Sony Bravia KDL55HX850 and Sony Bravia KDL46HX850

Following is a features review, commentary, review and specifications the 2012 KDL-55HX850 Bravia and KDL-46HX850 Bravia Series TVs from Sony

Appearance and Design

The KDL-55HX850 has the newest and best design Sony has to offer for this outstanding bravia TV for 2012. The monolithic design element has an optional ability to tilt the TV backwards slightly on the accompanying stand. The LED TV panel itself is very attractive with slightly rounded corners. It is only a little over 1″ in depth which is super thin when considering the full local dimming backlighting behind the LCD screen panel.

Sony Bravia KDL55HX850 Screen

The screen in this TV is made of the newest Corning Gorilla Glass and is called the Opti-Contrast Panel. This describes the panels unique ability to deliver incredible contrast and black levels. The screen has the ability to trap incoming light and us it to help brighten the screen. This also saves lots of energy usage and is one of the reasons this TV has a the Energy Star Rating and good consumptions statistics. Black levels are deeply saturated and this helps the images contrast and thus color rendition and gray scaling ability.

Panel Speed MotionFlow XR 960Hz

The true Hz rate of the panel is 240Hz but the full array local dimming backlighting allows the panel to perceptibly increase the practical response rate but utilizing the LED lighting. What this means to the user is a great picture during fast action scenes such as football or other sports. Gaming will also receive an excellent performance on this TV due to this enhanced Hz frame rate.

X-Reality PRO Engine Processing

Sony’s best video engine works exceptionally well and has a dual-chip processing component. It optimizes and up converts all signals to the panels native resolution and is second to none with this type of processing and signal generation.

3D Picture Quality

3D picture quality on the Sony KDL-55HX850 LED backlit TV is just about perfect. The active glasses have no side effects and two sets come in the box. Active shutter is the type of 3D processed by the HX850 as opposed to passive 3D. The new 3D glasses for 2012 are Bluetooth compatible so they can be used on any newer active 3D Television.

Sony Bravia Internet Features

With the KDL55HX850 you get all the best Internet features that Sony can muster including premium sites like Netflix, Pandora®, HuluPlus™, Amazon Instant Video, YouTube™, Slacker® Internet Radio, Crackle and social networking through Facebook, Twitter and Yahoo! Broadcast Interactivity.

Price and Value

The Sony Bravia KDL-55HX850 is priced fairly competitively though it is certainly not an inexpensive TV as Sony’s best for 2012. With all the advanced features the price is relative. If you want the best TV out there, there are only a couple of choices and this is certainly one of them.

Standout Features

55″ LED backlight LCD TV panel (Bravia)

• Local Dimming Backlighting behind the panel from LED Lighting.

This enables incredible contrast and color to individual areas of the screen

X-Reality™ PRO Engine containing 3D Super Resolution

3D super resolution refers to the 1080p resolution this TV sends to each eye when viewing 3D images. This is enable by the local dimming backlighting and the X-reality pro engine. The 3D rendition in this TV is superb

Motionflow™ XR 960 technology

This refers to the excellent fast processing this TV can accomplish due to the Motionflow 240Hz rate panel and processing which creates an impressive 960Hz rate. It’s great for fast action.

Frameless Monolithic Design with Corning’s Gorilla® Glass and OptiContrast Panel Technology

This is the great looking deep black panel in this top of the line 46″ Bravia. Even when turned off the OptiContrast Panel is black.

Built-in Wi-Fi (802.11n)

With built in Wi-fi you can access the internet easily with the web browser on this TV as well as all the Internet TV features.

Skype™ ready

With an optional camera you can Skype with this TV. The software for that operation is built in. In the Samsung UN55ES8000 the camera for Skype is built in. It’s not a feature that many people use on a TV so consider that as well.

One-touch access to the Sony Entertainment Network™ and apps

You need only one touch of the remote control to get to Sony’s impressive Internet Apps and the Sony Entertainment Network. This is a new feature in the Sony KDL-55HX850 for 2012.

Sony KDL-46HX850 Bravia Review and Prices

The 46″ Sony Bravia KDL-46HX850 has the same features as the 55″ model except for the size and of course the price. The value equation is a little tougher when you go down in size to 46″ but if you are the type that wants the best TV you can get for your money, then the HX850 might be the LED TV for you. It has all the best features and specifications and the picture quality is superb. Sony is focusing all of its attention in 2012 on picture quality and so this TV has the newest OptContrast panel and 960Hz Micro Dimming to help establish the premium picture quality you get for the price in this unit.

The 46″ HX850 is Skype ready however the camera is not built in the TV like it is on the high end Samsung LED TVs.