The Sony W650D LED TV has an average picture quality. It has good blacks when viewed in a dark room. Unfortunately, its screen uniformity has issues and the TV cannot get that bright. On top of that, when viewed from the side, its picture loses even more of its appeal.
Our Verdict
Decent TV for a range of usages. Picture quality in a dark room is poor for watching movies due to the low native contrast ratio, but handling of motion is good and image remains accurate when viewed at an angle.
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Decently good for playing video games
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Screen uniformity is bad
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Reduced picture quality when viewed from the side
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Can't get very bright
Bad for watching movies in a dark room. Low native contrast ratio so blacks appear gray, and uniformity is quite poor.
Decent for watching TV in a bright room. Image remains accurate when viewed at an angle, and the poor native contrast ratio isn't noticeable with ambient light. Reflections handling is quite good, but the TV can't get very bright to fight glare.
Okay for watching sports. Fast motion is handled well with little blur, and image remains accurate when viewed at an angle. Gray uniformity is quite bad so some dirty screen effect is visible.
Good choice for gaming. Picture quality is poor, but TV feels responsive due to good handling of fast motion and fairly low input lag.
Doesn't support any HDR formats. Poor picture quality and can't produce bright highlights or saturated colors.
Doesn't support HDR gaming. Picture quality is bad and can't benefit from HDR features such as bright highlights or saturated colors.
Decent PC monitor. Supports up to a 1080p resolution with full chroma information for clear text, and the edges of the screen remain accurate even when viewed from up close. Feels responsive due to low input lag and little motion blur.
- 6.6 Mixed Usage
- 5.9 Movies
- 6.6 TV Shows
- 7.1 Sports
- 7.6 Video Games
- 5.3 HDR Movies
- 5.0 HDR Gaming
- 6.0 PC Monitor
- Updated Mar 01, 2017: Review published.
- Updated Jun 06, 2016: Our testers have started testing this product.
- Updated Jun 02, 2016: We've purchased the product and are waiting for it to arrive in our lab.
Differences Between Sizes And Variants
We tested the 40" (KDL40W650D) and for the most part, we expect our review to be valid for the 48" (KDL48W650D) and the 55" (KDL55W650D).
If someone comes across a different type of panel or if their Sony W650D doesn't correspond to our review, let us know and we will update the review.
| Size | Model | UK |
| 40" | KDL-40W650D | KDL-40WD653 |
| 48" | KDL-48W650D | KDL-48WD653 |
| 55" | KDL-55W650D | N/A |
Compared To Other TVs
For a 1080p TV, the Sony W650D covers the basics but faces strong competition. Some cheaper TVs offer better picture quality and performance which makes the W650D hard to recommend in some cases. See our recommendations for the best cheap TVs and the best TVs.
Test Results
The Sony W650D doesn't boast a high end look but appears better than some other cheaper TVs. It is entirely made of plastic and its stand has a decent finish. The edges are thin but its back becomes thicker around the middle of the TV.
The stand has a small footprint and holds the TV steadily. Interestingly, cables can be routed inside the back legs of the stand for a clean setup.
Footprint of the 40" TV stand: 24.8" x 8.3"
The back of the TV isn't attractive but doesn't look particularly bad either. If wall mounted, the optical out input and one of the HDMI ports will be hard to access.
Compared to other smaller and cheaper TVs, the W650D doesn't appear too thick. Our max thickness measurement has been taken at the bottom part of the TV where it is thicker.
The contrast ratio is higher than average, although blacks appear slightly gray in a very dark room.
This television does not have any local dimming options.
Decent peak brightness values but cannot get extra bright like a TV that supports HDR.
This TV does not support HDR.
The gray uniformity on this TV is bad, not only are the corners dark but there is a black patch on the bottom of the screen. There isn't too much banding, but you'll definitely be able to see a dirty screen effect while panning over a playing field.
Even from just slightly on the side, blacks begin to become gray and colors shift. The vertical viewing angle isn't as bad due to the horizontal alignment of the pixels (see the 'Pixels' section) which makes this TV a better fit for setup where the TV is higher than viewers eye level, for example in a bedroom.
Update: We have changed the methodology of testing. Since this is an old TV which we don't have anymore, we extrapolated the results.
The black uniformity is good, with only slight flashlighting. This will not be noticeable in most cases.
The Sony W650D has an 8 bit panel and processing as can be noticed in our gradient test pattern. The anomalies won't be such an issue in regular content except for some banding that can be seen in a few scenes.
There are a lot of issues with both the white balance and the colors.
Similar to the Sony W600D, there are no settings to get improved results. Therefore, the post-calibration is identical to the pre-calibration.
Update: After the review was done, we were made aware of the white balance setting in the service menu. To access this menu, while the TV is off, press on the remote in this order: 'Display', '5', 'Volume +' and power on.
Cable TV is also handled pretty well and once upscaled it looks good without being too soft.
1080p content like Blu-rays looks good and sharp. The Sony W650D also has the capability of playing 1440p and 4k content, however it is scaled down to 1080p.
The range of colors the Sony W650D can display is good enough for Rec. 709 content.
Direct reflections aren't much of a problem but things get worse in a really bright room.
This is the second TV we see with an horizontal pixel substructure, the other being last year Sony R510C. TVs with this kind of pixel substructure don't have a good horizontal viewing angle but have slightly better vertical viewing angle which is good for setups where the TV is mounted above eye level.
On average the response time for this TV is good, unfortunately, a long trail can be seen following the logo. This is due to the transition from 0% to 100% that takes considerably longer than usual. The backlight of the TV is flicker free.
This TV is able to display 24p movies without judder, but only over 24 hz signals. You can expect to experience judder with both 60p and 60i for 24p content.
There is no motion interpolation option on the Sony W650D.
The Sony W650D has average input lag. It is not noticeable to most people. Game mode does not reduce the input lag any further.
This TV is able to handle 1080p @60Hz@4:4:4, which allows text to be sharper. Interestingly, it also supports 1440p and 4k content, however it does scale it down.
Average frequency response, and good maximum loudness. However, low-end cutoff is quite poor, even for a TV. There may also be compression and pumping at higher volumes.
Decent distortion. The overall amount of harmonic distortion is decent at all volumes, even at maximum volume.
The TV doesn't come with a wide range of pre-loaded applications, but the Opera TV store offers popular ones such as Youtube, Netflix, Amazon Video, and Hulu Plus.
The Sony W650D offers a reasonable smart interface, but it's definitely not something that would impress anyone. It is quite basic, but still offers highly demanded applications such as Netflix, Amazon Video, and Hulu plus which can be downloaded from the Opera TV Store. In terms of inputs, you do not get a whole lot with this television, don't expect to be able to connect all your devices to it easily.
Basic TV controls can be found underneath the TV just under the Sony logo. They can be accessed if the TV is wall mounted.
The remote is similar to all other Sony remotes. It is basic but functional.
