Review – Sony Bravia OLED Ultra HD 4K Smart TV

The Sony Bravia OLED Ultra HD 4K Smart TV is now available on the market. It is said to be Sony’s most affordable OLED TV. Despite being the latest offering from the brand, it is still inferior to the brands’ flagship OLED TV, the Sony Bravia OLED Ultra HD 4K TV. The Sony A1 OLED pricing on Amazon[/amsl] alone says it all.

The Sony Bravia OLED features all the best picture enhancing techniques and technology of Sony such as — TRILUMINOS Display, 4K HDR Processor X1™ Extreme, and their Object-Based HDR Mapping. However, it seems that despite being the latest offering, the picture quality of the Sony AF8 is not on par or less inferior than the brands 1-year-old OLED TV, the Sony A1.

Is the Sony worth it if the price difference compared to the flagship model? Let’s find out.

Bestsellers:

Sony Bravia KD-43X75WL 4K Smart TV

Sony Bravia

Model & Pricing

  • 55 in (139 cm): Sony KD-55A8F (XBR55A8F)
  • 65 in (164 cm): Sony KD-65A8F (XBR65A8F)

Design

Sony Bravia KD-43X75WL 4K Smart TV

In terms of design, the Sony Bravia AF8 OLED exhibits a simplistic and minimalistic design. Like the Sony A1, this TV features a speakerless front display design and almost a bezeless frame design. All of its built-in speakers are strategically placed at the back panel.

Sony Bravia KD-43X75WL

Further details will be discussed about the speakers at the “Audio” section of this review. Now looking at the back panel, it features all the standard input/output ports with 3x USB ports and 4x HDMI 2.0 ports. This TV also sports a cable organizer.

Sony Bravia AF8 oled

This TV can also be wall mounted easily if you so do ever prefer it to. With a thickness of 5.5cm, this TV vibrantly gives off a premium feel and elegant looks no matter where you place it too.

Sony Bravia KD-43X75WL 4K

Lastly, the most noticeable design of this TV is its stand. The first OLED of Sony was designed rather mischievous. With a slant style design that slants the display when viewed. With the AF8, Sony equipped it with a very thin stand.

Sale
Sony BRAVIA, KD-43X75WL, 43 Inch, LED, Smart TV, 4K HDR, Google TV, ECO PACK, BRAVIA CORE, Narrow Bezel Design
  • STUNNING PICTURE QUALITY: The X1 Processor is the power behind these bright, colourful pictures, analysing content in real-time, and, paired with Dolby Vision, enhancing everything you watch
  • ASTONISHING SOUND QUALITY: Unique X-Balanced Speaker Unit delivers ideal quality sound and powerful bass for a richer, deeper, and more rewarding audio experience
  • DESIGN: The TV has been designed in our signature, minimalistic style to keep your focus on what's important - the picture. With a Hairline Finish and Slim Blade fixed Stand, the X75WL will suit any interior.
  • GAMING FEATURES: An ideal gaming TV, the X75WL features Auto Low Latency Mode in HDMI 2.1 for smooth, responsive gameplay, as well as Auto HDR Tone Mapping to reveal crucial details in the darkest and brightest parts of the screen, there's even a dedicated Gaming Menu that includes the brand-new Crosshair and Custom Screen features they could be the secret to your next win
  • APPS AND FEATURES: You will access 700,000+ movies and TV episodes from across your streaming services on this Google TV, and everything is organised to suit your personal interests

Sony Bravia OLED Picture Quality

Sony once again decided to use an OLED Display panel by LG for their Sony Bravia OLED TV. It will also be powered by their top tier picture enhancing processor, the 4K HDR Processor X1™ Extreme. It will also feature all of the best picture enhancing technology by the brand.

Sony Bravia AF8 OLED A8F Ultra HD 4K HDR10 Plus Smart TV 2018 KD

Since the Sony uses an OLED display, the blacks are deep deep black. OLED displays have infinite contrast ratio and perfect black uniformity. This then results in a superb dark room performance. Furthermore, the latest OLED displays have a 4-pixel structure called WRGB. Unlike the traditional RGB structure, WRGB provides high contrast resulting to dark and bright scenes being displayed excellently.

When set in a bright room, its performance can be a bit of a concern. The Sony Bravia AF8 OLED has a wide viewing angle that makes it a perfect fit for those that intend to place this TV in a wide room. Picture quality remains good even for those sitting far off center.

Sale
Sony BRAVIA, KD-50X75WL, 50 Inch, LED, Smart TV, 4K HDR, Google TV, ECO PACK, BRAVIA CORE, Narrow Bezel Design
  • STUNNING PICTURE QUALITY: The X1 Processor is the power behind these bright, colourful pictures, analysing content in real-time, and, paired with Dolby Vision, enhancing everything you watch
  • ASTONISHING SOUND QUALITY: Unique X-Balanced Speaker Unit delivers ideal quality sound and powerful bass for a richer, deeper, and more rewarding audio experience
  • DESIGN: The TV has been designed in our signature, minimalistic style to keep your focus on what's important - the picture. With a Hairline Finish and Slim Blade fixed Stand, the X75WL will suit any interior.
  • GAMING FEATURES: An ideal gaming TV, the X75WL features Auto Low Latency Mode in HDMI 2.1 for smooth, responsive gameplay, as well as Auto HDR Tone Mapping to reveal crucial details in the darkest and brightest parts of the screen, there's even a dedicated Gaming Menu that includes the brand-new Crosshair and Custom Screen features they could be the secret to your next win
  • APPS AND FEATURES: You will access 700,000+ movies and TV episodes from across your streaming services on this Google TV, and everything is organised to suit your personal interests

Sports and HDR Quality

Sony Bravia AF8 OLED HDR SDR Quality HLG Dolby Vision

For sports fans, dirty screen effect won’t be a problem since its grey uniformity is excellent. Furthermore, HDR on this Sony TV is also excellent – both for movies or for video games. With a high contrast, wide colour gamut and high peak brightness, HDR content really stand out. The pictures produced have vivid colours and are really bright without losing any details. Its colour accuracy and image details are superb. That’s probably thanks to the TRILUMINOS display with Live Colour Technology.

We decided to play and watch Planet Earth II 4K HDR Blu-Ray with it. We were greeted with superb picture quality. Details were there and the colours are solid and punchy. Fast moving scenes was not an issue as well. With few and barely noticeable blurs and judders. Other than that, the picture quality was superb. It gives you that deep immersive viewing experience. However, we find that there’s something about its picture quality that we can’t quite pinpoint. It’s only noticeable when you compare this TV to Sony A1 OLED TV side by side. The Sony A1 still produces a much better picture quality by a degree.

Other than that, anyone can expect super performance in picture quality with this TV. Though we have to say, its price is quite steep for us. With the Sony A1 being sold for a few hundred pounds, we think that it’s better to get the Sony A1 than this TV.

Audio

As mentioned above, the Sony Bravia OLED has its built-in speakers positioned at the back panel. So instead of conventional speakers, this TV uses the same Acoustic Surface technology found on the Sony A1 OLED TV.

This TV features two actuators that cause a vibration on the panel directly. Effectively causing the whole panel to act as the speaker driver. Delivering better sound with a built-in subwoofer in the back panel. That’s a total of 50W of power. However, though barely noticeable or distinguishable, the sound quality of the Sony is only second to Sony A1 which has a more authoritative, punch, weighty audio. This is because instead of a large subwoofer, the Sony AF8 comes with two smaller drivers.

On the other hand, it is worth pointing out that both televisions are still no match to a capable soundbar. The Sony HT-CT290 300 W Soundbar is a strong option for this TV. It has a powerful 300 W total output, a slim soundbar design, and 2-way versatile subwoofer, that lets you experience a truly cinematic sound revolving around you.

Gaming

With a 120 Hz native refresh rate and an input lag of 21 ms, the Sony AF8 makes one hell of a fine gaming monitor for any types of a gaming system. Gaming consoles such as PlayStation 4 Pro and Xbox One S will be a perfect match for this TV. Enjoy immersive video gaming with HDR. PC gamers will also love this TV. Letting them enjoy 120 frames per second gaming without much hussle from a slow input lag. Though as long as their gaming systems are capable enough to do so.

Our Verdict

Sony Bravia AF8 A8F OLED Ultra HD 4K HDR10 Plus Smart TV 2018 KD XBR
Sony BRAVIA KD-32W800 - 32-inch - HD Ready (HD) - High Dynamic Range (HDR) - Android TV - (Black)
  • BRAVIA Engine: The power behind amazing pictures
  • Live Colour: Beautiful, natural colours in everything you watch on this Sony TV
  • USB HDD REC: Turn your television into a digital recorder
  • Find all the entertainment you can dream of, as fast as you can talk - With advanced voice control, this Android smart TV lets you enjoy movies and shows from apps such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video or broadcast in an instant.
  • Box Contains: 32W800 TV, Table Top Stand, Voice Remote, Control Batteries, AC Power Cord, Operating Instructions , Quick Setup Guide

The Sony Bravia OLED is a very good television indeed in terms of its overall performance and quality. Though its price can be a little something to think about. At the SRP comparison of AF8 and A1, the lower price tag of AF8 doesn’t quite compensate for the difference in the picture and up to a lesser extent, sound quality.

Of course, the Sony Bravia OLED has just been released, whereas the Sony Bravia A1 OLED is about one year old or so. So we are comparing a suggested retail price against one that’s been heavily discounted through its course. But as it stands, the A1 can buy in a lower price more than and we think that extra £ of A1 is well worth paying for if you want to get the better one. Although truth be told, if the price of Sony AF8 gets discounted and the gap between the two TVs widen, we might switch our recommendation.

Pros

  • Excellent Picture Quality
  • Amazing Sound Quality
  • Features All the Best Sony Technology

Cons

  • Price is Steep
  • Android System | Divisive