Sony X850D TV Review

The designers behind the Sony 4k UHD X850D LED TV have done a decent job of making the TV look good, but it looks cheaper than last year's X850C. It still feels sturdy, but most of the metal finish is gone; its frame and stand are now entirely made of plastic. The new stand feels more solid, though. The X850D is relatively thin, but those looking to mount it flush on a wall will block some of its back connections.

The plastic stand is very sturdy and the TV feels safe on it, although it can still wobble a bit if you push against it. Footprint of the 55" TV stand: 10.2" x 18.1"

The back of the TV looks a little blocky. Some connections on the back might be inaccessible in a setup where the TV is mounted flush on a wall. Note that the 65" has VESA 300x300, and the 75" and 85" have a VESA 400x300 mount.

The X850D has traded a metal finish for plastic.

The top part and edges are thinner and the guts of the TV are behind the thick middle part.

Blacks aren't very deep and might appear a little gray in a dark environment. This won't be much of an issue in a room with a few lights on.

There is no local dimming feature on this TV. If you want that feature, you should go with the pricier X930D instead.

The SDR peak brightness is average for the Sony X850D. This TV does not have a local dimming feature, and thus the overall average is about 320cd/m², which is 100 less than what it can reach when in HDR mode. This is good for a dark room, fall a bit short for a very bright room.

Since the X850D doesn't support local dimming, all % values are near the same. The maximum brightness is not enough to enjoy HDR fully.

The screen uniformity, as with most other LED TVs, isn't great, but at least it is free from obvious problems like banding. The corners appear a lot darker.

This is an IPS TV (except the 85"). Therefore, it has a wide viewing angle that is good for seating on the sides of the TV. Color saturation and contrast will stay good unless the TV is being viewed from wide angles.

There are no obvious clouding or flashlighting issues, although with a fully black screen, the lighter blacks are more apparent.

Our 10 Bit gradient pattern looks very good, without any of the 8 Bit gradations. This mean that HDR content should be free of any obvious color banding.

The white balance was off to begin with and color was at an acceptable level. Gamma was just a little low.

Any white balance issues could be fixed, although the X850D doesn't have separate color adjustments. The color still got better after the white balance calibration.

On the Sony X850D, details are nicely preserved, even at lower resolutions like 480p.

Cable TV looks good and sharp when upscaled, like the majority of Sony TVs.

Blu-rays looks sharp and crisp once upscaled.

The Sony X850D UHD LED TV have no problem with the native 4k resolutions. Content looks very nice and sharp, even when sitting very close to the TV.

To enable the wide color gamut option, change 'Color space' from the 'Advanced settings' picture menu to 'DCI' or 'BT.2020'. For most content, leave it set to 'sRGB/BT.709'.

The Sony X850D does present some image retention, but unlike the X700D, the retention is present only right after the static scene of the test video. After 2 minutes, visually and from our computer analysis, we could not make out any image retention at all, which is pretty good for an IPS TV. This is particularly good for PC and video games enthusiasts.

Bright objects reflected on the screen have rainbows around them. Reflections aren't going to be a big problem as long as there aren't too many lights in the room.

Pixel response time is quick as a whole, but transitions to darker colors are slower. The backlight is flicker-free, so although motion appears a little blurry, it doesn't create a double effect like you see on most Samsung TVs.

With 24p content like Blu-ray, 'Motionflow' has to be set to 'True Cinema' to remove judder. For 60Hz signals like cable and streaming, you also need to set 'CineMotion' to 'High'.

Since the X850D is a 120Hz TV, it is able to interpolate both 30Hz and 60Hz content.

Lowest 1080p input lag is achieved under 'Game' picture mode. The 'Clearness' setting under 'Motionflow' can be used to clarify action some more and won't increase the input lag (although it does darken the screen). 1080p input lag also stays low enough for some slower games when image interpolation is turned on, which is something that can't be said for most TVs.

Update 11/02/2016: With the latest firmware update (PKG3.531.0108NAB), the overall 1080p and 4k SDR remain the same, but the 4k HDR input lag is now almost half than was with was before and is now the same as 4k SDR. It is still a bit high even for casual gaming, but it is definitely an upgrade over the 93ms that it was before.

Most resolutions are accepted. To get chroma 4:4:4, select 'Game' or 'Graphics' picture mode. For 4k @ 60Hz @ 4:4:4, you also need to set the HDMI input to 'Enhanced format' (under 'External inputs' menu). Just like with last year's Sony TVs, 1080p @ 120Hz produces little artifacts (lines), but this shouldn't be too bothersome while gaming. The 'Graphics' picture mode has fewer of these little artifacts.

Decent frequency response. However, the low-end cutoff of 143Hz is rather high, even for a TV; this TV doesn't produce a lot of bass. It doesn't get very loud either, and pumping may be present at higher volumes.

This distortion pattern seems to be typical of Sony TVs: Good results at lower volumes, and then a big jump in harmonic distortion near the maximum loudness limit of the TV.

All the major apps are available, including a web browser, YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Video, HBO Go and more.

Not much has changed from Sony's Android TV smart platform from last year, which isn't such a bad thing, though some improvements would have been nice. It still feels like Sony uses a bunch of different interfaces thrown together into one. The content and apps are there, though, and that is what really matters. The interface is faster, too. As for the TV's inputs, you probably won't need more. Just make sure you have enough space in your setup to hide the huge power brick.

Sony Android TVs don't have ads. They do however have a slew of app recommendations on their home screen, which some might not like.

Basic TV controls are located on the back-right side of the TV. They might not be accessible if the TV is mounted flush on a wall.

The remote has the same familiar layout as last year's, but now has a soft finish.

- Remote
- Batteries
- 2 cable ties
- Power brick with cable
- IR blaster
- Manuals