Sony’s Bravia XR OLED Is the Best-Looking TV I’ve Ever Seen

Sony has made quite a lot of noise about their new 2021 Bravia XR OLEDs, which is sensible. The TVs are the primary to function Sony’s new Cognitive Processor XR, which sounds an terrible lot like a proto-supervillain mind. The firm says the processor will recreate how people truly see issues in actual life.

After spending the final a number of weeks with the Sony Bravia XR A80J, I’m going to be very unhappy when I’ve to return to my regular TV, as a result of this Sony is the best-looking TV I’ve ever laid eyes on.

A Sleek TV With Plenty of Ports

Setting the TV up is a problem when you’re doing it by yourself—the smallest of the three Bravia XR OLEDs is 55 inches, and at 42 kilos, it’s simply unwieldy sufficient that you just’ll ideally need assist to connect the ft and stand it up. Speaking of the ft, they’re delightfully over-engineered, letting you select a large or slender low-profile stance or the next broad stance to accommodate, say, a soundbar. No screws are required, which could be very good—you simply slide them into the underside with a surprisingly satisfying clunk.

The low profile choices assist with (my lack of) cable administration, rendering wires all however invisible, and from the aspect, the panel almost disappears, whereas the chunk containing the TV guts is a pleasant, flat slab. Cables join from the underside, in a cavity within the again, save for a set of ports on the aspect. Connecting issues to these rear ports is as tough as you’d think about when you’re not truly trying in the back of the factor, however in case you have it wall-mounted or you have got house to show it the place it sits, the ports are clearly labeled.

The TV has three HDMI ports on the again and one on the aspect. The HDMI ports aren’t all created equal: two of them are HDMI 2.1, which suggests they will output 4K video at 120 Hz, considered one of these two is eARC/ARC, and the opposite two are common HDMI 2.0, and might take a 4K sign at 60 Hz. On the again, you’ll additionally discover ports for ethernet, optical audio, and USB, together with an RS-232C distant port. On the left aspect, along with HDMI, you’ll additionally discover two extra USB ports, a 1/8-inch headphone jack, and a mini jack for Video/Audio RCA alerts, so that you’ll want an adapter to hook up your Nintendo 64.

Life With Google TV

Turning the TV on, you’ll undergo a sequence of privateness agreements and have activation screens, and right here you possibly can both let the TV stroll you thru every thing or return and set issues up piecemeal. The firmware appears to be a little bit of a piece in progress, nevertheless, and I skilled points after setup associated to my proclivity for operating a TV with as few smarts as doable on the outset and activating options piecemeal in a while. A few the bugs I encountered had been smoothed over within the first firmware replace the TV acquired, nevertheless, and I might count on others to be, additionally. In the top, none of them affected the movie-watching expertise, so I determine no hurt, no foul.

When you end setup, there’s a very cool, showy transition clip that signifies completion of setup, and also you’re within the menu. If you select to not arrange Google TV, there’s a clear, fundamental interface with 4 streaming apps robotically put in: Netflix, Prime Video, YouTube, and Disney+. You also can entry USB media right here, or watch stay TV, amongst different options. Setting up Google TV is the place you actually get probably the most out of the TV’s interface. While I nonetheless choose many components of the Apple TV interface, Google’s OS has an important deal going for it. The system is swift and responsive, and Google does a superb job surfacing content material that I truly need to watch. That mentioned, it’s not excellent, and lacks sure fundamental sorting options I’d reasonably see, significantly within the Library part, the place shopping is restricted by a side-scrolling-only structure, with no class breakdown or alternate viewing possibility.

In addition to all the conventional streaming providers, this TV additionally comes with Sony’s personal streaming service, Bravia Core. Available solely on their TVs, that is their manner of making certain they get to indicate off the perfect the TV can do, with a piece of what they name “Pure Stream” films: films you can stream at as much as 80 Mbps, which begins nipping on the heels of the utmost bitrate of UHD Blu Ray. The TV comes with credit for 5 free films on the service, and customarily these use IMAX Enhanced with DTS reasonably than Dolby Vision/Atmos.

Phenomenal Picture

OK, let’s get right down to a very powerful function: image high quality. The XR A80J has a plainly phenomenal image. From one edge to the opposite, its 55-inch OLED panel offers an evenly-lit, crisp, clear image with a slight, barely noticeable off-color tint when seen at excessive angles (some shade shifting could be very regular for any OLED). I personally discovered that the IMAX Enhanced image mode was virtually indistinguishable from my post-calibration settings, and I most well-liked it to the slightly-too-dark cinema mode when watching non-Dolby Vision content material. For some cause, I nonetheless have a big, frozen-in-time assortment of DVDs and once I watched one, the TV did an excellent job upscaling and smoothing out artifacts. With options like “Reality Creation” (who names these things?) turned on, when you tilt your head and squint, sure scenes virtually seem like actual HD content material.

The panel shines most—fairly actually—when watching recently-made, large ticket Dolby Vision-compatible films. Any TV that may push that content material goes to look good, however so broad was the dynamic vary of the video output that once I watched the opening sequence of Thor: Ragnarok on my second evening of getting the A80J, I used to be startled by how vivid the sunshine from Thor’s hammer is relative to the darkness of Surtur’s cave. The impact is frankly dramatic and thrilling.

Color and distinction in each Dolby Vision film I watched was very good. Color separation was nice and and gradation was easy, whereas mild break up from darkish with out haloing, and the one film I examined the place coloring misplaced any element was the extraordinarily high-saturation shade model of Mad Max: Fury Road, and so far as I can inform, that’s simply baked into the movie anyhow (the Black and Chrome Edition seemed improbable, by the way in which). Throughout my time with the TV, I discovered myself noticing small visible particulars I’d missed on earlier viewings of flicks I’ve seen tens of instances, and was delighted once more by the look of flicks like Atomic Blonde, which makes use of shade sparingly, and to nice have an effect on. If I needed to criticize something concerning the image, it’s that the film transitions to black a bit too aggressively, obscuring particulars within the black that will have been supposed to be seen by the creators. But that criticism, frankly, appears like looking for methods Mr. Rogers might have been nicer.

On the opposite hand, although I can solely communicate for the Nintendo Switch, gaming was positive, not revelatory. One can’t count on a lot from that system, granted, however I discovered the default calibration to be too muted, and I wanted to tweak the highlights, total brightness, and shade settings to get the picture to the fitting place. I didn’t discover any actual enter lag, which was good, however I don’t suppose this TV is made to excel on this enviornment. Only having two HDMI 2.1 ports and missing variable refresh charge will flip off critical avid gamers, so if that is you, it’s in all probability finest to look elsewhere.

Surprisingly Good Sound for a TV

If you’re spending $1,800 on a TV, it’s possible that you’ve got a sound system you’d choose to make use of, however for many who could not, don’t fear: This TV truly has surprisingly good sound all by itself. Just a few years in the past, Sony did away with standard down-firing audio system and began sticking the actuators behind the display screen, basically permitting the display screen itself to change into the speaker. The good thing about this, they are saying, is that it permits the TV to higher simulate sound coming from specific factors on the display screen. In observe, I actually can’t inform you whether or not this works or not, however I can inform you the sound is wealthy and balanced, and although you’ll undoubtedly nonetheless need at least a decent soundbar, if you need to go with out, the TV affords positive sound.

Nice Extras

Digging into the menu, you’ll discover a considerably intimidating array of options, however for probably the most half, the advertising phrases utilized to every possibility suffices to clarify it. Much of the menu is comprised of sliders that alter the depth of video processing, and every setting is exclusive solely to the video mode you’re presently in. Two motion-smoothing options that Sony calls Motionflow and Cinemotion appear to not simply be toggled primarily based on video mode, but additionally enter, and I discovered that I stored having to readjust them till I’d gone via all of the permutations of enter/video mode. Of the 2, I assumed the Cinemotion possibility was extra helpful. That specific function may be set to excessive or low, and primarily impacted judder, which is the tendency for twenty-four fps content material to have jerky movement throughout panning sequences. I stored that function on, however for Motionflow, I discovered that I needed it off when watching films, and it was maddening each time I began a film and realized it seemed like a cleaning soap opera.

Also noteworthy is the TV’s ambient optimization, which not solely refers to ambient mild, but additionally ambient sound. The TV makes use of its ambient mild sensor to regulate not simply brightness, but additionally the tone curve of the picture, elevating the brightness of darker components of the display screen the place a vivid room would possibly in any other case make that tough. Additionally, the ambient sound options of the TV use your distant to calibrate the audio relative to the acoustic atmosphere of your room and your positioning whereas watching TV. The impact of this calibration is delicate, however efficient.

The distant (for many who care) is lengthy, and although I by no means use stay TV anymore, it might nonetheless be good if the numbered buttons had been positioned with a bit extra ergonomic consideration. As it stands, you need to readjust the way you maintain the distant to achieve them. More precedence is given to the 4 buttons for YouTube, Netflix, Disney+, and Prime Video, which is nice when you use them, however I wouldn’t thoughts the choice to remap them to totally different providers.

Worth Buying?

Overall, it is a improbable TV for movie fans. The image preserves a lot element, provides such good distinction, and offers for therefore many various kinds of calibration/video format, that when you’re in search of one thing to be the centerpiece of your main movie-viewing room, the Sony Bravia XR A80J would appear to be the conclusion, for now, of your search. If cash is of little concern, after all, you may bump as much as the higher-brightness A90J, however I don’t know that getting a contact extra element at larger brightness is basically value the additional $1,000. I’ll say, although, in case you have $1,500 to blow on a TV, save just a bit longer. It’s value it.