Treble can get quite harsh at high volumes, especially if there’s a dense soundmix underneath, and bass is in limited supply too. As a result it’s going to have to do at least one special thing if it’s going to stand out from the crowd. It’s worth saying, though, that with many TVs, particularly budget models, the picture performance we find at one screen size often doesn’t apply to all screen sizes in the same range. Normally, in fact, you’d be struggling to find a decent 40-43 inch set for this sort of money, never mind a 50-inch one. There is genuine support for ALLM, though, where the TV shifts in and out of its fast-responding Game preset depending on what sort of content your console or PC is outputting.

Toshiba UK4D 50 inch 4K HDR Smart TV with Alexa - Laptops

Similarly, the picture can clip subtle shading out of bright HDR and even SDR highlights quite noticeably thanks, presumably, to its preference for presenting HDR as brightly as possible rather than tempering it to the screen’s specific brightness capabilities with serious HDR tone mapping. It’s hard to think of any TV brand that better fits Forrest Gump’s “life is like a box of chocolate” mantra than Toshiba. The 50UK4D63DB’s HDR support is impressive, thanks to the way it extends to the premium Dolby Vision format as well as the more standard HDR10 and HLG offerings. So eye-catching is the 50UK3163DB’s HDR performance, in fact, that we’re confident that if you were to put it side by side with any other TV in its class, its HDR efforts would leave its rival looking drab and dull by comparison. The only problems with the smart system, really, are that it can be a bit sluggish to load when you hit the Home button, and that it doesn’t currently carry either the Disney+ or Apple TV apps.

The two blade-style feet you get with the TV are solid, easy to attach, leave the TV feeling stable, and become almost invisible when you’re watching the TV head-on. It’s noticeable, too, how the Dolby Atmos decoder locks dialogue to the screen, while projecting at least a semblance of a three-dimensional soundstage behind it and slightly to the sides. The former enables the TV to take advantage of extra scene-by-scene data delivered by Dolby Vision sources, while the latter sees the TV taking on the challenge of creating a soundstage capable of delivering at least a sense of Dolby Atmos’s object-based approach to sound. This takes the form of ‘Tru’ options in the menus designed to deliver such benefits as smoother contouring, smoother motion reproduction and enhanced contrast through more detailed image analysis. This is pretty quickly explained, though, by the set’s support for relatively high-end features such as Dolby Vision HDR and Dolby Atmos sound.

Toshiba UK4D 50 inch 4K HDR Smart TV with Alexa 50UK4D63DB

As such, it seldom really breaks your immersion in what you’re watching, especially given that the 50UK4D63DB is surprisingly good at reproducing low brightness details in dark areas, avoiding the flat, hollow feeling that so many budget TVs suffer with. There’s a solid amount of separation to left and right that happens without displacing dialogue from the screen, and the sound enjoys a reasonably ‘forward’ quality, rather than everything sounding as if it’s happening behind the screen. So much so, in fact, that they make the efforts of even some recent LCD TVs we’ve seen from the usually dependable Samsung look soft and undefined by comparison. We don’t find that the screen needs help often from its motion processor, even with action-packed 24fps movies, but if you do find the screen’s native judder a touch too much, the Tru Flo processing’s Low setting does a decent job of taking the edge off without creating the dreaded soap opera effect (or too many unwanted digital side effects). Unexpectedly, the TV is actually detected by the Xbox Series X as supporting VRR (though only up to 60Hz, obviously).This is tidily presented and pleasingly uncomplicated in its approach, and also ties in with the TV’s regular picture and sound set-up menus really well. It’s worth noting here that while the 50UK4D63DB always looks better than expected with dark HDR (and, actually, SDR) scenes, it benefits more than usual from receiving Dolby Vision signals whenever you can find them.

Toshiba 50UK3163DB 50-inch TV review | What Hi-Fi?

The 50UK3163DB’s HDR efforts aren’t the only way it makes an unexpected mark on the affordable TV world, either. But this is only to be expected at the 50UK4D63DB’s level of the market, and again it happens nowhere near as badly as it does with many other budget TVs. There are numerous mid-range and even lower-mid LCD models out there that can go brighter still, too. The 50UK4D63DB gets off to a strong start by using a native 4K VA panel with direct LED lighting – a combination that usually delivers better contrast than IPS/edge-lit rivals.

The HDMIs support Automatic Low Latency Mode and ARC audio pass through, but not 120Hz, variable refresh rates, or the eARC system that can be used to pass lossless Dolby Atmos and DTS:X soundtracks over HDMI to compatible soundbars and AVRs. There’s no support for the Samsung-designed HDR10+ platform, but if you had to pick between Dolby Vision and HDR10+ (there are some more expensive TVs that support both), there’s much more content out there that uses Dolby Vision. Dark scenes are invariably affected by the familiar low-contrast blue-grey mist effect, immediately denying them the natural, cinematic look they enjoy on the very best TVs. The screen just doesn’t seem able to support a wide enough colour gamut to ‘keep up’ with its intense brightness, leading to some bright tones looking a bit thin and washed out versus some rivals.