259
people found this helpful, as of 2023
ranked #108,300 most helpful
out of 571,544,897 reviews
★★★★☆
Impressive image quality and value
I previously had a Samsung UN40ES6580 40 Inch TV with 240Hz refresh rate, with 3D and Skype camera. I like gadgets and features but I found myself paying for a smaller TV for features such a 3D and Skype Camera which I pretty much never used. (who cares about having a Skype camera on a TV when you have cameras in cell phones, tables and computers? What was I thinking when I got tempted by this feature?!). Don't get me wrong, the TV was really good. I even left a review giving it good rating. However I liked the image quality I never could fall in love with it. Specially blacks, I could see some little gray areas in a dark room in some dark scenes which drove me crazy.
Now, I switched TVs. Left the toys aside for a bigger screen size and better image quality which I thought Sony was able to provide. And I wasn't wrong and Sony delivers impressive image quality with this TV, even though the refresh rate is lower than the Samsung (so you cannot choose the "soap opera" effect on this TV) which I though I would care or notice but I don't
Summing up, the pros and cons and comparisons with previous TV:
Pros:
1. Impressive image quality. Specially blacks. Darkest blacks I have seen in any TV I have had.
2. It has buttons on the back. The Samsung didn't have any buttons at all (or at least I couldn't find them) (weird)
3. Design is truly minimalistic and the borders are really really thin making the TV look more expensive.
4. Price. Ridiculously cheap. A 48" Sony TV for $650? I still cannot believe the price. I keep looking to see what is the catch and I don't see any!
5. Smart TV. Less Smart and more basic than the Samsung but still good apps
6. Media Player / DLNA support. So far it has been able to reproduce every file I have given to it. I have a Linksys router with a dd-wrt firmware and a minidlna server running in it and I suck all the movies from the router. Works like a charm
Cons:
1. Sound quality. OK, but worse than the Samsung. I had to manually tweak the equalizer until I got a decent audio. Here my specs: Surround effect off (I have never seen a TV able to deliver good surround effect) and equalizer: +8, +8, -4, 0, +4, +7, +7
2. Wifi slow. When I am watching a movie streaming from mi DLNA Server it cuts off and buffers sometimes. It didnt happen to my Samsung before. (I may consider using wired cable)
3. No toys (I knew this already): no 3D, no Skype camera (Skype app yes, but no camera unless you want to add it as an accessory), no 240 Hz refresh rate.
This is a really good TV. It does what I wanted (impressive image quality and DLNA support with a good design at a good price) and you cannot get anything closer to this for this price. If you want a good TV for ~650 this is the TV you are looking for.
April 2014 · Electronics