Toshiba Regza 40WL753

It's time for us to test another Toshiba TV: the WL753 series, which is replacing the SV675 family.  The new range comes with lateral LED backlighting, a media player and the Active Vision M200HD Pro system to improve the display of rapid movements on screen.

Build Quality and Design

The first thing that struck us when we unpacked this TV was how much thinner it is.  Instead of using local-dimming LEDs that cover the whole surface of the display, Toshiba has only included LEDs around the outside of the screen.  That means that this 40'' version of the WL753 is just 5 cm thick, compared the 9.4 cm of the SV675.  As thin as it may be, this 1080p Full HD panel is finished with a glossy layer, which makes it very sensitive to reflections.  Be careful not to put in front of any direct light sources.

Around the outside and at the back you find the usual array of connections, as well as two USB ports and an SD carder, whereas most TVs only bother with a single USB.  The SD card reader can only access photos stored as JPEGs though.

You can reach music, photos and videos stored somewhere else on your DLNA compatible network via the Ethernet port.  However, the media player can only handle DivX video and the USB ports can only use hard drives and memory sticks formatted using FAT32.  That makes for a pretty limited media player.

When we first picked up the remote, we weren't sure if we'd received the right one.  Although it's practical and user-friendly, the quality of the components and the general overall feel leave a lot to be desired.

Image Quality: Factory Settings

In Standard mode, the gamma curve, which shows how bright different shades of grey are, falls off dramatically in lighter areas.  That leaves burned-out white instead of pale greys.  The colour temperature is too cold as well.  Hardly the most impressive results ever—but then again, they're not that different to what we're used to finding on the vast majority of TVs.


Image Quality: Cinema Mode

Switching to Cinema mode corrects the gamma problems and produces a more natural image.  We found it lacking in the brightness you'd expect for everyday use, so we suggest turning up the backlighting to 66, to reach 200 cd/m² if you're going to be using it in a light room.  Set up that way, Toshiba manages to pull off a decent contrast ratio of 2114:1 with deep blacks of 0.09 cd/m². 

Colours are more accurate too, even if still not quite perfect: the deltaE94 score sticks at 4.6, unlike its competitors which fall to 3.0 or below.  Remember that under 3.0, any remaining problems will be invisible to untrained viewers, but for purists, even higher values are problematic.


When you move 45° from the centre line, black looks purple, and so like the majority of LCD TVs, viewing angles aren't the WL753's strong point.

HD looks good when you're facing the screen, and SD sources are upscaled well, although a Blu-ray or DVD player will do the job better and should remain your first choice for enjoying DVDs.

Finally, the Active Vision M200HD Pro does a good job of making movements in films smoother, and unlike the 'non-Pro' version of the system, doesn't have a negative impact on picture quality at the same time.

Sound Quality

You only have to listen to one to know that thin TVs only ever produce poor quality audio, mostly due to the lack of room for decent speakers.  The WL753 is yet another example, and its sound is very lacking in bass with jumbled mid-range and treble.  We suggest you add some real Home Cinema speakers if you want to really enjoy your movies.

Energy Consumption

On standby, the WL753 uses the bare minimum of energy: just 0.1 W, which works out at an extra 12 p a year on your electricity bill if you leave like that the whole time.  When we turned on the 40'' version, it registered 121 W, but equivalently-sized competitors are often below 90 W.