With all the time we’re all spending at home now, our TVs are becoming even more important. As portals for entertainment, gaming, news, and even zoom calls, people are looking for a TV packed with features and options. I recently had the opportunity to test out an 85” Sony TRILUMINOS 4K smart TV (model X900H) in my home for a month, alongside a Sony sound system, including the Sony HT-Z9F sound bar and SA-ZR9 rear speakers, plus the Sony X700 Blu-Ray Player. I’ll tell you what having this system in my home theatre has been like from firsthand experience.
Sony 85″ 4K smart TV with TRILUMINOS Display (model X900H)
First of all, this is a 4K TV, meaning it has super sharp resolution, with four times the resolution of older HD TVs. Read more about 4K technology here. It runs the Android TV operating system with smart streaming access to over 7000+ apps and 400,000+ movies and shows.
Google Assistant is built in here so you can ask Google to control your TV, get recommendations and answers on screen, control your smart home devices, and more—all by using your voice. Built into the Android TV OS are streaming apps including YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Crave. The Sony X900H also works with Alexa and Apple AirPlay 2 and Apple HomeKit so you can control the TV using those smart options too. And it probably goes without saying that this TV works with Smart Speakers, including Google Home and Amazon Alexa enabled devices.
There’s a lot of other technology packed in this television too and I’ll touch on some of those features before I get to my personal assesment of the overall video quality.
Full Array LED
Full Array, also called Full Array Local Dimming have what you could call a full array of LED lighting—hundreds of lights—spread out more widely behind the screen of the TV. These lights can be more precisely controlled so you should see more precision in the video, better black levels, better detail in dark or shadowy scenes, as well as more realistic brightness without washout or bleed.
Full Array Local Dimming backlight technology allows for sharper 4K detail, more realistic colour, deeper black levels, more realistic and a wider contrast range and a wider viewing angle. You can learn more about this technology from this article: What is a full array TV?
TRILUMINOS Display
With Sony’s top of the line colour technology, TRILUMINOS Display, you’ll see a colourful video picture with rich real-world detail and a wider range of brightness. Sony’s sales pitch here is that the TRILUMINOS Display reproduces more colours than a conventional television, by analyzing and processing the data in every image to make colours even more natural and precise so your video looks closer than ever to real life.
Support for next-gen gaming
This TV has HDMI 2.1 for next-gen gaming consoles. As well as support for Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM). With a Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) of 4K@120fps, you should see a reduced input lag and higher frame rates that translate to smooth, clear motion. Sony does note this will require a firmware update which will be released in late 2020.
Additionally, the Sony X900H is Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos compatible so if you have an Atmos audio speaker system, you’ll get the most advance audio in your home too.
Design of the Sony X900H
TVs today are getting thinner and lighter; the bezels, or frames around the screen, are practically non-existent. I absolutely love the size of this TV. At 85″, it’s the only thing you can see when you’re sitting in front of it. This TV is basically all screen, so it absolutely fills your field of view with the picture and nothing gets in the way.
While it would be my preference to wall mount this TV, my review unit was just on loan so I wasn’t able to wall mount it. I also didn’t have any furniture big or sturdy enough to hold this on its legs. If this is your next TV, then consider carefully where you will put it before it enters your home.
Video quality of the Sony X900H
Despite its size and how close I have my sofa to it, I can’t see any pixels and the picture has been sharp and detailed no matter what I’m watching. That’s the power of a Sony premium 4K TV. Overall the TV is really nice to watch. The video quality is beautiful, the colour is gorgeous, and the resolution is razor sharp. Even watching action movies, motion blur was not an issue.
Image quality on a TV is always best when standing directly in front of the screen. On most TVs, the farther you move to the side, the more the colours will fade. However, on this Sony X900H, the image was amazingly clear even from side viewing angles. The Sony X900H had very little colour fade at even extreme angles.
My impression of the Sony X900H TV
I’m going to be pretty crushed to send this TV back. I wasn’t sure if I’d like such a huge screen in my home, but it was pretty easy to adapt. I’m really thrilled with the overall video quality, and the Android TV interface works well. I also wanted to note that I had Geek Squad come and deliver and install the TV and the sound system for me and I highly recommend taking advantage of this service. They arrived on schedule, worked quickly, and handled all the details—plus they calibrated everything and tested it all out so I knew it was running perfectly the first minute I sat down to enjoy it.
Downsides? In the short time I had it I didn’t notice any issues with the picture quality. I paired this with the Sony HT-Z9F sound bar and SA-ZR9 rear speakers, plus the X700 Blu-Ray Player which I’ve reviewed before, so I had great sound quality and this was way better than relying on the built in TV speakers. I didn’t find anything to dislike about this TV. If I do have one caveat, it’s that this TV is big, and you will have to be very selective if you plan to place it on a TV stand or other type of furniture. Plan placement carefully.
Find the 85” Sony TRILUMINOS 4K smart TV (model X900H) at Best Buy.
A new TV would be fantastic as mine died recently and watching on a computer is not a great experince.
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