Finlux is owned by Vestel, which makes a lot of the TVs that supermarkets and electrical retailers re-badge and sell under their own names. The Finlux brand cuts out the middle man and sells directly to you via the Finluxdirect.com website.
Most of its TVs are budget models that lack style and sophistication, but the 46S8070-T is a different beast. It's a slim 46-inch LED set with a stylish design that's similar to some of LG's and Sony's TVs. It also includes online features and 100Hz processing, but remains relatively affordable at £680.
User interface and EPG
The menu system lacks the flashy graphics that you find on TVs from the likes of Samsung and LG. They're relatively basic and mostly comprise of simple text and sliders to adjust stuff like the picture and sound settings. The black and gold colour scheme that Finlux has used is appealing, however, and the menus are pretty zippy to navigate.
The picture controls are relatively basic. The set lacks a full colour management system, so picture tweaking is limited to the usual contrast, brightness, sharpness and colour sliders. There's also an option called Movie Sense that you can switch between off, low, medium and high modes. This is Finlux's term for motion processing, although the explanation in the manual is a tad bizarre.
The set uses the same electronic programme guide (EPG) that was found on the company's 32F6030-T, which is a shame as it's annoying to use. The big problem is that when you hit the EPG button on the remote, it only displays 'now and next' information across all the channels, rather than the full line-up of the day's programming.
To see the full listings, you have to first open the EPG and then press the yellow button, which is a faff. There's also an annoying issue with the mini 'now and next' banner that you can open via the Info button. It only displays programme names and doesn't list any information about the shows.
Digital media and Internet features
This is the first set I've seen from Finlux with smart TV features on board. It's fair to say that they're not on a par with what you get from the likes of Sony and Samsung, simply due to the fact that the smart menu doesn't house that many apps. Thankfully, BBC iPlayer is included and there are also apps for YouTube, Viewster, ITN, Facebook, Twitter and TuneIn.
You get 23 apps but no movie-on-demand services. That means it lacks not just Lovefilm and Netflix, but also Acetrax and Blinkbox, which is a shame.
There are also some usability and stability issues with the apps. I couldn't get the Facebook one to work when I tried it and the BBC iPlayer app has no fast-forward or rewind controls. You can only jump to a specific place in a programme by typing in the minutes into the show. Apps also crashed often and the only way to get a picture back on the set was to turn it off and on again.
As you'd expect at this price, the TV also has a built-in media player for photos, music and video files. These can either be played back locally from USB drives or streamed across a network from a PC. The media player looks very basic, though, and is little more than a file browser with a simple preview mode.
Format support isn't bad, although it can be a little flaky. It wouldn't stream MKV files, although it would play them from USB memory keys. Nevertheless, standard-definition DivX and Xvid files played fine and it also supports MP3 music tracks and JPEG pictures.
Like most of Finlux's other models, this one also has rudimentary PVR features. Plug a USB drive into one of its two USB ports and you can record shows from the Freeview HD tuner to disc. There's only one tuner, however, so you can only record the channel you're tuned to.
Design and connections
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