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There was a time when OLEDs would cost an arm and a leg. But with the advances in technology, an OLED can be your for about Rs 1,00,000, if you know where to look. Another thing to keep in mind is that OLED TVs in India are available from LG, Sony and Panasonic. In 2019, we saw German TV maker Metz enter the Indian market. The company brought its portfolio of TVs including an OLED TV. The OLED has an introductory price of Rs 99,999 making it the first OLED TV in India to be priced under Rs 1,00,000 albeit, with a single rupee. After the introductory price, the Metz OLED TV is priced at Rs 1,19,999. Is it worth the investment?
Key Specifications
Panel Size: 55-inch
Panel Type: OLED
Panel Resolution: 3840 x 2160 – 4K
HDR 10 support: Yes
Dolby Vision Support: No
Weight: 20.7kgs
HDMI Ports: 3
USB Ports: 3
Bluetooth: Yes
Wi-Fi: Yes
Ethernet: Yes
Speakers: 20W
Price: Rs 1,19,999 (introductory price was Rs 99,999)
Build and design
The Metz OLED TV has a design that reminds me a lot of the Sony Bravia A1. The Bravia A1 had a picture frame design where the TV leaned back on the table just like a picture frame. The Metz OLED has a similar design. It has a kickstand at the back and when you place the TV on a table, you may think that it tilts back a little too far for a comfortable viewing experience. Know that this isn’t the case as viewing angle isn’t a problem when it comes to OLED TVs. However, do know that the base of the TV is flush with the table so you may have to rethink your set-top-box placement or soundbar placement when putting the TV on a tabletop.
The speakers of the TV are below the panel, front-facing and are covered with fabric. The panel is extremely slim and the TV does get a little fat towards the bottom, but that’s because all the internals are housed there. When it comes to the display, there are almost no bezels around it, giving you an immersive experience. There is a white light that glows below the Metz logo when the TV is on, but it is not distracting. You can control the illumination of the logo if you like from the settings of the TV.
Overall, the build of the TV is premium, the panel is slim and the picture frame design is nice.
Ports and connectivity
When it comes to connectivity options, the TV has one HDMI port and two USB ports on the side. These ports are hidden behind a flap, which is nice, as it preserves the aesthetic appeal of the TV. The rest of the connectivity options are at the back. On the back, we have the AV input, LAN port, two HDMI ports, optical audio port, service port and the antenna port. Overall, three HDMI ports is fine but we do wish that there were a headphone port or a stereo audio (white and red) port as well for connectivity to an external device. At least there is ARC for your home theatre connectivity needs in HDMI port 1.
Display Panel & Picture Quality
Since the TV has an OLED panel, we can expect some of the best picture performance. The Metz OLED TV supports 4K, HDR 10 but does not support Dolby Vision. Know that when you use an OLED panel, you are getting some of the best picture quality. Before we tell you how sublime the content looked on this display, let’s get the worst out of the way. We noticed a burn-in like picture retention on the display. However, this was only visible when there is a uniform grey colour on the screen and it happened only on this particular colour. This first came to notice when we fired up the Play Store and opened the search option which turns the entire display grey. After that, we fired up the display tester app on our Android smartphone and cast the screen to the TV. Lo and behold, on the uniform grey colour, we saw the logo again. This was the Netflix logo and the “x” logo which pops up in the update section of the Google Play Store. It’s one of those things that if you don’t know where it is, you will miss it, but once you know where it is, it will really stick out.
Having said that, we’d like to reiterate that we only saw this on a grey background. For the rest of our experience with the TV, it was not visible. So let’s break down the picture performance of this TV with our standard slew of tests.
4K HDR
The TV has access to the Play Store so you do have access to apps like Hotstar, and other streaming services. The TV also supports Netflix but sadly there is no native app for Prime Videos. You can of course “cast” prime video content to the TV from your smartphone as Prime Videos now supports Chromecast and the TV has Chromecast built-in.
The beauty of the OLED TV is its ability to produce infinite contrast ratio, true blacks and deep colours. All this holds true and works well on the Metz OLED TV. Watching Netflix through the built-in apps gave us access to HDR content and it looked breathtaking. Altered Carbon Season 1 Episode 7’s fight sequence is rich in details, with nice highlights and key details clearly visible in dark corners. The muzzle flash in the slow-motion sequence here is absolutely immersing. The Grand Tour Season 1 Episode 1, where you have many cars driving through the desert is a sight to behold. Even the incredibly dark Game of Thrones Season 8 Episode 3, was visible on this TV.
In the midst of enjoying content from the built-in streaming apps, one pressing problem came to my attention. You can’t access any of the picture settings when you are in an app like Netflix or Hotstar. So, if you want to change the picture mode or the audio mode, pressing the menu button does absolutely nothing. This is a big downer and a problem for those that want to tinker with the picture and audio settings when consuming content from the native app. In OLED TVs from Sony or LG, this is not a problem at all as accessing the settings when consuming content from the native app is a just a button away. The Metz TV does produce good looking content from the get-go but not having the ability to control the settings is a bummer.
1080p content
A large catalogue of Netflix, Prime Videos, Hotstar and more content in India is in 1080p. From Game of Thrones to John Wick, Mission:Impossible and even Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and more, 1080p content looks good. Sure, if you play 4K HDR content in its fullest capacity and immediately switch to 1080p and sit a mere 4-5 feet away from the TV, you will be able to tell the difference. But from a 6 to 8 foot viewing distance, the TV can reproduce full HD and 720p content quite beautifully. We played a lot of HD and FHD content from YouTube and it played back extremely well on the TV.
Gaming
Moving on to gaming, we used our Xbox One X to game on the TV. We were able to play games in 4K and HDR when supported and the experience is overall very good. From a game like Forza Horizon which has lush environments in HDR to Gears 5 which is our new benchmark for 4K HDR console gaming, the experience was very good. It was in the dark sequences that we realized that the peak brightness of the TV isn’t as high as the LG C9 (read our review here), but it is by no means disappointing. If you game on this TV, know that you will have an enjoyable experience. The game mode setting of the TV isn’t in the picture preset. So remember to switch on game mode from the settings to get the best experience.
Gaming on the TV is fun but considering the price of Rs 1,19,999, there is one thing to consider. The LG B9 is available at a street price of Rs 1,15,000 approx. The LG B9 supports HDMI 2.1 on all four HDMI ports making it not only future proof but compatible with Variable Refresh Rate, a feature present on the Xbox One X and future gaming consoles. The B9 also supports NVIDIA G-Sync, which is another feature to consider.
Audio
The audio from TVs is generally disappointing but that isn’t the case here. The speakers are front-firing which always helps and there is clear channel separation especially when watching action content like a plane flying across the screen or two people at the end of the screens talking to one another. This helps add to the immersion of watching content on the display. Even at 30 percent volume, the TV is decently loud, making the audio great for everyday viewing. For the immersion in the heat of battle or to truly feel the screams in a movie like A Quiet Place, you will want to invest in a sound system. But considering what’s on offer here, it is pretty good.
Remote Control
Coming to the remote control, its traditional and functional in design. You have the standard layout of buttons with the number pad on the top, D-Pad with menu controls in the middle with the volume, playback and channel controls towards the bottom. The oddest placement is the mute button. It is right on the top of the remote control and is hard to reach with one hand. It should have been at the bottom, closer to the volume controls.
With functionality, the buttons are clicky but the downside is that you have to point the remote in the direction of the TV for the controls to work. Also, pressing the Google Assistant button on the remote control sent the TV into pairing mode and nothing happened after that. The TV kept saying, “searching for Bluetooth device” with no other prompt what to do with the remote control.
These small niggles make the product lack refinement and it gets harder to call it a value for money proposition at the asking price.
Software and UI
The Metz OLED TV runs on Android TV 8 out of the box and the overall UI is smooth and responsive. The grid layout is nice, presenting content first and the stock UI makes the TV easy to navigate. Overall, if you’ve used an Android TV-powered smart TV in the past, you will feel right at home here. Unlike Sony, which has customized the UI in their flagship Android TVs, Metz has kept it stock and we are OK with it. Overall, we are happy with the UI, apart from the fact that you can’t control picture presets when consuming content from streaming services that are installed on the TV.
Bottom line
If only….. If only the TV were cheaper or didn’t have the small niggles we faced with it, it would be easy to recommend. But with TVs like the LG B9 adding more features at a cheaper street price, recommending the Metz OLED TV becomes a little difficult. The Metz TV has a good display, smooth UI attractive design and decent audio output for a TV. What works against it is the lack of picture controls when consuming content from the native apps and small bugs we faced with the UI. TVs like the LG B9 bring with it HDMI 2.1 which means you have access to eARC, VRR and more.
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