Our Verdict
The Sony Z9D is a great TV for a mixed usage. Picture quality is great overall, it gets bright and deals with reflections well and input lag is good for gaming. It does have issues with motion, making it imperfect for sports watching.
- Exceptional local dimming
- Gets very bright
- Deep and uniform blacks
- Lots of motion blur, fast moving objects will often have faint trails following them
- Picture quality deteriorates at an angle
Outstanding choice for movies in a dark room. Mostly thanks to its local dimming unmatched by other LED TVs. The Z9D can produce very deep blacks and can darken black bars flawlessly. Blooming can still be seen though, and it cannot match OLED for displaying starry skies or other scenes with small light sources.
Great TV for watching TV shows. It looks good at every time of the day, and lower resolution content looks sharp. Android TV also has all the popular apps such as Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon video.
The Sony Z9D does a good job with sports. The screen is decently uniform with minimal blotchiness. Unfortunately, the TV's slow response time causes long trails to follow fast moving objects such as players on fields.
Very good TV for video games. Input lag is low, especially in with 4k games. However, the Z9D produces a lot of motion blur. This can cause fast motion games to look a bit blurry, but it can thankfully be circumvented by using the TV's flickering feature.
Remarkable HDR performance. The Z9D is an exceptionally bright TV that produces a very satisfactory HDR experience. It also has a wide color gamut, which allows the TV to produce vivid colors.
Great HDR gaming TV. HDR picture quality is excellent, and input lag remains low. Unfortunately, the TV's motion can be a bit of an issue.
Good PC monitor. The Z9D is capable of displaying every resolution we test, including 1080p @ 120hz. However it has a narrow viewing angle, so corners and sides of the screen darken if sitting too close, and the long response time for 0-100% transitions results in a trail following a mouse pointer on a white background.
Changelog
- Updated Jun 12, 2018: A note for Xbox One X and Xbox One S owners: 1080p @ 120 Hz from the Xbox is only supported on this TV when the Xbox's connection type is changed from Auto-detect (Recommended) to HDMI, but unfortunately in this mode 4k and HDR aren't supported.
- Updated May 22, 2018: The TV's HDR EOTF has now been tested, and was found to track the target PQ curve very closely.
- Updated Mar 12, 2018: Converted to Test Bench 1.2.
- Updated Jan 23, 2018: High-end Sony TVs have now been updated with Dolby Vision through a firmware update (PKG6.2818.0075NAA). The input section has been updated.
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Differences Between Sizes And Variants
We tested the 65" (XBR65Z9D). For the most part, we expect our review to be valid for the 75"(XBR75Z9D) and 100"(XBR100Z9D) variant as well.
Update 05/05/2017: From the test results that our readers have reported, the 75" model may have a faster response time, resulting in improved motion.
If someone comes across a different type of panel or if their Sony XBR-65Z9D doesn't correspond to our review, let us know and we will update the review. Note that some tests such as the gray uniformity may vary between individual units.
| Size | Model | Alternative Name | UK Model |
| 65" | XBR65Z9D | XBR-65Z9D | KD-65ZD9 |
| 75" | XBR75Z9D | XBR-75Z9D | KD-75ZD9 |
| 100" | XBR100Z9D | XBR-100Z9D | KD-100ZD9 |
Popular TV Comparisons
The Z9D is an exceptional LED TV, but it faces equally exceptional TVs in its price range. It's difficult to justify it when OLED TVs a lot less. See our recommendations for the best OLED TVs and the best TVs.
The Sony Z9F is better than the Sony Z9D, unless you watch movies in the dark from directly in front. The Z9F is much brighter in SDR, and a bit brighter in HDR. The 2018 Z9F has much better motion handling, with significantly faster response time and less input lag, great for gaming. The Z9F also has faster smart features, running a newer version of the Android TV operating system. The Z9D is a bit better in a dark room, as it has a better contrast ratio and better local dimming feature, but the image degrades rapidly when viewed at an angle.
The Sony Z9D is marginally better than the Sony X940E. Overall performance is very similar, but the Z9D is a bit brighter and supports 3D. The Z9D handles fast moving scenes better than the X940E, since it has a faster response time and less motion blur. The Sony X940E is more consistent in its ability to remove judder from 24p sources.
If you watch a lot of movies or have a wide seating arrangement, then the Sony A1E OLED is a better choice, but if you plan to use the TV as a PC monitor or watch a lot of content with static banners or logos like news, then the Sony Z9D is a better choice. The Sony A1E has an OLED panel and can display perfect blacks, which is great for movies and HDR content. The Sony A1E also has an instantaneous response time, which is excellent for playing video games. The Sony Z9D, however, is a better option if you are worried about the permanent burn-in risk.
The Sony Z9D is better than the Samsung Q9F/Q9 QLED 2017. The Sony Z9D has significantly better local dimming and a bit better black uniformity, which allows it to display deeper blacks in darker rooms, and this is great when watching movies or HDR content. Also, the Sony Z9D has marginally better SDR peak brightness, which is good if you watch TV shows in a brighter room. On the other hand, the Samsung Q9F has a better response time and a bit better input lag, which makes it very responsive, and you'll enjoy it if you play video games.
We buy and test dozens of TVs yearly, taking an objective, data-driven approach to deliver results you can trust. Our testing process is complex, with hundreds of individual tests that take over a week to complete. Most of our tests use specially designed test patterns that mimic real content, but we also use the same sources you have at home to ensure our results match the real-world experience. We use two main tools for our testing: a Colorimetry Research CR-100 colorimeter and a CR-250 spectroradiometer.
Test Results
Older Test Bench: This product has been tested using an older TV test methodology, before a major update. Some of the test results below aren't directly comparable with other TVs. Learn more
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