So, Sony’s highest end 4k LCD of 2020 has
hit the stores, and we bought the fifty-five
inch model.
On paper it appears to tick all the boxes
– such as full-array local dimming, and
the holy grail of LCD tech – a TV that balances
both wide viewing angles with Sony’s ‘X-Wide
Angle’ technology, and a VA panel with high
contrast.
In this video, we’ll put the TV to the test
and see if it lives up to the hype of it’s
predecessor the X950G from last year.
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We’re going to start by looking at the design
of the TV, and then move on to our picture
quality tests.
We’ll also look at the motion handling and
input lag for any sports fans or gamers.
We’ll check out the sound and smart features,
and then finish with an overview.
As always, you can check out the timestamps
in the description or the YouTube chapters
to skip to what you care about.
We bought the fifty five inch model of the
X950H, but we expect our results to be valid
for the larger sizes as well, up to eighty
five inches.
There's also a forty-nine inch model available
which doesn't have the 'X-Wide Angle’ feature,
but we’ll discuss the impact of this later
in the review.
Depending on your region, this TV may be known
as the XH95, but we expect the performance
to be the same as the US model we bought.
The design of this TV is very similar to other
Sony TVs – which is good.
Sony TVs tend to have a minimalistic design,
which works well and is very functional without
looking too flashy.
The stand is adjustable between two positions.
This is the narrower position, but it can
also be moved to the sides of the TV.
It supports the TV well and feels stable,
but in either configuration it does have quite
a large footprint and requires a large table.
The borders are thin and look good, and definitely
aren’t distracting which is great.
The single button to control the TV is located
on the front, under the Sony logo.
Unfortunately, there’s only a single button,
which is a step down from the X950G which
had three.
This single button means you need to use a
combination of presses and holds to change
the input or adjust the volume.
Looking at the side, the TV is relatively
thin and looks good so will look nice mounted
against a wall.
Also, the inputs are all located on the left-hand
side of the TV, and are relatively easy to
access.
There’s the usual range of inputs including
4 HDMI ports, as well as two USB ports and
a digital optical out port.
Unlike many newer TVs, there’s also an analog
video input which is nice for those with older
devices as you can buy an adapter to connect
the TV to your older DVD player or camera
with a composite port.
Now, this labelled HDMI port also be used
for eARC to passthrough high quality sound
from your TV to your soundbar or receiver.
We’ll talk more about the capabilities of
these HDMI ports later in the supported resolutions
section of the review.
Like many Sony TVs, the X950H also has cable
management.
You can route cables through a clip on the
back of the stand, to keep them out of sight
for a clean setup which is nice.
So that’s it for the design, and we'll move
on to the picture quality.
We'll be comparing to currently available
TVs but competing models may change as new
TVs are released throughout the year.
For an updated comparison with new models
as we buy and test them, see the review page
on our website which is linked below.
First up, the contrast ratio.
The contrast ratio of a display is the relative
brightness of the brightest whites in a scene
when compared to the deepest blacks.
We measure this on a checkerboard pattern,
both with and without local dimming.
The contrast of the X950H is good, but on
the lower range of typical VA TVs.
This is because this TV has a wide viewing
angle feature which we’ll check out later.
We’ve found in the past that these wide
viewing angle features can result in lower
contrast ratios, but in the case of the X950H
it doesn’t seem to be too hurt much which
is great.
It does mean that the smaller forty nine inch
model may have a slightly higher contrast,
but we don’t know as we haven’t tested
it.
So now on to the local dimming.
Local dimming is a feature which allows the
TV to control or turn-off different areas
of the backlight to produce deeper areas of
dark scenes and improve the picture quality.
The X950H has a good local dimming feature.
In normal content, there's more dimming than
blooming around bright objects, but not to
the point of crushing small highlights or
losing detail.
Overall, we found that the local dimming is
handled better than last year’s X950G or
the Z9F.
So now onto the viewing angle – this is
where we can really see the impact of Sony’s
‘X-Wide Angle’ technology.
We don’t know exactly how this works, but
suspect that there’s an additional layer
that acts as a lens to diffuse the light from
the screen horizontally.
The good news is this definitely offers an
improvement over most VA type panels, and
it should be fine for most people.
Note that the forty-nine inch model doesn’t
have this feature, so we expect it to have
worse viewing angles than the larger sizes.
So now onto the reflection handling.
Good reflection handling is important if you
have a room with some lights, to prevent dark
scenes from getting washed out by the ambient
light.
An interesting side-effect of the ‘X-Wide
Angle’ feature is unique-looking reflections,
where patterns and rainbows are diffused horizontally.
This isn’t too distracting though, and overall
the reflection handling is excellent – even
for a bright room.
Now, also important for a bright room is the
ability to get the screen nice and bright.
Overall the brightness varies depending on
the scene as expected, but it is still very
high with the ‘X-Tended Dynamic Range’
set to high.
Combined with the excellent reflection handling,
it should be fine for the brightest of rooms.
In HDR, a high peak brightness is important
to make highlights stand out.
The X950H gets really bright on our real scene
test pattern which is excellent.
It isn’t quite as bright as the X950G, but
this may also be due to the viewing angle
layer which diffuses light horizontally.
It is still a great result, and makes it a
good choice for those who like bright HDR
highlights.
If you watch HDR and like an image that pops,
then a wide color gamut and high color volume
is also important to display the wider color
spaces available in HDR.
The X950H has a great wide color gamut which
is nice to see as an improvement over the
older X950G.
Now, we test the gray uniformity of each TV
by taking a photo of a mid-level gray and
a dark-gray.
This shows uniformity issues which affect
all colours, including dirty screen effect
or vignetting which can be distracting when
watching sports or playing video games.
The X950H has a good uniformity, so it won’t
really be distracting for most people which
is good.
Note that this does vary between units due
to tolerances in the manufacturing process,
but we expect our unit to be representative.
Let us know in the comments below if you buy
this TV and how yours compares!
So now on to the motion handling, and we’ll
start with the response time.
To learn more about motion on TVs, check out
our video series which should be linked up
here.
In short, the response time is an average
of the time it takes a display to transition
from one frame to the next.
A high response time results in blurry images
when watching sports or playing video games.
The X950H has a fast response time which is
great, resulting in clear images without much
motion blur.
Those sensitive to it may notice slight overshooting
in dark scenes causing some artefacts, but
we don’t expect this to be a problem for
most people.
The photo of our moving logo also looks smooth
and clear, and the backlight flicker at seven
hundred and twenty hertz isn’t really noticeable,
so while the TV isn’t flicker free it also
shouldn’t be a problem for most people.
For those who really care about the clearest
motion, black frame insertion is a feature
which flickers the backlight, reducing persistence
blur.
On this TV and most other Sony’s, it can
be enabled by increasing the Clearness slider
in the ‘MotionFlow’ menu.
It works fairly well as you can see in our
moving logo photo, however for 60 Hz content
the minimum backlight flicker is one hundred
and twenty hertz, which results in the duplication
visible.
Now, often one of the most important aspects
for gamers is a low input lag.
At about nineteen milliseconds for sixty hertz
signals, the X950H feels very responsive when
changing to the ‘Game’ or ‘Graphics’
picture modes.
Unfortunately, unlike some newer Samsung and
LG models, the X950H doesn’t support the
auto low latency feature to do this automatically.
The input lag does drop for 120Hz signals,
so it feels even more responsive which is
nice.
Overall, it is a good result for gamers and
within a few milliseconds either way of most
newer TVs.
Now, it came as a big surprise that when many
other manufacturers were announcing HDMI 2.1
features, Sony remained pretty quiet.
Support for these features on the X950H are
unfortunately lacking, even the ones that
don’t require extra bandwidth, which seems
a bit strange.
This TV doesn’t support variable refresh
rates, auto low latency mode, or higher than
HDMI 2.0 bandwidth.
For most people this doesn’t matter too
much, but if you want the latest and greatest
features you may want to look elsewhere.
So now on to the smart features.
Like other Sony TVs, this one runs Android
TV which works well and feels very smooth.
This is great, because Sony TVs have a bit
of a reputation of a slow interface, but this
seems to be changing.
With access to the google play store there’s
a huge variety of apps, and the large remote
works well to browse through content or quickly
get to Netflix.
And lastly, for the sound.
The X950H has a microphone in the remote to
apply room correction which is great, and
results in a good well-balanced frequency
response.
It also gets very loud, but as usual if you’re
after more thump or rumble from the bass then
look for a soundbar or external speakers.
So overall, the X950H is a solid all-around
performer.
While it closely resembles the previous X950G,
it does offer some small improvements with
a slightly better color gamut, better reflection
handling, and some improvements to the local
dimming.
For most people though, the cheaper model
is probably the way to go.
So that's it!
What do you think of the Sony X950H?
In the future we’ll do more of a head to
head comparison with other models, so let
us know in the comments below which TVs you’d
like us to compare it to!
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!
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careers page on our website.
Thank you for watching and see you next time.
