TOSHIBA 55U50 (55 INCH)
Could Have Been Better
Toshiba has launched seven new TVS in India. It has been a successful TV brand all across the world and in India this time, it has returned under the ownership of Hisense. The company has launched TVS of various price ranges starting from 12 thousand. The unit which we are reviewing is the 55-inch variant about which we will be providing details. The new Toshiba 55U50 inches falls under the same price range in which Hisense TV of 55 inch was.
Toshiba 55U50 has been crafted beautifully with sleek bezels. The sleek bezels add up to the viewing experience giving the feel of a curved screen. The body of the TV is made up of hard plastic with a smooth and clear design. The TV comes with a tabletop stand with a metallic finish which is of great quality and the stand is one of the best stands under the price segment in which the 55U50 falls. The TV comes with Wall mount as well which we even saw in the previous Hisense TV which we reviewed. At the backside, the TV possesses 2 USB ports, an Antenna port, LAN port, and 3 HDMI port where one HDMI port is a proper ARC port, a proper 3.5mm headphone jack also there are RCA ports as well to connect your setup box.
Display
The new Toshiba 55U50 comes with a VA panel and has direct LED backlighting. The display
has a brightness level of 400nits and has a static contrast of 5000:1. The TV comes with HDR10+, HLG, and Dolby Vision, Wide color gamut, and has the capability of producing colors up to 1 billion. The TV comes with a refresh rate of 60Hz. The TV has a Mali 470 graphic processing unit also it has Toshiba’s 4K CEVO engine which enhances the picture color and sharpness. The content on Netflix, Amazon comes out in 4K quality. It also has ultra-dimming technology which makes bright white and black colors appear deeper. Toshiba has used AMR+ technology on the TV which makes picture quality very smooth when you are watching fast-moving objects. There are various picture modes available as well like Standard, Cinema Day, Cinema Night, Sports.
The TV has a 4K upscaling feature that can convert the HD and Full HD content from the Set-top box.
Toshiba 55U50 has 30W speakers that offer dynamic sound quality as it has Dolby ATMOS which almost gives you the feel of a home theatre if the room is not too large.
The sounds produced are loud with quite a good bass level. TV has Bluetooth 5.0 support and allows you to connect any speakers with it or any wireless earphones.
OS
Toshiba has used its own OS on the TVS which it has launched which is Vidaa OS. The OS is very fast and it has the advantage that the updates will come directly which Toshiba will push which will reduce the issue of taking permission from other companies or brands. It has a fee disadvantage as well which means that there are limited applications. You can install various apps from the Toshiba app store. Toshiba claims with its future update it will introduce other apps like Hotstar, Zee, etc which are currently not available.
Remote
The remote provided is a Bluetooth enabled smart remote which makes it easy for you to operate it from any direction and ending the practice of specific pointing towards the TV. The remote comes with various Hotkeys like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Youtube. It has Alexa as the Assistant for taking voice commands. There are various Shortcut buttons as well as the volume controllers, mute button, etc. The TV can be operated by the mobile phone by downloading Remotenow App. The app works exactly like the physical remote and you can use every feature which is available on the remote.
Processor
The processor on board is the Quad-core A53 processor with 1.5 GB RAM and 4GB ROM. The RAM size seems less but the OS used in the TV is Linux based OS which does not require many resources so the RAM is enough to process the TV smoothly. The 4GB RAM will fall short of space when more apps will be installed. The absence of Google Play store in the Indian market seems a disadvantageous point as the other TVS of the similar price range comes with Google OS and Google Play store.
Conclusion
The Toshiba 55U50 comes quite differently to me. The Hisense TV which we last reviewed showcased much more refined and requisite features. The absence of Google Play Store is unimaginable at the moment. Toshiba should have done some homework before launching it. Feature-wise, the 55 inch smart TV displays vivid images whereas the viewing angles are fine too. The oneaccess buttons on the remote adds advantage for a beginner. The UI is nice but not something which I would prefer. The sound quality is better but lacks Hisense’s feel. Overall, the Toshiba 55 inch smart TV at Rs 37,990 has lots of grey areas to work on and we hope that the company will come up with a better TV and improved next time. ■