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In 2005, a 36-inch widescreen CRT was considered huge. Quite right too — it weighed over a metric tonne and needed specially re-enforced furniture to squat on. Just three years on, and comparatively massive TVs, that just a few years ago would have been a logistical impossibility, are now ten a penny. Even so, a 52-incher is something special, and heaving the the Toshiba Regza 52Z3030D out of its box this morning drew quite a crowd.
But the 52Z3030D isn’t just big, it features some of Toshiba’s uber high-end technology, which should make this TV a great performer too. It seems redundant to mention that it’s a full 1080p TV, because at this size we expect nothing less. Like the other high-end Toshiba TVs we’ve seen recently, this one supports all the most exciting picture modes, including the 5:5 pulldown we liked so much on the 40ZF355.
You also get the usual cavalcade of features, including wide colour gamut, xvYCC broad colour space, dynamic gamma curve correction and 10-bit processing. These are supposed to revolutionise our viewing experience, but are mostly about having lots of copyright-protected logos to put on the stickers that are slathered over new TVs.
Connectivity is the standard fare, with three HDMI sockets and the usual collection of component, Scart and VGA inputs. At 52 inches we would expect an extra HDMI input, as this TV will appeal to the home-cinema enthusiast, who is likely to have a host of kit to connect.
Audio is provided by an Onkyo sound system, something we’re always pleased to see, because Onkyo seems to be able to eke pretty remarkable performance out of flat TV speaker systems. Generally, this involves front-firing high-frequency speakers and some rear-firing low-end woofers. It’s a good system, and one that works really well for most viewing.
There’s only really one thing we’d love to see on this TV — the slim bezel we’ve seen on the XF and ZF series TVs. That would be truly epic. The 52Z3030 is available now, and costs around £1,800, but you can sniff around online and get it for a bit less. –Ian Morris
Update: Read our full Toshiba Regza 52Z3030D review.
