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  • Overview

  • What Is Ultra High Definition?

  • Design & Audio

  • Interface & Smart Features

  • Performance

  • The Finale

  • Behind the Screens

  • Contrast

  • Color

  • Viewing Angle

  • Overview
  • What Is Ultra High Definition?
  • Design & Audio
  • Interface & Smart Features
  • Performance
  • The Finale
  • Behind the Screens
  • Contrast
  • Color
  • Viewing Angle

Overview

You do have 4K content, right? No?

We received the retail version of Sony's 4K content box, which treated us to over 8 million pixels of beautifully-rendered videos and movie trailers. Unfortunately, there is a shortage of actual content on the market (movies, TV shows, etc.), making the TV’s astronomical pixel count somewhat moot—for now. As far as pure television performance, though, the X900A is excellent. We tested superbly accurate colors and a decent contrast, not to mention this Sony’s freakishly good audio quality—these are hands-down the best speakers I've come across on a TV.

While anyone would be happy owning the X900A, is it really worth $1,000 more than television perfection?

What Is Ultra High Definition?

A quick primer for the uninitiated

Ultra high definition is the next step in display resolution. When an HD television is listed as "1080p," that number refers to its resolution: 1920 pixels wide, 1080 pixels tall. With a resolution of 3840 pixels wide and 2160 pixels tall, UHD offers four times as many pixels as HD.

UHD offers four times as many pixels as HD.

Why should anyone be excited about extra pixels, though? Because of picture detail, that's why. With even more pixels than HD, 4K TVs are able to show a staggering level of detail—things like the wrinkles on a persons face, strands of hair, and grains of sand are more clear than ever. Sure, HD displays can do this just fine—Panasonic's ZT60 does an excellent job of this already—but more of a good thing certainly won't make a TV worse.

Check out this 4K guide for more quick facts.

Design & Audio

A beastly beauty

The 55-inch X900A comes in an enormous box. True, normal people would consider any box with a 55-inch TV huge, but I completely forgot about the speakers built into the sides of this TV—they take up almost five inches on each side of the X900A. That’s right: This Sony is about 10 inches wider than most other 55-inch TVs.

These are hands-down the best speakers I've come across on a TV.

How does this actually look? Monstrous, although that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. From my totally masculine perspective, the X900A would be the envy of other man caves: big TV, big speakers, lots of pixels. Fellow reviewer Virginia Barry has a completely different take on this giant: she described its appearance as "gross." In fact, the entire design drew a strong reaction, positive and negative, from everyone in the office that saw it.

We need to highlight the quality of the X900A's gigantic speakers—these things are amazing. Sony delivers two 20-watt speakers and two 12.5-watt subwoofers, and the difference in audio quality is instantly recognizable. Cranking up the volume on a movie produces satisfying bass that you can feel—normally you would need an external speaker setup to experience this. Of course, audiophiles with great surround systems in place already will make no use of this feature whatsoever, leaving you with a useless eyesore.

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Interface & Smart Features

Everything we loved (and didn't) on the W900A, but in UHD

Sony hasn’t changed the appearance of its interface or smart platform for the X900A—everything is identical to the W900A and W802A, just upscaled to a higher resolution. That means a simple and intuitive menu system, which includes an abundance of picture adjustment options. There are some useful features to be found, like controls to automatically adjust brightness, augment black levels, and tons of motion enhancement settings. Don’t expect the same amount of tweakable options that Panasonic’s ZT60 has, though.

As far as smart features, we’ve discussed our thoughts on Sony’s platform before. Aside from Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon, there isn’t much to see on the Sony Entertainment Network. Want to know what a really smart idea would be? Having downloadable 4K movies on this platform. Sony plans to do this in the future... just not on its actual displays. You need the Sony 4K Ultra HD Media Player—currently $699—which will include a 4K store sometime in the future. Are you counting? This whole 4K thing is more expensive than it initially sounded.

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Performance

Perfect colors, but a contrast ratio that should be much higher

Sony does colors right. We’re usually impressed by the color accuracy on the company’s higher-end displays, and yet the X900A still manages to wow us. Red, green, blue, white—they all look incredibly accurate. And somehow, we’re also disappointed. What gives?

Red, green, blue, white—they all look incredibly accurate.

The whole concept of ultra high definition is more than just pixels; in the future, this technology will have more realistic colors. What if I told you that normal HDTVs only show 35.9% of colors that the human eye can see? UHD TVs (and appropriate content) will show deeper reds, greens, and blues, but the technology isn't there yet—current 4K TV models like the X900A do not make use of this expanded color gamut.

One point of contention is the so-so contrast the X900A produces. While this is one of the brightest TVs we’ve ever seen, its black level is yawn-inducing. The frustrating part is that we’ve seen better from Sony. Last year’s excellent HX950 has quite possibly the best local dimming I’ve ever seen. If you’re unfamiliar with local dimming, it’s a feature that controls different zones of LEDs on the TV for dynamic lighting. If part of the screen is showing black content, it will turn those LEDs off, creating eye-popping contrast. The X900A has a simplified version of this feature, but it doesn’t work nearly as well as the HX950. For $4,999, that’s unacceptable.

To properly enjoy this TV, you need content that isn't widely available yet.

It may seem like I’m harping on the X900A’s picture quality, but believe me: It looks excellent, with or without actual 4K content. But that's another problem—to properly enjoy this TV, you need content that isn't widely available yet. Watching daytime soaps upscaled to 4K resolution won't look any better on the X900A than it would on a comparable high-end, non-4K display. And with a price this steep, we expect quality that surpasses excellence.

The Finale

A UHD TV stuck in an HD world

The Sony Bravia X900A is a strange beast: It’s a 4K TV living in a non-4K world. This makes it a tough choice for consumers. If you want to watch actual UHD content, you need Sony’s $699 media player, which comes with 10 movies on it. You’ll be bored of these films in less than a week. While Sony plans on adding a 4K store to the content player, the actual arrival date is a mystery.

So, is the Sony X900A worth your five thousand dollars? If we lived in a world where UHD content grew on trees, then yes. Sadly, such a wondrous, geeky place doesn’t exist yet. The Sony Bravia X900A offers terrific picture quality and amazing audio, but it isn’t much of an upgrade over the company’s cheap-by-comparison W900A.

Ultra high definition is clearly the future of the TV industry—not the present.

Behind the Screens

Want excellent color accuracy? Look no further—the X900A has you covered. In addition to producing almost flawless red, green, and blue, the X900A is free of glaring color temperature errors, meaning your content won't display a strange blue or orange hue. Contrast isn't as exciting as this TV's color accuracy, although it's still acceptable. And did we mention that the X900A has four times as many pixels as a 1080p display?

Contrast

A so-so contrast ratio and no local dimming equals less bang for your buck

With a black level of 0.104 cd/m2 , the Sony X900A won't blow any minds. In fact, for less money and a bigger screen, you could buy the Panasonic ZT60, which runs circles around the X900A's black level. Fortunately, this Bravia ranks as one of the brightest televisions we've ever seen. Its peak white level of 362.5 cd/m2 is blinding, especially when you get up close and personal with the screen—one of the drawbacks of reviewing TVs.

While a contrast ratio of 3486:1 is decent, we expect more from Sony. We took this reading with Sony's Dynamic LED mode on, which is like a local dimming feature for edge-lit TVs. In case you need a refresher, local dimming is when a TV controls zones of LEDs to dynamically light content. TVs with LED backlighting have hundreds of these little lights, so having small sections light up depending on the content shown is ideal, as opposed to every single LED outputting the same luminance no matter what is on the screen.

Your flagship 4K TV should have better technology than your flagship 1080p TV from last year.

Sony knows how to utilize this feature—we've seen the company do a superb job with local dimming on last year's HX950. When we turned that feature on, the HX950 produced a contrast ratio of over 20,000:1. That TV has full-array LED backlighting, though—its LEDs are positioned directly behind the screen. The W900A has edge-lit LEDs, meaning its lights are along the edges. Because of this, the W900A cannot dynamically light as many small sections, and fails to produce a deep black level when its Dynamic LED feature is turned on. Call us crazy, but your flagship 4K TV should have better technology than your flagship 1080p TV from last year, especially when you pay $4,999 for it.

Color

Excellent color accuracy, but... we want more

Sony's X900A produces near-flawless colors. Greens and blues are perfectly saturated, while reds are just slightly oversaturated—not enough to notice, though. Its best test result is a supremely accurate white point—white looks the way it should, suffering no discoloration.

Surprisingly, we're disappointed by how well the X900A adheres to the Rec. 709 color standard. Normally, this would be a reason to celebrate—who doesn't love accurate colors? TVs with 4K resolution will have an expanded color gamut in the future. This new gamut, tentatively called Rec. 2020, shows 75.8% of the color spectrum. The soon-to-be-obsolete Rec. 709 gamut? It can only show a mere 35.9% of the color spectrum. Don't your eyes feel robbed?

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Viewing Angle

Another Sony TV with a narrow viewing angle? Absolutely.

A 55-inch TV like the X900A has enough surface area to please a room full of people, but if you're unlucky enough to watch it from a slightly off-angle, you will notice a drop in picture quality. Specifically, viewing this TV at an angle greater than 19° will show a picture with a significantly decreased contrast, which is never ideal. This result is similar to other Sony TVs we've tested.

Meet the tester

Josh Fields

Josh Fields

Staff Writer

@reviewedtech

An enthusiast of all things tech, Josh is one of Reviewed.com's resident television experts. When he's not looking at bright TV screens in a dark room, he's probably reviewing a laptop or finding a new snack at 7-11.

See all of Josh Fields's reviews

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