Introduction
Do you want the most polished smartphone-TV linking system yet? Or would you rather get a glimpse of first-gen voice and gesture control in your living room? You can’t have both, it seems, and Sony is firmly in the first camp by ushering in the first TVs with NFC technology while eschewing the rest.
While the likes of the Samsung UE46F7000 and Panasonic TX-L42DT65B showcase their first – often stuttering – efforts at hands-free smart control to an audience that’s likely as wary as it is enthusiastic, the Sony KDL-40W905A’s approach is more about making it easier to use a best-ever television.
The headline act on this 40-inch TV is a simple enough concept; touch your NFC-ready smartphone to the Sony KDL-40W905A’s slim NFC-equipped TV remote control to pair the phone to the TV.
The actual data (music, web browsing, photos and video) doesn’t travel via NFC, but via Miracast/Wi-Fi Direct, but it’s NFC that makes this the easiest, quickest way yet to make that initial link. It makes DLNA networking look positively stone-age.
Whether or not that appeals to you will depend on how reliant you are on your smartphone for music, video and browsing, and furthermore, how desperate you are to join up your pocket-sized device to a big screen TV. But there’s more to Sony’s smallest flagship Bravia TV than NFC.
3D – here in its active shutter flavour – is now considered standard, though a more important feature on the Sony KDL-40W905A is Sony’s X-Reality Pro engine, image circuitry that combines an LED-backlit panel with local dimming tech and Triluminos tech, which is primarily concerned with achieving plasma-like colour.
That said, it’s the Sony KDL-40W905A’s unusual design that will immediately catch the eye. Meaninglessly called ‘Sense of Quartz’, it’s a rather brave yet somehow Sony-like effect whereby a thin blue line cuts into the bezel’s edge.
That bezel is reasonably slim, with 10mm along the top and 14mm along the other three sides, though we’re not convinced about the badly protruding Sony logo below the screen. Worse still, that protrusion has gimmicky LED lights that change colour according to what the TV is doing, which can be distracting and certainly doesn’t serve any kind of purpose.
More positive distractions come from the Sony Entertainment Network – or SEN, for short – suite of apps, with unusually powerful speakers installed for good measure, too. Compared to most 40-inch TVs, Sony’s KDL-40W905A is quite a package.
Also available
The Sony KDL-40W905A is priced at £1,399 (around US$2,150/AU$2,320). Sony’s W9 Series is elsewhere made up of the 46-inch Sony KDL-46W905A (£1,799) and 55-inch Sony KDL-55W905A (£2,399), both of which add a couple of pairs of extra 3D glasses to the package to bring the total to four in the box.
If it’s NFC you’re after but you can’t stomach those prices, consider Sony’s step-down W8 Series. This consists of the 42-inch Sony KDL-42W805A (£849), 47-inch Sony KDL-47W805A (£1,099) and 55-inch Sony KDL-55W805A (£1,499), none of which include the same Dynamic Edge LED panel found on our review sample.
There is no W7 Series, and Sony’s W6 Series consists of just 32-inch and 42-inch sets, all of which serves to make the Sony KDL-40W905A one of Sony’s smallest TVs for 2013. And a fine one it is, too.
Features
There’s plenty to talk about on this flagship TV, but let’s start with the basic ins and outs, which cover three different panels on the Sony KDL-40W905A’s rear. A central indent houses wired LAN (though Wi-Fi also features), optical digital audio out, a set of component video inputs, phonos and a Scart.
Below that is another recessed panel with three down-facing HDMI inputs and feeds for both Freeview HD and Freesat HD. That will impress some, but with the latest flagship TVs from Samsung and Panasonic now featuring dual tuners for both Freeview HD and Freesat HD, it’s a bit disappointing at this price.
A side-panel, also recessed, offers two USB slots (three is standard on high-end TVs from rival brands) and a standby switch, with just enough navigation controls for the on-screen menu system in case you lose the remote control.
That doesn’t seem likely, since the Sony KDL-40W905A includes two remotes. The standard remote (RM-ED052) is the regular Sony effort that’s remained unchanged for a few years, while the secondary remote (RM-ED003) is all-new; slim and lightweight, it’s fun to use, though it’s sadly not a touch-sensitive effort, as with Samsung’s and Panasonic’s flagship TVs. It does make us wonder what, aside from NFC, is the point of it?
Using the Sony Xperia Z smartphone, which is equipped with NFC, we could demo the one-touch Screen Mirroring feature that’s actually powered by the Wi-Fi Direct peer-to-peer link (it has a far higher data transfer rate). Bluetooth is also onboard.
As if the control options for the Sony KDL-40W905A weren’t enough (barring the absent voice and gesture option, of course, though that’s not exactly a negative), there’s also a free app available from Sony called TV Sideview. It’s a pleasant enough app designed to make browsing the TV schedules easier while watching TV, but the lack of a second TV tuner in the Sony KDL-40W905A precludes any previewing.
The TV itself also has two of its own scheduling services – the regular EPG that’s updated by broadcasters, and a new web-powered variant that uses Sony’s own Gracenote system.
Smart TV apps come via SEN, which is rather reliant on Sony’s own Music Unlimited and Video Unlimited services. As well as the likes of BBC iPlayer, Lovefilm, Netflix, Daily Motion, Demand 5, BBC News, Sky News and BBC Sport, SEN offers a number of widgets including Skype, a web browser, TV Tweet, Guide and Search (Sony’s web and Gracenote-powered EPG), Text Search, Media Player, Home Theater Control, a clock and a Photo Frame mode.
However, during our test we saw frequent messages stating that ‘some sources are unavailable because server is busy’, despite our 50MB broadband home network operating normally with everything else.
Not that it’s a major selling point any longer, but the Sony KDL-40W905A does have an active shutter 3D mode, along with two pairs of Sony’s TDG-BT400A active 3D glasses.
More important in terms of picture tech is Triluminos, an always-on technology that puts tiny red and green filters onto each LED in an effort to produce more finely graded, lifelike colours.
Meanwhile, X-Reality Pro is all about increasing clarity and detail, with a system called Reality Creation responsible for upscaling SD images and cleaning them up.
However, with the era of frame rate increases now upon us, it’s the Motionflow XR 800Hz motion frame interpolation system that we’ll be keeping an especially close eye on.
Picture quality
It’s perhaps inevitable that on a 40-inch TV the highs are somewhat less mind-blowing than on the 55-inch version, but the lows less noticeable. With so much to explore on Sony’s flagship TV for 2013 and much of it already carefully considered in our Sony KDL-55W905A review, we’ll concentrate on some of the key picture pros and cons of the Sony KDL-40W905A as a standalone TV.
If you’re the kind of person who thinks great pictures are more to do with colour than anything else, you’ll love this TV. Out of the box it delivers finely graded, nuanced colours from all sources. Detail, too, is terrific. Wisps of smoke during high-definition footage look textured and take on extra depth.
Reality Creation has little use if you’re watching a Blu-ray disc, and isn’t the key technology it is on the Sony KDL-55W905A. It does improve Freeview channels, but only slightly – the TV’s own upscaling is already doing a decent enough job – as viewed on this much smaller 40-inch screen.
After a while considering Motionflow XR 800Hz’s baffling choice of seven different settings during Hugo in 2D, we managed to boil it down to some easy advice; go for the Smooth option. It’s the most basic setting, but manages to remove all judder from Blu-ray sources without making everything look too video-y.
It’s almost completely free from any artefacting, with the rips and tears around moving objects that do occur (such as around Papa George’s hands as he slaps them on the table after an argument with the hero in Hugo) not as distracting as on similar systems on rival TVs.
It’s possibly a size issue. Sony’s obviously doing something right to manage Motionflow’s key ambitions in the basic Smooth mode, so what are the other choices for? It must be said that without any processing engaged, the panel itself is perhaps the least prone to motion blur issues that any we’ve seen.
Besides, four of the other Motionflow choices – Clear, Clear Plus, Impulse and Cinema – are not successful at removing the detectable judder, and seem more like drastically different picture presets.
Impulse, for example, introduces a dark, brooding look that tends to kill off shadow detail – but, oddly not judder – while Cinema keeps the picture bright and, err, blurry. Honestly, if you end up choosing the Cinema setting then we’d advise you give Motionflow a miss altogether, since it’s not much different to disengaging it completely.
Ultimately, as we got 20 minutes into Hugo on Smooth we’d noticed artefacts about six times, which is fewer than in attempts at frame interpolation from Sony’s rival televisions, but frankly a few too many, all the same – this kind of film interpolation needs more processing power before it can take over.
However, it’s the terrific local dimming – engaged with LED Dynamic Control on its lowest setting – that gets the loudest cheers on the Sony KDL-40W905A. Here, blacks are deep and intense and suffer little haloing or glare, with mixed brightness scenes thus pitch perfect.
We also didn’t notice any kind of LED light leakage from the panel, which is actually pretty unusual even on a high-end TV – it’s proper dark even in a blackout. That’s not to say that detail in jet black areas of the image couldn’t be improved upon.
During Hugo the main man walks the corridors of the station alongside black painted walls that tend to merge into one, and it’s a similar story with a zoom-in on Hugo’s face, where his skin colour is spot on, but the side of his hair in shadow is virtually obliterated. There can also be a slight blueish tinge to black, but now we’re being ultra critical.
The Sony KDL-40W905A is perhaps too small to experience the ultimate in immersive 3D, but in our tests with Hugo we didn’t notice much crosstalk, while the depth-charged images were in many ways akin to 2D – always bright enough for lively colour while also sporting convincing blacks.
Usability, sound and value
Usability
The Sony KDL-40W905A’s SEN interface floats nicely over a live TV picture, and doesn’t seem either as intrusive or as dominant as Sony’s rivals’ smart TV efforts, though that’s partly its problem.
Devoid of many of the apps most smart TV buyers will expect, the understated SEN seems separate from the TV’s main functions. However, we do admire Sony’s obvious priority on producing a clean-looking user interface, with its well-judged fonts and other design niceties.
A floating ‘Featured’ tab contains material culled from Sony’s Music and Video Unlimited services, which in our case was a still from Django Unchained, as well as adverts for Lovefilm and Sony’s own Play Memories service. It all has a bit of an in-house feel to it, but it can be disabled in the settings menus.
We had zero issues with Screen Mirroring on the Sony KDL-40W905A. A simple tap of a Sony Xperia Z handset to the television’s NFC remote brought up whatever was displayed on the phone and showed it on the TV screen.
Photos work particularly well, with pinch-to-zoom working in real-time, though video is a second or two behind. That’s not a problem at all, though it does rule out porting games (unless you want to hook up the Xperia Z via a cable, which you can, since one of the TV’s HDMI inputs is MHL-ready).
Digital media works well, too. In our tests of the Sony KDL-40W905A’s USB slots we managed to get the whole shabbang to play, including the likes of MKV (though not via DLNA streaming), AVI, MPEG, MP4, MOV and WMV, though after that test we had to go five steps back to the ‘Connect to devices’ command and begin the whole process again to access music, then again for photos.
That done, WMA, WAV, MP3 and M4A tracks played, which is precious little use to anyone using lossless FLAC or OGG files, but is reasonably impressive nonetheless.
While navigating these files we accidentally pressed the channel up button instead of volume up, which instantly retuned the Sony KDL-40W905A to live TV, a feature known as Fast Zapping. With such a long-winded process for accessing digital files, we did get rather frustrated with this pitfall, though Fast Zapping mode can be deactivated.
Not so the ‘return’ button on the remote, which consistently took us not back one step, but several, usually to live TV.
Sony’s new GUI is good looking, but it’s not as feature-packed as it could be, and it sometimes feels like a game of snakes and ladders.
Sound
The Sony KDL-40W905A is fitted with a long-duct speaker, and it does a terrific job. Wide stereo sound boasts exceptional clarity – for a TV speaker – and there’s plenty in the mid-range for a reasonable attempt at movie soundtracks, too.
Value
It’s nice to have a choice of remote controls, but we’d expect one to have a touch-sensitive dimension. It’s also rather unusual at this price not to have a built-in camera on the front of the TV, or a microphone for that matter. Also note that while the larger 46-inch and 55-inch TVs in the W9 Series ship with four pairs of 3D specs, the Sony KDL-40W905A comes with only two pairs for free.
Finally, we’re not convinced that SEN is quite smart enough, at least when compared to rivals’ smart TV hubs. Looking the best isn’t really enough at this price.
Besides, whether any 40-inch TV can cost close to £1,400 (around US$2,150/AU$2,320) and be considered good value is a moot point, especially with fine 50-inch plasmas now selling for less.
Verdict
Technically superb, Sony’s KDL-40W905A won’t disappoint anyone after great picture quality, but does it do enough elsewhere to earn its high price tag?
We liked
On this, one of the most capable 40-inch TVs around, we loved its local dimming, its smooth motion, clean, nicely upscaled digital TV and DVD pictures, and its above average audio.
Its new user interface looks great, while the chance to pair a smartphone with the Sony KDL-40W905A just by touching it to the NFC remote makes us look forward to the ‘internet of things’ with great confidence. We’re also glad that there’s no gimicky voice control options, which never seem to work.
We disliked
Where’s the dual TV tuners? As well as creating a real-time ‘what’s on the other channel?’ feature, dual tuners really bring alive USB recording and would liven up Sony’s SideView app for smartphones and tablets. We also mourn the lack of a touch-sensitive dimension to the secondary remote, despite us liking its NFC feature, while a third USB slot would have been nice, too.
Fast Zapping, though handy in theory, in reality acts like a navigational black hole. Finally, SEN needs both extra apps and the chance to customise it – it’s all very neat, but will feel a tad too corporate for some.
Final verdict
Although we love its local dimming, its NFC linking and its clean interface, we can’t help but think Sony is slightly behind the curve with its W9 Series KDL-40W905A. Although we totally agree with its firm focus on picture quality over everything else, we feel a bit short-changed by its rather dreary selection of apps and its single TV tuners.
OK, so NFC is a glimpse into the future and does make smartphone pairing exceptionally simple, but shouldn’t Sony’s flagship TV have just a little more? It should, and we’re therefore not convinced about its high price, but that doesn’t stop the Sony KDL-40W905A from being technically the top performing 40-inch TV of 2013 so far.
Also consider
If you’re in the market for a flagship TV from a major manufacturer, it would be remiss of you not to check out the other top-ranking TVs. Samsung’s F8000 Series of LED TVs and F8500 Series of plasmas are both high quality – and both have more apps, as well as voice and gesture control.
Panasonic’s DT65 LED TVs and both the Panasonic ZT65 and Panasonic VT65 plasma TVs, which arguably boast 2013’s best smart TV features, are also worth checking out. Crucially, all of these rivals have multiple TV tuners.
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