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Finally, if you’re a gamer desperately clinging to the idea that the 55QA5D63DB’s brightness and bold colours might still play nicely with today’s HDR games, we’re afraid we have more bad news: even in its Game preset, Toshiba’s TV only manages to get input lag down to an underwhelming 50ms or so. These are hardly ideal compromises, though – especially as the 55QA5D63DB is in many ways designed with HDR in mind.
Our resident Xbox Series X detects the 55QA5D63DB as capable of operating in Dolby Vision HDR mode while gaming, but warns that this mode will likely be affected by high levels of latency. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant ads on other sites.In fact, we much prefer the pictures of Toshiba’s substantially cheaper 50UK4D63B, proving – not for the first time – that just throwing Quantum Dots at a screen isn’t the guarantee of better picture quality you might expect. It breaks down the TV’s picture performance into three parts: micro dimming, motion control and upscaling.
As the big brands appear to be shying away from the budget reaches of the TV market, it’s left the likes of Toshiba with its UK4D model in prime position to sweep up. However, while latency is fast, the colour temperature of the game mode skews to blue, and image quality is a little blurry when handling motion in Gran Turismo 7. This is especially true, unexpectedly, with Toshiba’s Cinema preset, which for various other reasons, as we’ll see, is definitely your best all-round option ahead of the default Natural preset. Mulholland Drive fared a little better, partly because the film’s photography takes on a soft, dreamy look; but it was still lacking in definition and a deficit of detail in some scenes.
The 55UL5A63DB’s speakers are tuned by Onkyo, but the UL5A misses out on the “Enhanced” speakers of the UL7A and the front-firing efforts of the TL7A. It maintains that clarity better than most when there’s motion in the frame, too, and while it’s naturally at its best with native 4K, it upscales HD very credibly and naturally for such an affordable TV too. The higher native brightness of the 55QA5D63DB also means it suffers less with clipping (loss of subtle shading and details) in the brightest areas than the 50UK4D63DB. Try not to watch from more than around 30 degrees off axis if you don’t want to see a significant reduction in contrast and colour saturation.
The result is a fuller set of colours and some more HDR pop to the picture at the cost of the overall light levels. The lack of Wide Colour Gamut (WCG) would explain this as it affects the range of colours the Toshiba can portray. The only issue is that treble effects can sound over prominent, drawing too much attention to themselves and becoming a touch abrasive at high volumes – something that happens in part because the 55QA5D63DB isn’t as generous with its bass as it is with its high frequencies. Black levels are portrayed solidly enough, but contrast is lacking without the brightness to assist, giving the scene a flat appearance.We dip into daytime TV’s Escape To The Country for a taste of standard-def content and there’s nothing that sticks out as poor.
The 145-year-old firm turned its back on personal computers in June 2020, leaving televisions as one of its few remaining consumer-facing sectors. The bezel is a minimal affair and, on the back, there are four HDMI ports ( ARC but no eARC), optical-out, USB, a headphone socket and a choice of ethernet or wi-fi. And as one final small strength, its IPS panel retains colour better when the TV is viewed from an angle than rival VA-type panels would.The feet are on either side of the TV, so if you have small furniture, you’ll need to take that into account. Switching between the DTS and Dolby Atmos tracks on a couple of 4K Blu-rays clearly reveals an expansion in the size of the sound stage, a wider dynamic range, and a more aggressive, forward sound. The remote remains the same large wand Toshiba has used with its TVs for several years, and I do wish they’d level it up as it looks a little cheap and dated. Brightness is compromised with all three options, although Dynamic produces the best black performance at the cost of detail.
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