Tested: Englaon X90 Pro Series TV and soundbar

My wife Jane and I love television. Don’t get me wrong, we don’t sit there all day and night watching anything and everything.

But the advent of modern day streaming TV with a huge diversity of choice and, it must be admitted, quality, allows us a couple of hours of relaxation in the evening without ads or having to watch stupid people compete for a scrap of celebrity via dumb ‘reality’ (lack of reality?) shows.

Also, we (well, I, really) have a weakness for the Melbourne Football Club in the AFL. So watching them when not able to get to the game live is a must.

To that end we have a nice big Smart TV sitting on our wall at home, plenty of subscriptions and a decent sound system attached to it.

When we decided to hit the road for six months on a caravaning lap of the western half of Australia, one of the equipment challenges was a TV, as our new MDC Forte SR 19 came without one.

Happily, the crew at Melbourne-based Englaon came to the rescue with the offer to test one of its new 32-inch X90Pro Series TVs and Dolby Atmos Soundbars.

We’ve now been on the road for six weeks, so that’s given us time to draw some reasonably definitive conclusions.

There’s a lot of words thrown around in relation to this combination.

The X90Pro is 12v, has 4K Ultra HD resolution, Dolby Vision, MEMC and is a Google smart TV. The 12v soundbar is Dolby Atmos.

A key claim is this is the world’s first 12v 4K smart TV.

Let’s go through it all, well as best an electronics dummy like me can...

12v: This set-up runs off grid and doesn’t need shore power. So anywhere anytime as long as you have electricity in your batteries. It also runs on 24v or 240v power with no inverter required. Power consumption is rated at 60w per hour for the TV and 40w per hour for the soundbar.

4K Ultra HD (High Definition) resolution: This basically means lots and lots of pixels delivering a much higher screen quality than standard Full HD.

Dolby Vision: A video technology that enhances the colour palette of the picture.

MEMC: Means Motion Estimation and Motion Compensation; this smooths out fast-moving images. Works particularly well for sports broadcasting.

Google TV: This is a smart TV operating system that aggregates all the different apps and live TV onto the home screen, so you don’t have to jump in and out of them.

Netflix, Disney+, Prime, and YouTube are all built in with thousands more available. Bluetooth and Google Cast – the latter allows streaming from other devices to your TV – are also built-in.

When first setting up you just have to log into your Google account, or create one if you don’t have one.

Dolby Atmos: A sound system that treats sound as objects rather than assigning them to specific speakers. Yep, I don’t get it either.

Englaon: A specialist in making TVs for caravans, motorhomes and boats, so it says it backs all this tech in the X90 up with a robust build that includes vibration testing, a frameless bezel and mounts optimised for mobile travel.

And what about pricing? The 32-inch TV is $799.95, a 27-inch version saves you $50. The soundbar is $279.95 and a carry bag Englaon also provided us with is $79.95.

You can buy a TV for your caravan for just a few hundred bucks, so this is quite the step up.

Once the initial set-up is complete the Englaon X90 is a very easy TV to use. It mated without drama with our Starlink.

To hitch the TV and soundbar together is also a simple process – once you find the video instruction online that is.

The TV comes with a stand we haven’t used, instead opting to wall-mount it via the MDC’s retractable arm. Vesa 100mm x 100mm mounting holes on the back of the TV makes this process easy.

Like any modern TV, control is via the remote, which happily isn’t infested with too many buttons.

The connection from the TV to the soundbar is facilitated by what’s called an HDMI eARC socket and that allows both devices to be run off the one remote.

Weight of the combined unit is manageable for me to lift on and off the wall mount. The plug-in process is just as straight forward.

Once up and running the picture quality is good and the sound quality via the soundbar is excellent.

Whether MEMC really works or not, watching sport on this TV is clear and defined, including Melbourne’s gut-wrenching two point win over Brisbane (see below)!

The sound system is definitely worth the added cost. Without the soundbar the TV makes a pretty tinny noise. It’s OK, but the soundbar is lush by comparison.

Also, despite all the 4K, Ultra and Dolby, this is still not a picture quality up there with the best of far more expensive home-hung TVs. That’s understandable.

Having said that, there are plenty of tuning options (maybe too many, it really gets detailed), so you’re going to get it somewhere near where you want it.

Having all the apps in one place is a great asset of the Google TV platform, but the lengthy 45 second start-up process is a downer (not a huge one though).

Going for the bigger 32-inch TV meant a few more squeezes here and there to fold it back against the wall.

We’ve marked the wall in a couple of places as a result when pushing it back out of the way. The 27-inch screen would be easier in this regard.

In terms of reliability and durability, the only real issue we’ve had is the 12v plug disassembling itself. Thankfully, all the parts were found on the floor and reassembled and the TV was back in action quickly. (pic included)

A piece of the wall mount also broke off while we were sliding the TV into it one day. Not the Englaon’s fault obviously and MDC replaced it under warranty (pic included).

After six weeks living with this set-up we’re happy to give it the thumbs up.

As streaming TV (and Melbourne footy club) fans we’re feeling like we’ve done pretty well here.

It’s give us a little piece of home comfort on the road, and introduced us to watching TV in bed for the first time ever!

Related: World-first 12V 4K RV TVs coming