Sony XBR75X900F 75-inch 4K ultra HD smart LED TV specs and review

Sony XBR75X900F 75-inch 4K ultra HD smart LED TV is bright, colorful, and stylish. It can put out well over 1,000cd/m² when pushed, and it comes packed with features thanks to its Android TV interface. Its black levels are mediocre, however, and light bloom can hurt its effective contrast. These factors are compounded when considering the premium price tag of $2,200 for the 65-inch version we tested.

If you want better performance in a stylish package, you should consider spending a bit more for a Sony or LG OLED TV. Sony’s OLEDs have all of the style and features of the company’s LCD TVs, but offer far better contrast thanks to their panel technology, and support Dolby Vision HDR. LG’s OLED TVs don’t have the benefit of Android TV, but their webOS interface is still rich in features, and their OLED panels offer the same superlative contrast, excellent color performance, and better input lag.

Specifications – Sony XBR75X900F 75-inch 4K ultra HD smart LED TV

• Display Type: LED
• Resolution: 4K (2160p)
• Screen Size: 74.5 inches
• High Dynamic Range (HDR): Yes
• High Dynamic Range Format: Dolby Vision, HDR 10, Hybrid Log-Gamma (HLG)
• Backlight Type: Direct, Full array
• Refresh Rate: 120Hz
• Specific Manufacturer Technologies: XDR PRO Contrast 6X, Full-array Local Dimming, 4K HDR X1 Extreme, TRILUMINOS Display, X-Motion Clarity, 4K X-Reality Pro
• Smart Platform: Android TV
• Streaming Services: CBS All Access, Disney+, HBO NOW, Hulu, Netflix, Prime Video, SHOWTIME, STARZ, Sling TV, YouTube
• Number of HDMI Inputs : 4
• Works With: Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant
• Voice Assistant Built-in: Google Assistant

General

• Product Name: 75″ Class – LED – X900F Series – 2160p – Smart – 4K Ultra HD TV with HDR
• Brand: Sony
• Model Number : XBR75X900F
• Series: 900 series 4K
• Model Year : 2018
• Color: Black
• Color Category: Black

Dimension

• Product Height With Stand : 40.75 inches
• Product Width: 66 inches
• Product Depth With Stand : 14 inches
• Product Height Without Stand: 37.75 inches
• Product Depth Without Stand: 2.875 inches
• Product Weight With Stand: 80.9 pounds
• Product Weight Without Stand: 77.1 pounds

Box dimension

• Height : 42.52 inches
• Width : 70.16 inches
• Depth : 7.79 inches

Display

• Display Type : LED
• Resolution: 4K (2160p)
• Screen Size: 74.5 inches
• Screen Size Class: 75 inches
• High Dynamic Range (HDR): Yes
• High Dynamic Range Format: Dolby Vision, HDR 10, Hybrid Log-Gamma (HLG)
• Picture Quality Enhancement Technology: 4K HDR Processor X1 Extreme
• Backlight Type: Direct, Full array
• Dimming Type: Local
• Curved Screen: No
• Refresh Rate: 120Hz
• Motion Enhancement Technology: Motionflow XR 240
• Closed Captioning: Yes
• 3D Technology: No

Feature

• Remote Control Type: Voice control
• Specific Manufacturer Technologies: XDR PRO Contrast 6X, Full-array Local Dimming, 4K HDR X1 Extreme, TRILUMINOS Display, X-Motion Clarity, 4K X-Reality Pro
• Smart Capable: Yes
• Smart Platform: Android TV
• Streaming Services: CBS All Access, Disney+, HBO NOW, Hulu, Netflix, Prime Video, SHOWTIME, STARZ, Sling TV, YouTube
• Screen Mirroring: Yes
• Screen Mirroring Technology: Chromecast, Miracast
• Indoor Or Outdoor Use: Indoor
• TV/DVD Combo: No
• TV Tuner: Digital

Connectivity

• Number of HDMI Inputs: 4
• Number of HDMI HDCP 2.2 Inputs: 4
• Number Of USB Port(s) (Total): 3
• HDMI Audio Return Channel (ARC): Yes
• Number of Digital Optical Audio Outputs: 1
• Number of Analog Audio Outputs: 1
• Number of Component Video Inputs: 0
• Number of Composite Video Inputs: 1
• Number of DVI Inputs: 0
• Number of RS-232 Inputs: 1
• RF Antenna InputIs: Yes
• Network Compatibility: Built-in Wi-Fi, Ethernet
• Ethernet Port(s): Yes
• HDBaseT Receiver: No
• Bluetooth Enabled: Yes
• Bluetooth Version: 4.1
• Headphone Jack: Yes
• VESA Wall Mount Standard: 400mm x 300mm
• Works WithIn: Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant
• Voice Assistant Built-in: Google Assistant

Audio

• Surround Sound Supported: DTS, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Pulse
• Built-In Speakers: Yes
• Speaker Output: 20 watts
• Built-in Speaker Type: Downward firing
• ENERGY STAR Certified: No
• EPEAT Qualified: No
• Estimated Annual Operating Cost: 45 United States dollars
• Estimated Annual Electricity Use: 372 kilowatt hours
• Stand Included: Yes
• Cable(s) Included: AC power
• Manufacturer’s Warranty – Parts 1 Year
• Manufacturer’s Warranty – Labor 1 Year

Sony XBR75X900F 75-inch 4K ultra HD smart LED TV comparison

Sony XBR75X900F 75-inch 4K ultra HD smart LED 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.

The power cable attaches to a rear-facing port on the right side of the back of the screen. All other connections sit in two rectangular recesses on the left. One holds an HDMI port, two USB 2.0 ports, and four 3.5mm connectors for headphones/audio out, composite/component video in, and infrared remote control in and out with the included IR blaster. The other recess holds three more HDMI ports, a USB 3.0 port, an Ethernet port, an optical audio output, an RS-232C port, and an antenna/cable connection.

The included remote is a typical blocky, button-filled Sony wand. It’s a black rectangle with a circular direction pad and menu buttons in the middle, flanked by a number pad above and playback controls and volume and channel rockers below. A Google Assistant button near the top of the remote activates the built-in microphone for using the voice assistant on the TV, and two dedicated service buttons between the number and navigation pads provide easy access to Google Play Movies & TV and Netflix. It feels a bit clunky compared with the simpler remotes of LG, Samsung, and Roku-based TVs, but the slew of buttons grant easy access to many features and functions without going through a lot of menus.

Android TV – Sony XBR75X900F 75-inch 4k ultra HD smart LED TV

Sony’s smart TVs use the Android TV platform for apps, services, streaming media, and interface. Android TV is very powerful, as we’ve seen with the Nvidia Shield TV. While it doesn’t have nearly the full selection of Android apps available to smartphones and tablets, the Google Play Store offers hundreds of useful apps and services across a variety of subjects. Most of the big streaming names are available, including Amazon Video, Google Play Movies & TV, Hulu, Netflix, Sling TV, and YouTube for video, and Google Play Music, iHeartRadio, Spotify, Pandora, and SiriusXM for music, to start.

Android TV on the X900F also includes full use of the Google Assistant voice assistant, accessible through the dedicated button on the remote (hands-free use isn’t supported, unless you get a separate hands-free Google Assistant device like a Google Home Mini). You can use Google Assistant to search for media, jump to different apps, check weather reports, get general trivia information, and even control compatible smart home devices. It’s a very full-featured voice assistant, comparable with Amazon’s Alexa on Amazon Fire TV devices and TVs.

The X900F supports Google Cast out of the box. It functions just as if you had a Google Chromecast Ultra plugged into the back of the TV, showing up as a castable device to any smartphone, tablet, or computer on the same network. I streamed my Chromebook’s screen to the TV with just a few clicks.

For all the software flexibility, the X900F’s processing hardware doesn’t seem quite up to the task. Navigating the Android TV interface sometimes felt jerky in testing, and some apps occasionally crashed. Add the fact that the remote, while wirelessly connected to the TV for the microphone, still requires infrared line of sight for the buttons to work, and interacting with the X900F simply feels a little sluggish.

Color accuracy

The Sony aced this category, both according to my measurements and observations of program material. The lush colors of Black Panther came through beautifully, from the warm sun shining on the faces of Black Panther and Nakia as they ride home (12:19) to the browns and greens of the Wakanda countryside. Saturation was excellent and the only TV in my lineup that looked consistently better with color was the LG OLED. That said, they were all extremely close, and as usual differences would be tough to discern beyond a side-by-side comparison.

Video processing

Here’s where Sony made some of its biggest improvements over last year, evidently thanks to its new X-Motion Clarity feature. Only the Samsung sets could match the Sony’s video processing.

Just like its predecessor, the X900F had no issues delivering proper 1080p/24 cadence in its TruCinema MotionFlow setting, which is the default in the Cinema Pro picture mode, and probably still the best for film purists. But for people who crave more motion resolution (minimal blurring) without introducing overwhelming smoothness, or soap opera effect, there are better options.

Flipping back and forth between the various modes, I found the best balance with the Custom setting, with Smoothness at 2 and Clearness at 1. That setting did show some minor smoothing in my standard I Am Legend aircraft carrier flyover scene, but it’s certainly not as bad as full SOE. It also served up the TV’s maximum motion resolution of 1,200 lines, without dimming the image too much or causing flicker — an improvement over last year in all areas.

A good alternative is to back Smoothness down to 1, which hurts motion resolution quite a bit but eliminates almost all traces of SOE. Settings of zero in either Smoothness of Clearness turn off X-Motion Clarity, which brings motion resolution back down to the minimum (300 lines) for this TV.

I didn’t see much improvement when using the Reality Creation setting, even with lower-quality sources, and I didn’t bother looking at the Xtended Dynamic Range setting, which is designed to mimic HDR for non-HDR sources. I did appreciate Smooth Gradation however, which reduced some of the transitions in fields of color, for example in the backgrounds of the Hulu app.

Gaming input lag with 1080p sources was about average (41ms), but surprisingly, 4K HDR input lag was a lot better (23.4ms). Consider that yet another excuse to get a PS4 Pro.

Uniformity

As I’d expect from a TV with full-array dimming, the X900F maintained a very uniform image across the screen, with no overt brighter areas, banding or spotting. In a few full-raster test patterns, the middle did appear slightly brighter than the edges, but the difference was invisible in program material. The other full-array sets performed similarly.

From off-angle it lost black level and color fidelity about as quickly as the Samsungs. The TCL maintained black levels better but color shift was worse, while the OLED, as expected, trounced the LCDs from off angle.

HDR and 4K video

With its prodigious light output, local dimming and accurate color, the X900F is an HDR powerhouse, but so are other 2018 sets. None of the three 2018 LCDs in my comparison could begin to match the LG OLED overall, but each has its strengths. The Samsung won for contrast overall, with the brightest highlights and deeper blacks than the Sony, while the TCL achieved even deeper black levels at the expense of color accuracy and shadow detail. The Sony was the most balanced and color-accurate of the three, but its HDR image sometimes left me wanting more, well, dynamic-ness.

Watching the excellent Black Panther 4K HDR Blu-ray, the Sony delivered lighter black levels and lower contrast overall than any set in my lineup aside from the Q7. The Sony outclassed the Q7 and the duller-looking Vizio M, but against the Q8 and the TCL it looked a bit less punchy.

When Black Panther’s ship ascends from the jungle in Chapter 2, for example, it didn’t show the same depth in the shadows and letterbox bars, and the Q8 showed brighter, more impressive highlights. Later, the sun over Wakanda (12:54) measured dimmer on the Sony (280 nits) then the Q8 (383), the C8 OLED (430) and the TCL (302), although it did outshine the Q7 and the Vizio.

The bright flyover scenes of the Wakanda countryside looked very good, but again lacked a bit of brilliance and dynamism compared to those three. The Sony did appear to have the most accurate color, however; for example in the skin tones of the crew as they gaze over the landscape, or the welcoming party as they disembark the ship (14:01). That said, the Sony’s red guard uniforms looked a bit less brilliant, perhaps a symptom of its narrower color gamut.

Occasional instances of blooming and stray illumination were usually more noticeable on the Sony than on the other sets. In Chapter 1, for example, the letterbox bars near brighter areas, such as the light on the ceiling (5:58) brightened more than on the TCL and especially the Samsung Q8, and the issue got even worse when menu elements appeared on the screen. That said, the TCL showed more blooming than the Sony in other scenes, like the portions of the jungle in Chapter 2, while the Samsung controlled blooming best.

Switching to streaming, I fired up Lost in Space from Netflix, delivered to the TVs from a Roku Ultra. The cave scene in Episode 9 makes a great HDR demo, with the bright flashlights illuminating the darkness. The Sony again fell short of the TCL’s overall contrast with its brighter black levels, but I liked the Sony’s image better by a hair in this scene. It preserved details in shadows very well while the TCL crushed them a bit. The red light of the flare (13:35) also looked more realistic than on the Samsung and especially the TCL, and closer to the look of the LG OLED, the closest I have to an HDR color reference.

Sony XBR75X900F 75-inch 4k ultra HD smart LED TV performance review

The X900F supports high dynamic range (HDR) signals in both HDR10 and hybrid log gamma (HLG). As of the most recent firmware update, the X900F also supports Dolby Vision content streamed through online services.

We test TVs with a Klein K-10A colorimeter, a Murideo SIX-G signal generator, and SpectraCal’s CalMAN software on a Razer Blade Pro laptop. In Cinema Pro mode, with its X-tended Dynamic Range and Local Dimming features set to High, the X900F shows an impressive peak brightness of 666.94cd/m² on a full field of white. Cutting that down to a 10-percent window, the luminance doubles to 1,227.07cd/m², brighter than HDR10 mastering levels. Thanks to the TV’s dimmable array backlight, it shows a modest black level of 0.06cd/m² even with a 100-percent white square on the screen, for an excellent 11,116:1 contrast ratio. This isn’t as high as the TCL 6-series’ contrast ratio, which despite not being able to get as bright, can reach a much lower 0.01cd/m² black level.

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