Sony Bravia XR A80J OLED review: The TV of the future is here
Our Verdict
The Sony Bravia XR A80J's many forwards-thinking features result in a Telly that get in as good-looking and -sounding as it is user-friendly and fun to use.
For
- Outstanding moving-picture show, audio quality
- Lots of dynamic and smart features that really work
- Google Television set interface is powerful and friendly
Against
- Dynamic adjustments all but required for best motion picture
- Not all HDMI ports support HDMI ii.ane standard
- Bravia Core streaming service doesn't dazzle
Tom's Guide Verdict
The Sony Bravia XR A80J's many forward-thinking features outcome in a Boob tube that make it as practiced-looking and -sounding as it is convenient and fun to apply.
Pros
- +
Outstanding motion-picture show, sound quality
- +
Lots of dynamic and smart features that actually piece of work
- +
Google TV interface is powerful and friendly
Cons
- -
Dynamic adjustments all just required for all-time picture
- -
Non all HDMI ports back up HDMI two.1 standard
- -
Bravia Core streaming service doesn't dazzle
- -
Sony Bravia XR A80J: Specs
Price: $2,499.99
Model number: XR-65A80J
Screen size: 65 inches
Resolution: 3,840x2,160
HDR: HDR10, HLG, Dolby Vision
Refresh charge per unit: 120 Hz
Ports: 4 HDMI; three USB
Audio: 10 watts x 3=
Smart TV software: Google TV
Size: 57.1 x 33 x ii.one inches [westward/o stand]
Weight: 49.2 pounds [w/o stand]
Who says yous tin can't have it all? The Sony Bravia XR A80J (from $1,899, $2,499 as tested) is packed with features designed to raise every aspect of your Television set viewing — and they almost all achieve their goals. This 4K OLED Tv has HDR, a 120 maximum refresh rate (along with Variable Refresh Rate, or VRR), an ATSC 3.0 tuner, the sparkling new Google Goggle box entertainment platform, support for and connections with a wide range of other Google apps and services, and a raft of proprietary Sony smart technologies targeting everything yous see and hear on the screen at whatsoever given moment.
Most people won't need (or be able to take in) everything Sony offers, and the dizzying number of complex settings, movie modes, and processing technologies may be also much for people who but desire an amazing-looking and -sounding picture show from their high-midrange ($ii,499.99) purchase. Just the Bravia XR A80J delivers on that so completely that it's worth the fuss — and is instantly one of the all-time TVs you lot can buy.
Sony Bravia XR A80J review: Price and availability
For our Sony Bravia XR A80J review, we assessed the 65-inch version of the Sony Bravia XR A80J, the XR-65A80J. Because the other two bachelor models, the 55-inch XR-55A80J and the 77-inch XR-77A80J, share the aforementioned core features and underlying technologies, we await the functioning of all iii versions to be comparable, and our recommendations for the XR-65A80J may also apply to the other sets.
- 55-inch (model XR-55A80J): $1,899.99
- 65-inch (model XR-65A80J): $2,499.99
- 77-inch (model XR-77A80J): $three,999.99
Sony Bravia XR A80J review: Design
Sony hasn't strayed far from its usual OLED pattern scheme with the A80J — but that'south not a bad thing.
The front is attractive, the sprawling expanse of the ultrasvelte, jet-black screen (57.1x33 inches) broken by narrow (0.25 inch) bezels on the height and sides, with marginally wider (0.33 inch) bezels and the metallic Sony logo bar (another 0.33 inch) on the bottom. There's nix to distract yous from the picture.
All the components (and the balance of the set's bulk) become into the thick (41.3 10 22.8 x 1.vi-inch) panel behind the screen, which, with its splash of textured squares and the four-triangle Bravia field in the centre, would be plenty appealing if you were ever intended to run into it. The connectors for the 300x300 mm VESA mountain are located at that place as well, in case you'd prefer your A80J hang on the wall.
If, on the other manus, the A80J is jump for a table or entertainment eye, the included two-piece layer aluminum stand up can be installed three different means: In "standard" position, where the feet are about 40.8 inches apart; in "narrow" position (and a width of 27.iii inches), designed for smaller tables or stands; and in "soundbar" position, which is only a smidgen wider than the standard setup (40.9 inches) but offers virtually 2 additional inches below the TV for positioning a squat soundbar.
Sony Bravia XR A80J review: Ports
The A80J's power input is located on the right side of the rear panel, and all the other ports are on the left. Six face direct out the TV's left edge: one Remote IR in, two for composite video, 2 USB (both with 500 mA max power output), and one HDMI.
In a depression, facing towards the wall and requiring plugging up into the panel area, are the coaxial cable connector, an Ethernet port, the optical audio out, a port for an RS-232C remote, 3 additional HDMI ports, and one more than USB port with a maximum 900 mA power output.
Of the four HDMI ports, just two back up the HDMI 2.1 standard: ports 3 (besides for eARC/ARC) and 4, which are the two innermost on the back panel. The other ports utilise only HDMI 2.0b. This is a little inconvenient, and a shame considering the higher standard's flashy, useful capabilities (amidst them: 4K at 120 Hz, VRR, and Auto Low Latency Mode, or ALLM). All of the ports on the LG CX OLED and LG G1 OLED are HDMI 2.1, and that would be nice to see on a model such as this, too.
Sony Bravia XR A80J review: Cognitive Processor XR
Like all the TVs in Sony's 2021 lineup, the A80J is equipped with the Cognitive Processor XR. Sony claims that this chip "understands how humans see and hear" and is "designed to replicate the way our brains think and respond" by simultaneously cross-analyzing the many different elements of the video and soundscape to effigy out how to process them (in existent time) to the highest level of quality, providing "a whole new experience that immerses you completely in the scene."
The visual aspects of this technology present themselves equally XR OLED Contrast, which adjusts brightness on the wing to boost lights and deepen blacks without losing particular; XR Color, for extending hue saturation and shading so every colour has "the subtle differences seen in the existent world"; XR Clarity, for improving 4K upscaling; and XR Motility, for intelligent, blur-gratuitous movement processing.
As far as sound, XR Audio Position works with Acoustic Surface Audio+ (meet the Sound section beneath) to create the illusion the sound is coming from the point on the screen where it occurs in your content. XR Surround purportedly "creates environs sound from the sides and vertically," fifty-fifty if all you have are the Tv'due south integrated speakers. And Voice Zoom 2 detects and enhances dialogue so you can hear it improve, regardless of what else is happening on screen.
Sony Bravia XR A80J review: Performance and film quality
Whether you go your content through streaming or via the ATSC 3.0 tuner (which enables 4K broadcasts and 3D audio support, and combines broadcast and ISP and over-the-air content), the A80J'south motion picture impresses beyond all viewing scenarios.
Whereas some TVs struggle with the early farmhouse scene in Blade Runner 2049, where chasms in contrast tin can rob Ryan Gosling and Dave Bautista of their facial details (and thus the scene of its pungent immediacy), the A80J kept both the blackest and the whitest parts of the scene in residue, ensuring you never miss the subtleties of actors' expressions. Similarly, in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, the set depicted the underground Exegol lair with all of its simmering, shadowy terror, and the jolting blue-white lightning strikes between Rey and Palpatine defined their interaction every bit exactly the titanic battle between light and dark it is.
The A80J is just every bit adept at handling colour. In The Rise of Skywalker, the festival on Pasaana looked rich and varied, with the rainbow of hues of its celebrants' robes surging (but not too much) against the bland sand and dark-brown mountains of that desert world. The mid-20th-century, palette-busting fantasia of the new Disney-Pixar film Luca really popped, in the aquamarine tidal waters and the lush above-waves Italian Riviera landscapes alike.
Another movie looked dull, drab, and unappealing, with the searing brightness of its special effects standing in blazing distinction to the bewilderingly desaturated colors; luckily, this meant the A80J had flawlessly rendered the director's vision for Zack Snyder's Justice League.
Though well-nigh of our exam content is native 4K, the A80J easily upscaled the 1080p version of Mission: Incommunicable—Fallout, turning out a hit and bright (if not quite razor-honed) picture, antiquity-gratuitous fifty-fifty in that moving picture'due south heavy, fast-moving action scenes.
The gear up'due south picture too looked good at wide viewing angles, with none of the washing-out we sometimes observe. At particularly extreme angles relative to the heart of the screen, the display took on a slight reddish bandage, though this was more discernible in our full-screen pink, violet, and orange test patterns than with any moving-picture show or Boob tube show—and, with full-screen red, green, or blue, information technology wasn't noticeable at all. A dedicated 4K test pattern revealed no overscan, no bug displaying crisp 1- or 2-pixel lines, and deft treatment of color saturation, brightness, and sharpness across its eighteen graphical figures.
Our anecdotal tests were performed in Standard mode except when HDR kicked in, and the flick mode defaulted to Dolby Vision Vivid (with Bright and Dolby Vision Dark the simply other ii available). These modes were just fine and should suffice for everyday viewing; in HDR way, Brilliant gave a sickly, Technicolor-acid-trip cast to everything, and Dolby Vision Dark generally but made things look dim. The A80J offers two unique motion picture modes aimed at special kinds of content: IMAX Enhanced and Netflix Calibrated, which both did well within their restricted lanes (though the latter merely works in the fix's Netflix app).
Sony Bravia XR A80J review: Test Results
We test TVs using two pattern generators (an AccuPel DVG-5000 for SDR and a SpectraCal VideoForge Pro for HDR), an X-Rite i1 Pro spectrophotometer, and Portrait Displays' Calman calibration software. Our typical modus operandi is to disable all dynamic brandish adjustment features so nosotros are evaluating all TVs on as level a playing field as possible. But it apace became clear this arroyo would have some limitations with the A80J: Its picture show quality is dependent on a lot of the settings we turned off.
Tested our usual way, the set covered just 99.9916% of the Rec. 709 color gamut in Standard style and maxed out at 145.2 nits in its brightest pic mode (Vivid) — well below the stellar performance nosotros saw from LG's G1 and CX OLED televisions. Our contact at Sony recommended testing in Custom way, with the dynamic adjustments off, and the ready'south colour gamut coverage skyrocketed to 111.3361%. When tested in Vivid style with the 2 most prominent dynamic settings disabled (Motorcar picture mode, which "automatically sets the picture mode based on the content from HDMI devices" and the low-cal sensor), the brightness was a dazzling 713.vii nits (though even the 237.3 nits was meliorate than the first time around).
There are a few central takeaways hither. Start, and most important, the A80J is a first-rate performer on a technical level in this price range, and has the capacity to please even the virtually demanding viewers. But its picture modes and individual settings conduct more weight than on many sets, so if you're not passionate virtually these nuances, y'all may better off leaving well enough alone.
Finally, for most content, the curiously named Custom fashion provides the closest thing to a tightly calibrated picture out of the box. There's a lot of potential confusion here for the everyday Telly buyer, which is too bad, just the more adventurous volition find it doesn't have much tweaking to reach a perfect picture.
Sony Bravia XR A80J review: Gaming
We use 2 Leo Bodnar Video Signal Lag Testers (an older 1080p version and a new i optimized for 4K) to measure the filibuster between a video signal passing from the input and displaying on the screen. In the A80J'southward Game Manner, the results were sixteen.5 ms and 15.8 ms respectively—both on the high side for a TV such every bit this, merely well below our 20 ms threshold for solid gaming functioning.
The A80J'southward 120 Hz maximum refresh charge per unit is ideal for gaming on newer consoles similar the Xbox Series 10 or the PS5. As previously mentioned, though, to take advantage of this characteristic, you'll need to connect your console to either HDMI port 3 or 4, which are the only two that support HDMI ii.1; otherwise, you're stuck with 60 Hz.
Sony Bravia XR A80J review: Audio
On the A80J, the 0.25-inch-thick screen becomes a speaker by way of Sony's Acoustic Surface Sound+ technology, which uses two actuators and two subwoofers (at present frontwards-firing, unlike the rear-firing subwoofer on the Bravia A8H) to plow the screen itself into the speaker while helping the TV maintain its (more often than not) slim contour. The other audio technologies that come by way of the Cerebral Processor XR are more difficult to test definitively.
Though the difficult-driving action scenes in Zack Snyder'due south Justice League can sometimes feel oppressive, the sound was crystalline.
I watched a number of different types of video, from activeness movies to comedies to musicals, and had trouble detecting much of what Sony indicated I'd hear. When I airtight my optics, I was wrong at to the lowest degree as many times as I was correct about where the sound "should have" been coming from, and I'k not positive I heard anything that could exist mistaken for total-room surroundings sound. At least the setup procedure, which the remote's microphone measuring sounds produced past the Tv to let information technology to optimize its performance, is uncomplicated and takes mere seconds to consummate. If you stop up not liking what you hear from the TV, your best bet may exist investing in one of the all-time soundbars.
But hither's the matter: I never felt cheated near not making out the three-dimensional, positional audio because everything I played sounded and so good anyhow. Soaring soprano lines cresting on high As and Bs came through with their piercing intensity intact, even in the uppermost reaches of the Tv'south volume range. Though the hard-driving action scenes in Zack Snyder's Justice League can sometimes feel oppressive, the sound was crystalline: Whether during the frenetic final fight or in (er, relatively) more intimate moments, the clarity was outstanding whether the set was set up quiet or booming.
Bass was likewise satisfying, with the throbbing, staccato lows of The Knife's "Silent Shout" declarative without overwhelming, no matter how loud. And in every sound mode I tested, the blend always had a delectable layering that plunged me into the center of the material's aural universe. Certain, Standard was a scrap flatter and Cinema was a bit rounder, simply it was never less than correct.
Perhaps die-hard audiophiles wouldn't be ecstatic, but to my ear, this was some of the all-time sound I've ever heard from an OLED—or a television set of whatever type.
Sony Bravia XR A80J review: Google TV and smart features
Google Tv set represents a pregnant pace upwardly from Android Boob tube, with an interface that is notably cleaner, more useful, and ameliorate at surfacing content you'll want to watch. A navigation bar at the top of the screen sports a Search bar and provides quick links to five well-organized collections: For You (your personalized "start" page), Movies, Shows, Apps, and your Library of saved content. I rarely needed to devious off of the For You folio, however, every bit information technology and Search were more than enough to satisfy my viewing habits.
Search is remarkably flexible and robust. Yous can either type in what you want, whorl down to come across full general recommendations, or use Google Assistant vocalism controls. When I held down the remote'due south Google Assistant push button and spoke, the system understood all my requests (even, sadly, when I accidentally garbled "Tenet" as "tenant"), and it could either bring up traditional-style search results ("show me action movies") or take me directly to apps that could respond my questions ("What's new on Netflix?"). I ran into one temporary hiccup when I asked Google Tv to take me to Disney+, and information technology griped that the app wasn't installed (it was), only aside from this, information technology's meridian-notch. These vocalism controls as well work for accessing Google's myriad other features; you tin can ask Google Banana to display your calendar, play music via Spotify, and so on. (The lower-end Bravia X95J and the top-tier A90J are equipped with a hardware switch that allows hands-free use of Google Assistant, merely the A80J requires the remote.)
You can also add together content you run across during your day by adding them to your Watchlist, which lives under the Library tab. This is handy for those times (many of them, if you're similar me) when you don't want to forget to bank check out something interesting after, but may not take the time when you first think almost it. The Watchlist choice is prominently featured in Google searches, and is a real time saver.
Google TV'southward recommendations are surprisingly solid, too. The systems draw them from your Google activity (on whatever devices are fix with your Google Account), also as your streaming services and apps, so if you've been feeding Google a lot of your personal information, Google TV is probable to predict your tastes pretty well. It surfaced Babylon 5 for me, even though I haven't watched it since information technology striking HBO Max earlier this year, and was good about nudging me to return to shows or movies I hadn't quite finished. A reminder to improve recommendations by rating videos was helpfully positioned near the top of the screen.
You tin can also stream content from your Apple devices with support for AirPlay, or from your Android telephone or tablet thanks to the A80J'south Chromecast support, and in that location is back up for Apple's HomeKit smart home platform and Amazon'due south Alexa.
Google Television greatly simplifies the process of setting upward the A80J. After opening the Google Abode app on your Android phone, you scan a QR code that appears on the TV'southward screen to link the two devices. Connect to Wi-Fi, sign in with your Google Business relationship, and you're already largely finished. This lets you utilise the expansive suite of Google Services; search across all your Boob tube apps; utilize voice controls (synced between devices with Google Vox Match) to open your agenda, contacts, reminders, and more than; in some cases, link passwords to your streaming services; and display photos from your library when the ready is in the screen-saving Ambient Mode.
Sony Bravia XR A80J review: Bravia Core
Included with the A80J is membership in Sony's new streaming service, Bravia Cadre, and 5 "tokens" for redeeming videos from it. Using information technology, you can, of course, buy and watch movies the usual style. Or you can select from a number of titles that offer unlimited streaming. It also provides a itemize of IMAX Enhanced movies, which are optimized for the TV's Bravia XR technology. And the whole service offers equally an option Pure Stream, which streams 4K video at upwards to 80 Mbps (and you lot're warned well-nigh its likely increase of data usage when you enable the feature).
Though there'due south a off-white amount to like about Bravia Cadre, Pure Stream struck me as the all-time role of information technology (aside from the free movie credits), and movies I streamed using information technology looked quite good. That said, although there'south nada wrong with the service, and there's a decent amount in that location if yous don't experience like paying for 1 or more other streaming services, the selection is sparse, and chances are you won't need (or desire to carp with) Bravia Core if y'all already subscribe to ane or more streaming services y'all love. Google Telly is and so practiced at aggregating your electric current content and helping you find more than, Bravia Core seems an extraneous, if better-than-it-has-to-exist, addition.
Sony Bravia XR A80J review: Remote Control
Sony has not departed too far from its recent designs for the A80J'southward remote control. Information technology's long and narrow (nearly 9x1.eight inches), with soft-touch buttons for the number pad and virtually of the more mutual controls (such as Volume, Channel, Back, and Home), and the keys arranged smartly and intuitively. The but light on the remote is one in the upper-left corner that glows orange to let you know when Google Banana is listening.
The merely major change from previous iterations of this remote is the addition of two dedicated buttons for streaming services. Whereas previous models only had ii (the A8H offered just Google Play and Netflix), this remote has four: for Netflix, YouTube, Disney+, and Amazon Prime video. I tend not to employ these very much, as I prefer Google TV'due south more than broad-ranging, on-screen functionality. But they're nice additions on a remote that's big plenty to accommodate them, and equally these are among the biggest (and best) services out there, their inclusion offers niggling to complain about.
Sony Bravia XR A80J review: Verdict
As OLED TVs have gradually been notching downward in price, and have even reached the point where you lot tin become some killer models for well nether $2,000, information technology's go progressively more than challenging to make the case that spending just a petty more on something higher-finish is worth it. Only the Sony Bravia XR A80J does and so handily — and crushes whatsoever other expectations you lot may accept had along the way.
Yous may exist able to find sets with better color or brightness (such as the Samsung QN90A Neo QLED, or the LG G1 and CX) or more HDMI two.i ports (LG'south sets again), and in that location are even less expensive models out there (the Vizio H1 OLED) that will satisfy. But when you look at the consummate package—which includes that killer sound; the abundant, finely tuned motion picture technologies, and Google Tv with all the associated tie-ins—and the A80J is i tantalizing TV.
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/sony-bravia-xr-a80j-oled
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