Sony XBR-X800D Series Bravia Review

Sony XBR-X800D Android TV Apps

Strengths

  • Awesome dark shadow detail and black levels
  • Excellent night¬ time (dark room) picture quality
  • Smooth upscaling with realistic color
  • Sound especially voice quality (after adjustments)
  • Android Smart TV operation is fast, quality, and voice search works well
  • Plenty of Preset Picture Modes

Weaknesses

  • Glitchy processor when operating many functions quickly
  • Menu Interface can be confusing at first
  • No included web browser
  • Some of the preset picture modes are no good

Neutral

  • Gaming input lag

Picture Quality

"The HDR enhancements are great if you can nab some HDR content to watch on it."
I'm glad that Sony has kept the X800 series similar to last years X830C with only a few upgrade touches. We loved this TV last year for its exceptional picture/price combination along with good solid features. The same applies this year with the X800D. One of the primary differences in last years model is the focus around HDR (high dynamic range) for 2016 and beyond. HDR is originally a camera feature, and in order to enjoy HDR on this TV, the content will also have to have been filmed in HDR. Essentially what you get with HDR is higher luminosity and contrast, and practically this feature enhances detail in shadows, and especially sun highlighted effects. The X800D model is pretty much the same as the X850D series except that it has a lower panel refresh rate of 60hz (240 Motion Flow enhanced). The smaller sizes of 43” and 49” do not warrant the need for the higher refresh rate.

Uniformity/Grayscale/Color

Realistic color rendition is a staple of the high end Sony TVs. Colors are not over-saturated while grayscale uniformity is very good yielding a very smooth picture. We rarely see an LED back lit TV with such even back light uniformity – no clouding in blacks and no dark shadows in a mid-tone gray screen. Light flow-through is not as vibrant as some TVs but this depends more on content.

Triluminous Display

This wide-gamut color technology has been fantastic for Sony for a couple years. It produces much more realism and true-to-life color renditions than most of Sony's competitors, and in general takes less calibration effort to obtain an enjoyable picture setup. Colors are not over-juiced as they are with some, but they still have plenty of pop and are beautiful.

Up-Conversion of HD to 4K

Up-scaling and conversion is Sony's bread and butter and it's the best attribute of the X800D. The 4K X-Reality Pro engine is exceedingly good at up-converting and smoothing the HD signal to the native resolution of the panel. If this were not the case, why buy a 4K TV in the first place except to future proof? There still is not enough 4K content to be concerned with, so up-scaling has to be a preeminent consideration.

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