Sony Bravia XR A80K OLED 55 Review: Some Sony brilliance on an OLED; Can it get better?

The Sony Bravia XR A80K OLED provides the OLED viewing expertise with Sony’s masterful tuning and an excellent TV to again it up with. Here is our full overview.

OLED TVs have turn into an enormous development and with Xiaomi leaping into the scene with its OLED Vision TV, it has turn into tougher for the massive gamers like Samsung and Sony to up their sport. Sony just lately introduced its Bravia XR A80K OLED TV sequence for the Indian market and with this, Sony desires to focus on delivering the optimum image high quality. Given that the final Led backlit TV from Sony we reviewed left us pretty impressed, attending to expertise an OLED TV from Sony had left me filled with anticipation and pleasure. And boy did it ship! When Sony says it desires to focus on image high quality, you already know your wallets are going to bear the brunt of that declare. In the case of the Sony Bravia XR A80K OLED, that brunt is sort of excessive. I had the 55-inch variant of the TV that Sony calls for a whopping quantity of Rs. 1,99,990 for. That is knocking on the posh TV section however spending over two weeks with the A80K OLED has justified that exorbitant price ticket. Design

OLED TVs by their very nature put on that “single slate” look and the Sony Bravia XR A80K OLED does that properly. Mounted on the wall, the A80K appears to be like glossy and its stealthy design parts assist it mix effectively with the house decor, it doesn’t matter what form of furnishings and setup you have got. The bezel-less design has been executed with utmost craftsmanship. The ports are simply accessible from the edges though the far-field microphone button is difficult to seek out. You get your ordinary assortment of I/O ports however the ones which might be distinctive are the 2 HDMI 2.1 ports that help 120 fps. Gamers ahoy!For those that favor desk prime mounting, you get the desk stands inside the bundle. I had it wall mounted for the higher viewing expertise. The distant controller, sadly, is a really fundamental one. It has all of the buttons wanted for sensible capabilities and fast entry to the apps, however the structure is extremely cluttered. On the plus facet, it is less complicated to make use of and I’m completely happy to see the shortcut key to Settings overlay menu in addition to the YouTube app.Viewing Experience

As the identify suggests, the Sony Bravia XR A80K OLED options an OLED panel. OLED is of the emissive kind and which means each particular person pixel generates its personal gentle. This implies that the TV has far superior management over each pixel and that helps it management the lighting simply as it requires. Hence, in a film like The Interstellar, the scenes depicting the house are rendered brilliantly – the astronaut’s swimsuit and the spacecraft are carried out within the brightest of whites whereas the house round it is genuinely black! Pitch black! In a darkish room, you get to have the cinema-like expertise; apart from the truth that even cinemas cannot do blacks this effectively.But there’s extra to the Sony Bravia XR A80K OLED than simply getting deep blacks. This is a 4K TV that helps HDR10, Dolby Vision, and HLG image codecs. On prime of that’s Sony’s XR processor and a bunch of Sony enhancements, all of which intention to make the image stand out with its color rendition.The A80K has one thing known as the XR OLED Contrast Pro that merely enhances the brightness and distinction within the shiny lit areas of the display, and dimming the darker areas – all to make the distinction increased. The Cognitive Processor XR claims to reinforce the weather that you’d normally focus on within the scene, after which improve it accordingly for a greater expertise. All of those work very subtly however the finish result’s merely marvellous.

To present how effectively the TV panel is optimised, Sony has pre-loaded the A80K with Bravia Core – an app that hosts among the hottest film titles that might work vastly with the TV. I watched Spider-Man: No Way Home and the expertise was superior to the theatre’s one. The readability on Peter Parker’s face whereas he jumps round was astonishing, and the colors had been merely breathtaking to look at.I additionally watched a variety of Hollywood blockbusters in addition to the Marvel internet sequence on OTT apps, and the expertise has been merely superb. Dolby Vision content material appears to be like full of life whereas HDR10 rated content material is rendered equally good. Even common movies and flicks look good – that is the advantage of an OLED TV.I used to be additionally impressed with the upscaling efficiency in 1080p content material. The TV managed to maintain the lack of pixels to very low, though a loss in sharpness was noticed. For 720p content material, the TV does an honest job however the lack of pixels makes the 55-inch canvas battle to fill it in with extra particulars.The A80K additionally helps as much as 120 frames per second and that makes supported content material look easy. However, the movement blur couldn’t be nice for a lot of – the cleaning soap opera impact is seen on sluggish shifting topics. Unless you have got a very eager eye like we do, this should not be a priority.Sadly, I didn’t have entry to a gaming console that would reap the benefits of this 120 fps characteristic. If you have got one, you may take pleasure in gaming on these consoles at their best possible.Lastly, the ambient gentle sensor helps in retaining the brightness of the panel in examine below dimly lit situations, in addition to sunlit situations in a room.Audio Performance

The Sony Bravia XR A80K OLED is extra than simply the OLED panel. Sony makes use of one thing known as the Acoustic Surface Audio+, which replaces typical audio system for a set of three actuators. These actuators vibrate collectively to make the show generate the sound. To improve the standard, there are two further actuators on the sides for enhancing excessive frequency sounds and enabling clear dialogue. Then there are two subwoofers to reinforce the low-end thump, or bass.Sounds too fancy? All it is advisable know is that it feels precisely like an everyday TV speaker setup. The sound appears to come back from the TV’s path and in content material the place the encompass sound engineering is utilized, it appears the sound comes from round you. You nonetheless want a soundbar for an genuine encompass sound expertise however the TV’s audio setup is nice sufficient to permit me to disconnect my soundbar. In Dolby Atmos supported content material, the efficiency is nice as anticipated.Smart Features

As is the norm with new Sony TVs, the Bravia XR A80K makes use of the Google TV platform. The Google TV interface wants no introduction to sensible TV aficionados – it is a brand new design path for Android TV fashions that appears prettier on the eyes. Sony hasn’t touched the essential interface design and solely lets you have got the Settings overlay menu, which then opens as much as the usual Google TV settings interface.What does it all imply for the common viewer? (*55*) TV homescreen retains displaying urged content material concepts to look at from varied OTT apps put in on the machine. If you have got the subscription, a single click on will take you to the precise film or internet present. The Bravia Core is a separate app that opens as much as the specifically curated film library optimised particularly for the TV. The efficiency of the Google TV interface is quick and easy, and I didn’t observe any jitters or lags within the animations.The presence of Google TV additionally means that you’ve got entry to Chromecast, Google Assistant, and the Google Play retailer. There’s additionally help for Apple AirPlay 2, which implies you should utilize your iPhone to forged content material to the TV. Bootup occasions are fast for the TV.Verdict

OLED TVs would be the darling for TV aficionados and the Sony Bravia XR A80K OLED justifies that hype surrounding the OLED TV tech. While the OLED panel in itself is nice, it is all of the XR branded enhancements to image that makes the viewing expertise an unparalleled expertise. If you have got a behavior of doing these late evening weekend film periods in a darkish room, the Sony Bravia XR A80K OLED is likely one of the greatest methods to take action at a funds of Rs. 2 lakhs.That’s not all although. The Acoustic Surface Audio+ characteristic makes for an excellent audio expertise that feels pure to understand, and it negates the necessity for a soundbar. The bass efficiency is nice as effectively. The Google TV interface solely provides to the expertise and I like Sony for together with the Bravia Core service for giving viewers an opportunity to benefit from the TV to its fullest.If you have got a funds of Rs. 2 lakhs and you might be prepared to make the improve to OLED albeit in a 55-inch flavour, I extremely suggest the Sony Bravia XR A80K OLED.

Product Name
Sony Bravia XR A80K OLED

Pros

Great OLED show
XR enhancements are stellar
Great Audio efficiency
Superb design

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