Sony XBR65X900F 65 Class LED 4K Ultra High Definition HDR smart android TV

Sony XBR65X900F 65 Class LED 4K Ultra High Definition HDR smart android TV Is Compatible with Alexa & Google Home to Change Channels & More. With the X1 Extreme Processor enjoy controlled contrast & wide range of brightness. Bluetooth connectivity. Enjoy Vibrant Colors with Triluminos & Clear on Screen Action with X-Motion Clarity.

In the box – Sony XBR65X900F

Sony XBR-65X900F owner’s manual

• 65″ LED-LCD TV
• 2 Pedestal feet
• Remote control (RMF-TX310U)
• 2 “AAA batteries
• 9′ Dual IR blaster
• Four M5 x 12mm screws (lock-/flat-washers attached)
• Reference Guide
• Setup Guide
• Warranty Information
• Safety and Regulatory Booklet
• End User License Agreement
• PlayStation Vue brochure
• “Child Safety” note

Specifications – Sony XBR65X900F

Picture

• 4K HDR Processor X1™ Extreme has 40% more image processing power than last year’s X900E-series TVs
• 4K X-Reality™ PRO upscales images to near-4K clarity while working at the pixel level to clean the picture and reduce noise
• IMAX Enhanced certification for improved performance with IMAX Enhanced 4K/HDR content (via future firmware update)
• HDR Remaster improves color and contrast for SDR (Standard Dynamic Range) content
• TRILUMINOS™ Display technology for a wider color range
• 10-bit panel can display over one billion colors
• 64.5″ screen (measured diagonally)
• 4K screen resolution (3840 x 2160 pixels)
• X-Motion Clarity™ real-time blur reduction (120Hz refresh rate)
• High Dynamic Range (HDR10, Dolby Vision™, and HLG) extends picture contrast and brightness when viewing HDR content from connected sources or the TV’s built-in apps
• full-array LED backlight with local dimming for excellent picture contrast and black levels
• X-tended Dynamic Range PRO™ delivers 6X the brightness range of conventional LCD TVs

Smart TV Features

• Android TV™ with Chromecast Built-in lets you cast your favorite entertainment apps and video content from your Android™ or iOS® device, or laptop
• supports voice control of compatible apps:
  • built-in Google Assistant — controls basic TV functions and works with compatible voice control assistants
  • works with Amazon Alexa-compatible voice control assistants
• dual-band Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac) provides fast, reliable wireless streaming
• Netflix Recommended TV — offers a unique feature set that makes Netflix even easier to use and enjoy
• mobile-to-TV wireless mirroring with Miracast™ enabled phones and tablets

Connections

• 4 HDMI 2.0b
  • all inputs are HDCP 2.2 compatible for connecting to 4K video sources
  • to view the highest-quality 4K and HDR content from connected sources, use the TV’s HDMI 2 or 3 inputs, and a compatible high-bandwidth HDMI cable
  • HDMI 3 input supports ARC
• 1 composite video (3.5mm A/V minijack — adapter cable required)
• RF input for antenna/cable signals
• Toslink optical digital audio output (can pass Dolby® Digital/DTS multichannel or 2-channel audio from connected sources)
• stereo minijack headphone output — can also be connected to a sound bar or other audio system
• Ethernet port for the fastest, most secure internet connection
• 3 USB inputs for connecting a thumb drive or other device

Video Source Compatibility

• watch streamed 4K video sources like Netflix®, Amazon Instant Video, and YouTube (requires Internet speed of at least 20Mbps)
• tuner receives over-the-air HDTV broadcasts (antenna required)
• Clear QAM tuner decodes unencrypted digital cable signals up to 1080i without a set-top box (subscription required to receive cable channels)

Sound

• built-in down-firing speakers (10 watts x 2)
• Bluetooth® wireless audio streaming to a compatible speaker or set of headphones
  • you can set up the TV to output sound from Bluetooth, the built-in speakers, and the headphone output at the same time

General Features & Info – Sony XBR65X900F

• Voice Remote with built-in microphone
• dimensions: 57″W x 35-5/16″H x 11-3/4″D with stand; 57″W x 32-11/16″H x 2-15/16″D without stand
• weight: 56.2 lbs. with stand; 54 lbs. without stand
• detachable dual-footer stand (“footprint” is 45-1/4″W x 11-3/4″D)
• wall-mountable (bracket not included, see Accessories)
  • VESA mounting hole pattern: 300mm x 300mm
• warranty: 1 year parts & labor — in-home service

Key features – Sony XBR65X900F 65 Class LED 4K Ultra High Definition HDR smart android TV

Everything Should Look Like 4K HDR

The newly developed 4K HDR Processor X1 Extreme outperforms the conventional 4K Processor X1 with 40% more real-time image processing power. It takes everything you watch and improves it to near 4K HDR quality. Object-based HDR Remaster technology can detect, analyze and optimize each object in the picture individually to adjust the overall contrast for a more natural and realistic picture on screen.

Uncover the Detail with 4K HDR

High Dynamic Range (HDR) will change the way you look at TV. Combined with 4K Ultra HD resolution, HDR video content delivers exceptional detail, color and contrast, with a far wider range of brightness than other video formats. The result is the most lifelike picture TVs have ever been able to create, with brilliant highlights and fine detail.

Full-array Local Dimming – Sony XBR65X900F

With full-array local dimming technology, you get enhanced contrast and incredible brightness in a stunningly slim design. Add in X-tended Dynamic Range PRO 6x and enjoy six times the contrast range of a conventional LED-edge lit TV by accurately balancing the light output across the screen.

Vibrant Colors, Smooth Gradations

Colors are as rich and vivid as nature?s own thanks to the TRILUMINOS Display with more shades of red, green and blue than ever before. You?ll enjoy rich, authentic images that evoke the emotion in every scene. And, 4K HDR Super Bit Mapping reveals thousands of shades and gradations of light, for sunsets as bright and clear as real life.

A Masterpiece of Design

Unsightly wires are managed and kept out of sight inside the hidden cable panel structure for a clean, sophisticated look.

X-Motion Clarity

Scenes appear as they do in real life with X-Motion Clarity technology. This revolutionary, best in class technology from Sony refines action on the screen in real time with an incredible refresh rate for action that is brighter and clearer than ever before.

A Genius TV, a Smarter Home – Sony XBR65X900F

Find all the entertainment you can dream of, faster than ever. From movies and TV shows to thousands of apps including your favorite Android games, Sony?s Android TV brings you everything in an instant. Cast your favorite apps with Google Cast, or enjoy a huge range of apps from Google Play, including YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Video, Hulu, Pandora and more. With Google Home and Amazon Alexa compatibility, simply voice-control your TV and ask it to do things like cast and control videos from YouTube with Google Home or change the channel or volume with Amazon Alexa.

Meet Your Google Assistant

Android TVs by Sony now have the Google Assistant built-in, making your life easier. Ask it to play your favorite movie, check the score of your favorite team, and control your TV and even your home. It?s your own personal Google, always ready to help.

Upscale to a More Natural Picture

The difference is clear. You?ll see lifelike detail and stunning clarity, no matter what you’re watching. Two powerful image improvement databases work together, dynamically improving images in real time. 4K X-Reality PRO upscales images to near 4K clarity while a second database cleans the picture and reduce on-screen noise. Every single pixel is enhanced beautifully by the powerful 4K HDR Processor X1 Extreme.

Live TV, No Annual Contract

PlayStation Vue now available on Android TV. Enjoy live TV streaming with no annual contract and no surprise fees. Experience premium content, including sports, news and more, from your favorite networks.

Sony XBR65X900F 65 Class LED comparison

Sony XBR65X900F 65 Class LED 4K Ultra High Definition HDR smart android TV review

Design

The X900F continues Sony’s minimalist, angular aesthetic. The screen is surrounded by thin, flat brushed black metallic bezels, with sharp angled corners. The bottom bezel is distinguished with a slim chrome-colored band that serves as an accent, and is low enough that it doesn’t catch distracting glare from overhead lights. An indicator LED is hidden in the middle of the bottom bezel, just below the small Sony logo that serves as the only other visual flair on the front of the TV. The screen stands on two rectangular gray metallic legs that extend from just behind the TV at outward angles, forming a stable support.

Build

The Sony XBR-X900F has a premium construction like that of other Bravia and XBR sets, with a metal frame that wraps around display bezel and black, textured plastic along the back of the display.

Instead of plain black, the aluminum frame has a dark gunmetal finish that looks quite elegant. The TV has a slim overall profile, measuring 57 x 32.75 x 2.75 inches without the stand.

Ports

The X900F offers four HDMI inputs, all of which support 4K HDR sources and HDCP 2.2, but Sony tells us you’ll want to use HDMI 2 and 3 for high-bandwidth sources like a 4K UHD Blu-ray player, 4K HDR-capable gaming console, or HTPC/gaming PC. Unlike some of its competition, the X900F will not automatically detect the need for enhanced bandwidth support, so you’ll want to turn on that feature manually (instructions below). The X900F doesn’t support variable refresh rate (VRR) either, but then again, that’s a feature found only on Samsung QLED TVs at this time, so we don’t knock it for that.

Input Lag and Power Consumption

Input lag is the amount of time between when a TV receives a signal and the screen updates. Here the X900F falters, with a very high 104.5ms input lag in Cinema Pro mode. The Game picture mode slashes that to less than half, but even that 41.9ms lag is twice as high as we like to see to consider a TV appropriate for gaming.

The 65-inch X900F is also a bit of a power hog, which isn’t surprising considering how bright it can get. Under normal viewing conditions in Cinema Pro mode, the TV consumes 208 watts. Setting Power Saving to Low drops that to 163 watts, slightly dimming the screen but keeping it very watchable. Changing Power Saving to High drops that to a remarkably low 63 watts, but uncomfortably dims the picture.

You can still play most video games just fine on this, and most other, TVs, but the input lag can become disruptive for intense games that depend on inputting commands with accurate timing.

Performance review – Sony XBR65X900F 65 Class LED 4K Ultra High Definition HDR smart android TV

The X900F is capable of generating quite a bit of brightness for use in HDR: 990 nits was my highest reading with about 25-percent screen coverage white on black, though 770 nits was more the norm. HDR10 titles popped quite nicely, although getting HDR popping pretty much required turning on Sony’s Xtended Dynamic Range (XDR) feature, at which point the X900F bleeds a lot of light. That is, there’s quite a bit of “blooming” around bright objects on a dark background. In some cases, and from some angles, you could see bleed a foot or more from the bright object.

The X900F has the best image processing in the TV industry. I’ve grown so accustomed to moiré, shimmering in detailed pans, jagged text, and backlighting blockiness found in other TVs that the absence of such things on the X900F is a real treat. Motion is also quite smooth when you increase the judder reduction, and the loss of detail is minimal. Believe it or not, there are Hollywood purists who want judder reduction removed from TVs. Take a hike, I say.

Sony wouldn’t tell me how many zones are in the backlighting array, but given what I saw, there are a fair number. I don’t know why vendors such as Sony and Samsung won’t reveal that spec. Kudos to the companies that do.

This is the conundrum with the X900F and many LED-backlit LCD TVs: You can have brilliant brights or decent black, but not both. With XDR disengaged, the X900F’s black is much better than most TVs, so standard dynamic material looks rich. The light sabers just won’t pop.

The X900F supports Dolby Vision, but it took a firmware update to our standard Dolby Vision player (an Oppo UDP-203 4K UHD Blu-ray player, forcing its HDR setting to Dolby Vision), as well as setting the X900F’s second and third HDMI inputs to “Enhanced Mode” (10-bit) before handshaking would commence. In the end, it looked pretty darn good with XDR enabled. Not so much with it off. Yes, the conundrum.

Is it worth buying – Sony XBR65X900F?

There is no shortage of sub $2,000, 65-inch Smart TVs on the market today–even some near or as good as the Sony X900F. I believe the displays the X900F will most likely be compared most to are Samsung’s Q7 and Q6 Series Quantum Dot displays, both of which have 65 inch offerings at or around the X900F’s price point, or LG’s K9500 or K9000 models, which retail for $2,399 and $1,699, respectively. Both Samsung and LG seem to round out the Holy Trinity when it comes to established big-box brands, but the disruptor in the market continues to be Vizio, and its recently announced P Series Quantum�looks to upend the entire mid- to high-end Smart TV market, what with its $2,000-ish price point for a 65-inch model.

I have an LG K9500 on its way to me for review as I type this, so I’ll save my outright recommendation(s) until I can actually put eyes on it, but I know the Samsung offerings to be quite good, and just as capable as the X900F, if not a little bit more so in terms of brightness. As for the Vizio, well, that too is en route, so I will again withhold any final judgments until I can get some hands-on experience.

Sony XBR65X900F 65 Class LED 4K Ultra High Definition HDR smart android TV customer review

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