Sony - 65 Class - Led - X900f Series Review
Our Verdict
Sony's inspired decision to use a direct LED lighting organisation and local dimming in the X900F makes the XBR-65X900F an outstanding model for the coin. Inevitably, given its mid-level cost signal, it'south not quite perfect. Just even in these early stages of 2018 it'south difficult to imagine it being outgunned by whatever other similarly priced TV.
For
- Excellent HDR film quality
- Excellent SDR picture quality
- Clean, open audio
- Fair value
Confronting
- Android Television receiver is frustrating
- Some light bloom
- Limited effective viewing angle
- Divisive design
TechRadar Verdict
Sony'southward inspired decision to use a direct LED lighting organization and local dimming in the X900F makes the XBR-65X900F an outstanding model for the money. Inevitably, given its mid-level price signal, it's not quite perfect. But even in these early on stages of 2018 information technology's difficult to imagine information technology beingness outgunned by whatever other similarly priced TV.
Pros
- +
First-class HDR picture quality
- +
Splendid SDR flick quality
- +
Clean, open sound
- +
Fair value
Cons
- -
Android Tv set is frustrating
- -
Some calorie-free bloom
- -
Express effective viewing angle
- -
Divisive design
When it comes to handling the TV world'south brilliant new loftier dynamic range (HDR) technology, where you put your LCD Television's backlights matters.
Put them around the edge of the screen like about TVs practice, and you're going to struggle to ensure that all that HDR effulgence but appears in the parts of the motion-picture show where it'due south supposed to announced.
Put the LEDs right behind the screen and ensure that unlike zones of those LEDs can output unlike amounts of light at any given moment, yet, and y'all have the potential for a much more controlled, dynamic, immersive HDR performance.
Cue the Sony Bravia XBR-65X900F or, as information technology's known in the UK, the Sony KD-65XF9005.
Despite being pretty affordable by modern 65-inch Television standards, this 4K-resolution, HDR-capable TV takes the direct lighting with local dimming arroyo rather than the edge-lighting approach favored past pretty much all of its similarly priced rivals.
Even better, it partners this keen backlight starting bespeak with Sony's about powerful video processing engine, and a significant boost in HDR-friendly effulgence compared with the 2017 Sony X900E Serial models it replaces.
As of June 2018, viewers in the US and Canada volition also be able to download a Dolby Vision firmware update, in order to spotter HDR video content compatible with the format, which is increasingly supported on streaming services such as Netflix, Youtube, and Amazon Prime Video.
Design
While at that place are many things to like about the 65X900F, we're non entirely convinced its blueprint is 1 of them.
The frame around the screen is neat, tidy and trim, in line with current trends. Information technology also benefits from a cute 'brushed metal' effect finish. Oddly, though, Sony has opted to residue this pleasing frame on top of a pair of rather comical, oversized feet.
As well as adding a touch of the absurd to an otherwise serious look, the angle and position of these feet means you'll need to find a fairly wide scrap of furniture to rest the Television receiver on.
Design TL;DR: For the about part, the 65XF9005 is a sharp-looking, space saving, robustly congenital Boob tube. Those feet, though…
Smart TV (Android TV)
Sony is continuing to use the Android TV platform to provide smart features on its mid-range and premium TVs. This ways a number of things.
First, having Android Television receiver means you go lots of content. Android Boob tube carries many hundreds of game, information, music and video streaming apps - including the key Netflix, Amazon and YouTube platforms.
Sony X900F | XF9005 Specs
Screen sizes bachelor: 85-inch (Usa only), 75-inch, 65-inch, 55-inch, 49-inch (United states of america simply) | Tuner: Freeview HD | 4K: Yes | HDR/Dolby Vision: Yep | Panel applied science: LCD with directly LED lighting and local dimming | Smart Boob tube: Yes/Android TV with (in the UK) YouView | Curved: No | Dimensions: 1447(w) x 829(h) x 69(d) mm | 3D: No | Inputs: four HDMIs, three USBs, RF tuner
In the UK you besides get the catch-upwards Television set services for the UK'south main terrestrial broadcasters, accessible via a YouView app that also lets you search for shows via an electronic programme guide that can scroll back besides every bit forwards.
The Android Television receiver organization supports built-in Chromecasting, and recently had support for Google'due south Phonation Assistant software added.
This nevertheless can't save Android Tv from being a typically frustrating smart Goggle box experience, though. For starters, its full-screen menus wait cluttered and disruptive, and but support minimal amounts of customisation. Information technology also erroneously seems to think in its layout that people will exist more than interested in playing often third-charge per unit games on their Television than streaming video. And it'south horribly prone to needing regular and ofttimes pretty sizeable software updates.
It runs sluggishly and the processing power required to run information technology means the TV's main operating menus can besides react rather slowly to your remote control commands.
While the Netflix and Amazon apps both support high dynamic range and 4K streams, the YouTube app on our test sample strangely remains locked in Hard disk drive SDR.
Finally, despite Android TV being able to learn the sort of apps and content you lot use the most and recommend personalized content options appropriately, it's less clever than some alternative modern smart Boob tube systems nosotros've used.
Smart TV TL;DR: Android TV continues to feel similar a cumbersome and unhelpful smart Tv platform, with an interface that feels more than a hindrance than a help. Fortunately information technology's helped out in the U.k., at least, by the inclusion of a separate YouView app for easy admission to key catch-up Television services.
HD/SDR Operation
We're in serious 'wow' territory with the X900F's Hard disk and SDR picture performance.
Sony has fitted the series with its X1 Extreme video processor, rather than the standard X1 processor used in last year's X900E models. A key component of this (xl%) more than powerful Extreme processor is that it carries a unique twin-database system for adding detail to and removing noise from sub-4K sources.
This worked wonders on all the Hard disk Blu-rays and even DVDs we played on the X900F, making them look far more detailed - genuinely 4K-like in Blu-ray'due south case - without exaggerating any source noise they might comprise. For the 2d year in a row, at that place's merely no other mainstream TV technology out there today that can upscale HD to 4K as well as Sony's X1 Extreme processor.
The aforementioned is true for the X900F's system for converting standard dynamic range (SDR) images to HDR. Similar 'upgrading' is now offered by near other TV brands, but in that location's a naturalism and subtlety to Sony's HDR upgrade (which introduces both enriched colors and an expanded effulgence range) that makes the resulting images uniquely consistent and convincing.
Sony is and then confident well-nigh its HDR upgrade arrangement, in fact, that it's applied by default to the majority of the Television receiver's flick presets. That said, if you Exercise turn the HDR upscaling off (by selecting the Truthful Cinema mode), SDR pictures still look beautiful. Colors remain exceptionally rich but too subtle; light still looks beautifully handled; and nighttime scenes continue to be rich in black level and shadow detail.
In fact, dark scenes in some ways look amend than they do in Sony'south HDR upgrade mode, since in that location'south no hint of the slight 'blooming' of low-cal around stand-out bright objects that occasionally materialises with the HDR 'upgrading' processing active.
For u.s.a., the benefits of the HDR upscaling mean it's pretty much always worth sticking with. Only rest assured that if y'all want to watch SDR images equally they were originally designed to be seen, the 65X900F/65XF9005 does a terrific job of that besides.
Hard disk drive/SDR Operation TL;DR: Despite its mid-range price point, the X900F/XF90 delivers a high-end performance with HD and SDR content thanks to state of the art Hard disk drive-to-4K and SDR-to-HDR conversion processing.
4K/HDR Performance
For the most part, the 65XF9005 does an excellent job with 4K sources: Sony's X1 Farthermost processing and Triluminos color management system joins with some outstanding low-cal precision and dissonance direction to get as much detail bear on as possible from native 4K pictures.
Underlining the 4K clarity is some other pic characteristic that Sony excels at: move reproduction. Sony's Motionflow processing has long done a class-leading job of reducing judder and blur in LCD TV playback. Just for the X900F/XF90 Sony has taken this a large pace further with a new 10-Motion Clarity innovation.
This leverages the localised brightness boosting made possible by the TV's direct LED lighting and local dimming to enable the Television set to insert blackness frames into the picture (a technique long considered to give the most natural motion reproduction) without the film suffering the dramatic effulgence loss black frame insertion usually causes.
It's well worth playing effectually with the Custom movement style - especially this mode's Clearness setting, which appears to exist straight tied to the level of Black Frame Insertion. Setting Clearness to '1' from its default nix position costs you around 100 nits of brightness, but motion undeniably looks more natural. Which in turn makes the sharpness of the TV's 4K pictures look even more impressive.
Every bit expected, its use of direct lighting and local dimming is at the heart of the X900F/XF90's success. Information technology enables the TV to produce bright HDR highlights confronting impressively dark backgrounds with far more punch and far less disruption from unwanted backlight inconsistencies than you'd get with whatever similarly bright edge-lit LCD alternative.
At that place'due south markedly much more punch in the vivid, color-rich parts of the TV's HDR images than yous got with last year's X900E/XE90 models. Our measurements advise it achieves effectually 1000 nits of effulgence over a ten% white, HDR window - that's 200 nits more than you got with the X900E/XE90. As a issue, information technology delivers a much more undiluted HDR feel than its predecessor.
When we said before that in that location'due south 'far less disruption from unwanted backlight inconsistencies than you'd get with any edge-lit LCD alternative', this is non the same as proverb in that location's no unwanted backlight clouding at all: During actually extreme HDR shots, such equally a candle flickering in a darkened room, or a brightly lit window in an otherwise night house, you tin usually clearly come across a gentle circumvolve of extra light as much as three or four inches across stretching out around the vivid object.
Information technology'south true, too, that if yous have to sentry the TV from an angle of more than 20 degrees off axis - either horizontally or vertically - then the light 'blooming' around stand-out bright objects becomes much more noticeable.
Even so, that said, the sort of images that cause blooming backlighting on the 65XF9005/65X900F are very rare in normal viewing conditions. You can as well greatly reduce how distracting the blooming is by keeping a footling light in your room, rather than going for a total-on black-out.
While very high-end (AKA expensive) direct-lit LCD TVs with far more individually controlled LED dimming zones than the X900F/XF90 may suffer with much less obvious backlight 'blooming', it's hard from past experience to imagine other similarly priced rivals beingness able to deliver similar amounts of HDR punch and brightness with and so fiddling backlight clouding. They'll either accept to be less brilliant, or else exhibit much larger areas of backlight inconsistency.
4K/HDR TL;DR: Dazzling colours, deep black levels, corking motion handling and impressive brightness levels brand the 65XF9005/65X900F a hugely compelling 4K, HDR Idiot box. Extreme dissimilarity HDR content tin can expose some backlight blooming, but not equally much as you'll likely detect on similarly priced rivals.
Sound
While the 65XF9005 isn't by any means the best sounding TV I've heard, it's yet a pleasant surprise compared with many of Sony's other recent models.
The soundstage spreads a practiced altitude beyond the Telly'due south frame, creating a compelling, detailed, clean and immersive wall of audio. Dialogue sounds more convincingly locked to the screen than it does with many LCD TVs, thank you to the style information technology seems to sit vertically higher in the mix than usual. Plus at that place's a really nice, open, uncompressed feel to the mid-range.
The event of all this is that the 65XF9005/65X900F does a pretty handy job of hiding its one weakness: a fairly limited supply of bass.
Sound quality TL;DR: Despite not delivering much bass, the Boob tube's speakers are powerful, dynamic and detailed plenty to produce an enjoyable soundstage large enough to keep upward with the epic calibration of its pictures.
Other panels to ponder
The 65XF9005/65X900F is the kickoff 2018 TV nosotros've seen from any brand, allow lonely Sony, so nosotros'll accept to look back to 2017 for rivals.
The nearly compelling alternative ready would probably be one of LG's 2017 OLED TVs - either the OLED55B7 or OLED55C7. Both employ OLED technology to deliver beautiful blackness levels without backlight blooming. However, you'll just exist able to become 55-inch screens without spending much more than than the 65-inch 65XF9005/65X900F costs, and the OLED pictures don't look quite as brilliant as those of the Sony.
From an LCD perspective, the nigh compelling alternative is Samsung's Q7F QLED. This beautifully designed set costs slightly less than the 65XF9005/65X900F, and delivers a mighty 1500 nits of peak brightness. Its screen enjoys a stunning filter, too, that means the motion-picture show loses practically none of its affect even when viewed in a very bright room.
However, delivering so much brightness from an edge LED lighting system does hateful that the Q7F can't deliver black levels as deep and free of backlighting clouding issues as Sony's 65XF9005/65X900F tin.
Verdict
Curt and sweet, the 65XF9005/65X900F is a brilliant mid-priced Telly. Every one of the improvements Sony has introduced over and to a higher place terminal yr'southward already splendid X900E series – improve processing, more brightness, slightly more backlight dimming zones, improved movement performance – delivers the appurtenances, resulting in picture quality that humbles many more than expensive TVs.
Its Android Tv organisation and some by and large pocket-sized backlight clouding end information technology brusk of perfection, merely information technology's difficult to imagine whatever similarly priced upcoming 65-inch rival getting the better of it.
- Y'all can expect to see the X900F / XF90 in our best TV guide
greencomiscrikend.blogspot.com
Source: https://www.techradar.com/reviews/sony-bravia-x900f-series
0 Response to "Sony - 65 Class - Led - X900f Series Review"
Post a Comment