Toshiba 55G310U LCD TV Review

Introduction

Design

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It’s hard to make a really sleek looking television using CCFL backlighting.

The Toshiba 55G310U sports CCFL backlighting instead of the newer LED technology. The fluorescent tube lights have a thickness that prevents an ultra-slim profile like you see on some of the swankier LED TVs. Furthermore, the ends of these tube lights need some electrical equipment to attach them, so the bezel-free look isn’t really possible either.

That said, we often find that CCFL backlighting can produce a more uniform picture with less blooming and flashlighting, but at the sacrifice of a nice looking design. The stand, however, doesn’t need to be as thick as the display and this one looks like a chunky black surfboard. It is something you would probably want to hide if you were trying to impress company. If wall mounting is an option, we highly recommend it.

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Smart TV Features

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We don't think Toshiba expects anyone to use these speakers.

The speaker hardware Toshiba provides for the 55G310U isn’t strong enough for quality sound playback. Two 7-watt speakers are less powerful than what most HDTVs provide, even on 32’’ models. There is a connection between viewing a large picture and expecting a complimentary sound and, to be frank, Toshiba seems to have cut corners here. Such a grand picture, accompanied by such weak audio, creates a psycho-acoustic contradiction that will definitely feel incorrect.

When we played a scene of New York being destroyed by a monster and an appropriate amount of explosions, we noticed that the sound was canned and tinny. Coming from 55-inches of television, the sound of automatic rifles reproduced at the level of a dime store cap gun was almost laughable. I, for one, prefer my wanton destruction to at least sound like organized chaos. Grab some external speakers and you will have the start of a great home theater.

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Picture Quality

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Decent color accuracy accompanied by an above-average contrast ratio cement some level of quality for the G310U.

The G310U series is one of Toshiba's mid-range installments for 2011 and it's obvious in many ways that this is not a high-end TV. It's not obvious, however, in the picture quality. While we weren't blown away by any particular facets of this TV's performance, it's fairly solid in all the key areas, plus its contrast ratio is especially good. If you're not a stickler for sleekness or fancy menus (or bearable audio), you won't be disappointed by the G310U's performance.

Conclusion

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All together, this is a high performance television for this price range.

The Toshiba 55G310U ($1199 MSRP) is a large and basic television. This year, we saw televisions cramming in so much new technology, from 3D imaging to internet connectivity and LED edge-lighting, that it was beginning to look like you couldn’t find a regular, old-fashioned box that would show some quality images without the extras. Toshiba stripped the 55G310U of all these additions to give consumers an ordinary television with strong performance in all the major categories except audio.

We liked what we saw with this Toshiba. The contrast ratio was excellent, stemming from a very deep black level that did not require a diminished peak brightness. The color set was mostly fantastic and the motion processing was some of the best we have seen in a while. We didn't like what we heard, but luckily audio winds up being secondary to display performance when you can pick up a pair of decent external speakers for under $50.

All in all the Toshiba 55G310U isn't the prettiest belle at the ball, and it certainly doesn't sound all that great, but the Toshiba gets the important stuff right. There are better-looking options at this price range, but as a 2011 model you can likely find the G310 at a discount, making the downsides a little easier to stomach.

Science Introduction

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In the arena of performance, the Toshiba 55G310U (MSRP $1199) is a decent warrior. Its contrast ratio stacks up nicely when compared to similar and more expensive models, from Toshiba or otherwise. Its color production was accurate enough, though each area showed some degree of error. With audio this poor we can't call it the cream of the crop, but it's a good enough TV overall.

Contrast Ratio

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This entry-level Toshiba has the contrast ratio of a higher-priced television

Contrast ratio is the simple division of the peak brightness by the deepest black level recorded. This ratio is important in assessing the quality of a television as it describes the range of possible values of brightness used. The more values the better. Each additional value used makes transitions from light to dark smoother, most notably edges of objects, creating a more realistic picture.

The 55G310 manages a contrast ratio of 3684:1 thanks to its black level of 0.09 cd/m ² combined with a peak brightness of 331.52 cd/m ^2. These are strong numbers, though there are brighter televisions on the market.

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Motion

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The G310U displayed excellent results during our motion tests.

We look at moving objects to see if they become blurry, obscuring some of the finer details of a picture. If they show artifacts—pieces of the picture that are not part of the input signal—then we can determine that the motion performance is not good.

This Toshiba showed excellent retention of detail in motion. Faces were fully recognizable and tight lines remained separate and intricately rendered. Only a few colors, red particularly, had some minor drag to them, leftovers of the previous frame. We saw that some of the rectangles we move would sport some jagged edges, but this was a minor problem. Mostly, motion performance was a boon for the 55G310U.

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Other Tests

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