Sony X900H Bravia – Can Sony's mid-range 4K LED TV stand up to the tough competition?

The design of the X900H is outstanding and very well done by Sony, the Japanese manufacturer. The frame and feet are made of aluminium and make a noble and robust impression. The feet can be mounted in two different positions. Due to the middle position of the feet, it is possible to use the TV on smaller footprints. However, the stability of the TV suffers and the TV stands a little wobbly. If the feet are mounted on the side, the X900H stands very stable and hardly wobbles at all – and there is also plenty of room for a sound bar to round off the setup.

The back is made of plastic and the interfaces are oriented towards the left edge of the screen, making them easy to reach even when using a wall mount. On the wall, the TV makes a good impression, which is underlined by its impressively narrow frame and moderate depth. Unfortunately, Sony has given little thought to cable management. Only clips for the feet are included, which is not really sufficient for a tidy setup – and on the wall, clips for the feet do not really help at all.

The X900H has a 10-bit VAVertical Alignment, type of LCD Panel panel that produces a deep and even black. The contrast ratio is very high at around 4800:1 and, in conjunction with Full Array Local Dimming, results in a beautiful display of HDRHigh Dynamic Range – image/video with more dynamic range (contrast range) content. Unfortunately, the Local Dimming feature is only equipped with 32 dimming zones, which can lead to blooming around bright objects in a dark picture – especially the larger versions of the X900H are affected by this, as the division into 32 zones is not sufficient for a large area. For example, subtitles in dark scenes often have a bright glow to the outside, which can be quite annoying.

The Sony TV’s peak brightness of ~740 nitsSI unit of luminance: 1 nit = 1 cd/m² – The best way of measuring and comparing a TVs brightness   is sufficient to display small bright highlights well, but not really high enough to make the TV work well in bright rooms, even though it has a fairly solid reflection behavior. Since Sony only uses the X-Wide Angle layer on the X950H, the viewing angle of the X900H of the is quite narrow and colors look washed out even at a slightly oblique viewing angle. But if you sit in a dark or dimmed room, right in front of the TV, it has a good picture quality with vivid colors – thanks to the wide color gamut.

As a dynamic HDR format, the X900H supports Dolby VisionDynamic HDR-format with a color depth of up to 12 Bits and Mastering of up to 10,000 Nits, which allows HDR content to be optimized even better.

The display has a native refresh rateHertz is the derived SI-unit of frequency with 1Hz=1/s – When talking about TVs this means how many different pictures a TV can display in one second. of 120 HzHertz is the derived SI-unit of frequency with 1Hz=1/s – When talking about TVs this means how many different pictures a TV can display in one second. and a fast response time of ~4 ms. This means that only very little motion blur is visible even with fast movements. To further reduce motion blur, the Black Frame InsertionProcess that inserts black “blank images” as intermediate images. This makes movements appear finer and clearer. feature can be used optionally. However, this feature has not been implemented very well, which can lead to some picture errors. JudderInconsistent time frame due to the input frequency not mismatching the TV’s frequency (e.g. 24p via 60Hz) can be removed from the X900H, but content with a low refresh rate may cause stuttering.

The backlight flickers at a frequencyHertz is the derived SI-unit of frequency with 1Hz=1/s – When talking about TVs this means how many different pictures a TV can display in one second. of 720 Hz. Because of this high frequency, most people perceive it as continuous illumination and therefore it does not disturb.

With the X900H you have everything you need for good gaming. Due to the great motion handling,. Even fast games are no problem for the X900H, as the motion blur is not really noticeable. Due to the low input lag of ~15 ms, the TV feels very responsive to external inputs, such as the press of a button on the console’s gamepad. To keep the input lag as low as possible the Auto Low Latency Mode is supported. This means that a switched-on console is immediately detected and the X900H automatically switches to game mode. Screen tearing is prevented by a variable refresh rateHertz is the derived SI-unit of frequency with 1Hz=1/s – When talking about TVs this means how many different pictures a TV can display in one second.. Either FreeSyncVariable Refresh Rate with AMD graphics cards or consoles or HDMI Forum’s VRRVariable Refresh Rate – synchronizes the display’s refresh rate with the output refresh rate of the graphics card is available for this.

With the HDMI 2.1 interface, the Sony is also prepared for the future. The Playstation 5 and the Xbox Series X can thus display their content with a 4K resolution with 120 fps on the LED TV, which could really be worth a look for gamers. Interestingly, the 2020 successor model, the X950H, does not have an HDMI 2.1 interface, which is a somewhat questionable decision by Sony.

The sound quality of the X900H is okay, but nothing too fancy. The 2-channel 10W speakers can reproduce dialogues clearly and the sound is generally quite balanced. As with most televisions, there is definitely a lack of bass. This is especially noticeable in action movies or while gaming, as much of the atmosphere is lost. However, this point can easily be corrected by an external sound system or soundbar, so that sound enthusiasts can also be satisfied. Both Dolby sound formats as well as DTSMulti-channel-sound-system (Surround Sound) competing with Dolby Digital:X are supported and through the HDMI eARC even uncompressed Dolby AtmosObject-based surround sound format with 3D-Sound from any direction via Dolby True-HD is possible!

Like the other 2020 TVs from Sony, the X900H also has the smart Android 9.0 Pie operating system. The current version runs much smoother than the previous versions and some bugs have also been removed so that it now runs almost flawlessly – which wasn’t always the case with previous versions from Sony. The Google Assistant is available as a language assistant and there is also the possibility to connect the TV to Google Home or Amazon Echo. Apple Airplay 2 makes it easy to exchange data between Apple devices and the TV, so you can easily display photos, videos and music.

The design of the interface appears tidy and clear and all popular streaming services are available. All in all, the selection of apps is very large so you will hardly miss anything. A twin tuner was also integrated and enables the USB recording function. Unfortunately, time-shifted television is still not possible with Sony televisions.