I've been on the fence for some time on whether or not to get an LED to replace my aging plasma. OLED seemed like the logical upgrade: perfect blacks, amazing picture quality. Except with OLED comes the same worries as with a plasma: burn-in worry, non-uniform degradation concerns, and of course brightness and power consumption. While they're all better than plasma by a large margin, I wanted to see what the best of the FA-LED had to offer.
# Picture quality
The picture quality is absolutely stunning. Watching UHD-HDR content with deep blacks and bright colors shows no perceivable blooming (when viewed at a reasonable angle). The brightness of this TV is worth the extra bucks over the 900H, which while it supports HDMI 2.1, doesn't get as bright or produce as nice of a picture as it's slightly better brother. The color uniformity was also superb with this model, with accurate (vivid when it needs to be, subtle when it needs to be) saturation in all colors, and a nice uniform gray. The "gradient smoothing" feature is absolutely amazing: no more color steps! This feature alone makes this a formidable panel. My only complaint is that there are slight shadows in each corner, which while subtle, are noticeable for panel enthusiasts. Given the rest of the TV's quality, I'll take slight corner darkness given that I can get amazing brightness. Sony's MotionFlow is probably the best in the business for motion smoothing (though I prefer 1/1 as opposed to Auto or higher settings).
Picture Quality Pros: Superb color, gradient smoothing, motion smoothing
Picture Quality Cons: Slight shadows in the corners, local dimming seems to only work when playing content (not in menus)
# Design / OS Ease of Use
AndroidTV is amazing. It's super responsive, easy-to-use, and also has additional bells and whistles for pros. If you're plugged into the Google ecosystem, it makes things super easy (e.g. auto password sync and sign-in for your apps, voice recognition for YouTube search / cross-provider search). It even doubles as a Google Assistant screen, which can optionally be set to listen even when the screen is off. The processor is lightning fast, with no delay or stuttering in any menu or playback service. However, codecs continue to be a problem.
# Codec Support Issues
While the TV can process 4K HDR at very high bitrates in H.264/H.265/VP9, it has difficulty with audio outputs. This might be an issue with the AndroidTV SDK (so it's up to the app developer to sort out), but the net effect is some titles with lossless codecs run into problems. For example, with Plex: When streaming Dolby TrueHD, it won't natively play back, and will fall back to Dolby Digital Plus. While it supports pass-through for DTS and DTS-HD, there are stuttering issues with some (but not all) titles. Sometimes a reboot fixes this (only for some titles). I wish I could simply request that the TV do no audio processing, and simply pass it through eARC to my very-capable receiver. That being said, Netflix or Amazon Prime work perfectly (including Atmos).
Pros: Easy to use navigation, smooth playback in all streaming apps
Cons: Wonky Plex support, but decent enough that it's not worth buying a separate box
# Conclusion
For me, this is probably the best UHD TV you can buy at the moment (at any size that's supported). I'm not interested in 8K, and given how well this TV does deep contrast, it goes toe-to-toe with OLED. Pop this TV and an OLED in a bright room, and this pulls ahead even further!
PS: This gets delivered via Amazon's big electronic freight service, so you can schedule a time and they drop it off in the first area of your home or apartment that's not outside. Super easy & secure (even for returns should something happen).
| Brand Name | Sony |
|---|---|
| Item Weight | 1 pounds |
| Product Dimensions | 65.88 x 16.38 x 41.38 inches |
| Item model number | XBR75X950H |
| Special Features | FULL ARRAY LED |
| Item Weight | 16 ounces |
| Standing screen display size | 74.5 Inches |
| Aspect Ratio | 16:9 |
