Dangbei Projector
Member
So my daughter’s old 24” finally gave up, and I started hunting for a cheap bedroom TV. I almost clicked buy on the first INSIGNIA I saw because it said “HD” and was only $79.99. Then I noticed the second INSIGNIA, same price, same brand, also says “HD” in the title but the bullet says 1080p. That’s when I stopped trusting the word “HD” and started reading the fine print. The F20 is 720p. The FE is 1080p. Same $79.99 price right now. That’s not a typo—that’s Amazon letting two nearly identical listings sit side by side and hoping you grab the worse one.
The FE is the obvious pick if you’re stuck at $80. Real 1080p for a 32” is plenty, and it’s got the Fire TV interface with Alexa voice remote. The F20’s 720p on a 32” is honestly fine for a guest room or a kids’ play area where they’re only watching cartoons, but why would you pay the same money for fewer pixels? The F20 does show 10K+ bought in the past month versus 5K+ for the FE, which tells me most people are just grabbing the first hit on search. Don’t be one of them.
Now the Hisense at $107.97 is a different animal. It’s a Roku TV, not Fire TV, so you’re swapping Alexa for the Roku remote and a simpler interface. The listing throws around “Hi-QLED” and “Dolby Audio” and “Full Array LED” like confetti, and it’s got 4.5 stars from 1600 ratings, which is a real sample size compared to the INSIGNIA’s 4.1 from zero ratings. But here’s the thing—it’s still a 32” 1080p panel at the end of the day. QLED on a screen that size is mostly marketing. You’re paying $28 more for slightly better color saturation and a better operating system, not a resolution jump. The 2026 model year tag also means nothing to me; I’d rather have the FE and spend the savings on a Fire Stick if I ever want to upgrade the OS later.
Who should get what? If you want the cheapest decent TV and don’t care about smart features, the FE is the no-brainer. If you hate Fire TV’s ads and prefer Roku’s clean layout, the Hisense is worth the extra cash—especially since it has actual user reviews backing up the panel quality. Skip the F20 entirely unless it drops below the FE in price. The “HD” in its title is doing a lot of heavy lifting.
One thing I can’t figure out from the listings: both INSIGNIAs show a 4.1 rating but zero ratings. Is that a placeholder Amazon does for new models, or did they pull ratings from a different variant? If anyone’s bought the FE recently, does the 1080p actually look sharp on a 32”, or is the upscaling from 720p content so bad that you wish you’d saved the $28 and gone Hisense? I’m leaning FE but want to hear from someone who’s lived with one.
What the listings say (as of Sep 08)
The FE is the obvious pick if you’re stuck at $80. Real 1080p for a 32” is plenty, and it’s got the Fire TV interface with Alexa voice remote. The F20’s 720p on a 32” is honestly fine for a guest room or a kids’ play area where they’re only watching cartoons, but why would you pay the same money for fewer pixels? The F20 does show 10K+ bought in the past month versus 5K+ for the FE, which tells me most people are just grabbing the first hit on search. Don’t be one of them.
Now the Hisense at $107.97 is a different animal. It’s a Roku TV, not Fire TV, so you’re swapping Alexa for the Roku remote and a simpler interface. The listing throws around “Hi-QLED” and “Dolby Audio” and “Full Array LED” like confetti, and it’s got 4.5 stars from 1600 ratings, which is a real sample size compared to the INSIGNIA’s 4.1 from zero ratings. But here’s the thing—it’s still a 32” 1080p panel at the end of the day. QLED on a screen that size is mostly marketing. You’re paying $28 more for slightly better color saturation and a better operating system, not a resolution jump. The 2026 model year tag also means nothing to me; I’d rather have the FE and spend the savings on a Fire Stick if I ever want to upgrade the OS later.
Who should get what? If you want the cheapest decent TV and don’t care about smart features, the FE is the no-brainer. If you hate Fire TV’s ads and prefer Roku’s clean layout, the Hisense is worth the extra cash—especially since it has actual user reviews backing up the panel quality. Skip the F20 entirely unless it drops below the FE in price. The “HD” in its title is doing a lot of heavy lifting.
One thing I can’t figure out from the listings: both INSIGNIAs show a 4.1 rating but zero ratings. Is that a placeholder Amazon does for new models, or did they pull ratings from a different variant? If anyone’s bought the FE recently, does the 1080p actually look sharp on a 32”, or is the upscaling from 720p content so bad that you wish you’d saved the $28 and gone Hisense? I’m leaning FE but want to hear from someone who’s lived with one.
What the listings say (as of Sep 08)
| Spec | INSIGNIA Store | INSIGNIA Store | Hisense Store |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $79.99 | $79.99 | $107.97 |
| Amazon rating | 4.1 (0 ratings) | 4.1 (0 ratings) | 4.5 (1600 ratings) |
| Bestseller rank | #11 | #8 | #17 |
