Sony A95K: review in a minute
The Sony A95K makes a statement the moment you take it out of the box with its unique design. This allows you to mount the screen to the front or back of a full-width metal plate mount, giving you a totally minimalist or slightly industrial look, depending on your preference. The immense build quality also leaves you in no doubt that you're driving a high-end TV.
The standout feature of this Sony A95K review, though, is its picture quality, unsurprisingly from a flagship set that's fighting to be one of the best TVs of the year. Sony's excellent Cognitive XR processor has teamed up with new Quantum Dot OLED display technology to deliver possibly the best images we've seen on a consumer TV. If you want the best of what the world's best OLED TVs have to offer, then... here it is.
The A95K also follows in the footsteps of previous Sony OLED TVs by offering excellent sound quality thanks to Acoustic Surface technology, in which the TV's screen essentially doubles as its speakers, meaning it's also one of the best TVs for sound, although we still prefer to pair it. with a full Dolby Atmos soundbar system.
The A95K's smart features are based on a fairly extensive, if not always entirely user-friendly, Google TV software system (combined with YouView in the UK, where we tested it). This is backed up by strong voice recognition support and even a detachable camera accessory.
We tested the 55-inch version for this review, and this model only comes in a 65-inch version, just like the Samsung S95B. That's because those are the only QD-OLED screen sizes for now.
Sony A95K review: Price and release date
- Released June 2022
- 55-inch version with an official price of €2,399 / €2,999
- The 65-inch version costs €3999 / £3499 / AU$5995
Despite being the first brand to officially announce a Quantum Dot OLED TV in January 2022 (beating tech creator Samsung to the punch), Sony has actually taken several months to get its A95K QD-OLED line up in las tiendas. Without embargo, the versions of 55 y 65 pulgadas ya están available in el Reino Unido y EE. UU. Without embargo, Australia solo obtains the version of 65 pulgadas.
Priced at €2399 in the UK and €3000 in the US, the smaller A95K is expensive for a 55-inch TV. In fact, after huge recent price cuts, it's much more expensive in the UK and US than even the only other 55-inch QD-OLED display in town, Samsung's 95-inch S55B. Considering the quality of Samsung's S95B QD OLED sets, this price difference really puts the A95K under a lot of pressure.
For more pricing context, Sony's latest standard 55-inch OLED TV, the Sony A80K, costs €1,500/€1,599, while the brand's 55-inch premium LCD TV for 2022, the X90K, costs €1,500/€1,599. €199. €1,199 / €95. All of this confirms that, unlike Samsung, which positions its QD-OLED TVs below its flagship Samsung QN4B Mini LED for price, Sony sees QD-OLED as the premium option in its 2022 XNUMXK lineup.
Sony A95K review: Features
- 4K Quantum Dot OLED Display
- Acoustic Surface Audio+ sound system
- Features of HDMI 2.1 for gaming
Unsurprisingly given its cost, the A95K has a lot going for it. Starting, of course, with that all-important Quantum Dot OLED panel.
This new technology shines a blue OLED light source through layers of red and green Quantum Dot color filters in an effort to provide the impressive black levels and pixel-level light control associated with ordinary OLED TVs. as well as the brightness associated with Quantum Dot LCD Televisions. , like Samsung's QLED range.
Both Sony and Samsung claim that the QD-OLED approach does not make their S95B and A95K TVs more susceptible to permanent image retention than regular OLED TVs, despite their potential extra brightness.
While brightness is still a big deal in today's world of HDR movies, the A95K's biggest draw might actually come from its color performance. Using only red, green, and blue elements without the additional white element that OLED TVs typically use should, on paper, result in purer, richer colors. Especially in the brighter HDR image areas.
These basic QD-OLED attributes are, of course, shared between the Sony A95K and Samsung S95B lines. So let's see where Sony's rookie QD-OLED finds its way.
Perhaps the most important difference lies in their treatment. It benefits from the latest version of Sony's Cognitive XR processor, with its ultra-observable ability to subtly analyze and manipulate incoming images to help them appear more realistic or, to be more precise, more in line with how your eyes perceive The real world. . Or so the statement says.
Sony's TV imaging, however, is always driven by the desire to achieve results that are as close as possible to how things look on professional-grade mastering monitors. So AV purists shouldn't start worrying that any of the Cognitive Processor XR's activities are generating images that don't look the way they should.
Rather, the ability of the Cognitive Processor XR system to optimize its operation to accommodate different display types (given Sony's incredibly agnostic approach to the display technologies it includes in its lineup) has the potential to unlock the best of QD-OLED. in benefits.
Sony's version of QD-OLED also has some third-party image quality endorsements to its name. It has achieved IMAX Enhanced status, features a range of other creator-calibrated modes (including a Netflix-approved mode), and is "Calman Ready," indicating it has enough setting flexibility and precision to calibrate the potential picture for production editing studio. standards .
The A95K's audio setup also differs from the rest of the TV world (except for Sony's other OLEDs), thanks to its Acoustic Surface Audio+ system. This uses actuators for the screen itself to create most of its sound, backed up by two built-in bass woofers on the back of the TV.
The Acoustic Surface Audio+ approach offers the benefits of forward-firing sound and the ability to place sounds in exactly the right place to match the action on your screen.
Considering how the A95K works with sound, it's nice to find it with a sound input that allows it to become the center channel in a larger home theater speaker setup. It can also partner with Sony soundbars to boost those soundbars' center channel efforts, meaning dialogue needs to be as clear as possible.
The device's eARC HDMI support allows Dolby Atmos and, unusually in today's TV market, DTS:X soundtracks to be transmitted losslessly to compatible soundbars and AV receivers.
Having started by talking about the four HDMI connections on the Sony A95K, there is still a lot to say about them. Starting with the ability of two of them to support the latest cutting-edge gaming features of 4K images at 120Hz frame rates; variable refresh rates; as well as support for the Auto HDR Tone Mapping and Auto Genre Picture Mode features that are at the heart of Sony's "Perfect for PlayStation 5" cross-marketing campaign.
The first of these Perfect for PS5 features finds the console automatically optimizing its HDR game output settings based on the ability to read the identity of the Sony TV it's connected to, while auto-gender picture mode is essentially a Sony's proprietary version HDMI 2.1 Auto Low Latency Mode that allows TVs to automatically switch their low latency game picture presets when a console or PC switches between game and video sources.
However, ongoing problems with the HDMI silicon used by Sony mean you have to choose between trade-offs, even with the two full-bandwidth HDMI 2.1 ports. Notably, there is no Dolby Vision 4K 120Hz gaming mode for Xbox users, and in fact, you can't enjoy Dolby Vision from any source if you don't choose the necessary settings in the HDMI settings menu.
It's worth quickly adding here that, as with all Sony TVs to date, the A95K doesn't support HDR10+, only HDR10, HLG and Dolby Vision.
Thankfully, at least there isn't a recurrence of the old "120Hz medium resolution" issues that plagued some earlier Sony TVs, but it would still be nice if Sony could finally overcome those kinds of pesky HDMI limitations for its 2023 lineup.
Last and indeed least in the long list of features on the Sony A95K is the new Bravia Cam. This is included as standard and, to be fair, opens up a number of innovative features beyond the obvious 'video call' feature. It can, for example, track where you are in the room and adjust the sound balance to give you the best results for that sitting position. You can also track how far away you are from the screen and adjust both picture brightness and voice playback accordingly, or, if you have young kids in the house, you can use the device photo to have the TV alert you if one of them ventures out. too close to your beloved glasses box.
The Bravia Cam even supports gesture control of the TV if TV remotes and voice recognition aren't working for you, though this ties in with past experience of gesture control "experiments" from other brands feeling more frustrating. and exhausting than really useful.
In fact, while it's interesting to see Sony working so hard to find uses for the Bravia Cam (some of which aren't yet online awaiting firmware updates), I have to say that for the most part I haven't found it. a very compelling feature. More like a somewhat meaningless trip down memory lane than a bold glimpse into the future.
Sony A95K review: Image quality
- Impressive extended color performance
- Nice picture...