Tour & Design
Toshiba calls the design philosophy of most of their 2009 models 'deep lagoon', as the screen is designed to look like a pool of water. To achieve this effect, the front of the display is made from a single sheet of glass with a pattern of white dots at the edge that soften the edge. The glass sheet is surrounded by a metal rim. The design works well; it provides a softer, more diffused look than the conventional black bezel. Toshiba claims that the CrystalCoat coating on the front of the glass panel provides a wider contrast ratio in bright rooms and blocks reflections.
Back
Because the demo models were firmly attached to the wall, we were not able to get a photo of the secrets hidden on the back of the screen. However, we do know that there are 2 HDMI ports and a gaggle of analog video and audio inputs on the back.
Sides
On the right side of the display are the controls and a small selection of ports in a slightly recessed bay. These ports include a HDMI port and an analog video and audio input. The display is a little on the chunky side compared to some of the slimline models that we've seen recently; it is 3.94 inches deep and stands some way off the wall when mounted on it, as you can see from this photo of a wall mounted model at the CEDIA show.
Stand/Mount
We were not able to examine the stand of the 52XV648U, but the stand is the same style as the SV670, which is shown below. The rounded design complements the look of the screen and should do a decent job of holding it upright.
Aesthetics
The Deep Lagoon design of this screen is attractive; it has a clean, uncluttered look but also manages to look at little different to the standard black bezel design of most HDTVs. The dots around the edge look a little odd close up, but they defintiely help to soften the edge when viewed from a distance.
Performance Features
Display Size & Technology
The display is built around a 52-inch LCD panel with a conventional CCFL backlight. Toshiba have moved their SV670 models over to using an LED backlight, but the rest of their range uses CCFLs. What this does mean is that these models can't do local dimming, where the screen dims the backlights in black areas of the image. Instead, the backlight on this model can only be dimmed or brightened as a whole.
Formats & Resolution
This display is a 1080p screen with a resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels, so it can handle all of the consumer HD formats and display every single pixel of them all.
Brightness, Blacks and Contrast Ratio
We were not able to conduct any of our usual measurements on the blacks and whites that this display can achieve, but Toshiba claims that it can manage a contrast ratio of 50,000:1. We suspect that they are being a little economical with the truth here, as this is probably a dynamic contrast ratio, where the blacks are measured with the backlight turned down, and the whites with it turned right up. We don't like these measurements as they don't reflect the real contrast ratio you see on screen, as you can't have the backlight both up and down at the same time. We'll have to wait until we get one of these displays into our testing lair to find out what the figure is in real world use.
Color
Like most Toshiba displays, the 52XV648U supports a wider color gamut called Deep Color. This allows the HDMI signal to contain more informationa bout color, so colors can be more accurately reproduced on screen. However, there are only a handful of devices that support this at the moment, so it is not that useful as a feature.
Motion & Refresh Rate
The 52XV648U has 120Hz motion processing, which means that it interpolates a frame of motion imbetween the ones in the signal it receives to smooth the motion out. This can produce smoother motion, but it can also produce problems with artifacts (things that are not in the origional signal) if it is not done well. The motion demos that Toshiba were showing on their demo models looked good, but we'll have to wait to get a review model into our testing lab to give it good prodding with our big science stick to see how it really performs.
Viewing Angle
Toshiba doesn't provide a viewing angle figure for their displays, which is fine with us as most of the figures the manufacturers quote are somewhat questionable. We found that the demo units on display had extremely good viewing angles. But again, we will have to wait to get this display in for testing to ascertain the real figures.
Connectivity & Media
Audio & Video Ports
The 52XV658U has a decent seelction of ports, although only 3 HDMI ports (2 on the rear, one on the side) may be a bit limiting if you have several devices that you are looking to connect. There are two component video inputs on the back, plus one composite on both the back and side. There is also an S-Video port on the side.
Media & Other Connectivity
There is no support for playing back music, video or photos from a USB drive or the Internet; there are no connections for either. There is a USB port on the side, but this is a service port designed for technicians to use.
Placement
The side ports are reasonably well located, below the controls on the right side of the screen. They are easy to find, but you do need to lean around the side of the display to figure out which one is which.
Audio
We were not able to test the speakers on this display, and Toshiba did not release any information on how much power they have. They do describe them as invisible, because they are located on the bottom of the screen, out of sight, though.
Controls, Menu & Remote
Remote
The remote control that comes with the 52XV648U wasn't available for us to test out.
Controls
The controls are located above the ports on the right side of the display, in a recessed indentation. The buttons are large and well spaced, as well as being slightly offset, which should make them easy to find by touch.
Menu
We were not able to try out the on-screen menus of the 55ZV650U; the menus were locked out on the demo unit we looked at.
Conclusion
Series Comparison
XV648 Series
There are three models in the XV648 series: the 40XV648U (40-inches), the 46XV648U (46 inches) and the 52XV648U (52 inches).
Meet the tester
Richard Baguley is a veteran writer who has written about technology ranging from Alphabet to Zip file utilities. He has contributed to pretty much every major tech publication, including Amiga Format Magazine, PC World, Wired, CNET, Toms Guide, Forbes, and many others. He lives in the Boston metro area with his wife, dog, and an indeterminate number of cats.
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