PICTURE QUALITY Picture quality fell short, overall. Reproduction of fine image detail was excellent. Color accuracy was very good, with flesh tones in particular, looking natural. Contrast was poor in dark scenes, so images looked flat with no sense of depth. Black levels were overly bright, unfortunately, worse than most TVs. Its reproduction of smooth edges on image content for "up-converted" HD-to-UHD images was very good with minimal "jaggies" (jagged edges). Deinterlacing of 1080i video was excellent. Its frame-rate compensation for 1080i film-based content was excellent.
HIGH DYNAMIC RANGE (HDR) PERFORMANCE HDR performance had very limited effectiveness. In our tests, the display's lack of high peak brightness capability (by HDR standards) limited its ability to show the benefits of our HDR 4K content. It could not reveal much contrast between the moderately bright and very bright highlights —while the brightness levels in the mid-to-lower tones, like those in an indoor scene, were preserved. It did a good job reproducing a greater range of nuanced shadow detail, from black to white, with no obvious banding within the gradually shaded areas. We noted some loss of detail within the highlights of the brightest areas.
VIEWING ANGLE This Sony model has a wide viewing angle overall. It should provide fairly consistent picture quality for typical viewing setups—say, if seated in a chair off to one side. Our examination at various angles saw reasonably good consistency. In our tests, the picture did show some slight dimming from the sides, but not to a distracting degree. Viewing from the sides, the depth of black levels varied depending on our vertical position. This issue became even more apparent when seated on the floor looking upward, where black levels brightened significantly. When we viewed the TV from the sides the image had some loss of quality. Lastly, we viewed the image from above and below center screen, and saw excellent vertical viewing angle performance, with no significant changes in color, contrast, and black level.
MOTION BLUR In our motion tests, this Sony LCD (LED) had good motion performance, with some blurring.
SOUND QUALITY We got sub-par sound quality, with below average performance. It could be acceptable for typical programming, but its shortcomings would be obvious with movie soundtracks and music. In our listening evaluations, we found the bass (low frequency sound) to be very weak and very well defined. Treble (high frequency sound) lacked detail. The treble was generally neutral, notably closed in. This TV should be OK in rooms large or small, noisy or quiet—we found the speakers could play at a fairly loud volume level. If sound quality matters to you, you might want to add a soundbar or other external speaker system.
EASE OF USE Consider the TV's stand is 41 inches wide when choosing a table top to place it on. The remote controls doesn't need to be pointed at the TV. It has a simplified design with a reduced set of buttons. The remote has a microphone use to issue voice commands. The TV also has a microphone which can be used to issue voice commands without the remote.
INTERNET FEATURES This TV provides internet functionality via its "Google TV" portal, with access to a library of applications. Movie streaming services that can be downloaded to this TV, or are built-in, include Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, Disney Plus, Hulu, Max/HBO Max, Netflix, YouTube. It includes a built-in Google Assistant virtual assistant, which allows you to use natural speech to ask questions, launch applications, and search programming by talking to the TV.
CONNECTIONS This model has 3 HDMI inputs 2 USB ports, and an optical digital audio out, an Ethernet port, 802.11ac/WiFi 5 wireless networking, and AirPlay—for sharing videos, photos, music, and more from Apple devices to the TV.
WHAT'S INCLUDED A remote control. Wall mount spacers.
