Sony XBR-X850E Series Bravia Review

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Picture Quality/Contrast/Black Level Rating: 88/100

"The HDR enhancements are great if you can nab some HDR content to watch on it.""
The biggest downgrade from the X900E and X930E in the Sony lineup above are that the X850E has no full array backlighting and instead is edge lit. Full array backlighting is one of the best (and most expensive when done right) feature differences when comparing one LED-LCD TV to another. A good full array backlit picture can produce more contrast in critical areas of the screen and also help with side angle viewing quality due to increased brightness. However the X850E does gain the new 4K HDR Processor X1 introduced this year. I'm glad that Sony has kept the X850E series similar to last years X850D with only a few upgrade touches. We loved this TV last year for its exceptional picture/price combination along with good solid features and value. The same applies this year with the X850E. The new processor does a great job of cleaning up and upgrading lower end picture signals. 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 as a practical measure this feature enhances detail in shadows, and especially sun highlighted effects.
Contrast is not a strong point of the X850E. It's very difficult for edge lit LCD TVs to display great contrast. In a dark room situation with movies this TV will not be the videophile's choice. We measure contrast around 1500:1, not bad for sure, but not in the upper echelon of TVs these days, especially with OLED TVs near perfect black levels. Of course the issue with contrast in edge lit LCD TVs is always black level. The TV can get bright enough, but the black levels cant get deep enough. That said, brightness is certainly not of the quality of the 900E or 930E in the series above due to their full array backlighting.

Uniformity/Grayscale/Color

Realistic color rendition is a staple of the high end Sony TVs. Colors are not over-saturated while grayscale uniformity looks good to the eye, yielding a smooth picture. We rarely see an LED back lit TV with such even back light uniformity especially of the side lit variety – 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 quality. By measurement, the uniformity suffers some in the corners and on the sides of the panel.

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 X850E. The new 4K HDR Processor X1 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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