We’re getting to that time of year again.
That’s right, it’s the season of new TVs
and new technologies.
We have the new 55” Sony X800H and we’ll
go over our results to see if this is an upgrade
over their previous year’s models.
Hey, I’m Alex from RTINGS.com where we help
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In this video, we'll look at the design of
the TV and then move on to the results of
our picture quality tests.
We'll also look at the motion handling, input
lag, and sound, and then compare to the Sony
X800G, the closest model from last year.
If you’d like to skip straight to our test
results, then see the links in the description
below.
Now, let’s see how much they’ve improved.
We bought the 55” X800H, but it’s also
available in sizes from 43 inches up to 85
inches.
We expect these models to perform similarly,
so if you have a small room or a home theatre
to fill out you might want a different size.
The design of the X800H is very similar to
the other Sony TVs and there hasn’t been
many design changes.
That said, the stand has gotten a little cheaper
feeling, and this has affected the cable management
options, since it no longer has a cover for
the cables and is a simple hoop that attaches
to the feet.
The borders here are fairly thin which won’t
be distracting but be careful to leave fingerprints
on the screen if you’re in the habit of
moving your TV often.
The on-TV controls are quite responsive and
is only single button underneath the center
logo.
Pressing it brings up the on-screen menu,
where you can control the power, volume, inputs,
channel or reset the TV.
It does require a series of long or short
presses, so it’s not particularly intuitive,
but it works.
On the back of the TV, we have the inputs.
4 HDMI, 2 USBs, a tuner and a composite in,
which unfortunately does not come with an
adapter to plug in a VHS player to watch some
old tapes.
Now we'll move on to the picture quality.
For an updated comparison with new models
as we buy and test them, see the review page
on our website which is linked below.
We’ll start with the contrast ratio.
The contrast ratio is the relative brightness
of bright and dark areas of a scene.
It’s important when talking about the picture
quality to consider it, since a high contrast
ratio will help you to see more details in
dark scenes, without getting lost in shades
of grey.
The Sony X800H has a low contrast ratio, but
this is to be expected with an IPS.
Our X800H performed a little bit better than
the X800G, but that could be boiled down to
panel variance.
Unfortunately, the X800H does not have local
dimming, which would help to improve the perceived
contrast of real scenes.
When talking about viewing angles, we can
safely say that IPS panels have consistently
been the best performers.
The X800H is no exception, with great viewing
angles that could be helpful for people who
have a large room with groups of people over.
The reflection handling of the TV is acceptable,
similar to the X800G.
It diffuses small amount of light well, but
unfortunately, direct light is distracting.
It might not be ideal for a bright room with
a lot windows or direct lighting.
Thankfully, the great SDR Peak Brightness
helps to clear up some of those issues.
As mentioned, SDR peak brightness is great
and should be more than bright enough for
any situations.
Since there’s no local dimming, the brightness
doesn’t change too much as the window size
changes.
As mentioned earlier, this will also help
with to combat the reflections.
In HDR, the peak brightness helps to produce
the brighter, more vibrant colours that produce
the more impactful details.
On the X800H, the HDR peak brightness is decent.
It’s fairly consistent and is a bit over
500 nits, which will be helpful when viewing
HDR content.
Either way, both peak brightness numbers are
better than the X800G, so it’s nice to see
some improvement there.
Also important is whether the TV is able to
take advantage of the available colour space.
Both the X800H and the X800G support a wide
colour space, allowing the TVs to take advantage
of more mastered content and more vivid colours.
While the X800H is an improvement, there isn’t
a big difference between the two as they’re
both good.
Now we’ll move on to the motion handling
of the TV.
The response time is the average time it takes
for the tv to transition from one color to
the next in a series of frames.
The X800H has a great response time, which
isn’t an improvement over the X800G from
last year.
Both have comparable and great speeds, but
the X800H has a bit of trail on fast moving
objects.
They are also flicker free which is great.
It’s possible to add flicker on the X800H
through a black frame insertion feature.
This can help to clear up motion, especially
when the content matches the flicker rate.
Unfortunately, the BFI on the X800H doesn’t
really do much.
We’re not sure if this is a bug or if there
is a wider issue with their BFI options, but
it did very little to smooth out the motion
and only introduced a dimmer screen.
The input lag has gotten significantly better.
While the X800G did not have poor input lag,
the X800H has made significant improvements
in Game Mode.
Their new processing on input lag has cut
it’s speed by 1/3 in game mode, at the cost
of higher input lag outside of it.
Fortunately input lag has very little impact
on the performance of the TV outside of game
mode.
Keep in mind, the X800H does not support any
variable refresh rate.
So if you plan to game on this TV, don’t
expect any VRR support.
The smart platform for Sony is the Android
TV and the newest version we have on TV is
8.0.
It works very well and is very smooth and
responsive compared to the previous versioning
on older Sony TVs.
We didn’t experience any bugs with the software
during testing, which is great.
Unfortunately, there are ads on the TV.
Sony seems to roll out ads and then remove
them, as there has been issues in the past
where we reported no ads and discovered they
had rolled some out.
During testing, on this model, we did not
run into any ads.
The sound quality is fairly decent for a TV
and is an improvement over last year’s X800G.
If you’re looking for something with good
quality sound, we recommend a sound system
or soundbar.
You can check out our soundbar page in the
description below.
So overall, the Sony X800H is a good TV for
most uses.
It can get bright enough in SDR and HDR to
help produce a wide colour space and help
with reflection handling.
It’s got great motion handling and low input
lag which is great.
Unfortunately, the lack of VRR and the fact
that it is only a 60Hz panel might be limiting
for some gamers.
Otherwise, it is a good TV and a welcome upgrade
from last year.
It may not be worth picking it up to replace
the X800G, but as a new TV on the lower-end
of Sony’s lineup, it’s a good buy.
So that's it!
What do you think of the Sony X800H?
Which do you like better between the 2019
and 2020 version?
Let us know what you think below.
You can check out all of the measurements
on our website.
If you like this video, subscribe to our channel,
or become an insider on the website for access
to our latest results first!
Thank you for watching and see you next time.
