Toshiba XF9F (55XF9F53DB) review

OLED panel tech has dominated our best TV buying guide and yearly list of What Hi-Fi? Award-winners for close to a decade. The only constant complaint we’ve had is that OLED TVs tend to have high price tags, making them luxury items, even among home cinema fans.

Enter the catchily named Toshiba XF9F, an aggressively priced TV designed to offer movie fans with regular-sized pockets a seat at the OLED table. And, packed with all the key hardware and specifications most fans will want, it’s certainly an enticing proposition.

But is that enough for it to succeed against veteran heavyweights such as LG, Panasonic, Sony and Samsung?

Price

The Toshiba XF9F is available in 55- and 65-inch options in the UK. Sadly, it hasn’t made its way to the US or Australia yet.

The 55-inch model we have in for testing (the 55XF9F53DB, to give its full, super-sexy name) launched with a competitive £999 price tag, while the larger 65-inch model would cost you £1299 at that time.

To put that pricing in context, at launch, the entry-level 55-inch LG B5 would have set you back £1699 and the 65-inch model an even heftier £2499.

Since then, both series have seen hefty discounts, but the Toshiba continues to be the cheapest OLED of its size. At the time of writing, numerous retailers are offering the 55-inch XF9F for £799, and the 65-inch model for £999 – and it was cheaper than that during Black Friday.

This is the first time we’ve seen a new OLED in these sizes so cheap – to the point the price places the XF9F as more of a direct rival to Mini LED sets, such as the Award-winning TCL C7K (£629 and £799 for 55 and 65 inches respectively), than any of the recent OLEDs we’ve reviewed.

Build

The Toshiba has a utilitarian but generally solid build.

The set’s central metal stand is easy to attach using the eight included screws and is suitably sturdy.

The only minor design embellishments are a tiny sensor and power indicator bolted onto the bottom of the TV and an incredibly shiny finish on the back. This shiny finish is an absolute fingerprint magnet, but you shouldn’t be touching the TV much once it’s in place.

The remote is also a basic plastic affair. We would have liked a backlight or USB charging, but it is functional, having intuitive shortcuts for most of the apps you’ll need, and also for the TV's various settings, littered across it.

Features

The Toshiba XF9F is a reasonably well-stacked OLED, considering its price. For starters, it has three HDMI 2.1 inputs. Most of the OLEDs we test, outside of those from LG and Samsung, only have two full-fat HDMI 2.1s, which are required to run current-generation consoles at full speed (4K/120Hz).

And while one of the Toshiba OLED’s three HDMI 2.1 inputs does still double as the eARC connection, so will very possibly be taken up by a soundbar or other audio system, the added connectivity is a welcome inclusion we weren’t expecting.

The HDMI 2.1 inputs will handle 4K/120Hz and VRR, and there’s a dedicated low-latency game mode which ALLM will automatically switch to.

While PC gamers may sniff at the 120Hz refresh rate (144Hz has become common on most step-down OLEDs, including this year’s LG C5, Samsung S90F and Panasonic Z90B), this won’t be an issue for the vast majority of potential buyers, as consoles can only run at up to 120Hz, and only the most powerful of PCs will run top titles at framerates beyond that with acceptable-looking graphics.

The only downside is that it doesn’t have any other HDMI inputs. So, while it’s well-stacked for current-generation console gamers with a Dolby Atmos soundbar, it’s a little limited for people with lots of older boxes, such as old DVD / Blu-ray players, retro consoles or media PCs.

At the XF9F’s heart, a custom TRU Picture Engine CPU runs the show. This handles picture processing elements such as upscaling and motion processing, and we’re pleased that there isn’t lots of ‘AI’ branding to be wary of.

HDR support is also excellent, with the Toshiba promising to understand and play nicely with all four of the current formats used for movies, TV shows and games. So, that’s the dynamic Dolby Vision and HDR10+ formats, as well as the more standard HLG and HDR10.

Finally, app support is excellent thanks to the XF9F’s use of Amazon’s Fire OS. Ad-heavy and slightly confusing in terms of what’s actually yours and what’s behind a paywall, sure, but Fire OS also supports pretty much every streaming service you can think of, including Apple TV, Disney+, Netflix, Now, Paramount+ and Prime Video, as well as niche ones, including Shudder, Crunchyroll and the like.

In the UK, Freely and local catch-up services BBC iPlayer, ITVX, Channel 4, and 5 are all present and working correctly.

So, from a pure specifications perspective, the XF9F is more than competitive, especially compared with similarly priced rivals.

Picture

But how good is its picture? This is where things get a little more complex.

Out of the box, the benefits of OLED compared to LED are immediately apparent as we watch a demanding scene from our Civil War 4K Blu-ray.

The flames in the nighttime forest hold serious intensity and wonderfully bright hues of red and orange, giving them a life missing from many Mini LED TVs. Blacks are also inky deep in a way that only OLED, with its pixel-level light control, can deliver. There’s a nice sense of depth to the picture, which feels immersive and, in most ways, delivers the impact the scene deserves.

By comparison, the similarly priced TCL C7K looks a little soft, and though it has more dark detail, the image isn’t as defined or three-dimensional on account of its good, but not perfect, blacks.

But there are big issues with the Toshiba TV’s picture. Transitioning to a bright daytime scene in a military camp, the XF9F’s motion handling is far too heavy-handed. Helicopters’ movements are too smooth, and the cast look like marionette puppets as they float through the camp.

Colours are oversaturated, with greens and reds feeling artificial, and the set oversharpens to an extreme, making everything look slightly wrong.

Going into the settings, there’s no Filmmaker Mode, and even the Movie and Custom settings are fairly heavy-handed. It is, of course, possible to manually tweak individual settings within these presets, but even the lightest touch adjustments have a big impact on the picture, and not often in a beneficial way.

Even in their lowest settings, the motion handling and sharpness are far too aggressive. We also find it impossible to get the colour balance and contrast right, regardless of how much we tinker with the settings.

Colours feel either too warm or too cool, and while the Dynamic Contrast setting does boost dark detail as Civil War transitions to a night-time battle, allowing us to see details on the soldiers' uniforms and parts of characters' faces that previously were pure black, it comes with a big compromise.

Even in its lowest setting, Dynamic Contrast introduces picture noise, and parts of the picture, particularly faces, become too defined, giving the picture a slightly cel-shaded quality.

Eventually, we settle on the Custom picture setting with all processing features turned off and the sharpness control set to zero. The TV is still far from perfect when set like this, but it is as good as we’re able to make it.

Moving to our Alien Romulus test disc, the menacing space’s blacks are deep, and the ship emerging out of the darkness holds a solid three-dimensionality, with every rivet and detail standing out – at least in the parts we can see.

But entire parts of the picture that we can see on the TCL C7K are missing entirely on the Toshiba, coming up as pitch black. The issue repeats on dark-skinned characters, who at times become entirely faceless, thanks to the loss of dark detail.

The issue also makes bright white peaks over dark elements, such as the stars and even reflections on characters’ skin, appear too defined and a little distracting.

With our Dune: Part 2 disc, things pick up, with the panel dealing with the bright desert battle fairly well, especially compared to other TVs in the same price bracket.

The slightly over-etched characters don’t ruin the experience, and the picture still looks solid and nicely three-dimensional. There’s even a decent amount of detail and life in the characters’ skin tones, which, while slightly too warm, otherwise look fairly realistic and are far from the worst we’ve seen on an OLED.

It’s only when we move to our Brightness stress test, Pan, that the set once again struggles. The picture isn’t anywhere near as bright as any other recent OLED we’ve tested, let alone the C7K. This isn't a great surprise, given the XF9F's claimed peak brightness of just 500 nits, but it combines with some seemingly quite unsophisticated tone mapping to produce highlights that lack impact and bright detail.

It’s just a shame that the flies in the ointment around black crush and motion keep popping up, distracting from the perks of the picture. It’s this inconsistency that is ultimately the Toshiba’s undoing, with the issues appearing often enough to prevent us getting fully lost in what is playing out on the screen.

Running our final, demanding SDR stress test, via our old-faithful Blu-ray of True Grit, history repeats. The set instantly struggles with the incredibly difficult, nighttime opening.

Though the lanterns look great, the entire porch remains pitch black, missing details that are clearly visible on rivals. A fuzziness creeps into the falling snow and continues as the film moves to a daytime town scene, adding noise the director definitely didn’t intend.

This all adds up to make the Toshiba a frustrating set that is capable of doing things that similarly priced rivals can’t, but that lacks the finesse to do them consistently.

Sound

The XF9F features a 2.1, 24W sound system “with sound by Onkyo”. While no upfiring drivers are included, which is to be expected at this price, it also supports virtual Dolby Atmos.

And, as in-built speakers go, it delivers a just about passable performance. During the Civil War nighttime battle, the TV manages to suitably separate dialogue from the background gunfire and explosions. And while they’re a little thin and lack the heft to make it sound truly immersive, there’s a vague sense of directionality from left and right as the tracer rounds fly across the night sky.

But the low end is underpowered and occasionally tries to punch above its weight. During a particularly big explosion, distortion creeps in, and there’s an unpleasant acidic quality to the sound of a helicopter minigun.

The TV's loudness capability isn't great, with our testers being able to easily converse, even with the volume set to 85. Any higher and their composure completely falls apart, with the low end taking on a flabby quality and distortion frequently rearing its ugly head.

Moving to our new test disc of Wicked, the speakers struggle with the admittedly demanding music, lacking the dynamics to do the singers’ vocals justice. It’s still enjoyable, just nowhere near as good as the performance we’ve enjoyed on cheap-ish soundbars, including the Sonos Beam (Gen 2).

Verdict

The Toshiba XF9F is the cheapest large-sized OLED we’ve tested, and one that comes loaded with all the features most gamers and movie fans will need.

That’s undeniably something we want to applaud, but the constant black crush, a lower-than-average peak brightness and aggressive processing rear their heads too many times to make us able to recommend the set.

This is especially true right now when there are a number of stellar, similarly priced Mini LED sets and smaller step-down OLEDs available that offer a holistically better experience.

If Toshiba could combine the XF9F’s raw materials with some more careful and considered processing and settings, it could be on to a winner. Here’s hoping that’s what we get next time.

SCORES

• Picture 3
• Sound 3
• Features 5

MORE:

Read our review of the 65-inch TCL C7K

Also consider the 48-inch LG C5

Read our 48-inch Samsung S90F review

Best OLED TV: the 3 Award-winning sets our experts recommend