Most TV manufacturers, Toshiba include, have slimmed down the depth of their TVs to just a few inches so that they barely make a bump on the wall. Toshiba is taking the diet pill one step further by slimming down the bezel (the frame) of the television on their Super Narrow Bezel (SNB) REGZA line. The company calls this TV “practically all screen,” and compared to any other TV on the market, they’re absolutely right. Why is this important? Well, that depends on what you want out of your TV. For many owners, half the reason for owning a flat panel TV is that they look cool. While some manufacturers struggle to make their flat TV designs more innovative and fashionable, Toshiba has chosen to make this TV disappear as much as possible. There’s not much question of this minimalist TV fitting into your home’s décor.
If you don’t plan on hanging it on a wall, but plan to put it in a cabinet or armoire the SNB TVs will fit in a smaller space while giving you a bigger picture. This 40-inch model is actually about the same size as Toshiba’s non-SNB 37-inch 37HL67 model.
The company got the bezel this thin by pulling a few tricks—first, its depth is not quite as thin as other models. The 5.1-inch depth is a few centimeters thicker than the company’s larger 42-inch model 42LX177. The speakers, in a new SoundStrip 2 design are barely noticeable underneath the screen. Also the controls were moved from the front to the side.
While this TV may look impressive from the front, the rear jack pack has also got it’s fair share of features. For hooking up an HD DVD player, high def set-top-box and game console there’s a suite of three HDMI inputs. There are two component inputs, as well as the standard low resolution analog video and audio inputs. Being an LCD TV, it’s got a 15-pin VGA port for a PC hookup. There’s only one cable/antenna input, though very few people will even use that. I would have liked to see an HDMI input on the side of the TV for easily plugging in a high def camcorder.
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