The picture quality of this TV is undisputedly stunning. I can sit slack-jawed in front of it and stare at almost any 4k content for hours and marvel at how gorgeous the picture is. But in other ways, Sony does some things in a very weird way that defy your expectations of how a smart company designs smart TVs.
On almost every TV these days, there's a USB-2 port that is most often used to power a rear bias lighting strip that enhances viewing and reduces eyestrain. This TV has one too – but when you turn the TV off, power to that port will spring back to life, on and off, just for a few seconds, for several minutes after the TV is off. Then, hours later it will come on for a minute or so, then just an inexplicably go off. Why?? Why can't the USB port simply be powered off when the TV turns off like every other manufacturer's TV does? TCL TVs can set the timeout for USB power, and when it's off it's truly off and doesn't spring to life in the middle of the night. This appears to be a common problem amongst all Sony TVs. How difficult can this be to get right on a $3k device? (Answer – not at all difficult).
Similarly with the LED power indicator on the front – it's on whenever the TV is plugged in, whether it's on or not. The LED is always there, and on. Other TVs have options to deal with this, but not this one. I covered it up as I am already quite aware whether or not there is power to my house.
The back panel for the signal connections is located at the very bottom left of the TV, meaning that there is no room for cables to exit the back without being seen under the bottom edge when using the legs. When wall mounted, there is no easy channel to get HDMI/ethernet/etc cables into a wall or down a cable channel without a lot of serious 90 degree bending. Someone in the design department simply wasn't thinking about how to deal with the real world plethora of cables that have to come out of this thing. (The Sony HT-A7000 soundbar also has this problem, with HDMI cables exiting the back at different angles and locations, making a neat installation more difficult than it needs to be.) In addition, the huge size of the detachable panel cover makes it difficult to attach rear bias lighting LED strip to the outside back edge all around that lower corner.
The power cable is not detachable, meaning you have to use an extension cord if it's not long enough. This is just weird – why not provide a standard AC jack like every other TV and let us use a power cord that works in our location instead of assuming that the 5 feet you gave us will always be perfect? Who thought this was a good idea?
The Bravia camera on top is an ugly wart that serves no real purpose after setup. Mine is back in the box, and the TV looks much nicer without it. Maybe you need it for Zoom but not me. It looks expensive – can I get back the money I spent on it? No?
(About Google TV OS, the less said the better. Disdain it, and get yourself an Apple ATV4K+ box. You will be a MUCH happier streamer. It's night-and-day easier to use, and you aren't constantly being pushed into the Google-sphere. I am not at all an Apple fanboi but the design and UI of this streaming device is far more sophisticated and operationally smooth than either a Google or Roku.)
Kudos to Sony for a box design that allows for attaching the legs before completely removing the support styrofoam underneath, meaning you don't ever have to lay the panel down flat on its face or have someone hold the weight of it while you attach the legs. This makes it a lot easier to deal with a giant expensive device. Even if I'm going to mount a TV on the wall, as I will with this one, I always start out with it on the legs. This makes it easier to do initial testing, figure out where the VESA mount goes, how the cable routing will work, etc.
The remote is made of aluminum, feels solid, and has an accelerometer that turns on the backlighting when you pick it up. This is very suave. The size of the remote is also smaller than previous Sony remotes which were uselessly too big. This is appreciated.
There was a lot of apparent effort put into making the back of the TV appear with a consistent pattern across the entire back – little textured one inch squares. The detachable panel covers all line up and when everything is in place its a very consistent look. But it's totally useless – who looks at the back of their TV, ever? I don't care how beautiful or ugly the back panels are. Nobody cares. I'd rather it was an inconsistent mish-mash of ugly plastic thingies, if only the USB-2 port power would behave correctly and the cables were easier to route.
Overall, this TV is certainly a major win. I'm very very happy so far, but there are just these little annoyances that would cost Sony nothing to deal with properly that make me wonder about how (or if) they think the consumer will be using it out here in the real world where very little resembles a Sony testing lab.
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