Toshiba 50L5200U

The Toshiba L5200U series consists of barebones HDTVs that do a few things very well, but lack many of the basic features found on similarly priced models. Illuminated by edge-mounted LED backlighting, the 49.1-inch 50L5200U we tested produced solid, accurate colors and offered nice wide viewing angles, but contrast ratio was on the low side. At $1,099.99 (direct), it?s relatively affordable for a 50-inch-class HDTV, but for that price, you're not getting any Web connectivity. Overall, there are better deals to be had in this price range.

Design and Features
The 50L5200U sports super-thin (0.6-inch) black bezels that give it a sleek, streamlined look, but it lacks the slice of chrome finish found on its sibling, the 55TL515U ($1,999.99, 3.5 stars). The bottom bezel is slightly wider at 0.8 inches and sports a small Toshiba logo in its center. The right side of the slim, 1.8-inch cabinet holds touch-sensitive Power, Channel Up/Down, Volume Up/Down, Menu, and Input buttons that are a bit too small and too sensitive. The remote is your best bet for tweaking picture settings.

The rear of the cabinet is home to a somewhat stingy selection of I/O ports. Left-facing connectors include three HDMI inputs, stereo analog audio inputs, a PC audio input, analog and digital audio outputs, and a USB port. Component video inputs, a PC (VGA) video input, and a coaxial TV jack face downward. You only get the three HDMI ports with this model (most HDTVs offer four), and unlike the similarly priced Samsung PN51D550C1F ($1,299.99, 3.5 stars), there's no Ethernet port for Internet connectivity or 3D support.

The 40-pound cabinet is supported by a glossy black rectangular stand that is sturdy enough, but doesn't swivel. The two 7-watt down-firing speakers, driven by Audyssey?s Premium Audio Technology, provide better-than-average output and are both loud and full-sounding. Granted, you don?t get the deep booming bass of a dedicated subwoofer but the boost gives the sound some much-needed low end.

The black remote is compact at 6.9 inches and you get 35 buttons plus four navigation keys and an Enter key. None of the smallish buttons are backlit. The bottom of the remote has moderately sharp edges where it meets your hand. They?re not sharp enough to do damage, but they?re not very comfortable either.

Picture settings include they typical brightness, contrast, backlight, tint, color, and sharpness controls, plus color temperature and backlight control. The ClearFrame 120Hz switch helps reduce motion blur and the Film Stabilization feature helps eliminate shaky video, but video purists will want to leave them off. Additional settings include gamma adjustment, picture size, aspect ratio, noise reduction, and Cinema Mode for viewing 24 fps content. There are five preset picture modes including Dynamic, Standard, Movie, PC, and Preference (custom). As is usually the case, Movie mode produced the best all-around picture out of the box.

Performance
We tested the 50L5200U using images from the DisplayMate suite of HDTV diagnostic tests, SpectraCal?s CalMAN 4 software, and a Konica-Minolta CS-200 Chromameter. After a basic darkroom calibration the set produced a peak brightness level of 219.89 cd/m² and a black level reading of 0.05 cd/m². The resulting contrast ratio of 4,380:1 pales in comparison to the Editors' Choice Vizio M3D550KD's ($1,429.99, 4 stars) 18,237:1 and the Samsung UN46ES8000F's ($2,999.99, 3.5 stars) 28,640:1, both of which are also LED-lit HDTVs.

Color accuracy was quite good; as noted on the CIE Chromaticity chart below, reds and blues were very close to perfect while greens were slightly off. The slightly heavy green level did not cause any noticeable tinting, and did not interfere with the 50L5200U?s excellent flesh-tone reproduction.

The 50L5200U did a fine job of eliminating motion blur while displaying scenes from the movie 2012 on Blu-ray disc. Image detail was sharp and off-angle viewing was superb for an LED panel. There was some loss of detail in dark scenes but not enough to make the picture look muddy. I did notice some backlight bleed around the corners, however,?which is fairly common with edge-lit HDTVs.

The 50L5200U used only 80 watts of power while being tested, which is good but not as efficient as the 55-inch?LG 55LM6700 ($2,299.99, 4 stars), which has a larger screen and used just 67 watts of power in our tests. There is a sleep timer but that?s all you get in terms of power-saving options.

Conclusion
The Toshiba 50L5200U is an attractive 50-inch HDTV that delivers accurate colors and solid viewing angles, but it doesn?t offer much in the way of features compared with other similarly priced models. If you?re looking for an affordable, full-featured LED-backlit HDTV that has 3D capabilities and comes with four HDMI ports and Internet connectivity, our Editors? Choice for budget HDTVs, the 55-inch Vizio M3D550KD, is the way to go.

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