Sony XBR65X850F Review: How Good is this Android OS TV?

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Sony XBR65X850F: At First Glance

Sony released the X850F series in 2018 following the success of the XBR-X900E series in 2017. The X850F series offers up to three televisions, varying in size and performance.

Among this series is the Sony XBR65X850F, which this review is all about. The Sony XBR65X850F is a 65-inch 4K television that comes with an attractive design and lots of amazing features.

To give more details, the television offers an IPS display panel for delivering wide viewing angles. Also, the TV comes with a good motion-handling performance as well as the popular Andriod TV smart operating system.

However, the television is not without flaws. To find out more about the Sony XBR65X850F and its flaws, continue reading this review article.

Sony XBR65X850F: Design, Dimension and Weight

To begin with, the Sony XBR65X850F comes with quite a stylish design. One of the outstanding features of the television’s design is the slim bezels that surround the television’s display screen.

Although these bezels are made of plastic, they come with an aluminum finish that adds more style to the TV’s overall design. Moreover, the slightly thicker bottom bezel houses a “SONY” inscription which serves as a means of brand recognition.

Just like the bezels, the Sony XBR65X850F features two V-shaped legs that have a plastic build with an aluminum finish. You would expect these legs to be weak as a result of their plastic build, but the reverse is the case.

To be more specific, the legs are very sturdy and provide enough stability for the television to stand firmly on a desk or tabletop. However, the legs are positioned wide apart, very close to the edges of the TV.

Due to that, you will need a fairly large table to place this television on if not wall-mounted. It is worth mentioning that the backs of the television’s legs have an opening that serves as a cable management system.

Unlike the bezels and legs that feature an aluminum finish, the Sony XBR65X850F offers a back panel with a plain matte-black finish. Nonetheless, this back panel is entirely made out of plastic, similar to the bezels and legs.

In addition to that, there are four 300 x 300 VESA mount holes on the back panel for wall-mounting the television. Besides, this television’s back panel is pretty slim.

As a result, the Sony XBR65X850F shouldn’t bulge out of the wall or look awkward when wall-mounted.

When it comes to the dimensions and weight, the Sony XBR65X850F measures 1450 x 52 x 836 mm (W x D x H) and weighs 25600 g. Compared with other competing 65-inch televisions like the Samsung NU6900 65, this TV is slimmer and lighter.

Specifically, the Samsung NU6900 65 measures 1457.9 x 60.9 x 838.2 mm (W x D x H) and has a weight of 24992.9 g.

All in all, I will offer the Sony XBR65X850F a rating of nine out of ten in this design review section.

Sony XBR65X850F: Display Features and Picture Quality

In this section, we will be discussing the display and picture properties of the Sony XBR65X850F. The display is regarded as the most important feature of televisions.

This is because it is where the TV is expected to exhibit its true potential. To start with, the Sony XBR65X850F comes with a 65-inch IPS panel display.

Additionally, Sony offers a 4K UHD (3840 x 2160) resolution for the television’s 65-inch display. Thanks to this resolution option, the Sony XBR65X850F is capable of producing colorful and sharp picture quality.

Also, coupled with the IPS (In-Plane Switching) panel, the TV offers wide viewing angles. Therefore, when watching the television from the sides or off-center, pictures should remain intact without losing quality.

However, IPS TVs are known to have poor contrast ratios, and the Sony XBR65X850F is no exception. For clarity, the contrast ratio of a TV is the proportion of the brightest whites and blackest blacks that the display can produce.

Furthermore, a high contrast ratio means the display will be able to produce deep black. Basically, the higher the contrast ratio – 3000:1 or higher – the darker the blacks produced by the display.

Unfortunately, the Sony XBR65X850F comes with a terrible contrast ratio of 894:1. As a result, the television’s display will not be able to produce deep black – blacks will tend to look grayish.

Therefore, movies with lots of dark or shadowy scenes might not be enjoyable to watch on the Sony XBR65X850F. To make the situation more complicated, the television doesn’t support local dimming.

Honestly, had it been the television supported local dimming, it would have complemented the poor contrast ratio. This is because local dimming is a feature that improves a display’s black level by dimming backlight zones.

Hence, with local dimming, the TV’s display would have produced deeper black than it should have without local dimming. Sadly, the Sony XBR65X850F doesn’t support local dimming.

As regards brightness, the Sony XBR65X850F display offers a decent peak brightness. Precisely, the display records a maximum brightness of 457 nits.

With such maximum brightness, the TV will be ideal for usage in moderately-lit rooms. However, it might struggle a bit in extremely bright areas or outdoors.

Moving on, the Sony XBR65X850F supports HDR (High Dynamic Range). Thanks to this feature, the television should deliver brighter, life-like, and more colorful images when rendering HDR-supported content.

If you are wondering, HDR-supported content is mostly found on streaming services such as Netflix, HBO, and Hulu. Aside from HDR, the Sony XBR65X850F also comes with some other display technologies.

These display technologies include 4K X-Reality PRO, Image Processor-X1, and Live Color Technology. With the help of these display technologies, the Sony XBR65X850F should offer a realistic picture quality and a pleasant viewing experience.

That said, this television comes with a refresh rate of 120 Hz. Refresh rate is the amount of time per second a display is able to refresh images.

Hence, with a refresh rate of 120 Hz, the Sony XBR65X850F is able to refresh images about 120 times per second. As a result, there will be minimal blur trails when the television is rendering fast-moving content like sports.

In addition to the refresh rate, this Sony TV also has a fast response time of 14.9 milliseconds. For your information, response time refers to the time it takes a display to transition from one color to another.

As a result, fast-motion content should be a lot smoother on the Sony XBR65X850F. Sadly, this television offers a poor input lag of 30 milliseconds.

Due to that, the Sony XBR65X850F isn’t a great television for hardcore gamers, but suitable for casual gamers. In case you are curious, input lag is the amount of time it takes a display to respond to signal inputs from external sources.

After a thorough evaluation, I will conclude this display features review section by rating the Sony XBR65X850F an eight out of ten.

Sony XBR65X850F: Sound Features

Sony is known for producing televisions with amazing sound performance. We’ve experienced that from the likes of Sony A9G.

However, the sound performance of the Sony XBR65X850F is not as impressive as most Sony televisions, but not bad. To begin with, the television comes with a pair of 10-watt bass reflex speakers.

These speakers produce decent sound quality and are loud enough to fill an average-sized room. However, the bass is flat.

Besides, the television doesn’t come with a built-in subwoofer for producing an adequate amount of bass. Thus, bass-heavy movies or movies with plenty of rumbling or thumping sounds may not be appealing to watch on the Sony XBR65X850F.

Therefore, I recommend you purchase a soundbar alongside the television to get an ideal bass production. On the bright side, the Sony XBR65X850F speakers deliver clear and audible dialogue sounds.

As a result, conversation-driven content will be joyful to watch on this television. By the way, dialogue in this context is the conversation between more than one individual in a movie or TV show.

Moving on, the Sony XBR65X850F comes with some sound enhancement technologies. These sound technologies include Dolby Digital Plus, DTS Digital Surround, and Dolby Pulse.

With the help of these sound enhancements technologies, the TV speakers can deliver amazing surround sound and immersive sound quality.

However, the distortion performance of the Sony XBR65X850F is subpar. Basically, at the maximum volume level, the television speakers will generate a significant amount of distortion.

Nonetheless, the distortion should be reduced when the television is set to a moderate volume level. For clarity, distortion is the deformation of sound frequency, thereby allowing a sound system to produce unpleasant sound quality.

To end this sound features review section, I will be rating the Sony XBR65X850F a seven out of ten.

Sony XBR65X850F: Ports and Connectivity Features

In terms of ports, the Sony XBR65X850F is impressive. Specifically, the television comes with a good number of ports.

To give more details, the ports are all located on the back panel of the television. Also, they are divided into two groups – some ports are side-facing, while others are back-facing.

The side-facing ports consist of three USB ports, one headphone jack, an IR blaster jack, and three HDMI ports. One of these HDMI ports supports ARC (Audio Return Channel), which allows users to connect a soundbar to the TV.

There is also an RF port for connecting an antenna and an Ethernet port among the side-facing ports. Meanwhile, the back-facing ports include one composite (share component) video input, digital optical audio out, and another HDMI port.

For wireless connectivity, the Sony XBR65X850F has built-in WiFi 802.11ac/a/b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.1.

Proceeding further, let us discuss the remote control of the Sony XBR65X850F. To start with, the television comes with a voice remote control that is made of plastic.

Furthermore, the remote is pretty long and features lots of rubber buttons. Some of these buttons include a full number pad, playback buttons, an input button, and a round-shaped navigation button.

In addition to that, the remote also has two dedicated buttons for quick access to Netflix and Google Play. Moreover, as a voice remote control, the Sony XBR65X850F has a built-in microphone for voice input.

Also, it features a Google Assistant button that aids with voice input. Hence, the television supports the Google Assistant voice AI.

However, the remote needs to the connected to the television via Bluetooth to use the voice input feature.

In summary, the Sony XBR65X850F comes with an adequate number of ports and an impressive voice remote control. Hence, the TV deserves a nine out of ten rating in this section.

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Sony XBR65X850F: Smart Features

Like most Sony smart TVs, the Sony XBR65X850F features the Android TV operating system. This operating system offers an easy-to-use and intuitive interface.

However, the interface isn’t particularly smooth to navigate as it lags. Also, the smart operating system comes with lots of built-in functions and pre-installed streaming applications, which some people might find too crowded.

Some of these pre-installed streaming applications include Spotify, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Crackle, Pandora, Google Movies/TV/Music, etc. Besides, the Andriod TV operating system comes with the Google Play Store.

As a result, you can download a whole lot more streaming services and applications. Apart from the abundance of applications, the Android OS also features an in-built Chromecast.

With the help of this built-in Chromecast, you will be able to mirror/share content from your smartphone to the TV.

Unlike some operating systems, this Andriod TV operating system doesn’t support ads on its interface. However, you may find ads in some third-party applications and streaming services.

To conclude this smart features review section, I will rate the Sony XBR65X850F an eight out of ten.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

The Sony XBR65X850F is an attractive 65-inch smart TV that offers a 4K UHD resolution display. In addition to that, this television comes with good viewing angles and a fast response time.

Besides that, the Sony XBR65X850F is outfitted with a good number of ports and offers a voice-enabled remote control. Also, the TV comes with the Andriod TV OS that gives it access to the majority of popular streaming services and apps.

Unfortunately, the TV has a poor contrast ratio and doesn’t support local dimming. Additionally, the television isn’t a great choice for gamers as it offers a mediocre input lag.

Nonetheless, if you need a large-screen Android OS TV, you should consider the Sony XBR65X850F.

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