Toshiba 75C350KU Review (2023 model)

The Toshiba 75C350KU is a great budget-friendly option for those looking for a big-screen TV for the living room, but don’t have the money to spend on the best OLEDs including the LG C3 OLED or the Samsung S90C with quantum HDR technology. The 75-inch TV does all the things you want a smart TV to do: Fire TV, and all its features, if nice looking; is fast and responsive; very easy to setup and use; and, best of all, it’s very affordable.

This Toshiba C350 doesn’t struggle to compete with the best TVs, nor doesn’t boast the best features, such as HDMI 2.1 or Dolby Atmos support, but it does Dolby Vision and HDR10 – though not very well. Its LCD picture isn’t quite as good as the Hisense U8G or the TCL Q6 Series that come in the same size. But if you love Fire TV and need a TV that you can enjoy watching some shows on – and even play games – the Toshiba 75C350KU Fire TV is incredible value.

About the Toshiba C350 Fire TV

The C350 is Toshiba’s latest, and right now only, line of TVs, loaded with Fire TV smarts. The 75-inch 75C350KU we’re reviewing is priced lower than most similar-sized TVs and is often available on sale. On paper, it’s an attractive option for value-shoppers, and its surprisingly low input lag makes it attractive for gamers, but a dim panel and low contrast make it hard to wholeheartedly recommend.

Here are the specs on the Toshiba C350:

• Screen size: 75 inches
• Resolution: 4K (3840 x 2160)
• HDR: Dolby Vision, HDR10
• Refresh rate: 60Hz
• Ports: 4 HDMI (1 ARC), 2 USB
• Audio: 2 Channel
• Smart TV software: Fire TV OS
• Size:     66 x 3.3 x 37.8 inches
• Other Features: Amazon Alexa

Design and Features

The Toshiba 75C350KU is a beautiful TV for the price. It sports a bezel-free design, framed only by a thin black plastic band that extends to the back. At the bottom, there is a thin, brushed-metal strip that angles slightly to the front with a small clear enclosure that holds an infrared receiver and indicator LED as well as a small power/input button behind it. The 75-inch screen is supported by two V-shaped metal legs, located near the edges; you can also mount it to a wall via a VESA 400 X 300 mount.

Connectivity is excellent for a budget TV, but it lacks advanced ports like HDMI 2.1 that are available on high-end gaming TVs. With the C350, you’re getting four HDMI ports (one eARC), two USB ports, an optical audio output, an Ethernet port, and an antenna/cable connector all facing the left. Around the back, there is a set of RCA composite video inputs and a headphone jack. It’s baffling that the headphone jack is facing the dead center; it’s not the most convenient location possible if you want to use wired headphones.

The included remote is very similar to the ones included with Fire TV media streamers. A slim, black rectangular wand with a reasonably rounded top and bottom edges and a prominent circular navigation pad near the top. Power and navigation buttons and a pinhole microphone are placed above the navigation pad. Menu and playback controls; volume and channel rockers; and dedicated service buttons for Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Hulu, and Netflix all sit at the lower part of the remote.

Picture Quality

The Toshiba 75C350KU produces a good enough picture – it’s not going to rival the best 4K TVs out there, but in most situations, it does well enough that you can enjoy what’s displayed on the screen without getting annoyed by quality issues. This TV is surprisingly bright enough to watch during the day and produces good color.

Visual, especially 4K content on the C350, is crisp and well-detailed, though it also does an excellent job with non-4K content. The picture can also deliver some great color. We expected that color to come into play with 4K HDR content, but there’s little inconsistency there. Some content will appear vivid and rich in color, but some streamed content tends to fall short in color saturation.

For instance, watching Succession on HBO Max, you’ll enjoy the richly colorful picture. That pairing with the sharp details makes for an excellent viewing experience. The fine details of characters’ hair and textures on clothing and other materials look perfect.

Two factors help the display hold up well in everyday viewing conditions: the brightness and the anti-reflective finish of the display. Even when watched on a sunny day in a room with many windows, it’s possible to watch darker content. The display can get bright enough to power through, and the display avoids reflections well enough that you don’t end up looking at a reflection of your living room any time there’s a darker scene on the screen.

Gaming Performance

Gaming performance is yet another area where the Toshiba C350 surprises. On paper, the specs don’t impress at all, with just a 60Hz refresh rate and no gamer-centric features like variable refresh rate (VRR). However, when it comes to input lag, the 75C350KU shines more than most. With a measured input lag of 3.1 milliseconds in the Game picture mode, that’s far below the 20ms average we use to consider a TV to be suited for gaming.

Well, that’s not quite as low as the Samsung Q70A’s input lag of 2.3ms, but it’s still phenomenal. To enjoy your games, just ensure you switch to Game mode when playing; in Movie mode, the input shoots to an unimpressive 111.3ms.

Audio Quality

Toshiba’s solid work on visuals isn’t replicated in the audio, but the speakers on the TV won’t leave you in the lurch when it comes to volume – at least, they can pump out more than enough to fill a medium-sized room even at lower volume levels. The speakers should hold up just fine if you’re looking at hearing a dialog in a sitcom.

But when it comes to more complex audio mixes, with soundtracks and sound effects, the audio output tends to suffer, by a lack of oomph from the bass.

Fire TV offers a few sound modes to help you make the sound more to your liking: Standard, Music, Movie, Clear Voice, Enhanced Bass, and Custom. You can also adjust the bass, treble, and balance. Under the Advanced menu, you can adjust dialog levels, TruVolume, which adjusts highs and low sounds, and Virtual: X. These are the available tweaks to the sound, though they don’t make too much of a difference when using the speakers included with the TV.

Fire TV OS & Alexa

For you to get the most out of Fire TV features, you’ll need to sign in with your Amazon account, which is very typical of Fire TV streamers, which are built around using your account for transactions like purchasing apps and renting media. However, on the Insignia Fire TV Edition, you don’t need an Amazon account to use the TV. There is an optional Basic mode that lets you use the TV as a TV, without access to most streaming features in the interface, but providing access to the TV’s varied inputs.

Still, most of us would want to use our Amazon account to access the full features of the Insignia Fire TV Edition, bearing in mind how robust it is as a smart TV platform. For instance, it lets you access most streaming services, including Amazon Video and Music, Hulu, Netflix, Sling TV, Spotify, and Twitch. Curiously, Google Play Movies & TV as well as Google Play Music are absent, and YouTube loads only via the Firefox or Silk web browsers.

Not surprising at all, while the Fire TV OS is ideally based on Android, rarely do you see Amazon and Google get along much on content. The Fire TV includes access to the Alexa voice assistant, which you can easily use on the Insignia Fire TV Edition by pressing the microphone button on the remote and speaking into it. Sure, it may not be as hands-free as the Echo or Echo Spot, but it’s still functional out of the box with the press of a button.

Toshiba 75C350KU Review: Verdict

Fire TV fans have lots of TVs to pick from in different sizes and price ranges, but in the 75-inch niche, the Toshiba 75C350KU should be among the top choices. It runs Fire TV well and has good color overall. Granted it doesn’t handle HDR content very well, few TVs at this size and price do. With its color accuracy, very low lag time, and clever Fire TV implementation, the 2023 Toshiba C350 sets itself apart from the crowd.

That said, its dim panel and mediocre contrast hold us back from recommending it over other budget models. The Vizio MQ6 Series, on the other hand, boasts better contrast and color for around the same price, and while it doesn’t include a voice assistant, it supports both Apple AirPlay and Google Cast.

Overall, the TCL Q7 Series (75Q750G) remains our top pick for budget-friendly TVs; it costs a little more than both the Toshiba and Vizio models, but for the extra bucks, you get excellent color and contrast than the other two, and it has a far brighter picture and darker blacks.