The Haier brand, from all I can determine, walks a fine line between budget and high-end electronics. My introduction to it was a 20-inch stereo flatscreen tube television I bought maybe eight years ago, a predecessor to the more current model linked here: Haier HTR20 20" CRT TV. (I saw it in the store and was so impressed with the picture that I almost bought it on the spot; but I decided to research the brand first. I found out that though the Chinese-based firm was just starting to crack the US market, it was the third largest electronics manufacturer in the world -- priding themselves, at the time, in some innovative TV technologies.) It's still a lovely set and still going strong in my living room.
My second Haier product was a countertop dishwasher -- very inexpensive and not made very sturdily, it seems, but great for an apartment, and if maintained well and positioned above the water source, a dandy appliance. Mine's five years old and, as with the tube TV, no problems yet. Haier America HDT18PA Space Saver Compact Dishwasher
So when I finally decided to pull the trigger on my first widescreen LCD HDTV -- a 19-incher for the bedroom -- the first place I started was Haier, because I knew the price would be right (and I found it on sale to boot). Unlike my previous TVs, this one I didn't check out in the store first, but purchased via internet, sight unseen.
It's a pretty unit on a non-adjustable stand, and as with any LCD TV of that size, you can fiorget about speakers of any quality whatsoever: there's simply not the depth and height in the design to produce the desired range of volume or ressonance of bass. So, depending on your taste and resourcefulness, plan on spending anywhere from $40 (eBay used) to $200 on speakers as well. (I bought a used Yamaha combo of computer speakers and sub-woofer; if you want something prettier I recommend the wall-mountable iLive 2.1-Channel Speaker Bar with iPod Dock (Black), which I got for my mom's 22 inch Haier [about which more in a bit]. Among other features, this Speaker Bar contains a sub-woofer, so the bass frequencies are resonant and full.)
I've discovered with most televisions, at least the ones I've owned, that if you like the resolution and clarity of the picture, that's your measuring rod; you shouldn't be disappointed if the color isn't to your liking, right out of the box, because it can always be fine tuned and almost always has to be. And sure enough, out of the box, the Haier 19 inch displays a lot of white where you expect a subtler transition into certain lighter pastels (i.e. flesh tones). And sure enough, the means to adjust the picture are within the menu, but you may have to go deep into a submenu to access the Advanced color controls (not as daunting as it may sound and you can always toggle back to the defaults). (There are also submenus for various other features, alarm, date-time settings, etc.) Once you've got color where you want it, the Haier 19 incher looks as good as any TV of its type and equivalence on the market. Which is the ultimate bottom line.
Flaws? The remote is too small and easy to misplace if you're not assiduous about keeping track of where it "lives" (a weird Haier "trademark"), and this particular remote is stupidly designed, with the "OK" (confirmation/enter) button small and off to the side, rather than centrally positioned in a way that your finger moves to it intuitively. Also -- when you're making adjustments, the menu display disappears way too quickly -- UNLESS you find the setting that adjusts the display duration. Which can be a little tricky (and ironic) because you have to move fast enough to get to it before the menu display disappears. The architecture of the menu tree and its navigation is hardly elegant ... but once you have things set up properly, it needn't be. And as with any other consumer electronic that does the job, once you're over the learning curve, there's no problem.
It's worth noting, however, that although the manual applies to several models (various screen sizes and equivalent combo units that also include an onboard DVD player), the features that should be general to all are not shared equally. While this 19-incher allows you to adjust picture ratio among Widescreen, Fullscreen, Normal, Stretch and Zoom (zoom being particularly useful for those stations that "frame" a widescreen image on four sides), the 22-incher (the one I bought for my Mom) only toggles between Widescreen and Normal. (Normal in this case = whatever image and aspect ratio the station puts out, pure and unaltered, so whether or not the screen is full has nothing to do with you or the TV.) So if you're thinking about a larger screen size than 19", it may be worthwhile to download the manual, inspect it for the features that matter to you, and do a little research.
Overall, I like this TV quite a lot. If you can live with full utility over cosmetic or operational elegance, you will too.
Buy Haier HL19R 19-Inch Widescreen LCD HDTV (Black)!
