Sony X850G Review: Impressive Yet with Some Significant Flaws

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Sony X850G: At First Glance

In 2019, Sony released three 4K LED LCD televisions in the US with a few more in the UK and European markets. These televisions include the top-of-the-line Sony X950G, the mid-level Sony X850G, and the entry-level Sony X800G.

Today, we will take an insightful dive into the Sony X850G which is the mid-level television released by Sony in 2019. The Sony X850G features a brilliant picture processor and a 4K display to offer users an impressive picture quality.

However, despite being a mid-level television, the Sony X850G is quite expensive. To give more details, as of November 2021 (when I wrote this review), this TV had a price tag of $1,347.97.

Having mentioned a few things about the Sony X850G, let’s get to know the TV more in subsequent sections below.

Sony X850G: Design, Dimension and Weight

Design-wise, the Sony X850G bears some similarities with its predecessor, the Sony X850F. However, they don’t share exactly the same looks as there are a few key differences between the two televisions.

First of all, the thickness was one element that pleasantly surprised me as the Sony X850G measures only 5 cm thick. This is a great improvement compared to the 8 cm thickness that its predecessor (Sony X850F) measures.

Also, this means that the Sony X850G will not extrude very much from the wall if wall-mounted. Thus, giving the television a good look when mounted on the wall.

That said, the bezels on the Sony X850G are pretty slim and are made out of plastic. Moreover, these bezels are just slightly slimmer than the bezels on the Sony X850F, its predecessor. 

Furthermore, the Sony X850G’s bezels aren’t something special as they lack visual flair. The term “Uninspiring” is the best word to describe these bezels.

Moving on to the back of the Sony X850G, this television features a plastic matte-black panel on the back. Furthermore, this back panel houses all of the television’s ports, which are separated into two groups.

However, the power connector of the TV is on the left side of the television’s back panel. It is worth mentioning that the television’s back panel features a strip of glossy black towards the top.

Something else worth noting is the tweeters on both the right and left edges of this glossy-black strip. These tweeters are part of the television’s Acoustic Multi-Audio system (more on that in the sound feature review section).

Moving on, the Sony X850G features the same pair of bench-type legs found on its predecessor. The only difference is the color.

To be more specific, the Sony X850G’s legs have a silver finish while its predecessor’s legs have a black finish.

That said, the Sony X850G’s legs are really sturdy, despite their thinness, and they provide excellent support for the TV. However, if nudged with force, the legs won’t prevent the TV from wobbling.

Impressively, there are channels on the back of these legs, which can be used for cable management.

Now for the dimension and weight of the television, the Sony X850G measures 1909 x 80 x 1097 mm and weighs a massive 46493 g. This weight might seem too much, but it was actually expected since we are dealing with the 85-inch Sony X850G.

Comparatively, the Samsung QN90A Neo QLED TV (QN85QN90AAFXZA) is significantly heavier than the Sony X850G. To give more details, the Samsung QN90A Neo QLED TV (QN85QN90AAFXZA) weighs a massive 71667.6 g.

In conclusion, the Sony X850G comes with a decent design with minimal thickness. Therefore, in this design review section, I will rate the Sony X850G a nine out of ten.

Sony X850G: Display Features

The Sony X850G comes with an 85-inch LCD display that offers a 4K UHD (3840 x 2160) resolution. 4K resolutions are becoming extremely popular in modern-day televisions.

This is because 4K resolution improves picture quality and allows a display to deliver realistic and colorful content. Well, the Sony X850G takes its own picture quality to a whole new level by featuring the brilliant X1 4K HDR picture processor.

The X1 4K HDR picture processor is an innovative technology that uses advanced algorithms to cut noise and boost detail. This picture processor allows the Sony X850G’s display to produce pictures and contents that are sharp, clear, and incredibly lifelike.

Thus, improving the overall picture quality of the display.

The good news doesn’t stop with the X1 4K HDR picture processor as the Sony X850G also features the 4K X-Reality Pro technology. This picture technology is responsible for upscaling SD as well as HD content into 4K resolution content to improve picture clarity.

Furthermore, a variety of noise reduction techniques are used by 4K X-Reality Pro technology to sharpen and refine images. Thus, upscaled HD content will look clearer, smoother, and more natural on the Sony X850G’s display.

If there is one area where the Sony X850G’s display left me disappointed, it has to be the contrast ratio. To be more specific, this display features a very terrible contrast ratio of 799:1.

I have reviewed some Sony TVs in the past both cheap and expensive, and I can assure you that I haven’t seen a contrast ratio this poor. Well, the result of the Sony X850G’s display’s poor contrast ratio is that blacks produced by the display will look grayish.

Therefore, watching a movie with plenty of dark scenes on the Sony X850G is definitely not a good idea. Also, the Sony X850G isn’t suitable for dark room viewing.

To make matters even worse, the Sony X850G’s display doesn’t support local dimming features. Local dimming is a way for LED/LCD displays to improve the contrast ratio in dark scenes by dimming backlight zones.

On a positive note, the Sony X850G’s display has impressive viewing angles. Therefore, when viewing the television from the side, picture quality and color accuracy will remain constant.

Furthermore, the Sony X850G’s display has an impressive maximum brightness of 431 cd/m². This means the television is ideal for viewing in a moderately-lit and well-lit room.

When it comes to HDR (High Dynamic Range), the Sony X850G’s display supports the three major HDR formats. These HDR formats include Dolby Vision, HDR 10, and HLG.

Let me briefly explain what HDR means. HDR is a picture technique that allows a display to improve picture clarity and contrast when viewing HDR-supported content.

HDR-supported content is mostly found on streaming services like Netflix, Disney+, and HULU.

That said, the Sony X850G’s display is capable of displaying a wider color gamut. In other words, the television’s display is able to produce a wide range of colors.

This is one of the main factors when viewing HDR content as colors will look more vivid and lifelike.

Moving on, the Sony X850G’s display is able to display fast-motion contents clearly without exhibiting blur trails. This is all thanks to the combination of the display’s 120 Hz refresh rate and Sony’s MotionFlow XR 960 technology.

The Sony X850G’s display is not only good for viewing fast-motion content, but it is also good for playing video games. This is due to the fact that the display has a low input lag.

To give more details, the Sony X850G’s display comes with an input lag of 15.2 ms (milliseconds). Briefly, input lag is the amount of time it takes a display to register a signal input.

In conclusion, the Sony X850G has all the display features/technologies that will give users a premium and cinematic viewing experience. However, the display’s poor contrast ratio is a huge drawback.

Nevertheless, the Sony X850G delivered an overall brilliant display performance. Therefore, I will rate the television a nine out of ten in this display review section.

Sony X850G: Sound Features

Having delivered an outstanding display performance, let’s find out how the Sony X850G does in the sound department. The Sony X850G comes with a unique type of sound system called the Acoustic Multi-Audio system.

This sound system consists of a pair of 10-watts bass-reflex speakers that are placed behind the television’s screen. These bass-reflex speakers give the impression that sound is coming directly from the content you are watching on the screen.

Another member of the Sony X850G’s Acoustic Multi-Audio sound system is a pair of tweeters. As mentioned earlier, these tweeters are placed on the left and right edges of a glossy-black strip on the television’s back panel.

Furthermore, these tweeters produce high-frequency audio that makes speech or dialogue sound crisp and clear. Also, with the combination of these tweeters and the bass reflex speakers, the Sony X850G should be able to fill a large room with sound. 

However, despite featuring bass-reflex speakers, the Sony X850G’s Acoustic Multi-Audio sound system still lacks bass. Therefore, watching bass-heavy movies on this TV won’t be particularly appealing.

Also, the distortion performance of the Sony X850G’s Acoustic Multi-Audio sound system is very poor. To give more details, even at the medium volume level, the amount of distortion the sound system produces is very high. 

Moreover, this distortion will get unbearable when you increase the television’s volume to the maximum. The Sony X850G’s sound system’s THD test results, from rtings.com, prove this.

Specifically, the Sony X850G’s sound system scored 21.161 % on the THD (Total Harmonic Distortion) test. I have reviewed lots of TVs before and I have never seen a television’s sound system’s THD score this high.

Moreover, the acceptable amount of a sound system or speaker’s THD score should be around 1%. However, as you can see above, the Sony X850G’s sound system’s THD score is miles above 1%.

As a result, distortion will really be an issue for users using this Sony television. Hence, users won’t be able to watch loud or even moderately-loud movies on the Sony X850G without experiencing distortion.

Therefore, if you are planning on watching lots of loud movies on the Sony X850G, it’s best you purchase a soundbar. On a positive note, the TV supports a handful of audio formats including Dolby Digital, DTS, and Dolby Atmos.

In conclusion, the Sony X850G comes with an impressive sound system. However, the distortion performance ruins all of the sound system’s impressive features.

Therefore, I will be rating the Sony X850G a seven out of ten in this sound features review section.

Sony X850G: Ports and Connectivity Features

The Sony X850G is equipped with a plethora of ports. Turning the television around to the rear will reveal these ports.

Moreover, the ports are divided into two sections. To give more details, some ports are facing directly on the television’s back while some ports are left-facing.

The left-facing ports include two USB ports, a 3.5mm headphones jack, a remote IR input, and an Ethernet port. Also, there is an RF port and three HDMI ports among the left-facing ports.

It is crucial to mention that one of these three HDMI ports supports ARC (audio return channel). Therefore, you will be able to use that particular HDMI-ARC port to connect a soundbar or external speaker to the TV.

Moving on, the direct back-facing ports include one HDMI port, an optical digital audio output, and composite video input. It is really thoughtful of Sony to include a minimal amount of the Sony X850G’s ports directly on the back.

This is because back-facing ports can’t be easily accessed when the television is wall-mounted.

Moving on, the Sony X850G comes with an inbuilt 802.11a/b/g/n/ac WIFI and Bluetooth 4.2 for wireless connectivity.

Now, let’s talk about the included remote. The Sony X850G features a voice remote control that has a black finish.

At the top of this remote control, you will find a full number pad with two dedicated buttons below. These dedicated buttons are for quick access to Netflix and Google Play.

That said, the remote control features a circular navigation pad in the middle. At the bottom of this navigation pad, you will find the volume, channels, and playback control buttons.

Moreover, as a voice remote, the Sony X850G’s remote features an inbuilt microphone. This microphone can be found at the top of the remote.

Therefore, if you want to use the voice control feature, you have to speak into the microphone while pressing the Google Assistant button on the remote.

In conclusion, the Sony X850G features literally all the ports everyone would need on a television. To entice its buyers even more, the Sony X850G comes with a voice remote control.

Therefore, in this ports and connectivity review section, I will rate the Sony X850G a nine out of ten.

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Sony X850G: Smart Features

For the smart department, the Sony X850G makes use of the Android TV operating system, like other Sony smart TV. Moreover, the version of the Android TV OS that the Sony X850G employs is the latest version, Android TV version 9.0.

Furthermore, the Android TV 9.0 is a significant upgrade over the previous version, Android TV 8.0. The new customizable quick menu is the most noticeable improvement in Android TV version 9.0.

Also, the Android TV 9.0 now supports Apple AirPlay, allowing you to stream media from your Apple devices to the TV. Moreover, the interface of the Android TV version 9.0 is straightforward, lag-free, and easy to use.

Additionally, just like any other Android TV version, the Android TV version 9.0 comes with lots of streaming apps. Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, HULU, and Spotify are among the major streaming apps available on the Android TV version 9.0.

Moreover, you should be able to download more apps on the Android TV 9.0 via the Google Play Store.

Moving on, the Sony X850G comes with an in-built Chromecast, which is quite impressive. You can cast/stream content from your smartphone to the Sony X850G using the in-built Chromecast.

In summary, the Sony X850G features the latest Android TV operating system, which comes with a number of new features. As a result, in this smart features review section, I’ll rate the Sony X850G a nine out of ten.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

The Sony X850G is an impressive 4K UHD TV with the X1 4K HDR picture processor for delivering crisp, colorful, and detailed picture quality. Additionally, this television comes with 4K X-Reality Pro technology for upscaling HD content to deliver better picture quality.

However, despite those impressive picture technologies, the Sony X850G’s 85-inch display features a terrible contrast ratio. Also, the Sony X850G comes with a sound system that produces a significant amount of distortion.

On a positive note, the Sony X850G comes with a handful of ports as well as a voice remote control. In addition to that, this television runs on the latest version of the Android TV operating system.

Overall, the Sony X850G delivers smooth performance for a $1000+ television. However, its flaws like poor contrast ratio and terrible distortion performance can’t go unnoticed.

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