Sony XBR-84X900 Review (XBR84X900A)

Weaknesses

Neutral

This is an excellent example of the X900A's ability to render a highly detailed image with bright colors and strong contrast

Picture Quality Rating: 9.5/10

This is one of the best pictures on the market as of this writing – probably the best if you ignore side angle viewing. We thoroughly enjoyed reviewing this TV and I was surprised how good the picture is after having seen it first at CES. Even after calibrating it away from the over-hyped preset settings, it displays a realism and natural picture which is only equaled by the Sony W900A. The reason for the similarity between the two is the two new technologies included in them, the Triluminous Display, and the X-Reality Pro enging Sony's two best ever display technologies. The Triluminous display really does perform as promised in presenting truer colors, especially reds, and greens which tend to be more difficult.

The major weakness of the picture is side angle viewing quality. Since the X900A has edge lit LED backlighting it suffers the same outcome from side angles. Colors and contrast fade with both 2D and 3D signals.

The major strengths of the picture are the aforementioned incredible color and secondly the astounding image edge clarity and increased depth perception.

Color and contrast are two of the high points in this image. The reds and greens are bright and realistic while the black is deep and detailed.

Upconversion Technology of Urgent Importance

The key to this TV and any 4K TV is how well it up-converts a 1080p signal or a 480p signal to 4K resolution – 4 times or approximately 8 times. This is very important due to the limited content available for 4K TVs in that native resolution – almost non-existent at this point.

I watched a 480p standard def resolution DVD of Batman on the X900A and was extremely impressed by the up-conversion capability of the TV. Sony has always been strong in executing these types of chanllenges and they succeeded with created a great picture. I would say the picture you see from a decent quality standard definition source signal equates to about 1080p high def in appearance. So you do get an added bump in quality with this TV over a 1080p resolution panel. This in large part is due to the 4K X-Reality PRO engine.

Motionflow Setting

Although this excellent TV has tons of great technology built in, it was not able to eliminate the Soap Opera effect (elimination of too much natural background blur) when de-juddering the picture image. It's still best left off for any kind of non-live-sports programming and since it comes set to on you will need to go through and turn it off in the menu (in the Advanced picture settings). The options within the Motion flow setting do make a big difference in the amount of Judder taken out and the effects on the picture vary quite a bit. The choices are: Clear, Clear Plus, Standard, Smooth, and new setting called Impulse. Out of the choices the Smooth or Standard setting seemed best to me.

Contrast and color, even though a bit subdued in this shot, from front and center is top notch for an LED TV

3D – Passive and Super Impressive

This is probably going to be the best looking 3D you've seen. The extra pixels make the definition and depth perception look incredible. It's better than the theater, it really is. Watching Avatar in 3D on this TV I was mesmerized by the color, depth, and clean edges. You will want the Motionflow feature on for 3D and setting the TV to the dedicated 3D picture mode option accomplishes this. The 3D picture mode is not in the same area as the normal picture mode options. It's down further in the picture menu.

Side angle viewing contrast and color fades with 3D viewing hurting the picture the further you go. The fading starts at around 20 degrees off center but it's not bad until you get to around 25 degrees. Comes with 4 pairs of passive 3D glasses and additional pairs are only a few bucks.

Features Rating: 8/10

Other Features

Digital photographs can be displayed on the TV if that is important to you as well as full network capability for iPads and the like. The TV may be controlled with and Android Smartphone or Xperia Tablet, but we did not place any importance on this feature. It seems inconsequential since you can access the same content through the Web or Smart TV options.

Smart TV Features

The Sony Entertainment Network is included – not so great in our opinion after a thorough review of it. The See our review of the SEN for details. The normal premium Internet choices are fairly easy to access and include Netflix®, Pandora®, HuluPlus™, Amazon Instant Video, YouTube™, Slacker® Internet Radio, Crackle and social networking through Facebook and Twitter as well as others. Sony claims Yahoo! Broadcast Interactivity Widgets as well.

Sony Entertainment Network Review

The Sony Entertainment Network lets you search for and watch On Demand TV shows and Movies. Sony has been taking steps to ramp up the connectivity with mobile devices this year

Appearance and Design - Unique

Well, if anything the design of this TV stands apart as unique with the significant side speakers of about 3 inches wide on the sides of the TV. It's still really good looking, with a piano black gloss finish. The round silver accompanying stand is unique looking as well and adds a minimalist stand to a wide panel.

Sound Quality – 10 Live Speaker System

Sony has wisely not forgotten to also focus on sound quality with this TV even though the majority of owners of a $20K plus TV will have their own sound system installed. Here is what the company states about their sound quality on the 84X900, “In addition to unmatched picture quality, Sony's XBR-84X900 4K TV ensures that a full cinema-like experience is delivered to the living room with an immersive, full-bodied and rich sound. The 4K TV incorporates a 10 Unit Live Speaker system which is optimized for this large-sized screen. Drawing on Sony's storied sound signal-processing technology, these speakers envelop the viewer in virtual 5.1 surround sound. The side speakers are also detachable, allowing consumers to connect to an existing home theater system.”

Remote Controls and Menu System

The menu system is new for this year and an improvement over last year but it still takes a couple too many clicks to get to important controls. It still needs on on-screen tutorial to explain the huge number of controls (for instance in the picture settings menu) There is no voice recognition system yet in the remotes. There are two remotes that come with this TV, the standard and the small thin abbreviated remote with less keys. Everything on the smaller remote dealing with the menu or Smart TV selection must go through the Home button and thus an extra click or more. You will likely end up just using the standard backlit remote which works well.

The Sony Entertainment Network remote is slim and lightweight. It's very simple and puts emphasis on the important buttons like channel and volume. The home and SEN buttons are also just as big and will come in handy often

Value Rating: 6.5/10

$25,000 will get you the top end XBR-84X900A, 84 inches of TV beauty. We should not even include a value section for this TV with a price like that. Obviously there is nothing that high end to complete with it but just to name another huge TV the non-4K, 1080p Samsung UN75F8000 sells for around $8000. Hey, I guess you could still say this is the best priced 4K 84 inch TV in the market (or the worst priced).

Overall Rating: 8/10

Specs

• 4K (3840 x 2160) resolution
• Immersive FUll HD 3D
• Built-in Wifi
• 50 watt sound output with 10 speaker system and surround 3D sound
• Intelligent Connect for smartphones, PC, and tablets
• Local Dimming
• Dynaic Edge LED
• 4K X-Reality PRO with up-conversion
• Motionflow™ XR 960

Dimensions

Without Stand: H 44 3/4" x W 84 1/4" x D 3 5/8"

Jack Burden joined the review staff of CEAG Inc. in May 2003 after finishing his graduate work at Harvard University. He has been reporting on consumer electronics and conducting product reviews for more than seven years. Focusing on the audio-visual segment of the electronics market... Read more about Jack