LG 32LG40

Front

There's a two-inch glossy black bezel surrounding the screen, with a glossy, burgundy strip at the bottom. The small upturned arc in the bottom left corner of the 32LG40 is the TV's power button. Just above the arc is an inlaid LED that glows blue when the TV is on and red when the TV is in sleep mode.

The front of the 32LG40 is very glossy. That LED on the right is an inset power indicator.

Back

The very center of the back is the AC-in port. To the right of this is a cavity with the majority of the TV's ports. At the very top is the analog antenna/cable input. Below this and on the left are two HDMI/DVI inputs. To the right of these is an RGB input along with a corresponding audio jack. The last item in this row is the Digital Audio Out Optical port. The middle row of controls includes the remote control in jack, the RS-232 IN (control & service) port, and a pair of analog audio outputs. The bottom row has component input jacks and set of analog audio inputs. The final box of features includes the S-Video port, a composite video input, and a second set of analog audio ports.

The power input is in the center of the back, while the A/V inputs are off to the right side.

Sides

The left side of the TV has a small grouping of ports. The top one is a USB port for service use only, followed by HDMI input 3, and finally a second combination of composite video and analog audio inputs.

The right side has the DVD slot and a vertical row of basic on-set controls and DVD playback buttons.

The left side of the 32LG40 has some basic A/V inputs. The right side has the on-set controls, including the DVD playback controls. It also has the DVD player.

Stand/Mount

The stand is a glossy black oval with an edge that actually bevels outward as it rises from the table. It uniformly curves up and into the bottom of the TV. You can rotate the TV on the stand, but don't expect anything more than 45º away from center.

The mount curves outward as it flows away from the TV, then bevels inwards. The bevel might help the TV from tipping over.

Controls

As we expertly foreshadowed above, the left side of the TV has some controls. The first set of controls are standard buttons for the DVD player: eject, play/pause, stop, forward skip, and reverse skip. The next set are the basic on-set array, which consists of channel and volume changers, an enter button, a menu button, and an input button.

The DVD player and the on-set controls can be found on the TV's right side.

Remote Control

The remote control is narrow, long, and has its d-pad very close to the top of the device. Below the d-pad are the volume and channel controls, followed by the number pad and, lastly, the DVD controls.

Shifting from one group of buttons to the other is a bit awkward.

In the Box

In the 32LG40's box you'll find the TV, remote & batteries, a cleaning cloth, and a manual. The manual comes in a regular paper version and on a DVD. Interestingly enough, you can't play the DVD on the TV: the only thing you can look at is the Adobe Reader logo. The TV doesn't come with any cables besides its power cord.

In addition to the TV itself, you'll find the above objects in the 32LG40's box: a manual, a CD copy of the manual, a cleaning cloth, batteries, and the remote.

Setting the TV up was a bit harder than we would've guessed. Our helpful advice: use the black screws to secure the stand to its support panel. You can use the silver screws, although they'll be slightly hard to turn after a while – though not prohibitively so. If you do use the wrong screws to secure the panel, when the time comes to screw the panel into the TV, you'll find they don't go in the whole way and are slightly difficult to get out.

We obviously found this out the hard way. Trust us, it's worth verifying you're using the correct screws.

Aesthetics

The 32LG40 is a basic-looking TV with a few quirks we didn't necessarily like. First of all, it has a standard glossy-black bezel, which we are not fans of. We think glossy bezels look cheap. Not helping matters, there's also a glossy burgundy plastic bit along the bottom of the monitor's front. We're not sure why it's there, but it doesn't look good either. The stand is shaped like a 3D hyperbola, gently curving outward towards the bottom, with a slight, inward-facing beveled edge at its very bottom. It, too, is glossy.

This is the bottom right corner of the 32LG40. That red LED is set inside the bezel and will blink as the TV warms up. When the TV finishes powering up, it'll turn blue.

 This is the bottom right corner of the 32LG40. That LED is set inside the glossy black bezel.
It will blink as the TV warms up and eventually turn blue when the TV finishes powering up.

All in all, we didn't particularly care for the 32LG40's looks, but they're not over-the-top gaudy or atrocious. All in all it looks like a basic TV: no real design flourishes and glossy, glossy, glossy.