Axion AXN-8701 7-Inch Widescreen Handheld LCD TV with Built-In Tuner, Black Best Quality Friday, August 28, 2009

I have been using digital TVs in my house for several years now and with the elimination of analog TV signals in the US in February, 2009, I needed to replace the B&W Sony Watchman I've use at my workplace for years. I'd been waiting for the big name electronic companies to introduce their portable digital TVs, but few if any have come to market. I was ready to make the jump and this unit seemed to meet my needs at a price point I was willing to pay for a small portable TV. Even though I had never heard of this company before, and could find almost no information about this TV elsewhere, the few other reviews that were here convinced me to take a chance on it.

Overall the unit has performed about as expected. The digital image is sharp and well defined. Colors are vibrant and saturated. The digital tuner works well enough, but could be more sensitive. For all intents and purposes the "built-in" antenna is pretty much useless, but with an external antenna the TV performs much better. I passingly looked at the analog reception. It was OK but since the transmissions will end operation 2 months after I write this, who really cares how it performs in analog?

As far as I can tell, the LCD screen displays some level of High Definition, but I have yet to find a single spec sheet that shows the resolution of the screen to prove this, INCLUDING the manufacturer's own website. That being said it is clearly above the 520 lines of analog TV, so this is a HDTV.

I mention the built-in antenna being poor and there is another "external" antenna included . Both are analog antennas, and are not optimized for UHF digital transmissions. You'll no doubt need to purchase or build another external antenna to get the everything out of this TV that you can.

As mentioned in another review, the battery lasts about an hour, but that's to be expected with the size of the battery and the size of the screen. I doubt any other manufacturer's portable TVs will provide power for much longer due to the state of battery technology today. For my use, I have the ability to plug the TV in whenever I am using it, so this is not much of a deficit for me, but I have to say my 1980s Watchman could last 6x to 8x on 4 AA batteries, but one can't compare that unit with this one because the way they create the images on the screen is so different.

So to sum up;

Pros
Great image which is bright, clear & colorful
Relatively light weight
Low price

Cons
Low sensitivity tuner
Included antennas optimized for analog reception (VHF) not digital (UHF)
Loose extras (remote, power supply/charger, external antenna) that need to go somewhere, but no carrying case is included. You'll need to purchase one separately, or use one you already own, to keep everything together and protect the screen when it is not in use.

Overall I'm happy with this HDTV and would recommend it to anyone that has a need for a small digital TVGet more detail about Axion AXN-8701 7-Inch Widescreen Handheld LCD TV with Built-In Tuner, Black.