Toshiba M550LP QLED TVReview: It Has Failed As A FALD QLED TV!
Hisense and Toshiba are the same company, and, Toshiba is manufactured by Hisense only. Based on my observations of their previous models, I had inferred that the picture quality of Toshiba TVs is a tad better than the Hisense TVs. However, this Toshiba TV has disappointed me.
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BUILT & DESIGN
Reckoning that is it a budget category TV, its built quality is good. The TV is bezel-less from three sides and the bottom grey bezel is also ultra-slim, on the left side of which, the Toshiba branding has been given. The two-piece grey metallic legs, match perfectly with the bezel of the TV and they come in a 180-degree flat blade design. The legs, also, have provision for cable management. The side profile of the TV is also ultra-slim. On the back, Black plastic material has been used to impart a decent design to this TV.
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| Toshiba M550LP QLED TV |
Towards the bottom, there is a rectangular box design, on the side and underneath which, the ports have been provided. Overall in looks, this TV is smart. The built quality of the remote is decent and it comes in a dual silver and black tone finish. It carries direct buttons to Netflix, Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play and media, apart from the Google Assistant button.
CONNECTIVITY OPTIONS
On the connectivity front, this Toshiba TV comes with 3 HDMI and 2 USB ports. Apart from HDMI ARC and CEC, this TV also has an HDMI eARC port. In addition to this, the TV has an Antenna port, an AV input port, an Ethernet port, a headphone jack, an optical digital port and composite input ports. It comes with dual-band Wi-Fi and Bluetooth v5.0. Support for DLNA, Miracast, Airplay and Google Chromecast is also there on this TV.
FEATURES & SPECIFICATIONS
Now let's talk about the company-given features and specifications of this Toshiba M550LP QLED TV
- This TV comes with an A+ grade ultra-vivid DLED panel.
- According to the company, this is a QLED TV that comes with Full Array local dimming.
- This TV has a 400 Nits brightness
- it comes with a wide colour gamut, along with Color Remaster, Ultra Essential PQ technology, 4K brilliance Restoration, 4K Fine Texture Restoration and 4K Gradation Correction
- This TV has a 60 Hz Refresh Rate
- To reduce motion blur, there is MEMC.
- The response time of this TV is 8 ms and it comes with ALLM and VRR support.
- It supports, HDR10+, Dolby Vision, HLG and Dolby Atmos. For picture quality enhancement
- The TV has a Regza Engine 4K Pro
- For better audio performance it comes with Regza Power Audio Pro.
- The TV comes with 49 Watts 3 speakers, which include a subwoofer.
- This TV supports Dolby audio, DTS HD and Dolby Atmos.
- There is also a Sports Mode & Game Mode on this TV.
- The TV comes with a Far Field voice search feature. Apart from the remote, you can directly interact with the TV.
- For eye protection, the TV has an iCare Mode.
- This is an Android TV that comes with Google TV UI.
- It has 16GB of storage and 2GB of RAM.
- For graphics, there is an ARM Mali G52 processor.
So these were the company-given specifications,
REAL PERFORMANCE : Now, let's talk about the real performance Of the Toshiba M550LP QLED TV
So first of all, I would like to tell you something in very clear words, that, since the time QLED TVs have become a rage amongst people, all budget companies have been terming their TVs as QLEDs. But if you ask me the Truth, in none of the budget QLED TVs, I have noticed that colour vibrancy, which you get to see on Samsung QLEDs! Honestly speaking, I have not observed any difference between budget QLEDs and common 4K TVs. All these QLED TVs look like any ordinary 4K TV only, and, the same is true with this Toshiba TV, too. The company has not mentioned its panel type. On close inspection, it appears to be some hard panel, which can be either IPS or ADS. Because this is an IPS-type panel, the grey uniformity of this TV is good. Still, in many places, you get to see some uneven dark patches. The TV does not come with a 10-bit panel, it is either an 8-bit panel or an 8-bit dithering panel, which imitates a 10-bit panel. This can be inferred from the banding that gets displayed multiple times, very prominently, on this TV. Banding is such horizontal lines, which are common on 8-bit panels. On a real 10-bit panel, you will not get to see any banding. If you watch this TV from a layman's point of view, the picture quality of this TV will appeal to you at the very first glance, especially when you see bright SDR content directly from the front. While watching bright scenes and on the Home screen, this TV looks pretty bright, which creates an illusion that this is a very bright TV. So first of all, let's conduct its brightness test. Some people had been telling me that the brightness of this TV is much more than the company-given brightness, so let's sift the truth from falsehood.
The HDR peak brightness
Remember, all companies tend to exaggerate the brightness & contrast values of their TVs and projectors, they can never give a lower value! The HDR peak brightness of this TV Toshiba M550LP QLED TV is a tad lower than the company-given 400 Nits brightness. On a 25% window, the brightness of the TV is 394.6 Nits, on a 49% window, it is 388.7 Nits and on a 100% window, the value is 369.6 Nits. So now, this part is clear, that the brightness of this TV is not more than the company-given brightness.
Dimming zones
Now, let's test its dimming zones and see how many dimming zones are there on this TV. In the horizontal row, the TV has 4 dimming zones, whereas, in the vertical row, there are 7 dimming zones, which amounts to a total of 28 large-sized dimming zones on this TV. The picture quality of a TV does not become SUPERB, just because the TV exhibits a Full Array Local Dimming! The smaller and the more numerous dimming zones a TV has, the better its picture quality turns out to be. In addition to the size and the number of dimming zones on a TV, the picture quality depends on the technologies present on that TV, the hardware quality and the LED quality. The good TVs of higher brands, despite having bigger dimming zones have much better picture quality than the budget TVs that have more dimming zones on them.
COMPARISON WITH SONY
Some people had been asking me for a comparison of this TV with a Sony TV. I still believe that this comparison is totally unjustified. In principle, this Toshiba TV should be compared only to those TVs that are being sold around its price point. But as your wish is my command, The TVs have been kept in full darkness so that no external light affects their picture quality and there is no distraction either. The Toshiba TV has been kept on its best brightness, i.e., HDR Dynamic Mode and it is being compared to Sony's full array TV. On Bright TVs that have real HDR and Dolby Vision support, on them, each and every subject is illuminated, because of which, even in the dark, the details are very clear and all faces are well-illuminated. Whereas, on this Toshiba TV, when you increase the brightness, the subjects don't get highlighted, instead foggy layer envelopes the screen. Both TVs are set on their Dolby Vision bright settings.
When an HDR or Dolby Vision video gets played on any TV, the brightness reduces automatically, but high-bright TVs having true support for Dolby Vision and HDR do not get affected by the reduced brightness. Every object can be seen clearly even in the dark. Dark scenes look realistic and beautiful on them.
On the other hand, when brightness gets reduced while playing HDR videos on a TV with low brightness, the details in the scene go missing because the TV lacks sufficient brightness to highlight everything. This is the reason why the dark scenes appear dull on that TV and you feel like forwarding them and watching only the bright scenes. When you watch a single TV, you can never rightly claim that its picture quality is the best! When watched alone, all TVs look good, till the time any of them is not very bad. The true assessment of the picture quality of any TV can only be done, when you see it side-by-side with any other good TV.
COMPARISON WITH Vu Masterpiece Glow TV
Now, see its performance side by side with Vu Masterpiece Glow TV.
The Vu Masterpiece Glow TV is much brighter and even details in dark scenes are more visible on it.
COMPARISON WITH Hisense U6G TV
On Hisense, the colours are more vibrant and its brightness is also much more than this Toshiba TV. On this Toshiba QLED TV, many times while watching Dolby Vision/HDR contents, the daylight scenes, appear as if they have been shot during the evening time. All the TVs that I have shown, here, have better performance than this Toshiba TV.
On this Toshiba TV, the local dimming doesn't seem to play any effective role in enhancing the contrast during dark scenes. To be honest, on many good budget 4K TVs, I have seen a better Dolby Vision performance than this full array TV. Then what is the logic behind giving full array local dimming on this TV, when its performance is not up to the mark? I mostly watch Netflix content, and, when dark scenes get displayed, I feel like fast-forwarding the scenes, till there is a bright scene. The details go missing in the dark scenes, and, if we try to enhance the brightness, then too, the scene is not enjoyable, as a foggy layer covers the screen.
Blooming
Now, let me tell you that apart from the dark scenes, where the problem arises on this TV.
On this TV there is much blooming! I am not saying that on FALD TVs there is no blooming at all! Certainly, there is some blooming on other FALD TVs too! But, it is not as prominent as this TV, and then, blooming occurs only on TVs that have high brightness. Blooming on a 390 Nits brightness TV is unpardonable! Now watch this blooming test!
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| Toshiba Qled blooming |
On this TV, whenever, a certain portion gets illuminated, the brightness spreads far off in the dark portion and illuminates it, thus spoiling the ambience of the scene. Who all have this TV, I will ask them to take their phones and stand to a little side of the TV and shoot a video, you will be able to see much blooming on it. The blooming around the subtitles is so much that it affects the eyes, and, while watching cinemascope movies, the lower black portion gets illuminated.
Viewing Angles
Despite having an IPS-type panel, when you watch this TV from the sides, you will get to see a dense foggy layer on the screen, which will spoil your viewing experience.
If you watch bright scenes on this TV, that too, directly from the front, the TV looks Superb, however, as you shift to 45 degrees, blooming can be seen very clearly. When there is any against the light scene, when light is coming from behind the object, all highlights and details of the object get hidden in the glow coming from the light.
Upscaling
If we talk about the upscaling capability of this TV, the OTT upscaling of even 4k videos is not very good. This video is being played in 4K resolution, still, you can see much pixelation on this right corner, which is absent on this other TV. If we talk about the picture upscaling through USB, it is not excellent, but it is good. Here, you will not face any problems.
Motion blur
Motion blur is not avoidable on this TV, during the fast action scenes, the blur gets visible.
Audio
The audio of this TV, though not extraordinary, is loud and clear. You can comfortably watch all programs without the need for any soundbar. However, you don't get to hear any noticeable effect of Dolby Atmos, which is not unusual, because it is impossible to get Dolby Atmos effect through any TV's speakers. The TV comes with an HDMI eARC, through which you can connect any Dolby Atmos home theatre system to this TV and get a Dolby Atmos experience to some extent. For a full Dolby Atmos experience, you will need rear speakers as well as ceiling speakers.
Smartness
Coming to smartness, this is an Android smart TV, on which, you get Android 11, and, a Google TV UI. You will be able to play almost all applications on this TV. Google TV UI makes your browsing experience pretty easy. You start getting all your favourite content on the home screen itself. The voice command feature functions pretty well on this TV. You will not face any problems with it.
Gaming
Now let's talk about its gaming experience. This TV comes with HDMI 2.1, ALLM and VRR, however, the refresh rate is only 60 Hz, which makes VRR almost redundant. But, if you are not a hard-core gamer, you will definitely enjoy gaming on this TV, as there is no frame drop or stuttering problem on it, and, even the motion blur doesn't create any problem. All games run smoothly on it. However, the optimum brightness required to play HDR games in their best quality goes missing on this TV.
CONCLUSION
This TV is a nightmare for those who are sensitive to strong light. In the long run, this blooming can also become a cause for light bleeding in the TV. We do not buy a full array TV worth 55k for just watching SDR content, we expect it to give a good performance even while watching Dolby Vision and HDR content. Even a simple 4k bright TV can easily beat this 4K full array TV in performance. Because of blooming, a halo is created around all illuminated objects, which does irritate. Because of blooming, the light radiates into the Black portion, and spoils the experience of the Blacks, too. If we consider it, just as a 4k TV, we can definitely say that the colours are pretty good on it, but, in any way, they do not reach up to the level of a real QLED TV! The colours are neither superior nor different in the intensity of their vibrancy, from any good 4k TV. Sony Triluminos Pro renders better and much more vibrant colours than this QLED TV. If you bring the saturation level near to 70, the colours will definitely look vibrant, but still, they will not come anywhere close to Samsung QLED TVs or Sony TVs.
| IMAGE | PRODUCT | DETAILS | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reviewed TV | Reviewed TV
| Toshiba M550LP QLED TV |
| Check On Amazon |
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