Telly on the go
Sure, you've sat on the top of a mountain, miles from any plug socket, and watched a movie. But squinting at the relatively small screen of your phone just doesn't cut it in our book, and we long for cinematic experiences when away from home on camping trips. If you just can't go anywhere without a huge screen on which to enjoy your favourite shows, you need a Cello 32" Battery LED TV. Good job we've reviewed one, then.
Yes, as you might have gleaned from the title, this is a TV that does not require a power cable. Much like your phone, tablet or laptop, the Cello 32" Battery LED TV has a built-in battery, allowing you to lug it about, set up it, and hit the power button. After that, it's up to you what media source you connect it to.
Lug is the operative description here, as it is very much worth pointing out that the TV is not light. At 5.25kg it is not something you're going to strap to your back on a hiking trip, but it is fairly easy to load it up in the boot for a family camping holiday. It also has great summer applications at home, too, as you can take it out into the garden to enjoy the [insert summer sporting tournament here] while enjoying a [insert name of alcoholic beverage here].
To be honest, the main headline of the Cello 32" Battery LED TV is that internal, yet removable, battery. You can get up to ten hours of constant playback from it, depending on your brightness setting. Say you're camping for three nights - that means you could watch a three hour movie each night, and still have power left over to watch a few eps of something short as you pack up. Plus, incredibly, that beefy battery takes only two hours to fully juice up.
However, as excited as we were to get this thing fired up and working, sans wires, we were somewhat disappointed by the resolution. The Cello 32" Battery LED TV has a max output of 768p, which, although being fine for most things, especially on the not-to-large, not-to-small screen size of 32", we were hoping for something of at least 1080p.
That said we were impressed by the ports. A battery TV ain't no good if you can't hook it up to a player, and this baby comes with a healthy amount. There are two crucial HDMI ports (so be sure to find compatible wires to connect to your phone or tablet), TV aerial, satellite input, VGA, PC Audio, and four USB ports. Four! Happily you can just plug in a flash drive with some content loaded on, and the Cello 32" Battery LED TV will play it. You can also use those USB ports to charge your mobile devices. Nice.
Obviously our main interest was to get this thing outside and far from power, but it can also be wall mounted, as well as stood on the included feet. If you truly wished, you could have it bolted permanently to your wall for home viewing, and charge it as and when you needed it. It would look quite cool; a wall-mounted TV with no visible power cable... without having to knock holes in your walls.
But lets face it, you're gonna buy this to take camping with you, just to impress the other campers with your seemingly magical, incredibly high tech gadgetry. We would. Just remember to leave the tent and do outdoorsy stuff, okay?
£297
Available from www.amazon.co.uk