I Bought a 50-Inch FPD Smart TV a While Back

2026-05-22

In mid-March this year, I replaced the TV in my living room.

Well, to be precise, it was a monitor replacement — I watch terrestrial broadcasts through a Fire TV.

It's been a little over two months since then, so I'm a bit late writing this.

This time, I want to write about the good points and the so-so points of the smart TV I bought and am still using.

First, here's the model I bought this time.

FPD 50V-inch 4K Mini LED Tuner-less Google TV (CG50-S2)

On Amazon the list price is 75,950 yen, and it currently seems to be on sale at 15% off for 64,558 yen.

I bought mine on FPD's official site, where various discounts brought it down to 59,166 yen.

Some of you may not be familiar with FPD — they're a so-called Chinese manufacturer whose name pops up now and then in the budget smart TV scene.

Next, the reason I bought this model.

Up until now I'd been using a monitor called the Dell P4317Q, a 43-inch model marketed as 4K.

I'd been using it with a Fire TV Stick plugged in, but this monitor actually had a ridiculous landmine baked into it.

I'll spare you the details, but over HDMI it only works at either 4K 30Hz or 1080p 60Hz.

In the end I prioritized smoothness and used it at 1080p, so despite being marketed as 4K I was effectively watching in Full HD — a pretty crummy situation.

I think I wrote about the details on this blog back then too, but anyway, with 4K becoming pretty mainstream even on YouTube now, I figured I'd finally like to watch 4K footage in actual 4K.

So, with the following loose criteria in mind, I looked at various models:

  • 50 inches
  • 4K output capable
  • VESA mount compatible
  • Around 50,000 yen
  • High brightness

Conversely, I gave zero thought to audio quality, since I use external speakers anyway.

With these conditions, the model that caught my eye was the FPD 50V-inch 4K Tuner-less Google TV (CG50-C2).

At around 48,000 yen on Amazon, I thought it was quite a deal.

Its higher-end model is the aforementioned CG50-S2, and when I asked Claude roughly how the two differ:

  • Picture quality (backlight): The S2 uses Mini LED + quantum dots, so its black levels, contrast, color purity, and peak brightness are clearly above the C2. This matters for HDR content and viewing in a bright room.
  • Connectivity (gaming): The S2 supports HDMI 2.1 and eARC. If you're aiming for high refresh rates at 4K or pairing with a soundbar, the S2 is the only choice. There's no mention of HDMI 2.1 on the C2 side.

I didn't actually check the model I didn't buy in person, so I can't speak to the perceived difference.

Still, comparing the specs it seemed like the gap would be fairly noticeable, so I decided to pay a little over 10,000 yen more.

From here, I'll quickly run through the good points and the so-so points.

The Good Points

The picture quality is flawless

Being able to watch 4K on a big screen is honestly great.

Compared to the P4317Q's 1080p output, 4K 60Hz clearly produces far more detailed footage.

The bezels are thin

Being a recent model, the thin bezels are a nice touch.

It definitely got bigger in width and height, but it doesn't feel oppressive.

The screen is bright

I'm the type who doesn't really worry about eye strain and likes to watch with the picture fairly bright.

So being able to crank the brightness up quite high in the settings is personally a welcome thing.

The So-So Points

As a smart TV, it's bare minimum

It's a smart TV, so I was a little hopeful I'd be able to watch without connecting a Fire TV Stick.

But just as the reviews had said the response was "okay-ish," the remote response is clearly a beat behind.

So as before, I use it with a Fire TV Stick plugged in.

Honestly the responsiveness isn't unbearable, but there's not much benefit to putting up with it either.

The settings are minimal

Since the internals are Android-based, I figured I'd be able to customize all sorts of things.

But being a budget model, it really is bare minimum.

The color is questionable

The colors display quite differently between the original smart TV and even at the Fire TV stage.

The Fire TV in particular looks oddly reddish, and it gets hard to tell what the correct colors even are.

Using it with the default settings is rough.

A screen saver is forced on you

This is personally the point I dislike the most.

A screen saver is forced on you when idle, and it's truly annoying.

What's so bad about it: after the screen saver starts on the Fire TV, the screen saver starts on the smart TV.

And when the smart TV's screen saver kicks in, the input setting switches from HDMI to the smart TV itself — what on earth!

So every single time, I have to deliberately switch back to HDMI with the smart TV's remote, then swap remotes to operate the Fire TV…

This is the one thing I really wish they'd fix!!

The monitor's depth is average

I'd thought it would be a bit thinner, but it's not that thin.

That said, it's not particularly thick either — about what you'd expect.

The weight is average too

This too was heavier than I'd imagined.

But again, it's completely within acceptable range — pretty normal.

So that's about it. Overall, my satisfaction is quite high.

If you don't care too much about brightness and contrast, I think the CG50-C2 would do you just fine.

That said, since I haven't seen the one I didn't buy in person, if you asked me whether there's an absolute difference worth over 10,000 yen, I couldn't really say.

Even so, for me — having listed "high brightness" as a criterion in the first place — the fact that I can pile on the brightness to my heart's content already made the extra cost worth it. This part comes down to personal preference, I'd say.

It also supports Dolby Atmos, so watching videos or listening to music through compatible speakers feels pretty rich.

In fact, I run mine from the Fire TV through this unit and into a Bose soundbar, and Amazon Music's Dolby Atmos comes through properly as Atmos — I'm quite happy with that.

On the other hand, since I don't use the smart TV functions at all, you could say a regular monitor would have been fine.

But these days, buying a smart TV is honestly far better value than buying a plain big monitor… so this might come down to preference too.

For reference, let me jot down my monitor setup.