Sony Master Series A9G XBR-55A9G Review
Product Name: Sony Master Series A9G XBR-55A9G
Product Description: Sony’s latest creation, the Master Series A9G, delivers excellent picture quality with Google Assistant and an awesome built-in sound system. The Sony A9G is known for providing the best built-in audio experience of all flat-screen panel TVs in the market due to its Acoustic Surface Audio+. It creates 2.2 channel sound directly from the screen which is an amazing feat. The Sony Master Series A9G 4K TV has been given recognition in the Best TVs of 2020 Gear Guide as the Best TV for Both Picture and Out of the Box Sound Quality. With its incredible picture and tons of features, it deserves all the attention and awards it gets.
Currency: USD
Availability: InStock
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Build Quality
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Performance
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Features
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Picture Quality
Summary
Sony has once again proved that years of expertise in developing superior TVs results in a masterpiece with their Master Series A9G 4K TV. What you get here is an all-round TV that works for everything, movies, live TV, games, you name it, the Sony A9G will provide you with stunning images and a wealth of settings to adjust things to your liking. Despite some color issues, the A9G still generates excellent, clean, and detailed pictures, thanks to its excellent contrast ratio. This TV excels in almost every aspect and if you have the cash and can afford it, don’t think twice, you won’t regret it.
Pros
Outstanding picture quality with perfect contrast and black levels
Excellent color interpretation for both normal and HDR content
Superb wide viewing angles
Great sound quality
Attractive design and features
Cons
High-risk of a burn-in, a common problem for OLED TVs
Not the ideal brightness as expected
Gaming and Connectivity issues
Average sound system
Quite expensive compared to other OLED TVs
User Review
( votes)Sony Master Series A9G XBR-55A9G Review
Sony’s latest creation, the Master Series A9G, delivers excellent picture quality with Google Assistant and an awesome built-in sound system. The Sony A9G is known for providing the best built-in audio experience of all flat-screen panel TVs in the market due to its Acoustic Surface Audio+. It creates 2.2 channel sound directly from the screen which is an amazing feat. The Sony Master Series A9G 4K TV has been given recognition in the Best TVs of 2020 Gear Guide as the Best TV for Both Picture and Out of the Box Sound Quality. With its incredible picture and tons of features, it deserves all the attention and awards it gets.
Overview
From the success of the 2018’s A9F, Sony released a new model at the beginning of 2019 from its Master Series, the A9G. What can we expect from this new edition? Well, it’s pretty much similar to most 4K HDR OLED TVs in the market today, it has beautiful, vibrant, and realistic picture quality with powerful performance and exceptional OLED contrast, color, and black levels.
Another great thing about the A9G is its outstanding display, we actually think that it is truly exceptional. It has perfect black levels along with millions of luminous pixels. Sony uses the X1 Ultimate picture processor and Pixel Contrast Booster technology in order to produce bright and vibrant colors, perfect black levels, and stunning contrast. This results in the best watching experience we have seen as all those features working together bring all your favorite shows and movies to life.
Furthermore, the Sony A9G handles motions fantastically and comes with amazing smart TV features and connectivity. The price might not be budget-friendly but with all the goodies that you get, it’s fair to say that it’s worth every penny. And if money is not an issue and you are in that privilege list of people who can afford this TV, this could be the perfect OLED TV every person dreamed of having.
Design
When you see the Sony A9G, the first thing you will notice is how gorgeous its design is. It is not the typical design of a flat-screen TV, intended to be mounted on a stand or a wall. Its curved-back design, ultra-thin shape, and an inclined-edge, it will catch your eye very quickly for its unique and attractive looks.
The Sony A9G has different sizes, 77”, 65”, and 55″, and its super thin bezel looks invisible, it actually feels it has no physical edges. With such stylish TV, the remote control shouldn’t fall too far behind and it doesn’t disappoint with its brushed metal finish. It’s super light and comfortable to hold and provides you with the standard menu buttons as well as designated buttons for Google Play and Netflix.
Features
Like most of Sony’s TVs, the A9G has a reliable operating system as well as a comprehensive range of useful features and digital media services. It uses Android TV which features Google Cast for accessing video and music streaming platforms such as Netflix, YouTube, Spotify, Google Play Movies, TV and Music, and Amazon Prime Video. There are also a lot of other apps, services, and games available to make sure there is nothing missing to enjoy entertainment at your fingerprints ensuring your movie, streaming and/ or gaming experience is second to none.
Another great advantage of using Android TV for Sony A9G’s interfaces is the fact that you get access to Google Assistant. You can either press the pre-assigned button on the remote and speak into the microphone, or get completely hands-free by saying a wake-up phrase like “Hey, Google”. This allows you to control the TV and all smart features without pushing a button. We tested this and to be frank, we had a lot of fun with it. It really works very well and any geek out there will love this feature, guaranteed!
Performance
The Sony A9G is an Ultra-High Definition or 4K TV that displays HDR10, HLG, Dolby Vision content and what Sony has called ‘Pixel Contrast Booster’, a panel controller maximises the TV’s dynamic range and increases the image’s detail and texture. It has perfect black levels which means that the blacks are true blacks, rendering very nice, crisp and vibrant images. In addition to this, using a visual field testing, the Sony A9G displays a peak brightness of 504.27 nits, which is slightly dimmer than LG C9P & E9P but is still bright enough.
In terms of color performance, the A9G did not fail to impress us as the TV set genuinely shows accurate colors. All reds, greens, and blues pass the DCI P3 levels while whites and secondary colors are run cool. These results are the usual performance of modern OLED TV but if you are not satisfied, you can always have it calibrated by professionals.
If gaming is your thing you will want to know about the TV’s lagging performance. Upon testing the Sony A9G input lag in Cinema mode, it shows a very disappointing high rate of 101.5ms. However, switching to Game mode gives a surprisingly low input lag of 18.9ms. Also, trying other testing equipment results in 26.5ms, which makes the A9G one of the best OLED TVs for gaming purposes.
Sound
Most of us invest in a premium TV because of its high-quality features, image quality and sound quality. The Sony A9G has an Acoustic Surface Technology which makes the screen the actual speaker. With the use of actuators placed behind the screen, they vibrate the panel turning the entire glass panel into a massive speaker that actually produces clear and stable sound.
But there’s a little problem, the glass screen is too thin in the lower tones range and it can’t produce much bass on its own. So, Sony included a subwoofer or loudspeaker to enhance the sound and we have to admit, the whole combination has been implemented rather successfully. The sound that comes out of the A9G is worth listening to and with its built-in sound technology, it’s one of the best innovations in TV over the last few years.
You could always attach a soundbar to the system and alternate between one of the other, depending on what you watch. Sound is such a personal thing, what might be amazing to someone, might be unacceptable to someone else, but it is always good to know that the starting point is excellent, it is down to personal taste whether you want to add more to it or are happy with what you get straight out of the box.
Verdict
Sony has once again proved that years of expertise in developing superior TVs results in a masterpiece with their Master Series A9G 4K TV. Despite some color issues, the A9G still generates excellent, clean, and detailed pictures, thanks to its excellent contrast ratio. And even if the high price prevents the Sony A9G from getting the highest recommendation, you can’t hide the fact that it excels in almost every way.
Not sure this is what you are looking for? Check out our 4K TV section where we review a wide range of TV sets. We are sure there is something in there for you.