's desire to stream their favourite movies and shows on bigger screens with the advantage of connected technology. Now, with the popularity of OTT platforms and robust internet connectivity, the smart TV market is likely to go only one way in India – up. However, affordability and value for money propositions are will remain the key factors that will influence the growth of this segment. And while Samsung, LG, and Sony lead the pack in terms of providing rich viewing experience to their customers, a few new brands have entered the TV space, driven by the idea of replicating the experience at an affordable price.
One such company is Cloudwalker, a Mumbai-based start-up. The company has introduced a 4K LED Smart Screen, which can be used both as a TV and a personal computer – it comes with a wireless keyboard and a mouse.
In terms of design, the Cloudwalker 65-inch 4K Smart Screen is not at all fancy. Rather, it has a standard LED-design. While the black bezels surrounding the screen are slim, the panel has a noticeable thickness. Overall, the build quality of the TV is satisfactory, and the material used is plastic, of course. The screen comes with three HDMI ports and two USB ports at the back, along with an HDMI ARC (Audio Return Channel), which lets you connect external audio devices to the TV. It also supports AirPlay or CShare, allowing you to share photos, videos, etc on your phone. The screen comes with various modes – entertainment, movie box, personal computer, and child safe.
The movie box mode includes over 10,000 movies, short films, and documentaries from different genres and 16 languages. And if you like to stay updated on current affairs, use the Live stream to watch your favourite news channels available from popular Android Apps directly from the home screen. And you can do it without any subscription charges or fees. And keep your kids safe from watching uncensored content. Simply switch to the child safe mode on your Smart Screen, which needs a password to switch back to normal. Discover child-safe curated content, including genres like cartoons, movies, learning, exploration, DIY, and education.
In the PC mode, you can create and edit compatible documents, presentations, and worksheets with access to Office Suite. You can even remotely access it from any PC and wirelessly connect your laptop, tablet or phone to the Smart Screen to create and edit documents.
The 65-inch screen is rated 4K, meaning it offers a resolution of 3840 x 2160. Combined with HDR 10, the TV is claimed to offer a great level of details in images. And to test the claim, we used the TV to watch various movies, such as Life of Pi, which in itself is a visual masterpiece. In the movie, there is a scene wherein a lifeboat floats in the ocean. The whole scene looked excellent, and the surface of the ocean combined with sky and lifeboat looked magnificent on this TV.
Again, in the scenes of sunrise and sunset, the TV produced hues and images as close as possible to the real thing. Then there is a night scene wherein the only thing visible on the screen is the lifeboat – here, I must say that the TV produced true black and the scene looked fabulous.
We also watched several shows on Netflix, including Planet Earth, Money Heist, and Peaky Blinders. While watching Planet Earth, which is highlighted by the state-of-the-art high-definition footage from oceans and deserts to polar ice caps, everything looked fantastic. But, what we missed the most was a good soundbar to enhance the experience. The 20W box speaker sounds decent but doesn’t give you cinema-like sound experience. Even, if you have a great Bluetooth speaker, it won’t do you any good, as you can only connect external speakers via wired connections, which is quite disappointing.
The TV also has a ‘Content Discovery Engine’ that allows you to discover thousands of hours of global entertainment across platforms, all in one place. But, it didn’t work for us that well, for while searching through CDE, the TV took a lot of time to load and at times also stops responding.
The 65-inch Smart Screen runs on Android 7.0 – the latest version is Android 10, which is found in a variety of smartphones. There is no Google Play Store, instead, it comes with a third-party app store called Aptoide TV to download applications. The user interface displays everything in tiles format, through which you can navigate using the bundled remote.
What’s interesting is that the CloudWalker's CDE has dedicated sections – Marvel Heroes and Disney Delight – which helps you quickly find movies from the Marvel and Disney franchises. A further scroll down lets you access Movie Box, web browser, USB media section, and the applications section.
The bundled remote isn't optimised for the mobile version of Netflix and Prime video, and you will have a hard time navigating throughout the UI of these apps. Moreover, the voice-commands support is also not offered with the CloudWalker smart TV.
At a price of Rs 49,990, you don't only a big screen that produces a great picture quality but also a PC-like experience. Add to that its competitive price, and it definitely seems to be a great product. However, Cloudwalker still has a long way to go to gain the trust of budget users who have now become accustomed to Mi and OnePlus TV products.
Price Rs 49,990
Pros
Great picture quality, PC mode
Cons
In-built box speaker aren’t good
