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Toshiba's 2013 TV lineup is all about size, design, and the cloud

Toshiba's 2013 TV lineup is all about size, design, and the cloud

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Toshiba TV
Toshiba TV

At a small (for CES, anyway) event at the Mandalay Bay casino in Las Vegas, Toshiba has just taken the wraps off its TV lineup for 2013. It's headlined by the L9300 series of 4K TVs, which will be available in 58, 65, and 84 inches. The premium line is 4K, but it's also equipped with Toshiba's new "Cloud TV" platform, which offers everything from Miracast and Wi-Fi, to messaging, to a family calendar right to your TV. Toshiba also has companion apps for iOS, Android, and Windows 8, which let you manage a lot of the social and productivity features of the platform from your mobile device instead. No word on pricing for the L9300s yet, but a 55-inch iteration of Toshiba's highest-resolution TV was introduced last year in Japan for around $9,500, and a version with glasses-free 3D launched in the UK for over $11,000. We previously saw Toshiba's biggest 4K TV at IFA in August, where we were thoroughly impressed by its image quality, and it's part of a growing group of TVs that push the boundaries of resolution.

The company has also expanded its lineup of smart TVs with the active 3D-equipped L7350 series and the more mid-range L7300 and L4300 lines. As you move down the lineup, the primary changes are in resolution (only the high-end models are 4K), and in design. Toshiba's introducing a new design language to its TVs, with gunmetal accents and round power buttons, which we're told will ultimately sweep through all of the company's products. But for now, it's on a few of the company's higher-end TVs. Cloud TV functionality is available on all but the cheapest of the company's TVs, and the company released new "Media Boxes," Blu-ray players that offer much of the same Cloud TV functionality, for those users as well.

4K is still a high-end feature, but cloud connectivity is not

Notably missing from Toshiba's lineup? An OLED TV. The company acknowledged as much during its presentation, and said that "OLED just isn't ready for volume production yet." We're betting a few companies at CES disagree, but we'll have to wait and see about that.

As we've grown all too accustomed to, price and release dates and nowhere to be found for Toshiba's newest products. But we liked what we saw from the few TVs on display, and it's clear that Toshiba wants to be a major TV manufacturer in 2013.

Adi Robertson contributed to this report.