Sony KDL-32S2010 HD ready LCD TV

Sony's LCD looks great but skimps on HDMIs.

Sony's Bravia V-series impressed with its brightness and crisp replication of detail. Now, its more wallet friendly S-series sibling offers a similar standard of picture quality, for 400 quid less.

That's tempting, but before you jump in, there are a few things to consider.

Lookswise, it's more Sophie Raworth than Christina Aguilera - attractive in a rather flat way, but pleasingly compact. Workmanlike speakers nestle under the screen, leaving a slim frame elsewhere.

Picture quality is very good, but not quite up to the eye-boggling standard of the V-series. The colours aren't as vivid, but they're still brighter than on most LCDs, and the level of detail with Hi-Def games and upscaled DVD is impressive. The 8ms response time means an Xbox 360 Quake 4 fragfest is blur-free, too.

As with most LCDs, black levels aren't astounding, but one thing that does impress is the sharpness and colours the screen pulls out of its built-in Freeview tuner. Freeview, let's face it, looks crap on most flat panels, but the big channels like BBC1 look truly excellent on this.

It's a solid showing all round, then... till you make your way round the back. There, you'll find one, solitary HDMI socket sitting on its lonesome. If you're planning on getting two Hi-Def devices - say a Sky+ HD box and a PlayStation 3 - you're going to be doing a fair bit of cable-swapping if you want the best picture quality for both.

With cheaper rivals boasting two HDMIs, Sony's insistence on sticking with one is quaint, to put it mildly, and this TV feels a little over-priced as a result. However, its excellent picture quality and solid, dependable design give it the edge over many of its competitors.