Review – Toshiba TV M550L (65-inch version)

Okay, this is the Toshiba TV M550L. We got the 65-inch like 2 weeks ago for review and today, we’ll go through some of our thoughts and experiences – and we do have quite a lot of things to talk about it. Let’s begin.

From the moment we got the TV, we obviously have to unbox and set it up. It’s using a very old-school style of TV packaging and while that is not an issue, it could have been better – especially since this TV is 65-inches in size.

The box comes out in two pieces – and from there, we have to take out the top part out to be used as a “base” for the TV to rest on while we screw in the legs.

And speaking of those legs, they’re extremely minimalist while providing adequate stability for the TV. But it also lays down low. It’s so low that if you are planning to use it with a soundbar, then it’s basically impossible. You’ll have to wall-mount this TV instead.

A tiny gap…

… that makes it impossible to use with a soundbar.

On that subject of wall-mounting, let’s talk about the ports. We have triple HDMI ports – the first one supports eARC. I don’t know how what HDMI version they are using but it doesn’t matter since it can only go up to 4K 60Hz and HDMI 2.0 already supports that. I plugged this TV to a laptop and yes, we did get 4K 60Hz. We’ll also talk about the ports later.

And now, the color accuracy. I have to say, I was skeptical when I read the marketing material and it says “quantum dot color”. What does it mean? It’s still using an LED backlight with an LCD layer for colors anyway so where does the “quantum dot” comes in? Then, I stopped bothering about the marketing material and watched some content on this TV. And wow – it looks absolutely stunning.

It has fantastic colors – and reported by our colorimeter, it covers around 98% of sRGB color gamut with a relatively low Delta E number. With that said, it also has HDR10+ and we watched some HDR video from this person and it looks absolutely stunning.

The HDR experience is further elevated by the inclusion of full-array local dimming for the LED backlight – but the performance is considered above average.

We tried the local dimming test video and it performs fairly decent. If we look at all the banding, we can technically estimate and draw out the LED backlight array with quite a high degree of accuracy. From what we can see, the LED backlight array is somewhat dense and it is above average.

If you want to play games using this TV, then there is also a feature called “auto low latency mode”, also known as the ALLM. I guess only works for consoles as we connected a laptop via HDMI and it didn’t turn on low latency mode – but we can turn it on manually. The latency is definitely reduced but it’s not to the point that I’ll play competitive games on this TV.

Speaking of that, the settings menu available for this TV is pretty thorough. We have the picture settings to set the color temperature, noise reduction, FILMMAKER MODE which automatically changes all your settings to match what the filmmaker intends the way for us to watch – and there is also a calibration setting that lets us manually adjust the intensity of different tones of colors too. You can tune it according to your personal preference or use a colorimeter to make it as accurate as possible.

We also turned off the motion smoothness a.k.a. MEMC a.k.a. Motion Enhancement – whatever they wanna call it, I disabled that particular feature. It looks horrible and I absolutely hate that feature.

Now, we should talk about the remote control. It has a lot of buttons and a lot of great features – like the input button brings up the menu that aggregated all the HDMI inputs including TV tuner, AirPlay, and the USB file explorer.

And I want to highlight the bottom section of this remote control. It has integrations from major streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, and Google Play. We tested with Netflix and if we press on that “subtitle” button, the menu to adjust subtitles instantly pops up.

We can even view the resolution of content playing and its bitrate by hitting the “i+” button. This is particularly useful for Netflix that offers another different package for 4K video streaming. If we know the bitrate that we’re streaming, we can judge if your internet can handle smooth 4K streaming or not.

But maybe you don’t need 4K streaming since this TV also has the REGZA Engine 4K PRO that upscales your content to 4K. We can’t really test its performance of it since there is no setting to enable or disable the upscaler.

However, the upper part of the remote control is confusing. The home button and the Google Assistant button should have swapped positions so navigation is made easier and also reminiscent of Android navigational button placement.

And, for apps like Netflix – hitting that play/pause button at the bottom of the remote opens a menu for play/pause, next, previous, and stop. That play/pause button could’ve been placed nearer to the D-pad or just… you know, directly play or pause the content.

There are also technically two ways to enter the settings menu. The dual-line box is a quick settings menu that floats on top of your current content. Using this method, we can easily change settings and look at the differences without jumping in and out of the settings menu.

Then, we can also enter the settings menu the traditional way will bring the entire settings menu.

By the way, this Toshiba TV M550L is using the latest version of Android TV and that is why the interface is different. We also have the standard Android TV features like far-field microphone so we can “okay Google” from afar if we enable “screenless mode” in the settings menu. As like we mentioned earlier, we can also use Google Assistant by just talking to the remote while holding the button.

Oh – we should also talk about the speaker. Toshiba says it comes with the REGZA POWER AUDIO PRO system and a 25W BAZOOKA BASS BOOSTER with two 12W “clear direct speakers”. I don’t really care about the marketing at all – but the speakers on this TV do sound good. Have a listen here.

If you want to use this TV with an external speaker, then you’ll need to know what you’re doing first. As we mentioned earlier in this video, soundbars are pretty much impossible to use with the default stand. You’ll need to wall-mount this TV to use a soundbar – but that also brings up another issue – the port placement.

You see, the audio jack is at the side, along with the HDMI ports. But, if you want to use SPDIF (optical audio) or the Ethernet port, then those two ports point towards the wall. I’m not sure if it will pose any issues if you want to wall mount this TV, but it’s worth highlighting even though most people won’t use these two ports anyway.

Should you buy the Toshiba TV M550L 65-inch?

Finally – the price. The Toshiba TV M550L and it is available in a total of 3 different sizes. I don’t know if there are any differences between the 3 variants, so we’ll only talk about the 65-inch version.

At that price of RM4,399, I think it is fairly decent. Remember, this is a mid-range 4K 60Hz Android TV chocked full of features – especially the full-array local dimming for a better HDR viewing experience.

Despite some worries that we’ve pointed out, the overall plug-and-play experience that we’ll get from this TV is actually very good. It’s a very good mid-range smart TV for this size. If you can get it during a promotion at below RM4,000, then it’s a steal.

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