Toshiba 46SL863B Review

Toshiba has created a number of sets in recent times that have been a bit like Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. The company’s penchant for innovation and doing the hard things right at the expense of the simple things has seen mixed results.

The Toshiba SL863B hopes to change that and the SL863B is perhaps the TV to do it. It is an edge light LED set with a number of excellent connectivity features and also is an attractive set which is less than 40mm in depth, meaning it is ideal for hanging on walls.

Toshiba 46SL863B Connectivity

The Toshiba 46SL863B is also very well connected and comes with two USB, a set of 4X HDMI slots, a VGA slot for computer connection as well as Scart and composite links. The TV also connects wirelessly via DLNA and so can stream from a number of other sources.

Toshiba has also added the excellent HbbTV broadband playback technology to the set and it is also supports USB playback – though this is limited to not as many formats as we would wish and we found it failing with a certain number of files.

Toshiba 46SL863B Intuitive

The set is very intuitive however and the playback and the streaming options are all very well laid out. We did find the remote to be quite low in quality and we were unimpressed.

Wi-Fi connectivity Is done through a dongle like device and it looks quite impressive on the set. The intuitive menu’s continue here and we must say we were impressed with the range of apps on offer.

Toshiba 46SL863B Picture

The positives stop there and the picture quality of the set leaves a lot to be desired. Though the TV looks very good when started up from factory settings, we found it to be limited in its grasp and lacklustre in its contrast. In fact blacks looked positively dark gray and shadow detail was very poor. Ghosting was also very prominent on the set to an irritating level and especially during panned shots.

We did find the HD to be quite good, though standard definition and improvement of this SD was average at best. Viewing angles are also a bit off and standing to the right or left really limits quality of view.

The set does produce bright and punchy pictures, mainly due to the edge-light LED technology. However, lag is very evident on the TV and we could certainly not recommend it for gamers or those who want to use it for PC input.

Unfortunately the audio doesn’t get much better and we found it muffled and without any bass.

Overall, the Toshiba is like most Toshiba’s we have reviewed, lacklustre in the areas that matter with some great innovations.

Get the Toshiba SL863B on Amazon.