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Toshiba Regza 32RL858 review

Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £370
inc VAT

A budget TV with plenty of features and great image quality for the price, but you should wait for the verdict on the competition before buying

Specifications

32in, Freeview HD, 1,920×1,080 resolution, 3D: no, 3x HDMI

http://www.simplyelectricals.co.uk

Toshiba’s 32RL858 isn’t the most attractive TV we’ve seen – at 32in it won’t dwarf your living room furniture, but the outdated silver plastic bezel isn’t exactly cutting edge. Appearances are deceptive, though, as this small, TV has Smart TV features and a Freeview HD tuner.

Toshiba Regza 32RL858

The RL858 has an array of ports on the back. Three HDMI, VGA, Ethernet and USB are all present, so you should have no trouble hooking up a Blu-ray player, PC or games console. It’s a shame that they mostly face outwards, rather than down, as they could get in the way of a flush wall mount – the TV is just 30mm thick, so would look great mounted on a wall.

Toshiba Regza 32RL858

There’s no in-built Wi-Fi, but you’ll still want to connect the TV to your network – Toshiba has added its Places online system, which is one of the best-looking Smart TV systems we’ve seen. It’s not as comprehensive a system as that of its rivals – you have to jump through different menus to find different services, whereas on Sony and Samsung Smart TVs they are all in one place. YouTube, BBC iPlayer and film rentals from AceTrax are all present and correct, as is USB and network playback for your video files. File format support is excellent – we had no trouble playing MKV, DivX or XviD video. There’s only one USB port, so you won’t be able to play files directly if you use the optional Wi-Fi dongle (part code WLM-10U2, £32 from www.amazon.co.uk).

Toshiba Regza 32RL858

We weren’t expecting much from the menu system, based on the rather cluttered on-screen programming guide. It takes up the entire screen and doesn’t have a picture-in-picture mode, so you won’t be able to watch one program while searching for another. However, digging a little deeper reveals a comprehensive amount of image options for a budget set. With a colour management system that gives you control over red, green, blue, magenta and cyan colours individually, the option to disable active backlight control and several noise reduction settings, as well as the usual brightness, contrast and sharpness controls, there’s a huge amount of scope for tweaking the picture.

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Basic Specifications

Rating ****

Physical

Viewable size 32in
Native resolution 1,920×1,080
1080p support Yes
Aspect ratio 16:9
HD ready yes
3D capable no
Contrast ratio 3,000,000:1 dynamic
Brightness 400cd/m²
Speakers 2x 10W

Connections

D-sub inputs 1
HDMI inputs 3
Component inputs 1
SCART 1
Composite inputs 1
Audio outputs optical S/DIF out, headphone minijack
Other headphone output, USB2 slot, Ethernet

Tuner

Tuner type Freeview HD
EPG 7 day

Environmental

Power consumption standby 1W
Power consumption on 68W

Buying Information

Warranty one year RTB
Price £370
Supplier http://www.simplyelectricals.co.uk
Details www.toshiba.co.uk

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