Sony X950H 65-inch TV: 4K Ultra HD Smart LED TV with HDR and Alexa Compatibility - 2020 Model

I've been on the fence for some time on whether or not to get an LED to replace my aging plasma. OLED seemed like the logical upgrade: perfect blacks, amazing picture quality. Except with OLED comes the same worries as with a plasma: burn-in worry, non-uniform degradation concerns, and of course brightness and power consumption. While they're all better than plasma by a large margin, I wanted to see what the best of the FA-LED had to offer.# Picture qualityThe picture quality is absolutely stunning. Watching UHD-HDR content with deep blacks and bright colors shows no perceivable blooming (when viewed at a reasonable angle). The brightness of this TV is worth the extra bucks over the 900H, which while it supports HDMI 2.1, doesn't get as bright or produce as nice of a picture as it's slightly better brother. The color uniformity was also superb with this model, with accurate (vivid when it needs to be, subtle when it needs to be) saturation in all colors, and a nice uniform gray. The "gradient smoothing" feature is absolutely amazing: no more color steps! This feature alone makes this a formidable panel. My only complaint is that there are slight shadows in each corner, which while subtle, are noticeable for panel enthusiasts. Given the rest of the TV's quality, I'll take slight corner darkness given that I can get amazing brightness. Sony's MotionFlow is probably the best in the business for motion smoothing (though I prefer 1/1 as opposed to Auto or higher settings).Picture Quality Pros: Superb color, gradient smoothing, motion smoothingPicture Quality Cons: Slight shadows in the corners, local dimming seems to only work when playing content (not in menus)# Design / OS Ease of UseAndroidTV is amazing. It's super responsive, easy-to-use, and also has additional bells and whistles for pros. If you're plugged into the Google ecosystem, it makes things super easy (e.g. auto password sync and sign-in for your apps, voice recognition for YouTube search / cross-provider search). It even doubles as a Google Assistant screen, which can optionally be set to listen even when the screen is off. The processor is lightning fast, with no delay or stuttering in any menu or playback service. However, codecs continue to be a problem.# Codec Support IssuesWhile the TV can process 4K HDR at very high bitrates in H.264/H.265/VP9, it has difficulty with audio outputs. This might be an issue with the AndroidTV SDK (so it's up to the app developer to sort out), but the net effect is some titles with lossless codecs run into problems. For example, with Plex: When streaming Dolby TrueHD, it won't natively play back, and will fall back to Dolby Digital Plus. While it supports pass-through for DTS and DTS-HD, there are stuttering issues with some (but not all) titles. Sometimes a reboot fixes this (only for some titles). I wish I could simply request that the TV do no audio processing, and simply pass it through eARC to my very-capable receiver. That being said, Netflix or Amazon Prime work perfectly (including Atmos).Pros: Easy to use navigation, smooth playback in all streaming appsCons: Wonky Plex support, but decent enough that it's not worth buying a separate box# ConclusionFor me, this is probably the best UHD TV you can buy at the moment (at any size that's supported). I'm not interested in 8K, and given how well this TV does deep contrast, it goes toe-to-toe with OLED. Pop this TV and an OLED in a bright room, and this pulls ahead even further!PS: This gets delivered via Amazon's big electronic freight service, so you can schedule a time and they drop it off in the first area of your home or apartment that's not outside. Super easy & secure (even for returns should something happen).

This Sony replaced a five year-old LG 65-inch OLED that suffered from terminal burn in. Except for the burn-in I would have bought another LG or Sony OLED but my TV is on for about 12 hours/day on only a few stations, so I was sure that burn in would be a problem on another OLED.About the Sony. It's terrific. The picture is great. The sound is great. It has some additional speakers on the sides so I rarely feel the need to route the sound through my fancy sound system. The color out of the box is superb and for someone who wants to fiddle with the thing, there are buttons and adjustments galore. Setting it up with a cell phone is a breeze.Aside from the picture and sound I bought the Sony because I'm comfortable with Android and I looked forward to customizing it with the tools available to Android users. That was more of a challenge.Now to the things that I don't like. This TV, if you want to master it has a long learning curve. The remote control, unlike LG's excellent intuitive control is a challenge. As an example, to turn on the TV, press the green button. But then to turn on the cable box, in addition, you have to press the TV button, then the go button. There's a giant button for the rrely used Google Play store and a tiny button to switch A/B stations and another tiny button to mute the TV. The user interface is a kkudgy mess with several ways to do anything and zillions of TV adjustment buttons. Once you get something to work the way that you want or not the way you want, the challenge is to figure out how you got there. As an example, I thought that the remote was broken for a while and Sony help was helpful, but was unable to figure out what was wrong. I ordered another $50 remote, which didn't fix the problem. Eventually, it turned out to be a setting, but I don't remember what it was. A new adventure the next time the remote stops working. One recommendation when you're completely frustrated is to start over from scratch. Unplug the TV for two minutes to reset the OS.YouTube, as usual is a great resource. I also recommend "Smart" YouTube, a no advertising App that makes the whole TV worth the grief of learning to run it. For me learning to run the tV was a worthwhile challenge, caveat emptor.

We're 'accurate color picture' viewers and this TV checks all the boxes. Plenty bright in a large brightly lit family room and the picture is always fantastic. Speedy apps and eArc works perfectly with our Marantz preamp controlled sound system. Easy to operate and not fussy. Even when filtered but direct evening setting sun in our room briefly hits it the picture still looks great and is fully watchable.Did discover that our old 'HD 1080' thickly shielded HDMI cable wasn't up to the task and had to get a new one but not the TV's fault - some flickering over a 25' distance was 100% a cable problem so this does matter.Our first attempt at 65" 4k was an OLED several years ago (when LG OLEDs were supposedly 'the best') and just didn't like it - picture quality varied from source to source (streaming vs cable box) and cable channels picture quality always varied from channel to channel and seemed to always need tweaking - we got tired of it and returned to BB. Also shadow areas were too dark and washed out (picture universally had too much contrast that different settings only reduced picture quality) and low brightness was an issue. Before I read about burn-in. On the few 4k HDR sources that existed then the picture looked fabulous - but not on what we always watched.Decided to wait a few more years and couldn't be more satisfied - the higher percent of 5/5 Amazon ratings didn't hurt as the competition (in backlit LED TV's) never got reviews that satisfied us and in stores always had overblown colors we didn't like - this is the most color-neutral TV similar to those pre-LED I've ever seen.If Sony reliability holds up we have a winner! Great price, accurate colors out of the box, and easy setup.

Picture quality is fantastic. First new TV since 2013, so going from 1080P 55” led to 4K 65” LED. I cannot compare to OLED, but I can say the picture quality over the previous is a massive improvement. Works great in very bright room during the day, with all lights on and great at night in full darkness.Still getting used to smart features, it’s very quick and intuitive, and the google assistant voice control works extremely well.TV is not extremely thin, but the face bezels are paper thin.

We bought the 65" version of the Sony X950H 4K LED TV after comparing it to many other TV's. As has been mentioned in numerous professional reviews, the out-of-the-box picture quality is just astounding without making any adjustments. With crisp, accurate colors and excellent dynamic range, this thing is a joy to behold in action. When playing full 4K, Dolby Vision-enabled HDR content in the right lighting conditions, this set produces images that practically make your eyes water with the amount of detail on display. Off-axis viewing is also much better than I was expecting and, thanks to very good peak brightness, you can still enjoy excellent picture quality even in brightly lit rooms.Moving on to sound quality, I can't say much about the built in speakers, as I paired the TV with one of Sony's 3.1 sound bars right out of the box.As far as apps go, the built-in android TV operating system gives you access to all the usual apps and options that are standard on most smart TV's these days. Chromecast support is built-in, as is Netflix. You can also throw away your old Apple TV, because you can download the app for that as well. Also supports streaming music services like Spotify, as well as a host of other apps that you can download from the Google Play Store.Anyway, if you are looking to join the 4K crowd, you certainly can't go wrong with the Japanese-made Sony X950H. Buy with confidence and prepare to be blown away.One last thing: if you have a lot of DVD's or 720p digital movie files, don't expect them to look very good on this TV. Anything less than 1080p doesn't seem to upscale very well, with much of such content looking somewhat grainy and washed out. You mileage will vary, depending on the bitrate and color depth of the source material, but be forewarned--you should not expect upscaling miracles with sub-1080p content.

This Sony TV is incredible. If you're hesitant on buying it because of the cost...don't. Just purchase it, you won't regret it. I'm not going to get into all of the details of the features on this tv as many other reviewers have already done so. Hook this bad-boy up to a good receiver and speakers, add a Nvidia Shield TV Pro and be prepared to be amazed.

The picture quality is great. If you do not want use this tv for gaming, this TV is one of the best if not the best in terms of quality/price. Viewing angle is good enough. The only major downside is probably the here and there, connectivity issues with the soundbars. Other than that it is great.

Excellent TV we love it!!!! Only thing I wish it has was HDMI 2.1The eARC output works amazing with my SONOS system when watching Dolby ATMOS content... it is incredible. This TV also can view Dolby Vision.Thanks from London Ontario Canada.