In a sector that is increasingly ignored by the major brands, Medion is setting out its stall with the Life P13034 (MD20075), a small 22 inch television with a resolution of 1680x1050 that could well limit its impact. But lets not judge it in theory, lets see how it does in its own right!

The spec

When you get it out of its packaging it looks more like a monitor than a TV: no rotating base, an unusual looking remote, only two HDMI sockets. Nor are there USB or Ethernet sockets, for the moment reserved for larger TVs.

When you turn it on the menu confirms these doubts: a menu derived from computer screen menus. It looks ugly and it is complicated to use, not to mention the poor translations on the interface.

All this might be forgiven however if the display quality tests gave good results. If this is the case the P13034 will make a good extra set.

Image quality

Unfortunately the readings and practical tests are rather disappointing. Indeed, it's rare for a TV to attract as much detailed criticism! The black levels, contrast, colours, angles of vision, gamma curve, maximum brightness, upscaling… all these tests give mediocre or bad results.

Ghosting is more marked than any we have seen on a television for a long time. 16/9 films suffer from a deformation of the aspect ratio in upscaling and the image is pulled vertically – not to mention the loss in precision visible both in SD and HD because of the 1680x1050 panel that fits perfectly with none of the video formats commonly used.

Even for an extra set, image quality really isn’t good enough.


Sound quality

The sound quality is also poor but this is true for most TVs this size. It is rare for a TV to score more than 3 stars here and most are on 2 or 3.


Energy consumption

Energy consumption is no better at 345 W/m² (45 to 50 W) while standby uses 1,8 W. To recap, the best sets currently use under 0.2 W in standby.