Hands on: Sony KDL-55W900A review

Sony's new brand-leading non-4K TV is coming soon

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w900a
The W900A range is the cream of Sony's Full HD crop

Early Verdict

Pros

  • +

    Vivid colours

  • +

    Really thin

  • +

    SideView is cool

Cons

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Sony made a triumphant comeback in the TV market last year and it's hoping to continue that progress with its new products in 2013.

The company considers picture quality to be its highest priority above all else, and this strategy has finally started to work out after a couple of years in the reliability wilderness.

The Sony KDL-55W900A is Sony's new flagship non-Ultra HD TV and succeeds 2012's brilliant HX853 series at the top of this mortal range.

It uses the same X-Reality Pro chip as last year's top-end models but the panel is all-new and includes the same Triluminos colour boosting layer as the Ultra HD models also announced at CES.

w900a

First impressions of this TV are good. The Triluminos tech is not just marketing fluff – it really does look fantastic even in the bright conditions of the Sony showroom. Colours are vivid and intense, and you could be excused for thinking you were looking at an OLED product.

It's thin, too. Thinner than last year's HX853 and comes packing the latest SEN Smart TV features and also the new SideView service which allows you to combine the bundled NFC remote control with Sony's Android devices in order to control what you're watching with greater freedom.

sideshow

We don't have a price for this range yet, but Sony has been pricing its TVs rather aggressively of late. That's an effort to combat the giant-killers from Korea who are able to produce TVs at cheaper price points, so we expect the W900A range to be priced competitively.

remote sideshow

Interestingly, Sony was hiding its W900 TVs to the side of its stand, integrating them with the tech demos for SideView and Triluminos. Front and centre was reserved for the Ultra HD products, but rest assured, these 1080p sets look pretty decent as well.

Early Verdict

Looks like another good range from Sony but we'll wait and see what our lab tests tell us.

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James Rivington
James Rivington

James was part of the TechRadar editorial team for eight years up until 2015 and now works in a senior position for TR's parent company Future. An experienced Content Director with a demonstrated history of working in the media production industry. Skilled in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), E-commerce Optimization, Journalism, Digital Marketing, and Social Media. James can do it all.

What is a hands on review?

Hands on reviews' are a journalist's first impressions of a piece of kit based on spending some time with it. It may be just a few moments, or a few hours. The important thing is we have been able to play with it ourselves and can give you some sense of what it's like to use, even if it's only an embryonic view. For more information, see TechRadar's Reviews Guarantee.