Sony X900F Review: A Modest 49-inch 4K Smart Television

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Sony X900F: At First Glance

Sony is a popular brand that is known for producing 4K televisions with outstanding performances. So, in 2018, the brand released the Sony X900F, a 4K smart television with the Andriod operating system.

Furthermore, this television offers a promising picture quality and can fit into any room setting. This is because the Sony X900F comes in five varying sizes which are 49-inch, 55-inch, 65-inch, 75-inch, and 85-inch.

However, for the purpose of this review, we will be focusing on the 49-inch Sony X900F. With that being said, does the Sony X900F have what it takes to meet up with Sony’s superior standard in the TV market?

Continue with this review to find out!

Sony X900F: Design, Dimension, and Weight

When it comes to design, the Sony X900F, as with most Sony televisions, features a good-looking design. To give more details, the display of the television is bordered by relatively slim bezels.

These bezels measure only 0.35 mm and have a brushed aluminum finish. However, the color of the bottom bezel is slightly different from the others.

This is because it has a thin chrome-colored line cut through it which gives the display a more attractive look. Additionally, this bottom bezel houses a white-colored “Sony” logo for easy brand identification.

Moving forward, the television comes with a pair of L-shaped silver-colored metallic legs. Furthermore, the metallic legs are attached to the rear and provide the Sony X900F with maximum support.

Impressively, there is an opening in the back of these legs that serves as a cable management system. However, these legs are set near the edges of the television.

Therefore, you will need a table that is fairly larger than the television’s size to place it on.

Turning to the Sony X900F’s rear, you come across a plain plastic panel. However, this plastic back panel is quite chunky and makes the Sony X900F somewhat thick.

Hence, the television might stick out of the wall and look awkward if wall-mounted. Speaking of wall-mounting, the Sony X900F comes with 200 x 200 mm VESA holes that allow it to be mounted on the wall.

That said, considering the dimension and weight, the Sony X900F measures 1093 x 69 x 629 mm (W x D x H) and weighs 13600 g. To be honest, for a 49-inch television, this Sony television is quite heavy.

As a matter of fact, when compared with other televisions of its size, the 49-inch Sony X900F weighs significantly more. For example, the TCL 50S425 measures 1120.1 x 81.28 x 652.7 mm (W x D x H) and weighs just 10477.9 g.

In conclusion, the Sony X900F features a sleek design with very thin bezels and awesome legs that has a cable management system. However, the television is a bit chunky and weighs more than its competitors.

Hence, in this design review section, I will offer the Sony X900F a rating of eight out of ten.

Sony X900F: Display Features and Picture Quality

For display, the Sony X900F comes with a 49-inch display that features a 4K UHD (3840 x 2160) resolution. As a result of its 4K resolution, this television’s display should be able to produce well-detailed, clear, and vibrant pictures.

Besides, 4K displays offer picture quality and accuracy that is four times better than the standard HD displays.

In addition to its 4K resolution, the Sony X900F’s display offers a commendable contrast ratio. Precisely, the display comes with a native contrast ratio of 5,089:1.

Contrast ratio refers to the ratio between the brightest white and the darkest black that a display is capable of producing. Additionally, a high contrast ratio around 3,000:1 or above means the display will be able to generate deep blacks.

Well, as you can see above, the Sony X900F’s display’s contrast ratio is way above 3,000:1. As a result, the display should be able to produce and render deep blacks.

Hence, the Sony X900F is an ideal television for watching movies with lots of dark and shadowy scenes such as horror movies. Just so you know, if a display lacks a good contrast ratio, blacks on such a display would look more like gray.

Thus, watching movies with many black scenes would not be enjoyable on such a display.

In addition to its excellent contrast ratio, the Sony X900F’s display supports local dimming. Local dimming is a contrast-enhancing technique that involves dimming backlights zones of LCD/LED layers.

Basically, local dimming improves the contrast ratio of LCD/LED displays, allowing them to deliver extremely deep blacks. Thus, with local dimming, blacks on the Sony X900F’s display will look deeper than they would without local dimming.

Unfortunately, the Sony X900F’s display is made with VA (Vertical Alignment) panel display, meaning it offers subpar viewing angles. Consequently, colors on the display would look washed-out when you view the television off-center or from extreme angles.

For example, colors such as red might look more like magenta or pink while blacks look somewhat brown or grayish. On a more positive note, the Sony X900F’s display can get really bright.

Specifically, the display offers a maximum brightness of 894 nits, which is quite impressive. Hence, with a maximum brightness such as this, you can comfortably watch TV shows/movies on the Sony X900F in well-lit or bright areas.

In addition to its superb brightness, this television’s display is coated with a semi-gloss coating. A semi-gloss coating is a type of screen coating that helps a display with reflection handling.

Practically, the coating diffuses light across the TV’s display, thereby reducing reflection and screen glares. Thus, you can view the Sony X900F in a well-lit or bright room without the fear of reflection or screen glares.

To further improve its display’s brightness and picture quality, the Sony X900F supports HDR (High Dynamic Range). To give more details, the television supports various HDR formats such as HDR10, Dolby Vision, and HLG (Hybrid Log-Gamma).

If you’re curious, HDR is a picture technology that improves the brightness of a display and further enhances its overall color accuracy. Basically, HDR increases the display’s highlights, allowing to it renders lifelike, realistic, and clear picture quality when viewing HDR-supported content.

For your information, HDR-supported content is usually found on streaming apps like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and many others.

Moving on, the Sony X900F’s display comes with an incredibly fast response time of 10.2 milliseconds. Response time is the total amount of time that it takes a display to make a color transition.

In a layman’s term, it is the time it takes for the display to change from one color to the other. Hence, thanks to its display’s 10.2 milliseconds response time, you should be able to watch fast-motion movies on the Sony X900F with minimal blur trails.

Similarly, the Sony X900F’s display has an input lag of 24.2 milliseconds. The period of time it takes for a display to register a signal input is known as input lag.

Moreover, a signal input comes from external sources such as a wireless gamepad or remote control. Furthermore, the input lag is a very important aspect in determining a display’s gaming ability.

Thus, an input lag of 15 milliseconds or less means the display is ideal for playing video games. Sadly, as seen above, the Sony X900F’s display’s input lag isn’t low enough for gaming.

As a result, the TV isn’t an ideal choice for gamers. However, for casual gaming, I believe the input lag of the television’s display is okay.

In conclusion, the Sony X900F features an excellent display that offers a 4K resolution, an amazing contrast ratio, and a fast response time. Nonetheless, the display has its fair share of flaws which include poor viewing angles.

Thus, for its performance and features in this display review section, I will offer the Sony X900F a rating of eight out of ten.

Sony X900F: Sound Features

When it comes to the sound department, the Sony X900F offers a pair of 10-watts down-firing bass-reflex speakers. Thus, the television produces a total sound output of 20-watts, which is quite decent for a 49-inch TV.

Moreover, the television’s speakers deliver adequate audio quality. However, even though the speakers are loud enough in a small or medium-sized room, they might struggle to fill a large room with sound.

On a positive note, because it has bass-reflex speakers, the Sony X900F can generate an adequate amount of bass without a subwoofer. Hence, bass-heavy movies should be enjoyable to watch on this Sony television.

In addition to that, the television’s speakers are capable of producing clear and understandable dialogue. Dialogue is the conversation between two or more individuals on a TV show or movie.

Moving on, the Sony X900F comes with several sound-enhancing technologies to improve its sound performance. To be more specific, the TV features Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, S-Force Front Surround, and DTS Digital Surround.

On a bad note, the Sony X900F’s speakers produce a noticeable amount of distortion. To give more details, the television scored 9.787% on a THD (Total Harmonic Distortion) test.

For clarity, the THD test is a sound test that measures the amount of distortion a speaker can generate. Furthermore, on this test, 1% or less means the speaker or sound system produces minimal distortion.

However, if the score is slightly above 1%, that means the speaker is capable of generating a significant amount of distortion. Sadly, as seen above, the THD test result of the Sony X900F’s speakers is way above 1%.

Thus, at a maximum volume level, the distortion that the speakers will produce might be unbearable and significant. However, at a moderate or medium volume level, the distortion will reduce and might be less audible.

In case you don’t know, distortion in this context is the alteration of a speaker’s or sound system’s sound frequencies. Thereby, allowing it to deliver disturbing sound quality.

All things considered, I will rate the Sony X900F a seven out of ten in this sound features review section.

Sony X900F: Ports and Connectivity Features

When it comes to ports, the Sony X900F features an ample amount of ports. Moreover, some of these ports are found on the left side of the TV while others are down-facing on its back.

To give more details, the left-facing ports include one HDMI port, two USB ports, and an IR blaster port. Also, there is a composite video input and a 3.5 mm headphone jack among the left-facing ports.

Meanwhile, the down-facing ports include three HDMI ports, one of which supports ARC (Audio Return Channel). Thus, with the aid of the HDMI-ARC port, you should be able to connect a soundbar to the Sony X900F.

Also found among the down-facing ports are a USB port, an Ethernet port, a digital optical audio out, and an RF port. In terms of wireless connectivity, the Sony X900F comes with an in-built 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac WIFI and Bluetooth version 4.1.

With that being said, let us now consider the remote control of the television. To begin with, the Sony X900F comes with a large voice-supported remote control that is made of plastic with a black finish.

Furthermore, the remote features a circular navigation button, a full number pad, and menu buttons. In addition to that, the remote has dedicated buttons that allow for quick access to Netflix and Google Play Movies & TV.

Moreover, the remote features a Google Assistant button and a built-in microphone that aids for voice input. Specifically, when you hold down the Google Assistant button and speak into the microphone, you can control the TV with your voice.

However, you will need to connect the remote to the Sony X900F via Bluetooth before using the voice input feature.

In conclusion, the Sony X900F features a good number of ports and a voice-supported remote control. Thus, I will be rating the television a nine out of ten in this section.

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Sony X900F: Smart Features

To start with, the Sony X900F employs version 7.0 of the Andriod operating system. Sadly, the interface of this operating system isn’t user-friendly and it lags, unlike other versions of the Andriod OS.

Also, the performance of the Andriod OS 7.0 isn’t consistent. To be more specific, the operating system might respond very quickly sometimes and renders smooth animations.

However, in some instances, menus and apps may hesitate before responding to input, and the OS’ animation may be shitty. On a positive note, as expected from an Android OS, the Sony X900F’s operating system comes with Google Play Store.

The Google Play Store is one of the most popular application stores where you can download several applications and streaming services. Speaking of streaming services, the Android OS features several pre-installed streaming services such as Netflix, Crackle, and YouTube.

That’s not all, other streaming services on the OS include Hulu, Sling TV, Amazon Prime Video, Bloomberg TV, and many more.

In conclusion, the Sony X900F comes with the well-known Android OS that offers several pre-installed streaming services. However, the interface of this operating system is inconsistent and isn’t user-friendly.

Thus, to end this smart features review section, I offer the Sony X900F a rating of eight out of ten.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

The Sony X900F is an adequate smart television that offers a 4K display screen with exceptional features. Precisely, the television’s 4K display comes with an impressive contrast ratio, fast response time, and supports HDR.

Moreover, the television features a voice-supported remote control as well as a good amount of ports. However, this Sony television offers bad viewing angles and an inconsistent operating system.

On a bright note, the OS has plenty of streaming services and also features Google Play Store, where you can download more streaming services. In addition to that, this television is very bright, which makes it ideal for usage in bright areas.

Overall, the Sony X900F offers adequate performance with functional features. Therefore, the television is worth considering.

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