Loewe Spheros R 37 review

When you buy a Loewe TV, you're usually buying so much more than just a TV. The German brand (pronounced Lerver) has slowly but surely built itself a unique and successful reputation for making TVs that are as much works of art and showcases for cutting edge technology, as they are mere goggleboxes. But even by Loewe's standards, the Spheros R 37 seems pretty special.

The Spheros range sits at the very top of Loewe's current TV range -- and as such it's the most expensive. The 37-inch R 37 model starts from a substantial £2,999. But for your money you should hopefully be getting the best-featured, best-designed and best-performing set in Loewe's current TV arsenal.

Design
We've yet to see an ugly Loewe TV -- and the Spheros R 37 is most certainly not going to break that tradition. On the contrary, it's just about as refined as an LCD TV can get. And while this photo proves that the TV looks pretty, it fails to give you a sense of the lavishness of the build quality.

The Platinum version featured is actually the less attractive version of the Spheros R 37 -- the High Gloss Basalt version (which costs £200 more) is an even greater spectacle. Loewe also provides a healthy selection of different stands and mounting options for the Spheros R 37 that should allow the set to cater for practically anyone's tastes.

But has Loewe's quest for aesthetic glories meant it has forgotten a connector or two? For instance, there's only one HDMI socket -- not ideal on such a premium TV given how many cheaper sets are now starting to appear bearing two. There are also only two Scart sockets and we'd expect a flagship TV to carry at least three. At least you get a PC input and a set of component video inputs for analogue high definition/progressive scan signals.

The R 37's operating system is troublesome. The onscreen menus are squashed into bottom fifth of the screen, making them very fiddly to use. What's more, to navigate these menus you have to use a horribly finicky rocker button on the remote control.

Features 
As is expected on a flagship LCD TV these days, the Spheros R 37 is fully HD Ready, with its key HDMI and component video sockets being joined by a sufficiently high native resolution of 1366x768 and compatibility with the key 720p and 1080i high-definition formats.

As for screen specifications, Loewe claims a brightness output of 450cd/m2 for the screen, and a contrast ratio of 800:1. The brightness figure is just about acceptable, but the contrast definitely reads lower than we hoped. Still, these contrast ratio measurements tend to be spurious at the best of times, so we'll reserve judgement until we actually see the R 37 in action.

With the analogue switch-off looming, it's a relief to find the Spheros R 37 boasting a built-in digital tuner -- especially as that tuner is supported by a 7-day electronic programme guide (EPG) and a slot you can use for adding a conditional access card to receive the Top Up TV subscription channels. The only gripe is that navigating the EPG is also restricted by the horrible rocker controller on the remote.