Critics agree that The Toshiba Fire TV has an excellent contrast ratio and high reflection handling, making it a perfect TV to house in either a dark or well-lit room. Further, its low input lag and high response time make it a good TV for light gaming too. However, it’s held back by lousy color accuracy and viewing angles, low peak brightness, and no variable refresh rate support. That is why you may opt for the Toshiba C350 instead, which features high contrasts, 4K, and HDR support.
Picture Quality
4K
- Reviewers were impressed at how well 4K content looked on the Toshiba Fire TV 2020. They also liked how well the TV upscaled lower-resolution images without issue.
- However, they were disappointed at some sub-pixel dithering they noticed that caused a cross-hatching effect.
Color
- The Toshiba Fire TV has decent color accuracy, but most analysts found it could have been better. They found the TV’s color gamut not to be extensive – about 80% of the DCI P3 color space – while the coverage of the Rec 2020 space was about 60%.
Black
- Top critics liked how well the Toshiba Fire TV 2020 handles black uniformity. While they did notice some clouding throughout, they quickly mentioned how it’s not distracting in the slightest.
Brightness
- The Toshiba Fire TV lacked formidable peak brightness, which disappointed top commentators at Rtings and Tom’s Guide. They found SDR brightness to be 270 nits, while HDR brightness was 348 nits. And while HDR was brighter, they found it still wasn’t bright enough to bring out all the little details.
Contrast
- Experts appreciated the high native contrast ratio of the TV, which was measured at 4,026:1.
- However, they were disappointed that the lack of a local dimming feature couldn’t improve the black levels of the TV, especially for dark scenes.
Dimming
- The Toshiba Fire TV doesn’t feature local dimming, so experts were unable to comment on it. Instead, the TV opted for an LED backlight, which isn’t bad per se as it still lights up the back of the screen, but it still annoyed most experts as local dimming would have been brighter and more accurate.
Gaming
- Top commentators disliked the lack of gaming features on the Toshiba Fire TV 2020. They commented that peak brightness is too low to bring out important detail, and that the lack of VRR (variable refresh rate) support means the TV is susceptible to screen tearing when gaming.
HDR
- The Toshiba Fire TV has limited HDR performance, which disappointed most reviewers. They found peak brightness in HDR to be lacking, making for a less enjoyable gaming and movie experience.
- However, they liked that the TV came with Dolby Vision, which increases the color accuracy of the TV.
Motion
- Analysts were largely impressed with the TV’s ability to handle motion, resulting in little to no motion blur in fast-moving scenes.
- Unfortunately, critics found that the TV doesn’t have a black frame insertion feature, which means 60fps content runs the risk of not looking as straightforward as it should.
Refresh
- The Toshiba Fire TV sports a 60Hz native refresh rate, but no support for VRR (variable refresh rate), which frustrated top critics. This means the TV is prone to screen tearing, especially when playing a graphically intense video game.
Response
- Top reviewers enjoyed the TV’s high response time, measured at about 4.8 milliseconds, resulting in less blur trail behind a fast-moving object. You can also check out the Toshiba C350 Fire TV for another TV with good response time.
- But they did find that dark scenes tended to overshoot, resulting in motion artifacts.
Viewing Angle
- The Toshiba Fire TV has narrow and undesirable viewing angles, according to top analysts. They were frustrated that color washout happens around 27 degrees, but more so that the black level rises at only 13 degrees.
Burn-In
- Critics didn’t comment on the burn-in risk of the TV because it has a VA panel, and VA panels don’t usually experience image retention.
Design
Stand
- The Toshiba Fire TV’s stand impressed top experts because it’s made of metal instead of traditional plastic. They liked how the stand supported the TV well with minimal wobble.
- If there was one drawback they found, the stand is wider than usual, meaning you’ll need a bigger surface to sit the TV on.
Back
- Top experts admired how the back of the TV was mostly made of metal, while only a small portion was made of plastic.
- However, they did lament the lack of a cable management system.
Borders
- The Toshiba Fire TV’s borders measure about 0.5” (1.3 centimeters). As this is relatively average, top experts didn’t have anything more to say.
Thickness
- Product experts measured the Toshiba Fire TV’s thickness at 3.23 inches (8.2 centimeters). This, unfortunately, is on the thicker side of TVs. Something to consider when wall mounting.
Features
Tuner
- The Toshiba Fire TV comes with a tuner for an HDTV antenna. This is still pretty common in TVs nowadays, so critics didn’t have much to say about it.
Input
- Top analysts were neutral regarding the TV’s inputs, which are 3 HDMI ports, a USB port, the tuner mentioned above, and an ethernet port. It’s not a bad selection, but it lacks one extra HDMI and USB port that most higher-end TVs have.
Remote
- The Toshiba Fire TV’s remote control comes with Amazon Alexa, like the Toshiba LF221U21 does, which can change inputs and open apps. Top reviewers enjoyed it, considering most remotes’ voice assistants lack this type of functionality.
Smart TV
Apps
- Reviewers valued the large number of streaming apps available on the Toshiba Fire TV 2020. This includes your basic apps like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, and a plethora of downloadable ones as well.
Streaming
- The Toshiba Fire TV uses interlaced scanning instead of progressive scanning with its streaming apps, disappointing analysts. With interlaced scanning, the TV is subject to motion artifacts in fast-moving scenes.
Menu
- Leading critics welcomed the clean interface on the Toshiba Fire TV 2020 and liked that it ran smoothly.
- However, they did point out the large number of ads present on the TV’s homepage that cannot be turned off, which annoyed them.
Sound Quality
Audio
- The Toshiba Fire TV sports downward-firing speakers on the backside of the TV, according to leading commentators. They liked how the audio can get quite loud and that the TV has several pre-set audio modes depending on what type of entertainment you’re enjoying.
Bass
- Experts were unimpressed with the level of bass on the Toshiba Fire TV 2020, which they found to be severely lacking. Further, they found the bass to be terrible if you set the TV to movie mode, which doesn’t bode well for your action-packed thrillers.
Soundstage
- The Toshiba Fire TV has decent overall sound; most experts agreed. They liked how dialogue sounds clear in the midrange, specifically.
- However, they were less than impressed with the TV’s mediocre distortion performance at high volumes.
