Sony X80K 4K HDR TV Review

Vemuda Techno - Today on your huge demand I bring for you an in-depth review of 55 inches Sony X80k TV. Sony X80K is the successor model of last year's most popular model X80J. This model is available from 43 inches to 75 inches, and the picture quality of all the variants is similar.

I have been testing this TV for the last 15 days and have come up with this review only after that. So now, let's start this post with the unboxing of this TV.

Source: CNET

This is the 55 inches Sony X80k 4k TV. Inside the box, apart from the TV, you get a remote, 2 AAA+ batteries, 2 pieces of the table-top stand, warranty card, clips for cable management, 4 VESA mount adaptors and a user manual guide.

The TV has a black bezel and it is bezel-less from three sides. The bottom bezel is pretty slim, on the centre of which, Sony branding is given. The two pieces of the tabletop stand have been constructed out of metal and their built quality is pretty solid.

You just need to push these two pieces of the stand in the spaces given underneath the TV, and a clicking sound will ensure that they are properly fitted.

No screw is needed to fit the stand. The legs perfectly match the bezel of the TV and come in a blade design. There is enough space under the TV to place any soundbar as the legs are pretty tall.

On the back, high-grade Black plastic material has been used. In the centre, a grid pattern has been given and there are multiple vents for heat dissipation.

The placement for the ports has been given on the right side, whereas, the port for the power cord is on the left side.

The TV is fairly heavy, which stands witness to its high-class construction. Overall in looks, this TV is smart and elegant, apart from being premium.

The built quality of the remote is good and as it does not have dedicated number buttons, the size of the remote has been reduced.

The remote carries dedicated buttons to Netflix, YouTube, Prime Video, and, YouTube music, apart from the Google Assistant button.

On the connectivity front, this TV has 4 HDMI ports, 2 USB ports, an Ethernet port, an antenna port, digital optical audio out port, and, a composite input port.

The HDCP version of all the ports is 2.3. On this TV you get HDMI ARC, HDMI eARC, and HDMI CEC. The HDMI 3 and 4 come with Auto Low Latency Mode. This TV also has a USB 3.0 port. Apart from this, the TV comes with dual-band Wi-Fi and Bluetooth v4.2.

Now let's talk about the company's given specifications. This is an IPS panel TV that comes with DLED backlighting. The TV exhibits frame dimming and has a 50 Hz refresh rate.

The TV comes with the MotionFlow XR200 Technology, which according to the company, boosts its native 50 Hz refresh rate four times to 200 Hz.

The TV comes with a high dynamic range, and it supports all three, HDR10, HLG, and Dolby Vision. The TV comes with an X1 4K processor.

For a wider colour gamut, this TV comes with Live colour technology and Triluminos Pro, which enables viewers to see more than 1 billion colours on this TV.

To enhance picture clarity, the TV has a 4k Reality Pro Technology, which upscales low-resolution videos in quality close to 4K. To enhance the contrast, the TV has a dynamic contrast enhancer and object-based HDR Remaster.

Sony X80K comes with 10+10 Watts 2 full-range, Bass Reflex, X-balanced speakers that support Dolby audio as well as Dolby Atmos.

This TV also supports DTS-X surround sound. The TV has a sound optimization feature, which optimizes the sound according to the room environment to give you the best audio experience.

This is an Android TV that also comes with the Google TV UI. The TV has 16GB storage and comes with the Google PlayStore.

Apart from this, you get an option to install the Bravia cam for video calling. So these all were the company-given specifications, now, let's talk about its real performance.

This TV comes with an ADS panel, which stands very close to an IPS panel in performance. As this TV has an IPS-type panel, its contrast ratio is mediocre, and, the frame dimming does not play any role in enhancing the contrast further.

The grey uniformity of this TV is fairly good because of this, a single color stretch looks pretty uniform. This enhances the viewing experience while Watch Sports, as you get a very good field view.

There is hardly any dirty screen effect on this TV. The colour reproduction is pretty good and you get to see bright colours that appear natural and accurate. The colour accuracy of this TV is pretty good.

Despite having an IPS-type panel, the colour reproduction is far better than other IPS panel TVs. While watching HDR videos, the TV gives very wide coverage of the DCI P3 colour gamut.

Though the Blacks of this TV are not very deep, they can be termed as sufficiently deep. In comparison to a dark room, Blacks appear deeper in a bright room. However, the dark room performance of this TV is also good.

The TV comes with a black level adjustment feature, you can adjust the Blacks according. While watching SDR content, the brightness looks fairly good, however, the dark scenes of HDR videos leave us wishing for a little more brightness.

However, you can also enhance the gamma level, which will enhance the detail clarity of dark scenes further.

The SDR contents look amazingly good on this TV. As the TV has very good brightness to watch SDR contents in their best quality.

Though the brightness falls short of that required to watch HDR contents in their optimum quality, its HDR performance is better than many other branded TVs being sold for under 1 lakh.

The Dolby Vision performance of this TV is also good. Netflix contents are fully enjoyable on it. The viewing angle of this TV is very good, you can comfortably get it installed in an illuminated big hall.

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As this TV comes with an IPS-type panel, its refresh rate is limited to 50 Hertz. On budget VA panel TVs, you get a little higher refresh rate of 60 Hz.

In my opinion, the claim of the company that its MotionFlow XR200 Technology, is capable of boosting the native 50 Hz refresh rate four times up to 200 Hz is an exaggeration.

If this was the scenario, then motion blur would not be visible at all on this TV but, it does show up sometimes during very fast action scenes.

Motion blur is not an issue on this TV while watching normal content. MotionFlow XR 200 of Sony definitely works, but not to that extent as claimed by the company.

Coming to its picture upscaling; You get to see a very good picture upscaling on this 4k TV. Apart from OTT contents, videos played through the USB ports show pretty good picture upscaling.

Low-resolution contents also look good on this TV. This TV comes with multiple picture modes, i.e., Vivid, Standard, Cinema, Game, Photo, Graphics, Custom, Dolby Vision Bright and Dolby Vision Dark.

The out-of-the-box picture settings of this TV are pretty good, but after calibration, the colors get enhanced even more and their accuracy also increases.

The set-top box performance of this TV is very good. HD channels look pretty good on it and SD channels can also be comfortably viewed.

Coming to its audio; the audio is pretty good. Apart from being loud, it is crystal clear. The dialogues are crisp and clear, and they are accompanied by fair heaviness too.

But if you are expecting that through the speakers of this TV, you will be able to enjoy Dolby Atmos audio, it would be hypothetical, because for the Dolby Atmos experience you need a complete home theatre setup, which includes ceiling speakers and rear speakers

However, if you even connect this TV to some good Dolby Atmos soundbar, you will get a very good audio experience.

This TV comes with HDMI eARC, so even if you connect some simple Dolby soundbar with it, you will get a better audio experience, than any TV having only HDMI ARC.

This TV supports the Bravia cam. If you would like to do video calling on a big screen, this is a very good option for you.

However, you need to buy the Bravia cam separately and through that, you will also be able to control this TV with your gestures.

The TV has a light sensor, which in auto mode, adjusts the brightness of the TV according to the room lighting conditions.

Now coming to the smartness of this TV; This is an Android TV on which you also get Google UI. The Google UI makes your browsing experience easier.

This simplifies your browsing. For example, if you watch horror movies, the TV will display content related to this genre on your screen.

The voice command feature of this TV is pretty responsive, you can also operate this TV through your voice command by pressing the Google Assistant button on the remote.

Apart from Google devices, this TV is also compatible with Alexa. You can operate all the compatible devices with a single remote.

You can also install the Google Android TV application on your phone and control your TV through it. The TV comes with a built-in Chromecast, apart from Apple Airplay and Apple Air Kit

The TV has a living decor application on it. In the ambient Mode, you can display your personal photos or pictures stored on the TV as a slide show and thereby convert your TV into a piece of Art.

However, I will not suggest this, as the LEDs fitted on the TV have a limited life span, so if you play this type of slideshow very often, its life will definitely get reduced.

Yes, occasionally when any guest is arriving, you can certainly use this ambient mode to flaunt the beautiful display of your TV.

The TV comes with an Auto Low Latency Mode, when you connect this to your PlayStation,

the TV automatically goes into the Game Mode after which ALLM gets activated and even the input lag minimizes.

The input lag of this TV is pretty good and the response time is decent. When you switch over to movies from gaming, the mode automatically shifts to Standard.

You can comfortably enjoy PS5 gaming on this TV, without any frame drop. Though this TV does not come with VRR, and, the refresh rate is also low, it is beautifully handled, both, Dirt 5 and Spider-Man games.

With beautiful graphics, its HDR gaming performance was pretty good. All details get beautifully displayed on the screen and everything was smooth without any noticeable motion blur or stuttering.

This TV is also a very good option to be used as a monitor. It is capable of displaying the proper Croma ratio of 4:4:4, because of which text appears sharp and clear on it.

Hope this post proved helpful to you. Now, meet you in my next post, till then, take care and stay safe.

Hey, we also have reviewed Blaupunkt 55 inches QLED TV, 55QD7020.