Toshiba 50L7300U Review: A 50-Inch LED HDTV With Wi-Fi

Toshiba 50L7300U Physical Characteristics

The name of the game in HDTV styling these days is to make the bezel and panel as thin as possible. Even though a majority of consumers set their televisions on a bench or credenza, there’s something sexy about a super-thin display hanging on the wall like a piece of art. And because we all have family members who consider the TV an eyesore, manufacturers strive to create the most aesthetically pleasing experience possible.

Product 360

Toshiba follows this design principle by making its bezel only 14 mm wide at the top and sides and 23 mm across the bottom. The only other features up front are a small power LED, the remote’s IR receiver, and an ambient light sensor. The metal base attaches with four screws and allows for about 25 degrees of swivel.

The 50L7300U has a nice slim profile, which makes it very easy to achieve a flush wall mounting. The only thing that keeps the panel from being less than two inches thick is the speaker bulge at the bottom. As on most HDTVs these days, the speakers fire downward and are fairly small. Despite their diminutive form factor, though, they sound pretty good.

The back is well-ventilated at the top and bottom, although the set doesn’t run particularly hot. You can see the input panel at the right. Lower and further right is a small control panel with buttons for power, volume up and down, and a mode key. Pressing that turns the volume buttons into either channel up/down or input selectors. The threaded inserts for a wall bracket are here too. The 50L7300U accepts a 200 x 400 mm bolt pattern with M6 threads.

The side-facing input panel has three HDMI and two USB ports. There is also a composite video jack that requires a 3.5 mm to RCA adapter that is not included. Rounding out the side panel is an optical digital output.

Facing the rear is another composite video input plus RCA connectors for component video and stereo audio. There’s a 3.5 mm audio input and a VGA 15-pin D-sub as well. You also have the requisite antenna input, which faces down, an Ethernet port, and a fourth HDMI input.

Included in the package is a Bluetooth keyboard that works with a tiny receiver plugged into one of the USB ports. Pairing is immediate when you power the keyboard on. It also has a touchpad for controlling the on-screen cursor. The keyboard itself is great, though the mouse action is fairly laggy and imprecise. We found it quicker to simply use the Tab or arrow keys to navigate the browser and other cloud apps.

The remote is a pretty standard wand. It’s logically laid out and the TV responds quickly to most commands (except for when you access the Internet; then you'll have to wait a few seconds for anything to happen). When you’re sending standard TV commands, though, the remote works fine. My biggest complaint is that the CT-90428 is not backlit. It is fairly easy to operate by feel, fortunately. You can use it as a universal remote too, as it has multiple modes and transport keys to operate things like DVRs and Blu-ray players. Toshiba thoughtfully includes IR blasters that connect to the 50L7300U so you can operate components not in line-of-sight. You can also control other Toshiba devices through the HDMI CEC feature.

Christian Eberle
Contributing Editor

Christian Eberle is a Contributing Editor for Tom's Hardware US. He's a veteran reviewer of A/V equipment, specializing in monitors. Christian began his obsession with tech when he built his first PC in 1991, a 286 running DOS 3.0 at a blazing 12MHz. In 2006, he undertook training from the Imaging Science Foundation in video calibration and testing and thus started a passion for precise imaging that persists to this day. He is also a professional musician with a degree from the New England Conservatory as a classical bassoonist which he used to good effect as a performer with the West Point Army Band from 1987 to 2013. He enjoys watching movies and listening to high-end audio in his custom-built home theater and can be seen riding trails near his home on a race-ready ICE VTX recumbent trike. Christian enjoys the endless summer in Florida where he lives with his wife and Chihuahua and plays with orchestras around the state.

  • cats_Paw
    A bit expensive. Give me a good plasma 50-60 inch, low input lag, no smart, wifi... maybe 3d and usb play, but even that not necesary for a low price and im sold (like maybe LG 50PN6500, althou most reviews say its not too good).Leds are a bit more pricey at 50 inch >D
    Reply
  • iam2thecrowe
    Toshiba have always made good stuff, i had a toshiba tv a while ago and it had a better picture and more picture adjustments than anything else on the market at the time.I fully disagree with the above about a plasma, regardless of input lag or whatever, the picture quality is total garbage with all the speckles, all plasmas have it.
    Reply
  • cgsample
    Does it "phone home" like LG?
    Reply
  • BigMack70
    dat PPI *shudder*
    Reply
  • toddybody
    Love Toms...truly.BUTWhy are they reviewing a Ho-Hum 1080p TV from Toshiba? Seems more up CNET's alley to review blase consumer tech. Tom's is special for it's in depth and technical reviews of less heralded techie gear (i.e., CPU/GPU/HDD/Special Peripherals/Technical Prototypes...etc) What Im really trying to say is, Where is Half Life 3 and nVidia Maxwell? :D
    Reply
  • cangelini
    Love Toms...truly.BUTWhy are they reviewing a Ho-Hum 1080p TV from Toshiba? Seems more up CNET's alley to review blase consumer tech. Tom's is special for it's in depth and technical reviews of less heralded techie gear (i.e., CPU/GPU/HDD/Special Peripherals/Technical Prototypes...etc) What Im really trying to say is, Where is Half Life 3 and nVidia Maxwell? :D
    Christian is writing Tom's Hardware-style display coverage for us, and doing a fantastic job applying the same deep-dive methodologies we use for other components to help quantify the strengths and weaknesses of monitors/TVs. Don't worry; you'll see us cover Maxwell when the embargo lifts on it ;) For Half-Life 3, you need to talk to Gabe.
    Reply
  • Nintendo Maniac 64
    Toms, could you please confirm/deny if you actually tested that the Movie preset was the best and didn't just assume it was like many people do? While it doesn't sound like the TV model you tested has this specific issue, it's definitely something to keep in mind that the "Movie" preset may not always provide the best picture. I own a Toshiba 39L1350U and the Movie preset reduces the contrast and black levels considerably. To quote myself from the following post I made on AVS Forum:
    http://www.avsforum.com/t/1477874/toshiba-l1350u-series-2013/30#post_23923173

    "Using the same settings on both Game and Movie, via OCD-levels of eye-balling I found that Game and/or PC modes (which look identical) have similar white levels with backlight @ 50 compared to Movie's backlight @ 68. By comparison Movie's backlight setting had to be set to 40 just to get black levels similar to Game and/or PC with backlight @ 50. And for reference,"Standard" seems to be about the same as Game and/or PC except that the backlight @ 42 seems to equal Game/PC's backlight @ 50."


    For reference, CNET seemed to have assumed that the the "Movie" preset was the best when reviewing the L2300U (which is the same as the L1350U but in a different color) and then went and criticized the TV for having poor contrast and black levels. I just want to make sure Tom's doesn't make the same mistake in the future.
    Reply
  • ceberle
    12613485 said:
    Toms, please do not just assume that the Movie preset is the best. I own a Toshiba 39L1350U and the Movie preset reduces the contrast and black levels considerably. To quote myself from the following AVS Forum thread post:
    http://www.avsforum.com/t/1477874/toshiba-l1350u-series-2013/30#post_23923173

    "Using the same settings on both Game and Movie, via OCD-levels of eye-balling I found that Game and/or PC modes (which look identical) have similar white levels with backlight @ 50 compared to Movie's backlight @ 68. By comparison Movie's backlight setting had to be set to 40 just to get black levels similar to Game and/or PC with backlight @ 50. And for reference,"Standard" seems to be about the same as Game and/or PC except that the backlight @ 42 seems to equal Game/PC's backlight @ 50."

    This also means that your calibration settings are most likely incorrect for Game mode.

    It's important to note that CNET made the same mistake by calibrating via the "Movie" preset when reviewing the L2300U (which is the same as the L1350U but in a different color) and then went and criticized the TV for having poor contrast and black levels.

    We did not assume that Movie mode produced the best contrast, we measured every mode to determine which was the best starting point for calibration. Our black level measurements take into account the full rendering of detail down to the lowest brightness steps. It's easy to drop the brightness control and measure a better black level but detail will be crushed. In the game mode, we couldn't get any better black levels than movie when you take detail into account. Check out the article where we talk about the use of dynamic contrast. That will give you a pretty good idea where the balance is between contrast and detail. Remember also that Game mode does not have the accurate color gamut or flat grayscale and gamma tracking possible in Movie.

    When referring to forum posts, a statement like "via OCD-levels of eye-balling" means that the writer is expressing an opinion, not facts arrived at by science. We suggest taking information like that with a grain of salt.

    And yes, our calibration settings would be incorrect in Game mode.

    -Christian-

    Reply
  • Nintendo Maniac 64
    We did not assume that Movie mode produced the best contrast
    Could you please read the edit I made to that post? I attempted to remove (or at least greatly reduce) any accusatory wording I may have used.

    When referring to forum posts, a statement like "via OCD-levels of eye-balling" means that the writer is expressing an opinion, not facts arrived at by science. We suggest taking information like that with a grain of salt.
    I stated that I was quoting and linking to a post I made myself; if look at the user name of said AVS Forum post you would see that it is my own. Therefore I don't exactly appreciate it when you say that my results have no scientific merit and are purely an opinion...not all of us can afford multi-hundred dollar calibration tools just to provide exact numbers on what we're seeing. (for reference, I was not even the person that insisted on buying the TV, I would have been fine without one)
    Reply
  • n3cw4rr10r
    I want to see a review on the Vizio 4K TVs :)
    Reply