Toshiba Fire TV 2020 TV Review

The Toshiba Fire TV is a basic 4k TV that's only available through Best Buy or Amazon in North America, and it's the replacement of the Toshiba Fire TV 2019. Its main competitors are the TCL 4 Series 2020, the LG UN6950, and the Vizio V Series 2020.

Compared to its predecessor, the Toshiba 50LF621U21 is almost identical. The new stand has thinner feet, giving the TV a more modern look. The borders are slightly thinner, but they still protrude from the screen.

The feet are thinner and are positioned wider apart compared to the Toshiba Fire TV 2019, so the stand requires a bigger table. The feet are now metal instead of plastic, and they support the TV well; there's very little wobble.

Footprint of the 50 inch model: 42.1" x 11.5"

The back of the TV is mostly made out of metal, but the lower portion is plastic, including the area surrounding the inputs. Unfortunately, there's no built-in cable management.

The build quality is okay. It's very similar to the Toshiba Fire TV 2019, except that the feet are now metal instead of plastic. There aren't any obvious issues with the construction, and the TV doesn't wobble much.

The Toshiba 50LF621U21 has an impressive contrast ratio. It's a bit lower than other TVs with VA panels, but it's still high enough to display deep blacks. It doesn't have a local dimming feature to improve it and keep in mind that contrast can vary between units.

The SDR peak brightness is mediocre. Visibility should be fine in a dark to moderately-lit room, but it isn't bright enough to overcome glare in well-lit rooms. The brightness is fairly consistent across different content, except for the slight dimming in the 2% window, which shouldn't be noticeable.

We measured the SDR peak brightness after calibration, using the 'Movie' Picture Mode. Backlight was set to max, Contrast was set to '75', and Mid Luminance Gamma was set to '+1'. Dynamic Contrast and Dynamic Backlight were left disabled as they made the TV dimmer in SDR when using the 'Movie' Picture Mode.

If you don't mind losing image accuracy, you can get a brighter image by setting the Picture Mode to 'Standard', with Backlight set to max, Contrast set to '75', and with Dynamic Contrast and Dynamic Backlight set to 'High'. With these settings, we were able to achieve a peak brightness of 384 cd/m² in the 10% window.

Update 08/03/2021: Added the real content local dimming videos.

The Toshiba 50LF621U21 doesn't have a local dimming feature. The video is for reference only, so you can see how backlight on this display performs and compare it to a similar product with local dimming.

Update 08/03/2021: Added the real content local dimming videos.

Once again, there's no local dimming feature. The video is for reference only, so you can see how backlight on this display performs and compare it to a similar product with local dimming.

The Toshiba Fire TV has disappointing HDR peak brightness. It gets brighter than in SDR, but it's still not enough to bring out highlights. Its brightness is consistent across different content, except small highlights are a bit more dim. The EOTF follows the target somewhat well, but most scenes appear over-brightened.

We tested HDR brightness in the 'Movie' Picture Mode with the Brightness at its max and Dynamic Backlight and Dynamic Contrast each disabled. If you find it too dim and want a brighter image, use the 'Standard' Picture Mode with the Brightness and Contrast at their max and Dynamic Contrast and Dynamic Backlight each on 'High'. It over-brightens some most scenes, as you can see in this EOTF, but it doesn't actually increase the peak brightness.

The HDR brightness in Game Mode is also disappointing. It's a bit less brightness than outside of Game Mode, but there's no visible difference. Once again, it fails to make highlights stand out, and the EOTF looks similar as most scenes are a bit over-brightened.

We tested it in the 'Game' Picture Mode with the Backlight at its max, Color Temperature set to 'Warm 2' and all other image processing disabled. Use the same settings as outside of Game Mode if you want brighter scenes.

The gray uniformity is okay, but this can vary. There's vignetting and a bit of dirty screen effect at the center, which could get distracting during sports. Uniformity is better in near-dark scenes, but there's still some visible clouding throughout the screen.

The Toshiba 50LF621U21 has excellent black uniformity. There's clouding throughout the screen, but it's faint and isn't noticeable in normal content. However, there's no local dimming feature to improve it. Keep in mind that uniformity can vary between units.

Like most VA panel TVs, the viewing angles are sub-par. This makes the image look washed out when viewed from the side, making it less ideal for large rooms or wide seating areas. If you need wide viewing angles, the 55 inch model of the Toshiba C350 Fire TV 2021 we tested has an IPS-like panel.

Note that the flickering in the video is due to a combination of the backlight's flicker and the camera, and isn't visible in person.

The reflection handling is good. It handles ambient light quite well but struggles a bit with direct reflections, so it's best to avoid placing the TV opposite bright light sources.

Before calibration, accuracy is bad, but this can vary between individual units. Most colors are noticeably inaccurate, white balance is very off, and the color temperature is much cooler than our 6500K target despite being set to 'Warm'. Gamma doesn't really follow the target, causing most scenes to appear brighter than they should. If you want a TV with much better out-of-the-box accuracy, check out the Hisense H6570G.

After calibration, color accuracy is excellent. There are still some color inaccuracies with blues, reds, and magentas, but white balance is almost perfect, and the color temperature is much closer to our target. Gamma is better, although some scenes are still too bright. The 'Natural' Picture Mode has a 2-point expert calibration mode; however, any changes made in this mode are discarded as soon as you leave the settings menu.

You can see our recommended settings here.

480p content looks great, but it has the same issue as the Toshiba Fire TV 2019. The image is stretched horizontally and slightly cropped a bit due to vertical overscan. It's likely a bug that might get fixed via a firmware update.

720p content, like from a cable box, is upscaled well and without any upscaling artifacts.

Upscaling of 1080p content looks outstanding and there are no obvious issues.

Native 4k content looks amazing; however, there's some sub-pixel dithering that's causing a visible crosshatching effect. It's slightly different from the way that the Toshiba Fire TV 2019 performs, as only the blue sub-pixels are dimming this time. If you want something that displays native 4k content perfectly, check out the Hisense H6510G.

The Toshiba Amazon Fire TV can't display an 8k signal.

This TV uses a BGR sub-pixel layout. It doesn't affect picture quality, but it can affect text clarity when using the TV as a PC monitor. You can read about it here. Unlike the Toshiba Fire TV 2019, only the blue sub-pixels are dimming.

The Toshiba 50LF621U21 has a decent color gamut. However, it's not good enough to be considered a wide color gamut for HDR content according to our testing standards, but it's close to our threshold. It has great coverage of the DCI P3 color space used by most content, but it has limited coverage of the wider Rec. 2020.

The color volume is okay. It has difficulty displaying bright colors and is limited by the lack of a wide color gamut.

The Toshiba 50LF621U21 has mediocre gradient handling, and it's much worse than most TVs we've tested. There's banding in all colors, most noticeably in the greens and grays. The Debanding Filter setting can smooth out most of it if you set it to 'Medium' or 'High'; however, it can cause the loss of fine details in some scenes. If you prefer a similar TV with much better gradient handling, then check out the TCL 4 Series 2020.

There are no signs of temporary image retention on this TV after displaying a high-contrast static image, but this can vary between units.

We don't expect VA panels to experience permanent image retention, as the VA panel in our long-term test appears immune.

The Toshiba 50LF621U21 has a great response time, resulting in clear motion with only a short blur trail behind fast-moving objects. However, the slight overshoot and slow dark scene transitions can cause some motion artifacts like black smearing in dark scenes.

The backlight is flicker-free when it's set to maximum. Below maximum, it uses pulse width modulation to dim the backlight and always flickers at 220Hz. Since the flicker frequency isn't a multiple of 60, it can result in image duplication. If you're bothered by the flickering and want a flicker-free TV, check out the Sony X750H.

The Amazon TV doesn't have an optional black frame insertion feature. The backlight always flickers at 220Hz when the brightness is set below maximum.

Unlike its predecessor, the Toshiba 50LF621U21 doesn't have a motion interpolation feature.

Due to the TV's fast response time, lower frame rate content like movies can appear to stutter, and there's no way to reduce the stutter.

This TV can't remove judder from any source. If you need a TV that can remove judder, check out the LG UN7300.

Unfortunately, the Toshiba 50LF621U21 doesn't support any variable refresh rate technology to reduce screen tearing when gaming.

The Toshiba 50LF621U21's input lag is very low, a significant upgrade from the Toshiba Fire TV 2019. While we were able to measure the input lag at 4k @ 60Hz with chroma 4:4:4, the TV can't actually display chroma 4:4:4 properly. Input lag is also really high in 'PC' mode, so it's better to use the TV in 'Game' mode to get low input lag. If input lag is important to you, look into the LG UN6950.

This TV supports most common resolutions at 60Hz, but it can't display proper chroma 4:4:4 at all, making it less ideal for use as a PC monitor. If you need the full bandwidth of HDMI 2.0, set the HDMI Input Mode to 'Mode 2' for the port in use. If you need a TV that can display proper chroma 4:4:4, check out the Samsung TU7000.

As this TV is limited to HDMI 2.0, you won't be able to take advantage of the HDMI 2.1 capabilities of the PS5 or Xbox Series X. It seems that the Xbox detects Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM) support, but it doesn't switch into Game Mode, and we have no way of testing to know if it's working or not.

New on the Toshiba 2020 Fire TV Edition is eARC support. This lets you send high-quality audio like Dolby Atmos via TrueHD and DTS:X via DTS-HD MA over an HDMI connection.

The frequency response is okay. Dialogue sounds reasonably clear and it gets decently loud. However, it doesn't have a lot of bass and it produces some compression artifacts when playing at max volume.

This TV has mediocre distortion performance. The amount of distortion at moderate volume levels is reasonable, but it increases significantly when playing near max volume. That said, not everyone may hear it, and depends on the content.

The Fire TV platform has a clean interface that's easy to use. It runs very smoothly, except for a bug that can sometimes cause the highlighted selection to skip when browsing, so instead of moving to the next item on the screen, it would jump to the one after.

There are ads and suggested content on the home page. Unfortunately, they can't be disabled.

Amazon's Fire TV app store has a large selection of streaming services and apps for download. The TV can play content directly from a USB thumb drive, but just like native apps like Netflix and YouTube, it uses interlaced scanning instead of a progressive scan. This can result in some motion artifacts known as 'combing' in fast-moving scenes.

The Toshiba 50LF621U21 comes with a redesigned remote compared to the Toshiba Fire TV 2019. The buttons are now all below the directional pad and there are two new buttons for the settings and to change inputs. It has a built-in mic for voice control, and you can ask it to change inputs, open apps, or search for specific content, but you can't change settings. As expected, the Amazon Alexa feature can also connect with and control other compatible devices.

There's a single button located on the lower left side of the TV. It only allows you to turn the TV On/Off and change the input source.

• User guide
• Remote control
• 2x AAA batteries