Computer Shopper - UK (2020-07)

TVs

ISSUE389|COMPUTER SHOPPER|JULY2020 85

TVs

SONY’SCURRENTRANGEofTVsis
enormous, andcrowned withacouple of8K
monsters that you’dneedtosell your house
toafford. Luckilyit’sthe upper-mid-range
screensthat seem to offer thebest
combination of performance and value,as
evidenced by theVA-panel XG95 range.
The 65in KD-65XG9505 modelwetested
lacks theX-WideAngle technology of larger
sizes, as does the £1,000 55in version,but still
it comes with alonglistofgoodies: full-array
local dimming LED backlighting, Sony’s X1
Ultimatevideo processor,HDR support for
HLG, HDR10and DolbyVision, and Sony’s
proprietaryX-Motion Clarity black zonal
insertion system forsmoothingout motion.
The gun-metalgreybezel is impressively
thin foraFALD LCDdisplay,and there’sanice
accent along the bottom border.The feet are a
thinner,morestreamlined shape than on the
preceding XF90 series, but as they’re located
near theends of the panel, you’ll need awide
AV rack to accommodate them.
Connections are mostlyonthe leftrear of
the chassis and include four full-bandwidth
HDMI 2.0b portswithHDCP 2.3 compliance.
Enhanced ARC has only been implemented
on the third HDMI socket, however.

HANDTOOLS
An Android-based operating system takes
thehelm and includes YouViewand Freeview
Playcatch-up services, alongside allthe usual
streaming suspects,barring NowTV. The
SoC’s 2.5GB of available RAM is lower than
that of the XF90, but the screenisstill
lightning-fastwhennavigating menus,
especially when compared to previous
Android-powered SonyTVs.
The new remotecontrol is ahuge
improvement on itscheap-feeling predecessor,
too. Itsbrushed metallic finish andtextured
rear make it apleasure to use,the length and
weight is just right,the buttons arewell laid
out, andtactile feedback is moregratifying
than from thesoft buttons of Sony’s
previous remotes. It isn’t backlit, which is
ashame,but it’s stillabig step forward.
Sound quality isn’tbad at all, either,
with audio given widthand presence by
acoupleofside-firing tweeters mounted
at the rearofthe chassis. This is what
constitutesthe grandly named Acoustic
Multi-Audio system. Make no mistake,
though:you’ll still hanker after aproper
external audio system.
The absence of X-Wide Angle
technology is,unfortunately,felt: unless
you’resitting directly in front of the

SONY KD-65XG9505

★★★★★

£1,300•From http://www.currys.co.ukk

VERDICT

ThisLCDTV’scomprehensiveupgradesmake
fordazzlingimpactthateventroublesOLEDs

KD-65XG9505,coloursandcontrastdropoff

fairly quickly.The screen itselfisalso more

reflective than equivalentOLEDsand QLEDs,

whichyou should bear in mind if your new

TV is going in abright room.

Sit in the sweet spot, however,and colours

such as skin tones look natural and realistic.

Thebacklighting deserves praise,too: we

reckon Sony’s local dimming algorithm is the

best in the business,striking awonderful

balance between preserving black depth and

restricting blooming. It very rarely draws

attention to itself.

That performance is particularly impressive

given that theSony’s backlightingconsists of

amere 60 independently dimmable zones.

There aresomehaloing artefacts visible,

particularly so in HDR, butthese are inevitable

when the image is of abright object againsta

dark background. One solution would be using

some gentle biaslighting to reduce blooming

and make letterbox bars appear darker,

though as thisisn’t aPhilipsAmbilight TV,

such lighting isn’tincluded.

Screen uniformity is nevertheless

outstanding: there’s no significant banding or

dirty-screeneffect,although corners are slightly

darkened, as is typical of Sony LEDLCDs.

MOMENT OF CLARITY

We’velong held Sony’s MotionFlow

interpolation technology in highregard,inno

smallpartbecauseitdoesn’t introduce as

many artefacts or soap-opera effects as

certain alternatives from rivalbrands –aslong

as it’s properlyset up.You’ll need to manually

enter the correct settings to activate X-Motion

Clarity,but it’s worth it in order to boost

motion resolution from thesample-and-hold

baseline of 300 lines to 1,080 lines (oreven

higher) without anyvisible increase in flicker

or drop in light output.

24fps films are handled smoothly,withno

sign of judder even in slow pans. Upscaling is

also excellent, retrievingsharpdetail from

low-resolution sources without excessive

fuzziness or ringing artefacts.

The Smooth Gradation feature also works

well in reducing posterisation fromlower-

quality video.Strangely,however,itcan be a

little over-aggressive with DolbyVision

content, and we noticed that it caused aloss

of detaileven on the lowest setting.

In general, however,HDR content looks

impressive.Aftercalibration,full-field

brightness peakedat720cd/m^2 ,one of the

highest we’ve measured. This gives HDR

content the sort of dazzling impacteven

many OLED TVscan’t match.

It’snot an absolutevictoryfor LCDover

OLED.For 4K HDRcontent, DCI-P3 colour

gamut coverage measures 94%, which is

similartothe XF90 butstill short of OLEDand

QLED equivalents. In real-worldviewing, 4K

Blu-rayimages lookfine,eveniftheydolack

the ultimate vibrancy of pricier TVs.

Gamerswon’t just appreciatethe XG95’s

prodigiousbrightness,asinput lag is relatively

low as well.Wemeasured averyagreeable

21ms in both1080p SDRand 4K HDR modes

TUNE UP

TThat’syet another improvement over the

XXF90, to add to the four full-bandwidth

HHDMI2.0b inputs,more calibration

ccontrols, enhanced eARC, betterAndroid

TTVnavigation and –last, but by no means

leeast –afar better remotecontrol.

All of that would be scant consolation

wwithout theimagequality to match,but

thankfully the KD-65XG9505 hits the

mmark here,too.All in all,it’s our new

faavouriteLCD TV,and while quality

OOLED screens beatitonsheer pop,

ittjoinsthe Samsung QE55Q70R as a

great lower-priced alternative.