LCD TVs for the Space Starved

AOC's Envision 19-, 26- and 32-inch televisions may make more sense than a big screen when space is at a premium.

Bigger is better, the old mantra goes. Until you’re trying to fit a big screen TV into a 10 x 10 room in a New York City high rise and the elevator’s broken. Display maker AOC is making a pitch specifically to those frazzled souls with its line of “space-saving” LCD HDTVs in 19-, 26- and 32-inch variants.

In a move of marketing genius, AOC is pushing its latest Envision L19W861, L26W861, and L32W861 not as budget models but as specialty sets for the space-crunched. “This line of HDTVs are designed to fit the needs of consumers in an urban living environment, with sizes and resolutions specifically tailored for optimum viewing with limited space,” AOC’s marketing manager Robert Velez said, in a press release.

Specs on the TVs vary with each model, but oddly enough, the 19-inch model actually gets higher resolution (1440 x 900) than the larger 26- and 32-inch models (1366 x 768). All have HDMI video inputs, Digital ATSC and Clear QAM tuners, PC inputs with audio, and swivel bases.

The televisions retail for $299, $499 and $599 in order from smallest to largest.