The Toshiba Fire TV 2020 is an okay 4k TV and a decent upgrade over its predecessor, the Toshiba Fire TV 2019. Its high contrast ratio and excellent black uniformity make it a good option for dark room viewing, and it can deliver a decent gaming experience with its fast response time and low input lag. Unfortunately, its narrow viewing angles make it less ideal for wide seating arrangements, it has low peak brightness in SDR and HDR, and it can't display a wide color gamut. Its color accuracy is also quite bad, but on the bright side, its Fire TV platform is user-friendly and has tons of streaming services available.
The Toshiba Fire TV 2020 is an okay TV for most uses. It's decent for watching TV shows and sports; however, it has narrow viewing angles and it doesn't get very bright, making it more difficult to watch with a large group of people or in bright settings. As for watching movies, while it has a great contrast ratio and excellent black uniformity, it lacks local dimming and can't remove judder at all. Also, HDR content doesn't look as good since it can't display a wide color gamut and doesn't get bright enough. It has low input lag and fast response time for gaming, but sadly, no FreeSync support.
The Toshiba Fire TV 2020 is mediocre for watching movies. Although it has a high contrast ratio and excellent black uniformity, it doesn't have local dimming and it can't remove judder at all. It upscales lower resolution movies well, though, and it doesn't stutter too much in low frame rate content.
The Toshiba Fire TV 2020 is decent for watching TV shows. It upscales lower resolution content well, there are tons of streaming services available, and there's no risk of permanent burn-in if you leave it on the same news channel all day. Unfortunately, even though it has good reflection handling, it doesn't get very bright, so visibility can be an issue in well-lit rooms. Additionally, its narrow viewing angles make it less suitable for those who like to walk around while watching.
The Toshiba Fire TV 2020 is decent for watching sports. It has a fast response time, it upscales lower resolution content from cable boxes well, and there isn't too much dirty screen effect. That said, its low peak brightness can make it hard to see in bright settings and its narrow viewing angles aren't ideal for watching with a big group of people.
The Toshiba Fire TV 2020 is decent for gaming. It has low input lag, fast response time, and it has great dark room performance due to its high contrast ratio and excellent black uniformity. Sadly, the refresh rate is limited to 60Hz and it doesn't support any advanced gaming features such as variable refresh rate technology.
The Toshiba Fire TV 2020 is mediocre for watching movies in HDR. It performs very well in dark rooms thanks to its high contrast ratio and excellent black uniformity; however, it lacks local dimming, it can't display a wide color gamut, and its low HDR peak brightness isn't enough to make highlights stand out. Color accuracy is pretty bad too, and it can't remove judder at all.
The Toshiba Fire TV 2020 is okay for gaming in HDR. Its response time is great, and it has a high contrast ratio and excellent black uniformity, making it a good choice for gaming in the dark. Unfortunately, it can't really deliver a satisfying HDR experience due to the lack of local dimming and wide color gamut, and it doesn't get bright enough to make highlights pop. Also, its input lag is a lot higher when playing in HDR.
The Toshiba Fire TV 2020 is okay for use as a PC monitor. It has low input lag, fast response time, and its VA panel is immune to permanent burn-in. However, it doesn't support chroma 4:4:4 and it has narrow viewing angles.
The Toshiba Fire TV 2020 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 competitors are likely to be the TCL S435, the LG UN6900/6950, and the Vizio V Series.
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" 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 borders are a little thinner compared to the Toshiba Fire TV 2019, but they're still thicker than most mid or high-end TVs.
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 Fire TV 2020 has a great contrast ratio. This results in blacks that look deep and inky, making it a good option for dark room viewing. If you want a TV with an even higher contrast ratio, check out the Vizio V Series 2020.
Note that the contrast ratio can vary between units.
The Toshiba Fire TV doesn't have a local dimming feature. The video above is provided for reference only.
Mediocre SDR peak brightness. 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.
The Toshiba Fire TV's HDR peak brightness is sub-par. Unfortunately, this isn't enough to make highlights stand out, so HDR content won't look much different from SDR content.
We measured the HDR peak brightness before calibration, using the 'HDR Movie' Picture Mode, and with Brightness set to max. Dynamic Contrast and Dynamic Backlight were disabled.
If image accuracy isn't as important to you, you can get a brighter image in HDR by setting the Picture Mode to 'Standard', with Brightness and Contrast set to max, and with Dynamic Contrast and Dynamic Backlight set to 'High'. We were able to achieve a peak brightness of 417 cd/m² in the 10% window using these settings.
Gray uniformity is okay. There's vignetting at the corners and a bit of dirty screen effect at the center. Uniformity is better in near-dark scenes, but there's still some visible clouding throughout the screen.
Note that gray 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.
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.
Before calibration, color accuracy is bad. Most colors are noticeably inaccurate, white balance is 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.
Note that the pre-calibration color accuracy can vary between units.
After calibration, color accuracy is excellent. There are still some color inaccuracies, 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. It's likely a bug that can be fixed in a future firmware update.
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.
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.
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.
Although the TV has a decent color gamut, it can't actually display a wide color gamut. The 'Movie' EOTF follows the PQ curve reasonably well, but most scenes are a little too bright. The 'Game' mode EOTF is very similar, as you can see here. If you find HDR content too dim, you can make it brighter by setting the Picture Mode to 'Standard', with Brightness and Contrast set to max, and with Dynamic Contrast and Dynamic Backlight set to 'High'. These settings result in this EOTF.
Mediocre gradient handling. 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.
Note that temporary image retention 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 backlight is flicker-free when it's set to maximum. Below maximum, it 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.
This TV doesn't have a Black Frame Insertion feature. The backlight always flickers at 220Hz when the brightness is set below maximum.
Unlike its predecessor, the Toshiba Fire TV 2020 doesn't have a motion interpolation feature.
Due to the TV's fast response time, lower frame rate content such as movies can appear to 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 Fire TV doesn't support any variable refresh rate technology to reduce screen tearing when gaming.
The Toshiba Fire TV 2020's input lag is great, 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. Also, the 'Auto Low Latency Mode' shows up as an available option in the Xbox One settings when the TV is in HDMI 2.0 mode; however, the TV didn't go into 'Game' mode when launching a game. If input lag is important to you, look into the LG UN6950.