Sony Bravia XR A90J 4K HDR OLED TV Review
Sony Bravia XR A90J 4K HDR OLED
"The A90J offers the best picture and sound quality in a television today."
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Brightest OLED TV
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Exceptional HDR performance
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Perfect black levels
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Breathtaking detail
Since CES 2021, rumors have spread about the Sony A90J OLED TV. The promise of a strong increase in brightness and a bold new image processor made TV freaks like me drool. The $ 4,000 Question? Is the hype surrounding this television – for which I am partly responsible – true? We'll find out in a moment.
In this review, I'm going to discuss what makes the A90J OLED TV so high quality, how bright it really gets, and why you might or might not want all that brightness on tap, analyze the picture quality and go into it, and there's a little bit of gaming features to determine too on how great this TV really is, and whether it's worth saving a few cents – or really Benjamin's – so you can buy it.
Spoiler alert: this TV is superb.
Jump to: Out of the box | User experience | Sound quality | About this brightness | Picture settings / picture quality | Play | My attitude
Out of the box
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As soon as you crack the box, it becomes immediately clear that the A90J is a premium luxury product – you can tell by that $ 4,000 price tag too. The good news is that the A90J looks and feels absolutely like an ultra-premium TV. From the frameless edges to the ultra-slim shape to the brushed metal remote control that came with it, you'll feel like you got what you paid for with this TV. I didn't experience any disappointments with unboxing.
One of the things I like the most about the design of this TV is the convertible stand. You have three options for leg placement. For one, the TV can sit a few inches above your media stand, leaving just the right amount of space for a soundbar, which hides any unruly cables left over due to a disappointing cable management system. The second option is to flip the feet so that the TV is flush with your media housing and doesn't leave a noticeable gap – the same ultra-smooth look as last year's Z8H 8K OLED TV. The third option places the legs in the center of the TV, allowing for much tighter space for smaller media stands.
Riley Young / Digital Trends
Riley Young / Digital Trends
Riley Young / Digital Trends
Riley Young / Digital Trends
For wall mounting, expect a very clean look with just a slight dent from the wall. Even with that bump, the TV's incredibly thin OLED panel continues to attract oohs and aahs.
Sony Bravia XR A90J 4K HDR OLED TV details
While we tested the 65-inch model XR65A90J, our test also applies to the 55-inch model.
| Screen size | Model number | RRP |
| 55 inches | XR55A90J | $ 3,000 |
| 65 inches | XR65A90J | $ 4,000 |
User experience
Setting up the A90J is a breeze, especially if you have a Google Account and the Google Home app – all thanks to the recently released Google TV platform, first seen in the new Chromecast with Google TV.
Riley Young / Digital Trends
I enjoyed Google TV when it came out, but I've grown since the new Chromecast became my favorite streaming device in my bedroom. The implementation as a smart TV platform in Sony televisions solidified my fandom. Not only did the A90J more or less do its initial setup itself, but since I previously entered usernames and passwords for the streaming apps I previously used through Google TV, there was no need to go through that tedious process again – Google TV remembered most of them and immediately signed me up by clicking "Yes". I know this is probably more of a pain point for a reviewer like me, but I still love it.
The bottom line is that the television is a pleasure to use.
Aside from being easy to set up, Google TV does a better and better job of mixing content that I watch regularly with relevant suggested content that somehow doesn't feel like an ad. With Google TV, you can easily pick up where you left off on a movie or show. This is a very familiar and accessible interface in general, even if you've never used it before. And of course, Chromecast is built in along with all of The Google Assistant's power for search, TV control, and general information.
The bottom line is that the television is a pleasure to use. Even the Settings menu has explanations of what each button and slider do when you adjust it.
Sound quality
Sound quality isn't something I normally think about in these reviews, but, sweet grace, this TV sounds amazing.
If you didn't already know, Sony places transducers on the back of the OLED panel that turn the screen into a speaker. That way, the sound comes straight from the screen itself, and this system does an incredible job of localizing sound to the screen source. For example, if someone is speaking on the right side of the screen, you will hear them speak from where their face appears – as if the actor's voice is actually coming out of the screen's mouth.
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The bass response of the A90J has been improved since Sony first used this type of audio solution and implemented an additional bass driver and maze of bass ports on the back of the TV. I love to hear TV sound that big. No, it's not the same as a dedicated sub, but you'll be amazed at how deep and loud the A90J can sound when called.
I can't think of any other TV that sounds this good.
Also, Sony used some acoustic tricks to vertically improve the sound field. So it seems that the sound is coming from outside the confines of the TV. Additionally, virtual surround effects, which I normally don't like, sound very convincing from the A90J. I can't think of any other TV that honestly sounds this good.
However, if you prefer a more sophisticated multispeaker surround system, you can use the TV as the center speaker. Many people – other reviewers, apparently – believe that the two speaker ports on the back of the TV are for powering a center channel speaker. It is not – these ports are actually inputs. The television is designed to receive a signal from an A / V receiver, downconvert the signal to speaker level, and then amplify it through its own speakers, effectively replacing a center channel speaker. And it works fantastically well.
About this brightness
I'm about to dig into picture quality, but first I want to talk about two of the reasons this TV is supposed to be such a big deal this year. One is brightness potential – possibly the brightest OLED TV ever made. The other is the processing that we always talk about with Sony TVs because the processing makes a huge difference in picture quality and that Sony’s has been the best in the past.
In terms of processing, Sony has moved from Extreme to Ultimate and has now taken a new direction. Sony calls this year's novelty the Cognitive Processor XR. The name is a bit mouthful, but what it means is that Sony – according to its own description – designed the image processor to work in a similar way to how our brains think and how we perceive things.
Riley Young / Digital Trends
Riley Young / Digital Trends
Riley Young / Digital Trends
According to Sony, the processor is so advanced that it can pick up every element of image quality and the cross-reference at the same time, just like our brains. The result should be an extremely realistic picture. For example, one of its advantages is that the XR processor can detect that it needs to improve details in an animal's fur, but not necessarily the details of the blurry meadows and trees in the background. I know this sounds like a lot, and I'm sure there is more than a tablespoon of marketing out there, but Sony has lived up to its claims for superior workmanship in the past and I can tell you now that it actually delivers the new XR processor.
As for the A90J's newly discovered brightness boost, you may have heard that LG also has a new OLED TV that can get brighter than ever, and you may think Sony is getting the OLED panels from LG Display that they are possibly playing the same game to become the reigning king of brightness. BUT they are not.
Riley Young / Digital Trends
Sony's approach differs in that while it uses a similar new OLED panel from LG Display – which I haven't yet confirmed – it has also developed a new heat sink technology that allows the panel to be harder and run a little longer without the Damaging pixels or prematurely wearing them out. It was rumored that the TV can reach 1300 nits in Vivid mode – that's almost twice as bright as previous Sony OLEDs. I'll talk about whether this brightness is realistic or even desirable in a moment, but first let me talk about the picture settings and some measurements I took when I rated the TV.
Picture settings / picture quality
If you want the brightest picture on the A90J while maintaining some level of accuracy (adhering to Hollywood picture standards), avoid Standard or Vivid Picture modes. The TV's custom mode is used for playback. Once Custom is selected, you'll want to turn off the ambient light sensor. This setting is conveniently listed next to the brightness settings. Please note that switching off the sensor deactivates other functions with which the brightness curve can be adjusted depending on the room lighting, e.g. B. Dolby Vision IQ. Also under the brightness setting, I recommend setting the peak brightness to high. This will brighten the image in both SDR and HDR modes.
With these settings I have a peak value of 370 nits in the SDR. I measured the standard 150 nits with the low peak brightness setting. The color accuracy in this mode, after reducing the amount of blue that blends into white, was insanely spot on. Only the most extreme red crossed the threshold for noticeable inaccuracies, and even then only barely. I am seriously impressed.
Riley Young / Digital Trends
No further adjustments to the image settings were required for HDR. I checked the peak brightness and it stayed constant at around 760 nits (closer to 800 nits when the light meter accuracy is adjusted) which is very good for a custom mode or a cinema mode like this one.
The color was very accurate when the peak brightness was not set to high. Slight inaccuracies crept in when the peak brightness was increased, which is to be expected. But again hardly noticeable. We keep the television at the highest level and it comes closer than almost anything I've seen before. Save a reference monitor like Sony's own BVM X300, a ridiculously expensive true RGB OLED mastering monitor that Hollywood uses when mastering movies.
When I went into Vivid mode, I didn't have to make any adjustments to get 1,250 nits (closer to 1,300 to compensate for the inaccuracy of the light meter), although that number fell to around 950 once the A90J's automatic brightness limiter was activated. This is a good thing to do to prevent these pixels from overheating unnecessarily.
Riley Young / Digital Trends
So there you have it: confirmation that this TV can indeed get extraordinarily bright when you ask it, no doubt about it. And a clear indication that Sony is taking a different approach than LG.
But how can this strong brightness be transferred to real television? Do you need that much brightness on an OLED TV? I say yes, but with some caveats.
Everything I've ever loved about OLED TV picture quality is elevated.
I would never watch TV in Vivid mode. It looks tough and artificial. If you've had to go to Vivid during a big sports party and watch daylight shining straight into the TV, then this kind of brightness comes in handy. For normal playback, the user-defined mode or the cinema mode with activated peak brightness is more than just pleasant, it is dazzling. This extra brightness, used in the right places and in the right way, enhances the overall image, but has a particularly positive effect on HDR highlights.
The A90J is everything I have ever loved about OLED TV picture quality. The accuracy, level of detail and richness of this TV are intense. I absolutely love it. While I can freely admit that I've been a Sony fan for a while, this TV is objectively good. Best picture quality I've ever seen. That's it. I know there will be a lot of great TVs out there, but this TV is the benchmark now and will be hard to beat.
Play
Now let's talk about gaming. This TV has two HDMI 2.1 ports with the ability to support 4K 120 Hz, VRR (Variable Refresh Rate), Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM) and many other desirable features. Unfortunately, one of those ports is the TV's eARC port. So if you want to connect more than one HDMI 2.1 device – such as the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 – you'll have to give up the eARC capability. It is not possible to connect both consoles directly to the TV and connect a cable to a soundbar or receiver.
Riley Young / Digital Trends
Riley Young / Digital Trends
Riley Young / Digital Trends
However, if you're running the consoles through an HDMI 2.1 friendly A / V receiver that passes 4K 120Hz signals, this might be fine. All I know is that a lot of the receivers available this year are struggling a little with this.
Otherwise, as far as I've been able to determine, almost everything seems to work fine at startup except VRR – that's another story. It may be a while before we see a firmware update from Sony that enables VRR on 2021 and selects 2020 TVs.
That being said, the A90J's picture quality goes for gaming – they look incredible. This TV isn't as game-oriented as the LG G1, but that's a discussion for a Versus article coming out soon. Watch this room.
My attitude
To be honest, the A90J is a work of art and a feat of engineering. I absolutely love it. The challenge is the price, but luckily, prices go down over time. Price aside, the A90J is one of the best TVs you can buy in 2021 and maybe beyond.
Is there a better alternative?
In terms of picture and sound quality, no. However, the LG G1 OLED evo comes very close and has the advantage of advanced gaming features and a much cheaper price at launch.
How long it will take?
The Sony A90J is a remarkably advanced, well-built television. It should take a long time to come.
warranty
Sony provides a one-year parts and labor warranty on its televisions when purchased from an authorized dealer. Please refer to the Sony Manual and Warranty page for more information.
Should you buy it?
Yes. It may be expensive, but the A90J has the best picture and sound quality you can get in a TV today.
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