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Ready for our TOSHIBA 50LF711U20 review? Toshiba tries to distinguish itself from its competitors with attractive pricing. They also try to include as many features as they can in their TV sets. Their efforts seem to be paying off because the company is making a name for itself in the niche of entry-level 4K smart TVs.
For the past couple of years, Toshiba has partnered with Amazon to integrate Amazon Fire Stick into their displays. Does this Toshiba-Amazon collaboration produce display panels that consumers will love? By the time you are done with our TOSHIBA 50LF711U20 review, you will have all the answers you are looking for.
Let us check out the TOSHIBA 50LF711U20 50-inch 4K/UHD/HDR Smart TV to find out.
Content Breakdown
TOSHIBA 50LF711U20 review part 1: What is in the box?
The display panel measures 44.6” x 26.4” x 3.7” and ships with a pair of stands and some VESA screws. It also ships with a power cable, a voice-enabled remote and a pair of batteries to power said remote.
[Related: Toshiba 43-inch TV review]
Design
The TOSHIBA 50LF711U20 is a lesson in making the best of what you have at hand. The chassis may be made with low-cost, black plastic, but it is very well built. At 3.7 inches thick, the 50LF711U20 is a little chunky, so when you mount it on the wall, it will stick out.
The edges of the TV are covered in textured plastic that is pleasing to the eye. Its screen is framed with thin, matte bezels that match the TV stands. The pair of curvy TV stands adds some spice to the otherwise basic design. They are also wide enough that they provide good support for the TV.
The back of the TV lacks allowances for cable management, but it has a VESA 200×300 wall mount pattern. It also houses a panel that holds two sets of input/output ports.
Inputs, outputs and connectivity
The IO panel is located on the left-hand side of the TV and houses two sets of ports. One set of inputs faces outward while the other faces straight down. The left-facing set of inputs has one USB port, three HDMI ports, a digital optical audio port and a 3.5mm audio port.
The second set of inputs has an antenna connector, an Ethernet port and a set of composite AV ports.
You can connect to your home network via the Ethernet port or the inbuilt wireless adapter.
Setup and the smart TV interface
The 50LF711U20 ships with Amazon Fire TV, an Android-based operating system. If you have used an Amazon Fire Stick before, you will be familiar with the interface.
The setup process is pretty easy and you will soon find yourself at the home screen.
Here you will find a number of pre-installed apps as well as a menu to help you choose your input sources and calibrate the TV settings. You can use Fire TV without an Amazon account, but you will limit your user experience if you choose to go that route.
[Read what others are saying about this television]
Content and smart home capability
Fire TV comes with all the popular apps. On your homepage, you will find Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, PlayStation Vue, Hulu, and HBO and a bunch of other streaming apps. You will also find two web browsers.
Because Fire TV comes with Alexa, you can use the TV to control or communicate with compatible smart devices. You can even use it as a hub for your smart home. So go ahead and give voice commands to the TV with the remote, or a connected Alexa device, like an echo DOT. It will talk right back. The next section of this TOSHIBA 50LF711U20 review will explore how it handles pictures.
Picture quality: Brightness, color and detail
The 4K display panel of the 50LF711U20 makes it capable of good things, picture-wise. Yet the designers at Toshiba did not make this model with wide color gamut. The brightness levels are okay, at 313 nits in SDR and 343 nits in HDR. The thing is, many competing models with similar specs do better with respect to color spectrum and brightness.
So what do these numbers mean for our model of TV? The limited range of brightness and color means that the 50LF711U20 cannot render HDR content as accurately as many competing models. It also means that the display panel cannot execute fine detail and contouring in the same way as a brighter screen with a wide color spectrum. Especially not in dark videos.
Picture quality: Contrast, sharpness
The display of the 50LF711U20 is edge-lit, with no local dimming. This is another reason that the TV is limited in its rendition of detail and shadow contouring. The panel also has less-than-stellar grey and black uniformity, which is noticeable with darkly lit video.
That said, the Toshiba 50LF711U20 renders excellent contrast and well-defined outlines.
Picture quality: Input lag and motion handling
The Fire TV interface is responsive and allows for a smooth transition between menu items. It only takes a handful of milliseconds for the OS to execute a user command. As for the responsiveness of the display panel itself, the 50LF711U20 does not disappoint. It responds to input signals in less than twenty milliseconds.
This means that you will enjoy videos that are free of stutter. However, you might notice motion blurring or motion duplication as you watch a fast-paced video like action sequences or sports.
Remote
The voice-enabled Alexa remote is convenient. Its simple, intuitive design makes it super-easy to use. Like with many smart TV remotes, it comes with hotkeys for popular streaming apps.
Pros
- Affordable
- The TV is well built and should last a long, long time
- Comes with all the bells and whistles of Fire TV, including Alexa and all her skills
- Ships with the awesome, voice-enabled Fire TV remote
- Supports 4K Dolby Vision HDR picture
- Decent picture
- Has a great anti-glare finish that keeps reflections to a minimum
Cons
- The interface will push content from Amazon Prime video and display annoying ads
- Picture quality is good, but not amazing
- The picture quality is bad when you watch the TV at an angle
- Because the TV lacks wide color gamut and higher peak brightness levels, HDR content is not rendered as accurately as it could be
- You will notice some motion blur as you watch fast-paced video
TOSHIBA 50LF711U20 review verdict: At its price point, it gets the job done
The Toshiba 50LF711U20 is designed to provide a wide-screen viewing experience and all the conveniences of Amazon Fire Stick. When it comes to smart TV capabilities, this model has everything you need, including the ability to act as a hub for your smart home. The TV also works well in a brightly lit room. It provides 4K HDR picture with great contrast and fairly good color accuracy.
That said, anyone that is a stickler for excellent, peerless picture quality should spend a little extra and try a comparable brand of TV.
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