Toshiba 65L9363DB review

Toshiba's arrival on the UHD TV scenes is perhaps unfortunately timed.

The 65-inch 65L9363DB comes on the heels of already-stellar UHD TVs from Sony and Samsung, putting pressure on the Toshiba's performance. While at £5,500 it's also markedly more expensive than its Sony and Samsung rivals now they've slashed a grand off their original prices.

Despite all this, the 65L9363DB gives a good account of itself, both on the feature side thanks to its Smart TV services and powerful picture processing engine, and on the picture side - especially when it comes to native UHD and 3D playback.

We liked

Native UHD sources look as scintillating as ever, with the 65L9363DB's exceptionally rich colour handling adding to UHD's impact.

The set also excels with 3D, reinvigorating the ailing format, and there's plenty of audio power to partner the large, ultra-detailed pictures.

We disliked

While the set's contrast looks good with mixed bright and dark content, dark scenes suffer a rather grey look and a lack of shadow detail.

The set doesn't upscale HD and standard def to its native UHD resolution quite as cleanly and crisply as rival models either, the online service needs more video feeds, and the £5,500 asking price seems at least £500 too high.

Final verdict

Toshiba has clearly worked immensely hard on the 65L9363DB, combining the normal thrills of UHD with extremely rich colours and some powerful processing that's especially at home, surprisingly, with motion handling. Its all-new operating system works well, too, in many ways.

However, some contrast problems and a sluggish, content-light smart TV system both conspire to make Toshiba's set look expensive compared with its current UHD rivals.

Hopefully Toshiba will be able to find its way to offering a significant price cut on the 65L9363DB sooner rather than later, for at the right price level it could become a seriously tempting proposition.

Also consider

If you've read this article through, you won't be surprised to learn that the two closest rivals for the 65L9363DB are the Sony 65X9005A and the Samsung UE65F9000.

The Sony model is much larger than the Toshiba if that's a problem for you, but it uses its extra size to good effect by including an unprecedentedly powerful audio system.

The Sony also upscales HD slightly better than the Toshiba, and delivers an even richer colour palette. The Sony's smart TV interface isn't as sophisticated as the Toshiba's, but there is more video content on it.

The Samsung focuses on delivering a more potent sense of the sharpness and detail that's UHD's headlining calling card, and also does a better job handling dark scenes than the Toshiba. Plus it provides the most content-rich and sophisticated smart TV engine around right now. Toshiba outguns Samsung where colour saturations are concerned, though.

Both the Sony and Samsung TVs, meanwhile, also cost £500 less than the Toshiba model.

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