Review The Bravia KDL-40CX523 is the little net-connected TV that could. Consigned to somewhere near the bottom of Sony’s 2011 line-up, and cursed with a CCFL backlight instead of trendy LED bulbs, it’s clearly not one of the brand’s hero products. Yet this transpires to be a quite a desirable gogglebox.
Fat panel display: Sony’s Bravia KDL-40CX523
Viewed front-on it looks much like any other TV in the brand’s range. Only a sideways glance gives the backlight game away. Bulging out at 700mm, this panel is unlikely to impress the Joneses. Read the rest of this entry »
Review Flatscreen TVs with LED backlighting offer more vivid colours, darker blacks and greater contrast than regular LCD screens. And there’s a slimness dividend, too, as edge-mounted LED backlights take up less space than conventional LCD bulbs. A case in point is Samsung’s UE40B7000, a 40in 1080p HDTV that’s only 30mm deep.
Indubitably, a flatscreen TV: Samsung’s UE40B7000
We’ve noted before that a slim TV shouldn’t make much difference – after all, if you’re sitting front and centre you won’t even see it. Even so, it makes an LCD TV look pretty striking at glance from an angle, and it looks especially neat if you wall-mount the set.
Samsung is particularly good at making its sets stand out, on this model the bezel is clear at the edge and rose red behind. The stand has a thick transparent tube neck that connects to the black-and-clear glass stand, both of which are visually agreeable. Of course, you’ll be paying more attention to the TV when it’s on, but even so, it’s a good start. Read the rest of this entry »
Review The W5810 range represents Sony’s first move into the Freesat market, allowing you to sample the delights of true HD broadcasting without coughing up any extra cash for a Blu-ray player or Sky HD subscription.
Sony’s Bravia KDL-46W5810 – one of the company’s first Freesat tellies
As the name implies, the KDL-46W5810 is the 46in representative of the W5810 range, although there are other models available that range from 32 to 52 inches in size. Sony’s press office prefers not to discuss anything as mundane as pricing, but a quick detour into our local Sony Centre yielded a price of £1300, and online prices seem to be much the same. Sony is never the cheapest of brands, but that isn’t a bad price for a 46in model that provides an impressive image, good connectivity and the Freesat option.
Still, it’s not the most elegant TV we’ve ever looked at, as the screen is bordered by a chunky 2in wedge of black plastic, supplemented by an additional 2in strip of speaker grille running along the bottom edge of the screen. This gives the unit a rather monolithic appearance, as it sits there waiting for you to turn it on. Read the rest of this entry »
Review Remember how flatscreen TVs used to look: dominated by huge side- or bottom-mounted speakers and with large silver or grey bezel frames? The latest models are positively anorexic in comparison, shaving centimetres off every dimension except the display itself.
Sony’s Bravia KDL-46Z5500: handsome
So this handsome 1080p model from Sony, the 46in member of the Z5500 family, has a reasonably slim profile. It’s not as super-thin as some, but even so, the frame is pleasingly small and there are no big speakers on display, with the gloss black bezel looking attractive, understated and neat.
All this dieting means the Z series is noticeably lighter than other, comparable 46in LCD screens, though with luck, once you’ve positioned it in your living room you won’t be lugging it around too much.
Set-up is simplicity itself: switch on, follow the on-screen instructions, then wait briefly while the TV tunes in to the available digital and analogue stations. And you’re ready, though obviously if you want to tweak the settings for picture, sound and favourite channels – does anyone actually tune favourite channels? – you have a little more work to do. Read the rest of this entry »
Review Think of a widescreen TV. The widest one you’ve seen, you know, one with big, garish speakers stuck on the side. Well, whatever it is, it’ll be nowhere near as wide as this new, premium-priced LCD TV from philips.
Current widescreens have an aspect ratio of 16:9, so when viewing a movie on them, there are black bars along the top and bottom of the screen. Why? Because movies aren’t actually produced in the 16:9 format. Most DVDs have movie aspect ratios of 2.35:1, or 21.15:9. Even this isn’t the full picture, which is 2.39:1 (or 21.51:9) and viewable from the latest Blu-ray discs. It’s this measurement which is matched perfectly by the philipscinema 21:9 56PFL9954H TV. Purists please note, it’s the product name, not the shape of this 2560 x 1080 screen, that has been approximated to 21:9, for simplicity. Read the rest of this entry »
