Sony XBR-X850F Series Bravia Review

XBR-65X850F, XBR-75X850F, XBR-85X850F

4K UHD RESOLUTION, HDR COMPATIBLE, LED BACKLIT LCD TV, ANDROID TV


"Motion flow is fluid with the 120Hz panel and Sony processing."

Strengths

  • Better side angle viewing than most LED TVs
  • Excellent Processing of standard definition content
  • Color Accuracy and Realistic Rendition
  • Appearance
  • Dark Shadow Detail
  • Good Selection of Preset Picture Mode
  • Android Smart TV operation is fast, quality, and voice search works well
  • Best Motion processing and anti-blur technologies on the market
  • Low Input Lag

Weaknesses

  • Side Angle Viewing
  • Sound Quality
  • Black Levels uneven and not the best
  • Not especially bright for an LED TV

Picture Quality/Contrast/Black Level Rating: 87/100


The biggest downgrade from the X900F in the Sony lineup above are that the X850F has no full array backlighting and instead is edge lit. Full array backlighting is one of the best (and most expensive when done right) feature differences when comparing one LED-LCD TV to another. A good full array backlit picture can produce more contrast in critical areas of the screen and also help with side angle viewing quality due to increased brightness. However, the X850F does have the 4K HDR Processor X1. This processor was introduced last year, but is excellent. The X900F has the new Extreme version of the same name as one of the other upgrades. The X850F is obviously filling a large TV niche at a good value price. The processor does a great job of cleaning up and upgrading lower end picture signals. HDR is originally a camera feature, and in order to enjoy HDR on this TV, the content will also have to have been filmed in HDR. Essentially what you get with HDR is higher luminosity and contrast, and as a practical measure this feature enhances detail in shadows, and especially sun highlighted effects.

Contrast is not a strong point of the X850F. It's very difficult for edge lit LCD TVs to display great contrast. In a dark room situation with movies this TV will not be the videophile's choice. We measure contrast around 1500:1, not bad for sure, but not in the upper echelon of TVs these days, especially with OLED TVs near perfect black levels. Of course the issue with contrast in edge lit LCD TVs is always black level. The TV can get bright enough, but the black levels cant get deep enough. That said, brightness is certainly not of the quality of the 900E or 930E in the series above due to their full array backlighting.

Uniformity/Grayscale/Color

Realistic color rendition is a staple of the high end Sony TVs. Colors are not over-saturated while grayscale uniformity looks good to the eye, yielding a smooth picture. We rarely see an LED back lit TV with such even back light uniformity especially of the side lit variety – no clouding in blacks and no dark shadows in a mid-tone gray screen. Light flow-through is not as vibrant as some TVs but this depends more on content quality. By measurement, the uniformity suffers some in the corners and on the sides of the panel.

Triluminous Display

This wide-gamut color technology has been fantastic for Sony for a couple years. It produces much more realism and true-to-life color renditions than most of Sony's competitors, and in general takes less calibration effort to obtain an enjoyable picture setup. Colors are not over-juiced as they are with some, but they still have plenty of pop and are beautiful.

Up-Conversion of HD to 4K

Up-scaling and conversion is Sony's bread and butter and it's the best attribute of the X850F. The new 4K HDR Processor X1 engine is exceedingly good at up-converting and smoothing the HD signal to the native resolution of the panel. If this were not the case, why buy a 4K TV in the first place except to future proof? There still is not enough 4K content to be concerned with, so up-scaling has to be a preeminent consideration.

Side Angle Viewing

One of the best performances we've seen in this area for a mid-priced 4K TV although this is still a weakness of all LED-backlit LCD TVs. The IPS panel included in the x850F is built for better side angle viewing, making this a good game day TV. Color saturation and contrast begin degrading at around 15 degrees, they do not degrade noticeably until around 20 degrees off center. The screen is semi-matte and does a good job of not reflecting in room light. I like this screen and TV better at night in a low light room due to it not having as much light-flow from the LED backlights (as some other brands).

Picture Settings

If you don't have any time to make adjustments, try the Cinema Pro setting for nighttime viewing and the Cinema Home setting for daytime viewing.

  • Vivid – Completely blown out color and false picture
  • Standard - Also over-hyped unnatural color, contrast preset to 100, too much blue in neutral color temp preset.
  • Custom – This preferred mode gets you close to D65 and what we typically recommend for settings. Software related features under Clarity sub settings like: Reality Creation, Random noise reduction, and Digital noise reduction are all off under factory set. Under Motion the Film Mode (Cinemotion) is set to off.
  • Cinema Pro – This is a very nice setting for a low light or dark room – especially for movies.
  • Cinema Home- The increase in on-screen picture light is from the higher Gamma setting and moderately from the Live Color setting being in High. This is a good bright room and all purpose setting even for sports.
  • Sports- We did not like this settings for sports nor anything else. It created lots of conflict and unwelcome additions on the screen, over-hyped color, motion artifacts, and even some strobing effects. The Film Mode is set to High so you get the soap opera effect unless you adjust it down.
  • Animation– Did not test, but we can only assume animated movies look good on it.

(For HDMI inputs there are also Photo-Vivid, Photo-Standard, Photo-Custom, Game, Graphics) Of course, the Game mode is the preferred setting for gaming to cut down on input lag.


The word recognition in the voice search function is extremely impressive

Features Rating: 94/100

Design/Appearance

Sony does not seem smitten by the curved screen craze from Samsung. I agree with them. It's never really appealed to me. Sony's design elements are simple and straightforward but very attractive. This TV will appeal to interior designers. The TV sits low on the new silver stand feet, which is a good look, and the stand feet have a cavity for running your cables through to keep it looking neat. Even the back of the TV has a nice contour and patterned design so that the TV looks good no matter where it is situated in the room. The 75” model is a slim 2.25” in depth.

Smart TV/Android TV Operating System Features/Google Assistant

The X850F gets the newest Google Android TV ops system 6.0. Android TV featured Apps include Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Instant, Vudu, Pandora, iHeartRadio, Crackle and SiriusXM, and around 30 small insignificant Apps. Add HBO NOW, EPIX, Starz Play, Fusion, Pluto TV and a few more to the assortment this year. At first it looks like a limited selection until you delve into the Google Play Music, Games, Movies and TV options. Then lots more content opens up. The quality of the Apps are all over the board, so if there is a negative to the OS, it's that there are lots of low quality Apps to go along with the good ones. What we really like is the operation speed combined with excellent video and sound quality of the Android/Google Play section of the Smart TV offerings. This is differentiated from the competition. The voice search function on the remote works exceptionally well and fast with You Tube and Google Play options. The new Google assistant search works through the mic on the remote as well and is very effective.

Google Cast allows you to show movies, pictures, and TV shows from your IOS or Android based smartphone or from a laptop. We think the best use of Google Play is gaming.

Obviously, if you're not content with the choices, you can always connect a Roku box, which still has the best offerings anyway. Then you get both.

Film/Cinemotion Mode – Keep it Low or Off to prevent Soap Opera Effect

The Film or Cinemotion (depending on software update) Picture Setting is located in the Picture Setting Adjustments menu, under Advanced Settings, under Clarity. The setting combined with the Motionflow setting has an impact on whether your picture is over-clarified by eliminating too much natural background blur. This creates the dreaded “Telenovela effect”. It's easy to prevent on the X850F. All you have to do is keep the Motionflow Smoothness setting at level 3 and Clearness setting at level 2 and tune the Film/Cinemotion setting to Off or Low. The feature only provides frame compensation to remove judder at the top two settings of Medium and High. All of that said, The Telenovela Effect is not nearly as pronounced and distracting in the X850F as with many TVs on the market such as the Samsung's.

Touch Pad Remote / Android TV Search / Remote Control

The remote is not a fancy touchpad affair this year. The new black remote has hot buttons for Apps like Netflix and Google Play. Again this year, if you're searching on the Smart TV platform we've never seen a better voice search system than the Android TV search function enabled on the Sony 4K TVs. Voice search is now accessed through a button at the top of the remote. The voice recognition search works flawlessly, even in a noisy room. The TVs response time on delivering results is fast and accurate. Give it a try. It's great for searching YouTube, Google Assistant, and Google Play options.

The selection of apps on Android TV is impressive. Most of the services have good content to offer.

TV Menu and Smart TV Interface Navigation

The TV menu interface is clean looking (albeit confusing) and there are tons of preset picture options (7 not counting photo.) The Cinema Pro and Cinema Home settings are good right out of the box. But operation of the menu system is quirky and difficult and there are some mis-titled settings such as Brightness rather than Backlight. The processor also had a tough time handling commands given too quickly. The Smart TV layout is easily accessed by the Home button on the remote. This brings up all the Smart TV Apps and Google Play options.

Smooth Motion

One of the best features worth noting in the X850F is the smooth motion generated by the X-Motion Clarity feature as well as the 120Hz panel. There is very little to no blur present. This is an area the X850F excels in above all other brands and TVs on the market this year. The TV also shows little judder even without the Motionflow feature

Film/Cinemotion Mode – Keep it Low or Off to prevent Soap Opera Effect

The Film or Cinemotion (depending on software update) Picture Setting is located in the Picture Setting Adjustments menu, under Advanced Settings, under Clarity. The setting combined with the Motionflow setting has an impact on whether your picture is over-clarified by eliminating too much natural background blur. This creates the dreaded “Telenovela effect”. It's easy to prevent on the X850F. All you have to do is keep the Motionflow Smoothness setting at level 3 and Clearness setting at level 2 and tune the Film/Cinemotion setting to Off or Low. The feature only provides frame compensation to remove judder at the top two settings of Medium and High. All of that said, The Telenovela Effect is not nearly as pronounced and distracting in the X850F as with many TVs on the market such as the Samsung's.

Sound Quality – ClearAudio+ - Turn Off

The X850F comes preset with the ClearAudio+ feature set to on. There are too many unwanted side effects from this sound setting including a hollow echoing effect. We recommend immediately turning this feature Off. This is all we needed to adjust to get a respectable sound quality from the TV. Voices were clearly separated from background noise and music. Both are nicely defined for a good sound quality (for a TV). Volume capability is adequate but not the best tested. It takes a 50% volume setting to fill a large room.

Value Rating: 93/100

Sony XBR65X850F- $2499

Sony XBR75X850F - $3500

Sony XBR85X850F - $3999

Sony is obviously going big with value for the X850F. It's a tremendous TV for the price. The X850 model has been one of our favorite value models for years. This is no different with the X850F. If the TV is being used for viewing in a room with lots of light, you will be pleased with the performance even at side angles. Sony has a tendency to come out with higher prices on initial rollout of models and then reduce price as the year progresses so watch for that. The model predecessor to the X850F ended up being one of the best value models in the market after a few price drops late in the year.

Overall Rating: 89/100

Quick Specs

  • 4K Ultra HD providing 4x the resolution of 1080p
  • 4K HDR Processor X1
  • 4K X-Reality PRO picture engine for best picture from any source
  • TRILUMINOS Display reproduces highly accurate color and clarity
  • HDR Compatible
  • 120Hz native rehresh rate
  • ClearAudio+ Digital Sound Processing (DSP)
  • Audio Power Output : 10W+10W
  • Speaker Configuration : 2ch, Full Range (30 x 80 mm) x 2
  • HDMI 2.0 means 4K content at 60p is possible
  • Future proofed with HEVC codec for support of future 4K content
  • Built-in Wi-Fi
  • Google Assistant
  • Android TV 6.0
  • Dimensions
  • TV without stand XBR65X850F: 57 1/8 x 33 x 2 1/8 inches
  • TV with stand XBR65X850F:57 1/8 x 35 1/2 x 12 1/2 inches
  • XBR-75X850F without stand 65 7/8 x 38 x 2 1/4
  • XBR-75X850F with 65 7/8 x 40 5/8 x 14 5/8


Robert Wiley Having reviewed and written about Television Technology for over 10 years, Wiley never tires of researching the newest qualitative trends related to the technology. Most people do not get excited about possibilities behind the latest video engine... Wiley does. Read more about Robert