Sony X950G 4K TV Review

Product Name: Sony X950G 4K TV

Product Description: Without a doubt, The Sony X950G 4K TV is a beautiful TV made for those who enjoy cinematic experiences. It may lack brightness intensity that other TV sets provide but it creates sharp, crisp and detailed images with great colors and perfect black levels, giving you a truly exceptional experience. It is a shame that the sound is a bit of a let-down for such a price but with a little help from a soundbar, you will enjoy amazing audio, making this 4K TV an investment worth doing and lasting for years to come.

Currency: USD

Availability: InStock

• Build Quality
• Performance
• Features
• Picture Quality

4.8

Summary

Without a doubt, The Sony X950G 4K TV is a beautiful TV made for those who enjoy cinematic experiences. It may lack brightness intensity that other TV sets provide but it creates sharp, crisp and detailed images with great colors and perfect black levels, giving you a truly exceptional experience.

Pros

Attractive and sleek design
Excellent Android TV 8.0
Latest remote control model
Stunning and vivid colors
Outstanding HDR highlight detail

Cons

Very expensive for its picture quality
Black levels need improvement
Backlights show noticeable halos
Wide viewing angles applied on large sizes only
Average sound quality

Sending

User Review

0 (0 votes)

• BUY IT IN USA - WALMART
• BUY IT IN USA - B&H
• BUY IT UN USA - AMAZON
• BUY IT - REST OF THE WORLD

Sony X950G 4K TV Review

Are you a movie buff? Or are you looking for the perfect centerpiece for your living room? If that is the case, the Sony X950G 4K TV is the right choice for you.

Thanks to its Triluminos Display Technology, Full Array Local Dimming (FALD) and Boosting, the X950G displays stunning and bright images that will keep you wondering, can this get any more beautiful? Sony uses the X1 Ultimate Picture Processor to power and run the X950G and features X-Wide Angle Technology for a wide viewing angle. This technology allows viewers to enjoy incredibly clear and crisp 4K HDR picture quality from any seat in the house without affecting the color and contrast.

People love the unique image quality that Sony brings to their TVs. Along with its great features, the Sony X950G 4K TV provides you with its latest remote and the TV’s classy design.

Overview

The Sony X950G features the latest version of the Android TV smart system which works faster and it is open to customization. Also, Sony is proud to be the only TV maker that offers hands-free Google Assistant voice command which is a really cool feature.

The XBR-X950G is one of the largest 4K Android TVs in the market at a range between 55 and 85inch and we are in no doubt that most people would fall in love with the massive 85inch TV. We can definitely say that we totally did!! It is a mid-range TV that offers excellent picture quality at a great price.

It is worth noting that the larger, 75” and 85” models use Sony’s X-Wide Angle technology in order to provide those wider viewing angles. Unfortunately, the 55” and 65” models don’t use that technology and customers have complained about the narrow viewing angles they are getting on their TV sets. We would say, in this particular case, that bigger is definitely better.

Design

Sony made a great decision regarding the design of the Sony X950G 4K TV.  Sony Bravia TVs have always been sleek and elegant and this one is no less. Its thin bezel and metal legs attached to the back of the screen stand out. A sign of quality is that the legs are strong enough to keep the TV from rocking (although a slight wobble is present), which is always a concern when you have such large TV sets. All you need is to get a wide entertainment center to match the size of the beast!

Sony has made cable management an easy task by providing a small section to hide the cables behind the TV. It is not as clean as Samsung TVs but it is useful nonetheless and a welcome feature. At the back of the TV, you’ll find all the IO connections which consist of four HDMI 2.0 ports, two USB ports, Ethernet, digital optical audio out, Remote IR, and 3.5 mm audio as well as built-in 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.2 for connecting a range of headphones and speakers.

One of the HDMI ports also supports Enhanced Audio Return Channel (eARC), a newer form of ARC that has started showing up on TVs only this year. eARC standard adds an extra data channel to the TV, providing support for 5.1 surround sound audio and lossless formats. It goes without saying that this gives you much better audio.

Additionally,  A built-in Google Chromecast allows you to share apps and media from your mobile device, which is something we do more and more every day and it has become mandatory with every new TV.

Lastly, the X950G’s remote control has been redesigned to make it long and thin with a brushed metal finish. It still has the playback and numbered buttons with a directional pad, but a Google Assistant button has been added. You can also quickly launch Google Play and Netflix from their own buttons, which is a neat feature.

Features

It is wide knowledge of how Android TVs can be unresponsive and a bit confusing. To combat this, Google and Sony worked together and have made the necessary changes to make sure the content better, faster, and much more accessible.

The X950G’s features some of Sony’s best image technologies, ranging from the X1 Ultimate picture processor to a specifically calibrated mode just for Netflix in order to get the streaming looking its best. Sony has ensured the picture you get out of the  X950G  can compete with other premium and higher-end TV sets such as Samsung Q90R and LG C9 series.

The boost in performance and speed is a major plus for the operating system running the TV. Aside from Netflix and YouTube, Sony X950G also support other digital streaming services such as Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, and many more. And as mentioned, Google Assistant is available so that you can control the TV through the remote or voice activation. That is a really neat feature and works a treat!

Performance

Since the Sony X950G 4K TV uses a full-array local dimming panel, the TV provides great contrast which in turn prevents blooming (blooming is a phenomenon of Uneven backlight, also known as clouding, mura, banding and/ or un-uniform brightness, which is a common phenomenon on all LCD TVs). The image quality has a pleasant natural look, it is not flashy or excessively bright. Colors are not highly intense and the black levels are great for HD/SDR content.

Even if you enjoy watching things in natural or standard mode, you have the choice to turn things up considerably. The X950G’s setting for the picture has a feature called Live Color where all you need to do is switch it on and the image’s vibrancy and saturation will suddenly pop.

Another great feature that Sony uses to make the images both clearer and smoother without sacrificing its brightness is through what they call X-Motion Clarity.  Managing fast-moving scenes is a key factor for any TV manufacturer that wants to provide smooth and life-like images. Fast-moving scenes used to be blurry because of an inevitable drop in brightness. X Motion Clarity uses object-based black frame insertion and backlight boosting to find the spots in the frame that need a boost in brightness and blacks out (or tones down) a specific area rather than affecting the whole screen. X950G’s X1 Ultimate processor is really a game-changer when it comes to upscaling, handling motion, and converting images to Live Color feature in real-time that blows away anything its competitors have to offer.

While other brands seem to provide higher brightness without hesitation, the Sony X950G uses peak brightness for the most intense HDR scenes. With a range above 1,000 nits peak brightness, this 4K TV does not experience severe blooming or haloing and the black levels stay fairly dark, which is pretty impressive. And with Triluminos technology, it provides a more accurate picture without saturation.

The X950G supports IMAX Enhanced, Dolby Vision, HDR10, HLG, and of course, Netflix. To get the maximum experience watching Netflix, there is a dedicated calibrated mode feature that calibrates the picture to display the most accurate image so you can enjoy the experience of gorgeous looking streaming content.

We did noticed a significant issue to do with backlight precision, or the lack of it to be honest. Despite the TV set’s local dimming settings, brightly lit objects shown against darker backgrounds looked to be surrounded by a sort of a haze of unwanted light. This was a little annoying as this backlight spilling out into portions of the screen that should remain dark can become distracting if you are watching a movie where the contrast between brights and darks features all the time.

On the plus side, we found the color quality to be excellent. This is thanks to its 10-bit color support, which is acutely obvious when you watch something with similar shades of color, such as reds and blues. Most TVs struggle to tell the difference between similar colors, such as shades of red and shades of blue, but the X950G displays different tones clearly without blending into each other. We did appreciate that and it was something that we were pleasantly surprised with.

For the gamers out there, the X950G has lag times that average 22.4 milliseconds. That is a very respectable time actually and when you combine it with the X950G’s color accuracy and wide color gamut, we believe this turns the X950G into the best TV set larger than 65” that we have tested for gaming. If gaming is your thing, this TV will blow you away.

Sound

With all the good stuff this TV has to offer, the speaker placement and Sony’s Acoustic Multi-Audio system might be the let down of the X950G. Their idea of putting the speakers at the bottom part and top back of the TV creates the illusion of the sound coming from the center screen. This actually works as intended, but the thing is, the power difference between the bottom and top speakers produces a noticeable imbalance and distortion when turning the volume up. The bass levels also can be somewhat disappointing.

But Sony has thought about that too and there is no need to panic. You can balance the sound by turning on the Advanced Auto Volume and the Voice Zoom settings. Also, you can always add an external sound speaker system or a soundbar to get the best possible audio out of the TV. If you stick to the built-in sound system, it might not generate accurate sound, but with a little tweaking to the adjustments, you can improve the results substantially.

Conclusion

Without a doubt, The Sony X950G 4K TV is a beautiful TV made for those who enjoy cinematic experiences. It may lack brightness intensity that other TV sets provide but it creates sharp, crisp and detailed images with great colors and perfect black levels, giving you a truly exceptional experience. It is a shame that the sound is a bit of a let-down for such a price but with a little help from a soundbar, you will enjoy amazing audio, making this 4K TV an investment worth doing and lasting for years to come.

Specifications