Philips goes all lightweight with its latest TV

Philips' seemingly endless drive to keep delivering something new to the TV market has led to yet another innovation today: the launch of the 'Essence' TV, a set designed to be so easy to hang on the wall that your mum could do it. Probably.

For starters, the 42in Essence is Philips' slimmest TV to date, with a profile just 38mm deep. It's also exceptionally light at 16kg.

But without doubt the single most clever thing about it is its 'smart' levelling bracket, which Philips claims makes wall-hanging the TV 'a one man – or woman – task'. See, we told you your mum could do it!

Fewer cables, less stress

The only 'compromise' for all this wall-hanging splendour is the fact that the TV uses an external tuner/connections box. But actually, since this approach hugely reduces the number of cables that end up trailing directly into the wall-hanging TV, we'd argue it's not a compromise at all, but really just a very sensible thing to do.

Sockets on this connections box include three HDMIs, while specs of the Essence screen include 100Hz processing, Philips' Perfect Pixel HD Engine, and a claimed contrast ratio of 66000:1.

The Essence – also known more boringly as the 42PES0001 – is likely to be found for around £2000 when it arrives in stores this month.