Insignia NS-55DF710NA19 Review: A TV for Casual Viewing

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Insignia NS-55DF710NA19: At First Glance

The Insignia NS-55DF710NA19 is absolutely one of the cheapest 4K televisions you will find today. This television had a price tag of $126.89 as of the time I wrote this review in November 2021.

I’ve reviewed some impressive budget-friendly TVs in the past, but none have been this inexpensive. Impressively, despite having such a low price tag, this television still offers decent performance for casual viewing.

Moreover, the addition of a 4K display makes this television even more appealing. However, the Insignia NS-55DF710NA19 comes with some major flaws that might make potential buyers look elsewhere. 

Is the television’s low price tag enough for buyers to overlook its flaws? Read on to find out!

Insignia NS-55DF710NA19: Design, Dimension, and Weight

The Insignia NS-55DF710NA19 won’t win any awards when it comes to design. This is because the television comes with a plain and simple design.

Specifically, the television is made of plastic and metal but it does not have a premium look. Furthermore, this television features thick bezels that border its display screen.

These bezels are made out of plastic and have a black finish. Also, an “Insignia” logo can be found at the center of the bottom bezel.

To be honest, this logo is the only visual flair you will find on this television.

That said, the Insignia NS-55DF710NA19 comes with a pair of chunky plastic legs. These legs have a black finish and they look like an upside-down “T”.

Furthermore, these legs should provide good support to the TV. However, they won’t prevent the television from wobbling slightly back and front if pushed.

At the same time, the legs are very close to the edges of the television. As a result, if the Insignia NS-55DF710NA19 isn’t wall-mounted, you will need a large table to place the TV.

Turning the Insignia NS-55DF710NA19 to the back, you will be greeted by a thick metallic panel. This back panel has a black finish and looks very plain.

Also, due to the thickness of the back panel, the Insignia NS-55DF710NA19 will look awkward if mounted on the wall.

In terms of dimension and weight, the Insignia NS-55DF710NA19 measures 1242.0 x 83.8 x 726.4 mm and weighs 13290 g. With this weight, the Insignia NS-55DF710NA19 might be heavy, but it isn’t as heavy as most of its competitors.

For example, Insignia NS-55DF710NA19 is lighter than the Sony XBR – 55X930E, which weighs a massive 28600 g.

In conclusion, the Insignia NS-55DF710NA19 comes with the simple design one would expect from a low-cost television. So, I don’t really think we have the right to complain about its design.

Notwithstanding, it would have been nice if the television even feature a little bit of elegance. Therefore, I will rate the Insignia NS-55DF710NA19 a seven out of ten in this design review section.

Insignia NS-55DF710NA19: Display Features

The Insignia NS-55DF710NA19 comes with a 55-inch LED display. As stated earlier, this television is a 4K television.

Therefore, the resolution that comes with its display is 4K UHD (3840 x 2160). As a 4K television, the Insignia NS-55DF710NA19 should be able to provide content that is colorful and realistic.

That said, the Insignia NS-55DF710NA19’s 4K display comes with an impressive contrast ratio of 4,660:1. A display contrast ratio is a ratio between the display’s brightest white to the display’s darkest black.

Furthermore, a high contrast ratio means that the display can produce deep blacks. Thankfully, the Insignia NS-55DF710NA19’s display’s contrast ratio of 4,660:1 is practically high.

Therefore, the Insignia NS-55DF710NA19’s display will be able to produce deep blacks, which improves the overall picture quality. As a result, the Insignia NS-55DF710NA19 is an ideal television for viewing movies with lots of dark scenes.

Also, thanks to its display’s high contrast ratio, the Insignia NS-55DF710NA19 is perfect for dark room viewing.

However, the Insignia NS-55DF710NA19’s display isn’t bright enough despite featuring a high contrast ratio. To be more specific, this display can only reach a maximum brightness level of 200.273 cd/m.

This maximum brightness is about three times lower than the one found on the Hisense 55H8G’s display. Specifically, the Hisense 55H8G records a maximum brightness of 611.273 cd/m.

As a result of its display’s disappointing brightness, the Insignia NS-55DF710NA19 isn’t the ideal television for well-lit environments. So, it’s best you stick to viewing the television in a moderately-lit room.

On a positive note, the Insignia NS-55DF710NA19’s display supports HDR content with HDR10. However, this display doesn’t support Dolby Vision contents as well as local dimming features.

Moving on, the Insignia NS-55DF710NA19’s display has terrible viewing angles. Just viewing the television slightly off the center axis, picture accuracy and quality will reduce drastically.

Therefore, you are better off viewing the Insignia NS-55DF710NA19 directly from the center.

On a plus side, the Insignia NS-55DF710NA19’s display should be able to handle reflection effectively. This is because the display has a semi-gloss coating that retracts reflections and direct sunlight.

Having said that, it is important to mention that the Insignia NS-55DF710NA19’s display isn’t particularly good for viewing fast-motion content. This is due to the fact that the display has a somewhat slow response time.

To be more specific, the television’s display has a response time of 20.8 milliseconds. A display response time is the amount of time it takes the display to transition from one color to another.

Furthermore, a display response time of 10 milliseconds or less is required for enjoying fast-motion content like sports. Unfortunately, since the Insignia NS-55DF710NA19’s display’s response time is over 10 milliseconds, there will be blur trails when viewing fast-motion contents. 

Not only is the Insignia NS-55DF710NA19’s display unsuitable for viewing fast-moving content, but it is also inadequate for gaming. This is because this television’s display doesn’t have a low input lag.

Specifically, the Insignia NS-55DF710NA19’s display has an input lag of 34.5 milliseconds, which is considered too high for gaming. What do I mean by input lag, though?

Input lag is the amount of time it takes a display to register a signal input. Signal input can be from a gamepad or remote control.

Therefore, the faster the television is able to register an input from a gamepad, the better the gaming experience.

In conclusion, the Insignia NS-55DF710NA19’s display is basically good for casual viewing. However, the display isn’t bright enough and lacks features that will give viewers a cinematic experience.

Notwithstanding, considering the television’s price, I’m not sure we can complain about what it offers in terms of display. Therefore, the Insignia NS-55DF710NA19 deserves nothing less than a seven in this display features review section.

Insignia NS-55DF710NA19: Sound Features

Although the Insignia NS-55DF710NA19 is a low-cost television, it offers decent audio quality, unlike what is common on budget televisions. To give more details, this television comes with a pair of 8-watt speakers.

Even though this pair of speakers can’t get really loud, they deliver a fairly rich sound and clear dialogue. Dialogue can be defined as the sound produced during a conversation between two or more characters in a film/TV show.

On the downside, the bass the Insignia NS-55DF710NA19’s speakers are capable of producing is very low. The television speakers’ poor frequency response performance proves this claim.

The frequency response of a speaker is the ratio of its output to its input. To put it another way, it describes how accurately a speaker reproduces each frequency of audio output.

Moreover, the aspect of a speaker’s frequency response that measures how much bass it can generate is the low-frequency extension. In addition to that, low-frequency extension is commonly measured in hertz.

Therefore, the lower the hertz measured, the better. To put it another way, the lower the hertz, the more bass the speaker can generate.

Regrettably, the low-frequency extension of the Insignia NS-55DF710NA19 speakers is 134.54 Hz, which is relatively high. As a result, the speakers of the Insignia NS-55DF710NA19 will be unable to generate any rumbling or pounding sounds.

Furthermore, the Insignia NS-55DF710NA19 won’t be suitable for watching bass-heavy movies. However, I don’t consider the lack of bass of the Insignia NS-55DF710NA19 to be a major issue.

This is because most inexpensive TVs as well as a few expensive televisions also lack bass.

Moving on, the Insignia NS-55DF710NA19’s speakers produce very little distortion. To be more specific, distortion is very low even when the television is at the highest volume level.

The outstanding THD score of 0.341 percent achieved by the Insignia NS-55DF710NA19’s speakers demonstrates this. THD (Total Harmonic Distortion) is a measurement of how much distortion a speaker can produce.

Furthermore, THD results are usually expressed as percentages. As a result, the lower the percentage, the less distortion produced by the speaker or sound system.

The next sentence is for you if you don’t comprehend what I mean by distortion. The term “distortion” refers to the alteration of a system’s original signal.

Furthermore, distortion is regarded as a significant problem in sound production. This is due to the fact that distortion produces frequencies that aren’t present in the original audio.

As a result, the speaker’s or sound system’s sound clarity and accuracy will be compromised.

The Insignia NS-55DF710NA19’s speakers, thankfully, produce very little distortion. As a result, listening to loud music or watching noisy movies on the Insignia NS-55DF710NA19 isn’t an issue.

In conclusion, while the speakers of the Insignia NS-55DF710NA19 lack bass, they produce excellent dialogue. Furthermore, the television’s speakers are free of distortion, which would have damaged their sound quality and precision.

Therefore, in this sound review section, I believe the Insignia NS-55DF710NA19 deserves an eight out of ten ratings.

Insignia NS-55DF710NA19: Ports and Connectivity Features

After seeing the ports on the Insignia NS-55DF710NA19, you will know why the television cost so little. To be more specific, this television features a very disappointing amount of port.

The worst part is that the ports are all located on the back of the television. Therefore, if the Insignia NS-55DF710NA19 is wall-mounted, the port won’t be easily accessed.

For the ports, this television features one USB port, an Ethernet port, an optical audio output, and a headphone Jack. Unfortunately, the Insignia NS-55DF710NA19 lacks an HDMI port.

The lack of an HDMI port on this television is very disappointing. Like, which television nowadays lacks an HDMI port?

Well, the answer to that is none. However, who are we to complain when the Insignia NS-55DF710NA19 cost only $126.89.

For wireless connectivity, Insignia was nice enough to include an in-built Wi-Fi to the Insignia NS-55DF710NA19. Sadly, the television doesn’t come with Bluetooth.

On a positive note, the Insignia NS-55DF710NA19 comes with a voice remote control. This remote control is exactly the same as the remote included with the Insignia NS-50DF711SE21.

Moreover, considering the television’s low price, it featuring a voice remote is an impressive feat. Therefore, you will be able to control the Insignia NS-55DF710NA19 with your voice using the voice remote.

To use this voice control feature, you have to press down the microphone button on the remote. After that, you will then speak into the in-built microphone located at the top of the remote.

Having said that, let me briefly talk about some of the buttons that can be found on the remote control. To start with, the remote control features a circle-shaped navigation pad.

Furthermore, there is Home, menu, and back buttons above this navigation pad. Impressively, the remote control has four dedicated buttons for quick launch to Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, PlayStation Vue, and HBO.

Unfortunately, the remote is too small to feature a number pad.

In conclusion, ports on the Insignia NS-55DF710NA19 are so limited to the extent that the television lacks an HDMI port. However, the television makes up a bit for this terrible flaw by coming with a voice remote control.

Therefore, a rating of less than seven out of ten will be unfair for the Insignia NS-55DF710NA19.

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Insignia NS-55DF710NA19: Smart Features

The Insignia NS-55DF710NA19 comes with Amazon’s Fire TV operating system like any other Insignia smart television. This Fire TV OS has a straightforward interface that is free of bugs.

Moreover, navigating the OS’s interface should be easy since the interface has little to no lag. Furthermore, once you sign into the Fire TV operating system, you can access a wide variety of streaming apps.

Streaming apps on this Fire TV operating system include Amazon Prime Video, as expected. Other streaming apps on the OS are Apple TV, Hulu, Disney+, Netflix, and so many more.

However, these streaming apps mentioned above are all paid streaming apps. To be more specific, you have to pay a particular amount per month to have access to them.

This may sound disheartening to users who don’t have the resources to pay for those streaming apps. Thankfully, Amazon was kind enough to include free streaming apps on the Fire TV operating system.

The free streaming apps you will find on the Fire TV OS include CyberFlix TV, BeeTV, Popcornflix, and BBC iPlayer.

The Fire TV operating system isn’t the only smart feature the Insignia NS-55DF710NA19 has. Specifically, the television comes with an in-built Amazon Alexa voice assistant.

Also, the television itself features an in-built microphone for utilizing the Amazon Alexa voice assistant. Thus, without the remote, you will be able to control the Insignia NS-55DF710NA19 with your voice via Amazon Alexa.

The Insignia NS-55DF710NA19’s smart features don’t end there though. Specifically, with the help of WiDi/Miracast, you will be able to stream content from your Windows PC to the television.

In conclusion, the Insignia NS-55DF710NA19 offers a bunch of smart features that make the television compete among expensive televisions. Therefore, in this smart features review section, I will rate the Insignia NS-55DF710NA19 a nine out of ten.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

When shopping for a low-cost television, you often have to sacrifice features. Unfortunately, that is exactly the case with the Insignia NS-55DF710NA19.

This television lacks some important features so as to accommodate its extremely low price tag. To be more specific, this television lacks an HDMI port, Bluetooth, good display brightness, and low input lag.

However, that doesn’t mean the Insignia NS-55DF710NA19 is particularly bad, it comes with some great features too. These features include great speakers, an impressive voice remote control, and the almighty Fire TV operating system.

Therefore, if you’re on a budget and need a television for casual viewing, the Insignia NS-55DF710NA19 is worth considering.

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