Toshiba M450 Series 65M450SU 64.5"

The Toshiba M450 Series 65M450SU is a budget 65-inch 4K QLED TV with a great smart platform and solid audio, but its picture quality is held back by low brightness and no local dimming. It's a good fit for casual streaming in a bright room, especially at its sub-$400 price. Gamers and home theater fans should save up for something with a 120Hz panel and better contrast.

Out of the box, the M450's picture quality lands in the 71st percentile in our database, which translates to "solid for the price." The QLED panel helps colors pop more than a standard LED, but with a peak brightness of only 350 nits, that Dolby Vision content isn't going to have the same punchy highlight detail you'd see on a pricier set. The contrast ratio sits at 4000:1, which is about average, and without local dimming, dark room scenes can look a bit washed out and gray instead of truly black.

Motion is handled by a "Motion Rate 120" system, which is marketing speak for a native 60Hz panel with backlight scanning. It's fine for watching sports and cable TV, but it's not true 120Hz. Gaming performance is a mixed bag. You do get VRR and ALLM support, which is great for smooth, low-lag play with a console, but you're capped at 60 frames per second. In our gaming benchmarks, this puts it right at the 49th percentile, which is dead average. It'll work for casual gaming, but a PS5 or Xbox Series X won't be able to stretch its legs here.

Stacked against the competition, the M450 fights in the budget trenches. The TCL QM7K Series and Hisense U7 Series are its most direct rivals, and both of those typically offer mini-LED backlights with far better contrast and higher peak brightness for not a whole lot more money. They'll absolutely destroy the Toshiba in a dark room. The Sony BRAVIA 5 K55XR50 is in a different league with its processing and upscaling, but it's also a 55-inch set, so you're trading size for quality.

If you're comparing it to the Samsung QN85D, there's no contest. The Samsung's Neo QLED panel is brighter, faster, and more colorful. But it's also way more expensive. The Toshiba's real pitch is simple: it's a 65-inch Dolby Vision TV for under $400. If that's your hard budget, the only other thing in the ballpark is a no-name brand, and at least here you get the Fire TV experience and a recognizable name.

At a street price between $346 and $380, the Toshiba M450 is one of the cheapest ways to get a 65-inch QLED with Dolby Vision. That's a genuinely aggressive price. You're getting a massive screen with a smart platform that works well and a feature set that out-kicks its coverage on paper. The value is there if your main goal is a big, bright-enough screen for daytime TV, sports, and casual streaming. But if you can stretch your budget by a hundred bucks or so, stepping up to a TCL or Hisense model with full array local dimming and a 120Hz panel will get you a dramatically better picture.

The Toshiba M450 Series 65M450SU is a 65-inch 4K QLED TV that's been popping up in the budget section at Best Buy and Amazon, usually hovering around the $350 to $380 mark. If you're hunting for a big screen that won't empty your wallet and comes with a full smart platform baked in, this one catches the eye. It's a Fire TV, so you get Alexa voice control, a familiar app layout, and the ability to stream just about anything without needing a separate stick.

Toshiba is leaning hard into their REGZA branding here, which historically meant something special in the TV world. The M450 packs a REGZA AI Engine ZR Gen3 processor and QLED color tech, promising vibrant, lifelike images. You also get a solid HDR format lineup with Dolby Vision and HDR10+, which is more than you'd expect at this price. But the spec sheet also reveals some corners that had to be cut, like a 60Hz panel and a Direct LED backlight instead of full array local dimming.

For a secondary living room TV, a bedroom, or a dedicated streaming display, the value proposition is clear. But if you're a gamer looking for high frame rates or a cinephile who demands deep blacks, you'll want to keep reading. There are some real trade-offs here that the spec sheet doesn't shout about.

Home theater enthusiasts and serious gamers should skip this one. The lack of local dimming means letterbox bars in movies will glow gray in a dark room, and the 60Hz panel is a bottleneck for current-gen consoles. If you watch a lot of movies in a light-controlled room or want to play shooters at 120fps, you'll be much happier with a TCL QM7K or Hisense U7 that offers a 120Hz panel and mini-LED backlight for a bit more cash.

The Toshiba M450 65M450SU is a classic "you get what you pay for" TV. It's not going to blow you away with HDR fireworks or inky blacks, and serious gamers should look elsewhere for a 120Hz panel. But for a bright living room where you mostly watch cable news, sitcoms, and the occasional Netflix movie, it's a perfectly watchable screen at a price that's hard to argue with.

Should you buy it? If you need a 65-inch smart TV right now and have less than $400 to spend, it's a reasonable pick. The Fire TV integration is snappy, and the audio is better than most budget sets. Just know that you're trading picture quality for size and price. If you can wait and save up a bit more, the jump to a TCL or Hisense with local dimming will be a night and day difference.