Toshiba ZL2 4K Glasses-Free 3D TV: Pictures & First Impressions

Toshiba surprised everyone on the eve of the IFA 2011 consumer tech show by announcing a 4K-resolution glasses-free 3D TV—the ZL2—due for release before the end of the year!

As soon as we heard about this TV we couldn't wait to take a look at it for ourselves. And as three opinions are always better than one, a trio of DigitalVersus reporters—Romain Thuret, Vincent Alzieu and Pierre-Jean Alzieu—went along to check it out.


The day before the IFA tech show officially opened its doors to the public, we were able to visit a private demonstration area where two glasses-free 3D sequences were being shown on the ZL2. During the sessions, we made sure we tested all kinds of viewing angles (facing the TV, moving our heads to the side, backwards and forwards etc.) to get an idea of just how good the 3D effect was.

Our Thoughts on 3D Quality

First of all, it's important to note that the TV we saw was a prototype and isn't a final version of the ZL2. It's therefore perfectly possible that Toshiba will make a few last-minute changes to the model before the ZL2 hits stores later this year.

On the whole, all three of us found that the 3D effect wasn't very strong and was actually a bit disappointing. You can sometimes notice a certain depth to the image, so long as there's not too much movement onscreen, but that's pretty much it. Nothing at all seems to stick out from the screen but, then again, don't forget that this is still a prototype. 

Viewing angles in 3D are tight. In fact, only three people were allowed to take part in each trial session. We all had to be at least 2.5 metres away from the screen and we were advised not to move around too much. On hearing that, we couldn't resist seeing what happened if we did move around ... but we soon regretted it!


We found that if we moved our heads to one side, out of the recommended viewing axis, we ended up in-between two of the images transmitted and started seeing double. From then on, eye strain set in almost instantly, as our eyes were constantly working to try and find the right focus. After messing around like this for two to three minutes we'd soon had enough of this glasses-free 3D experience, as even returning to the correct viewing position proved painful, as our eyes had trouble finding the right image again. Romain was particularly sensitive to this and he didn't find our little experiment a pleasant experience at all!

However, the good news is that if your eyes do start to get tired, so long as you stay in line with the screen's recommended viewing plane, you can tilt your head forwards without having the same horrible double-vision effect ... you do, however, lose any impression of depth.

The content used in the presentation didn't necessarily do Toshiba's TV any favours either. There were clearly some scenes that had been filmed in native 4K resolution—such as the dancers at the end of the demonstration and an extract from Final Fantasy XIII—but at other times, the footage had obviously been filmed in a lower resolution, stretched over the 4K screen and shown in 3D.

The scenes of a football match—a sport that's supposedly pretty flattering for 3D effects—were just quite bad. Plus, on a 9-segment screen like this, the definition of glasses-free 3D images will be 3840 / 9 x 2160 = 427 x 2160 pixels. In an ideal world, with pictures filmed natively in 4K resolution, at best you'll get half the number of pixels as in a standard 2D Full HD image. That's still comparable to the number of pixels in passive 3D images on current Full HD TVs, and that's already pretty good. However, it also means that the ZL2 doesn't do a great job of displaying images filmed in lower resolutions in glasses-free 3D.

How Much will the Toshiba ZL2 Cost?

Toshiba hasn't released any official pricing information. However, word on the street at the IFA 2011 is that the ZL2 will launch with a price tag of over €7,000 (approx. £6,160) when it goes on sale in Germany later this year!

In comparison, the Full LED, active 3D Sony 55HX923 is one of the most expensive TVs currently on the market at £3,000. It's therefore only logical that Toshiba's 4K, glasses-free 3D TV would cost a fair bit more than £3,000.

Plus, the ZL2 will also out-price Toshiba's top-of-the-range 55ZL1 Cevo TV, which isn't available in the UK but which sells for €5,000 (approx. £4,400) in Europe!

Edge LED Sucks!!!

Again, let's not forget that this is a prototype and that the final ZL2 could still be improved before it goes on sale (in December!). However, darker scenes showed up the main weakness of the TV's Edge LED backlighting—which is pretty surprising choice for a top-of-the-range model! As is all too often the case with this kind of technology, the screen is subject to clouding—little grey blotches that crop up in solid black parts of the image.

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