Metz 24MPE7002Z Portable TV Review: Wireless Wonder?

Ever spent a weekend at a holiday cottage with no TV and realised just how much you miss having something to watch in the evening? Or wished you could take a telly with you on a caravan trip without needing to faff about with aerials and mains power?

Enter the Metz 24MPE7002Z – a portable, battery-powered 24″ TV that you can actually take with you. No need for constant mains power, no satellite dish required – just charge it up and off you go. Assuming you have broadband or mobile data, that is.

At £299, this Full HD streaming TV runs on Google TV, which means you get access to Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, YouTube and thousands of other apps. The built-in rechargeable battery delivers impressive runtime (far more than the claimed three hours), and at just 4kg with a carry handle, it’s really portable.

It sounds brilliant on paper – and in many ways, it is. The battery life alone is remarkable, and the anti-glare screen works well for outdoor viewing. For caravanners, motorhome owners, or anyone who needs a telly they can move around easily, this is an interesting proposition.

But there are some frustrating limitations. There’s no aerial port, which feels like a missed opportunity for a portable TV. And despite running Google TV, you can’t install BBC iPlayer, ITVX, or Channel 4.

So is the 24MPE7002Z a genuinely useful portable TV, or does it fall short where it matters most? Let’s take a closer look.

Who Is The Metz 24MPE7002Z For?

METZ (which is owned by Skyworth) have been around for quite a while, making (mostly) budget TVs for the UK market, with a variety of streaming operating systems. But the 24MPE7002Z is something a bit different – it’s a portable TV with a battery built in.

At 4kg, it’s light enough to carry around, and you don’t need to plug it into the mains to watch (yes, even in our ultra-connected portable world, I still find it a bit miraculous when I see a TV playing without any wires connected to it).

This makes it perfect for caravans, motorhomes, boats – anywhere you’re travelling and want to watch some telly. It’s also handy if you’ve got a summer house in the garden, or you’re staying at a holiday rental that doesn’t have a TV.

You can also just move it around the house – kids’ room one day, home gym the next. There’s a carry handle on top, which helps.

The TV runs Google TV, so you get Netflix, Amazon’s Prime Video, Disney+, YouTube and thousands of other apps. The screen is anti-glare, which is useful for watching outdoors (when it’s not raining, anyway) – though the glare was a bit more noticeable indoors with direct lights around.

But here’s where it gets a bit frustrating: There’s no aerial port – so no Freeview (or Freesat for that matter). For a portable TV that’s meant for travel, where you might not always have decent broadband (or cellular data), that’s a real shame. An aerial port would have been useful.

And that’s not the only problem: even though this is Google TV, you can’t install BBC iPlayer, ITVX, or Channel 4. The only UK broadcaster app you get is Channel 5.

Metz tell me that’s reflected in the £299 price, and fair enough – if you mostly watch Netflix and Disney+, it won’t matter. You can also cast BBC iPlayer from your phone, which works. But it’s still disappointing.

So at £299, this could be a great portable TV if you need something that runs on battery. Just make sure those missing features won’t be a problem for your particular use case.

Setting Up The Metz Portable TV

In the box, you get the TV itself, a remote control (with two AAA batteries included), a user manual, and the power adapter.

At 4kg, the 24MPE7002Z is genuinely lightweight, and the built-in carry handle makes it easy to move around. The TV sits on a small stand that’s already attached (and also includes the speakers inside of it), so there’s no assembly required.

One thing to note is that the base is a bit light, so even a gentle push can topple the whole TV over. That’s something to consider when you choose where to place it.

In terms of ports, you get an HDMI port (useful for connecting a games console or a separate streaming stick), a USB port (5V/500mA), a digital audio out port, an Ethernet port (for wired internet connection), an AV IN port, and the DC 12V-24V port for power. No aerial port, as mentioned earlier.

When I first turned on the TV, it came with EU-only firmware, which meant I couldn’t select the UK as my location. To fix this, I had to download a hefty software and firmware update – about 1GB, which took around 20 minutes to install. Then I had to factory reset the device (another lengthy process). Only after all that could I finally choose the UK as my region and actually start using the TV properly.

I’m hoping that by the time you’re reading this, Metz will have sorted this out, and the TVs arriving in UK stores will come with the updated software already installed. But it does feel a bit like this is an EU TV that wasn’t fully migrated to the UK market yet – which might also explain why there are no apps for BBC iPlayer, ITVX, or Channel 4.

Once you get past the firmware hurdle, setting up Google TV is straightforward enough – though, as always with Google TV devices, the Google Home app was terrible at detecting and connecting the TV. But that’s not Metz’s fault – this has happened with almost every Google TV device I’ve ever installed.

You can bypass the Google Home app entirely by signing in directly on the TV using the remote to key in your Google account details.

After that, you’re good to go – the TV will install some default apps, and you can start adding your streaming services.

Using The Metz Portable TV

The remote control is lightweight and straightforward to use, with a simple button layout that won’t confuse anyone.

There are three pre-assigned shortcut buttons for Netflix, Prime Video and YouTube, plus one customisable shortcut button where you can assign whatever app you like. There’s also a Google Assistant voice button for voice search and control.

Responsiveness is generally good, though not quite as smooth as butter – there’s occasionally some on-screen lag when you press a button, but it’s not overly annoying.

The Google TV interface works well here, and it does something that not all third-party Google TV devices manage – it properly syncs your “Continue Watching” lists from Netflix, Prime Video and Disney+.

Once I logged into these apps, it instantly pulled in the shows and films I’d been watching on other devices, even ones I’d never watched on this TV. That’s very useful for a portable TV, where you’re likely to want to continue watching something you started at home.

Performance-wise, it’s certainly not as fast and responsive as a premium streamer like the Fire TV 4K Max or the Google TV Streamer, but it’s acceptable. Apps take a bit longer to load than I’m used to – an extra second or two compared to faster devices.

The bigger issue is with playback. Disney+ was the main culprit here (though Disney+ is notoriously slow on many devices), with noticeable buffering and stuttering every time I started playing a new title.

It would sort itself out after about 10 seconds, and then the playback was smooth. This also happened, to a lesser extent, with the Channel 5 app. Netflix and Prime Video were better behaved.

As for app availability – as mentioned, there’s a very large library on the Google Play store, except for that annoying absence of iPlayer, ITVX and Channel 4. Having said that, casting directly from those apps to the TV was pretty straightforward, so it’s a convenient – if not perfect – workaround.

Battery Life

The spec sheet claims “more than three hours” of battery life, which is technically true – but it’s underselling things quite a bit. In my test of running a YouTube video non-stop, the TV lasted for… 6.5 hours. That’s impressive.

Of course, your mileage will vary depending on volume level, screen brightness, WiFi connection strength, and what you’re watching. During more varied real-world usage – 30 minutes of watching different apps, switching between them, adjusting settings – the battery dropped from 100% to 85%. So even with mixed use, you’re looking at several hours of entertainment without needing mains power.

There’s one quirk with battery mode that’s worth noting. When the TV is running on battery and you leave it idle, it will automatically shut itself down after a period of inactivity (you can choose how long). To turn it back on, you need to press a small white button on the side of the TV – it’s the battery mode button, and it’s a bit hard to spot (white button on white background). Only after pressing that button can you then turn the TV on properly with the remote or the front power button.

This two-step process can be a bit confusing at first – I initially thought the TV wouldn’t turn on at all. But once you know about it, it’s not a big deal. The battery button also lets you turn the TV completely off (rather than standby) when in battery mode, which helps preserve battery life.

Picture Quality

With a Full HD (1080p) resolution on a 24″ screen, picture quality is perfectly fine for a portable TV. You’re not going to get the same level of detail as a larger 4K TV, but at this size, Full HD is appropriate – and the picture looks crisp enough.

The anti-glare matte screen is supposed to be one of the standout features, designed for outdoor viewing. I tried testing it outdoors, but thanks to the typical English weather – grey skies and clouds all week – I couldn’t really put it through its paces with proper direct sunlight.

That said, on a cloudy day, the screen was perfectly visible with minimal reflections, which is promising.

Indoors, the anti-reflection coating works even better – you don’t see yourself or the room reflected on the screen, which is nice. However, direct light from ceiling lights or lamps still creates noticeable glare that can wash out parts of the picture.

Sound Quality

The TV has two front-firing 6W speakers with Dolby Digital Plus support. For a portable TV this size, the sound is acceptable – it’s loud enough for everyday use, and dialogue is clear. But don’t expect anything groundbreaking.

If you’re serious about sound quality, you’ll probably want to connect external speakers via the digital audio out port or Bluetooth.

The Bottom Line: Is The Metz Portable TV Worth It?

If you need a portable TV that runs on battery power, the 24MPE7002Z does exactly what it’s meant to do. The battery life is quite impressive – far exceeding the claimed three hours – and at £299, it’s reasonably priced for what you’re getting.

The Google TV interface works well, the screen is bright enough for outdoor use (clouds permitting), and at 4kg, it’s genuinely portable. For caravans, motorhomes, or just moving it around the house, it’s a solid option.

But it’s hard not to feel that Metz missed a trick here. The lack of an aerial port is frustrating – if you’re taking a TV with you when travelling, those are precisely the situations where you might not have reliable broadband. And the absence of BBC iPlayer, ITVX, and Channel 4 apps feels like a significant omission for a TV aimed at the UK market.

Yes, you can cast these apps from your phone, and yes, you could technically connect a Fire TV stick or even a Freeview box and aerial via the HDMI port – but that rather defeats the purpose of having a simple, portable TV.

That said, if you’re mainly interested in global apps like Netflix, Apple TV and Disney+, and you’re confident you’ll have decent WiFi wherever you’re taking this TV, then these limitations won’t bother you.

At £299, it’s an interesting proposition – just make sure it actually fits your needs before you buy.

Note: The Metz 24MPE7002Z was supplied by the manufacturer for this review. As always, this did not influence my opinion of the product.