Sony Bravia KDL-46Z5500 200Hz 46in LCD TV
Striking picture quality
Review Remember how flatscreen TVs used to look: dominated by huge side- or bottom-mounted speakers and with large silver or grey bezel frames? The latest models are positively anorexic in comparison, shaving centimetres off every dimension except the display itself.
Sony's Bravia KDL-46Z5500: handsome
So this handsome 1080p model from Sony, the 46in member of the Z5500 family, has a reasonably slim profile. It’s not as super-thin as some, but even so, the frame is pleasingly small and there are no big speakers on display, with the gloss black bezel looking attractive, understated and neat.
All this dieting means the Z series is noticeably lighter than other, comparable 46in LCD screens, though with luck, once you’ve positioned it in your living room you won’t be lugging it around too much.
Set-up is simplicity itself: switch on, follow the on-screen instructions, then wait briefly while the TV tunes in to the available digital and analogue stations. And you’re ready, though obviously if you want to tweak the settings for picture, sound and favourite channels - does anyone actually tune favourite channels? - you have a little more work to do.
There are two HDMI sockets on the back and two easy-access ones on the side for camcorders, cameras, games consoles and so on, so your HD needs are catered for.
Thin, but not as skinny as some LCD TVs
Sony, as we’ve commented before, codes its TVs largely by alphabetical order. Essentially, the S series is more basic than the V. Don't fancy a V? Then trade up to the W series, with the X above that and, right at the top of the pile, the Z. Simples, as the meerkats say. So is the Z5500 the cream of the crop?
COMMENTS
Sony has poor quality
A little advise to the wise. I'd avoid Sony LCDs if I where you. There was a time when all Sony stuff was made in Japan, and the screens where brilliant, now its made in China and mostly assembled in Eastern Europe. The quality of the electronics and build has decreased dramatically over the years. You might expect the screen to fail after no more than 2 years. My top of the range 32" screen failed after 22 months. You really do expect a high price TV to last about 5-6 years. Besides these days what is the point of having an enormous screen when the content is shite?
Last years design then !!
with more and more devices coming with HDMI it's obvious that Sony are expecting this to be obsolete by Jan 2010. Any forward thinking manu would put at least 4 on there,
AND at 47" why aren't we seeing any 1440p displays, we know SuperHD (? - which is still just HD) has been the subject of many tech blather for over a year, or do we have to wait for "SuperHD ready"
200hz is a nice touch but how long have we been waiting for that (does anyone remember when the first 100hz TV's came out?)
No speakers is a good idea, i've yet to see any LCD monitor or TV that has truly decent audio, but the lack of a spdif (5.1) again shows that it's already out of date.
it's a Sony so it's overpriced from the get go
this is just another example of a non inovative sell of old tech, this was out of date as it was designed. FAIL FAIL FAIL !!
Luddite question
"You know, without the weird blocks of iffy colours or the banding of graduated fades?"
OC NOT, that would involve the UK and OFCOM actually giving the recently released Analogue BBC2 freq and more, actually BACK to the DVB-T(2) digital system, so we can have far Higher bitrates per digital channel and more channels for that matter than we are expected to use now and in the near/midium/longer future....
the EU have stop to some of their sales of several TV freqs and reallocating them back into their DVB HD use apparently...and are doing that today.
but we cant have the UK MP doing such innovative thinking, when theres money involved selling it all off to the global corporations, so we become rent boys like old maxwell and his rented sat feeds, never again actually owning our own property as we wont be able to buy it back later when they finally realise they REALLY NEED IT...
that property being the UK airwaves each and every one of us inthe UK own, in this case....
Luddite question
Could someone tell me whether LCD's have finally reached the easeof-viewingness of CRT's yet? You know, without the weird blocks of iffy colours or the banding of graduated fades?
And if we really want to be green, we'll be dirty. How many TV's on standbywould a shower, let alone a bath power?
Processing
"Instead, the hero feature is 200Hz MotionFlow frame interpolation, designed to offer smoother results with fast-moving subjects like sport, for instance, by adding in extra, computer-generated frames of video."
First feature to turn off then. Does anyone really have a problem in the cinema where you get 24 frames a second refreshed at a 48 frame rate? Not really. It looks and feels natural.
The latest and greatest spanking CGI cartoon flick may look even more spanking with processing like this, but I wouldn't want a classic Hitchcock enhanced with CG frames and processing to make it look like a modern HD documentary on TV instead of a classic VistaVision film!
@whitespacephil "I know that people have beef with Sony, but if there's one thing they really do excell in, it's TVs."
They used to. Quality in Sony has gone downhill a lot. Last 3 Sony products I've owned have all been crap (including a TV).
The panels are the best bit and they're made by Samsung anyway.
