The device comes with a Packard Bell WiPen -- a USB dongle that gives it Wi-Fi capability. This should most likely be installed in one of the awkwardly positioned USB ports beneath the unit, or you can struggle connecting a LAN network cable for Internet access -- they are equally frustrating.
Controlling the Smart TV S320 is fairly easy. It comes with a wireless multimedia keyboard with dedicated buttons for controlling media playback and hotkeys for quick-launching applications. The keyboard has a slightly cheap feel to it, but it is comfortable to use. We really like the accompanying remote control. It doesn't have backlit keys (which would have aided night use) but it has an internal gyroscope, which lets you move the mouse cursor in any direction simply by waving the remote at the screen.
Packard Bell has included copies of Norton Antivirus 2006 plus six months of updates, alongside Cyberlink PowerDVD for DVD playback, Record Now 7 and Metaboli -- an online games download service.
Performance
It's fair to say the Smart TV 32 is more of a PC than a television -- mostly because it can't operate as a standalone television. If you want to catch an episode of Emmerdale you'll need to fire up Windows XP Media Center Edition. It's a bizarre and invariably infuriating decision on the part of Packard Bell.
When you do get into Windows, setup, playback and control of the PC is exceptionally easy. Our only gripe is that users in the know will almost certainly spot the sub-par image quality of the display -- most scenes appear slightly saturated, or washed out.
Quantative testing revealed more flaws. The panel has some difficulty recreating hues at extreme ends of the colour spectrum. Very dark colours were simply shown as black, and very light colours simply appeared as white. This means you might not be able to see what's going on in very dark or very light scenes. The accuracy of its pixel mapping is also questionable, as the level of noise in images can plainly be seen.
As a PC, it's a fair all-rounder. It returned a solid PCMark 2005 score of 3,528, and racked up a 3DMark 2006 score of 879. In real-world terms this equated to 16 frames per second (fps) in F.E.A.R. at a resolution of 1,024x768 pixels, and 38fps in Doom 3, also at 1,024x768 pixels.
Edited by Mary Lojkine
Additional editing by Nick Hide
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