Sony X950H Bravia Review 09/2020

The Sony X950H Bravia impresses with its sophisticated manufacturing and attractive design. The frame as well as the feet are made of aluminium, while the back is completely made of plastic. The cables run behind the feet and can be fixed here with clips. The feet are also adjustable. Because they can be pushed together further towards the centre of the TV, the X950H can also be placed in small spaces. Nevertheless, the feet are stable enough to ensure that the television hardly wobbles at all. The various connections are now located on the side instead of at the bottom as in the model before, making them easier to reach.

Especially the almost continuous screen surface of the X950H is very chic and provides an immersive feeling. Exceptions are the sizes 49 and 85 inches, where a narrow frame is existing and the feet are firmly installed.

The X950H has a 10 bitThe color depth is measured in Bit. 8 Bit stands for 28 different values for each color channel, for TVs those are red, green and blue. By combining the 3 rgb channels 28*28*28=16.777.216 colors are possible. HDR10 or the dynamic HDR formats work with 10 or even 12 Bit. VAVertical Alignment, type of LCD Panel panelThe panel is the actual screen of a television. There is different types of panels like OLED, LCD or Micro LED and different sub-types of LCD like VA or IPS. with deep black and a relatively high contrast. Sony already uses its X-Wide Angle layer on this year’s model from 55 inches to improve the limited viewing angle of the built-in VAVertical Alignment, type of LCD Panel panelThe panel is the actual screen of a television. There is different types of panels like OLED, LCD or Micro LED and different sub-types of LCD like VA or IPS. and it can even significantly minimize reflections and mirroring. However, it is still missing in the 49 inch version. With more than three people in front of the screen, it could still be difficult with the viewing angle. Thanks to Full Array Local Dimming, the contrast is further improved, but the layer means that the TV has to lose some contrast again. Nevertheless, the maximum brightness and black level are very good and ensure that a good picture is produced, especially in bright surroundings. These features and its wide colour gamutThe complete subset of colors which can be displayed by the screen make the Sony X950H ideal for HDRHigh Dynamic Range – image/video with more dynamic range (contrast range) content in streaming and gaming. As usual, Sony’s image processing programs deliver a very natural image here.

There’s hardly anything to criticize in the Sony X9500H’s motion handlingDisplaying fast moving objects. Thanks to a 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 very short response time of only 4ms, there is no motion blur, which is particularly beneficial for sports fans. In standard mode, the image flickers at 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., but if you turn off the automatically activated Motion Flow, it flickers at 720 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., which is not noticeable to the eye. If required the motion interpolationArtificial calculation of more frames than the source material has to offer feature can also be added. A particularly positive feature of the X950H is that no judderInconsistent time frame due to the input frequency not mismatching the TV’s frequency (e.g. 24p via 60Hz) can be detected for any resource.

When looking at the Sony X950H’s features, it’s clearly noticeable that it isn’t designed as a pure gaming TV. Even though the input lagTime it takes for the input signal to appear on the screen (delay) in the available gaming mode is relatively low and it has analogue connections for gaming with older consoles, relevant modern features like a variable refresh rateVariable Refresh Rate – synchronizes the display’s refresh rate with the output refresh rate of the graphics card and the Auto Low Latency Mode are missing. Unfortunately, an HDMI 2.1 connection is also missing. It’s not quite clear to us why HDMI 2.1 and the mentioned features aren’t available on the Sony X950H, but on the somewhat cheaper Sony X900H.

The X950’s sound quality is surprisingly good. It has separate high-frequency speakers that are designed to adjust the sound even more precisely to the picture. The only exception here is again the 49 inch version, which only comes along with the bass reflex speakers. In addition, the sound can be adjusted to the respective room environment via an acoustic calibration – the so-called Ambient Optimization Feature from Sony. Overall, the sound is relatively balanced, even if the bass leaves something to be desired. For this, the Sony X950H has an HDMI eARC connection and thus enables audio formats, such as Dolby Atmos and DTS:X in uncompressed format. Thus, a high-quality surround sound bar or system is recommended.

The model comes with the latest Android TV version, Android 9.0 Pie. This operating system runs much faster and error-free than previous Sony versions. The interface is clearly structured and the large app selection includes all classic streaming providers. Here, the additional Netflix Calibrated Mode, which is supposed to reproduce the original studio quality of Netflix Originals, is especially noticeable. The included smart remote scores with additional backlighting, which was again saved on the 49 inch variant. There is only a standard remote control here. The smart remote control enables voice control via Google Assistant. Amazon Echo for Alexa and Google Home can also be connected. Furthermore, with Twin Tuner, USB recording and TimeShift is possible.