Sony Oled 48 Inch 2020 – Trusted reviews are supported by its visitors. If you make a purchase through links on our site, we may earn a commission. Learn more.
While it’s a shame the Sony KE-48A9 doesn’t pack the same up-to-date gaming features as some of the cheaper models in Sony’s TV range, from an AV enthusiast’s point of view its picture quality is nothing short of exquisite. .
Sony Oled 48 Inch 2020
The A9 OLED (KE-48A9) is Sony’s first 48-inch OLED TV, which allows the brand’s OLED technology to reach small rooms, alcoves, other rooms and possibly game rooms where it was previously inaccessible. .
Sony Announces 48
Does the OLED technology and native 4K resolution of the 48A9 still have much impact on this small screen size? Also, because at the time of review (January 2021) the 48A9 costs £220 more than LG’s competing 48in OLED model, the OLED48CX. Can it justify the extra expense?
At the time of review the RRP of the KD-48A9 was £1799 / $1799 / €1899 / CAD $2499. For Sony’s upcoming 2021 TV range, you can find it now for £1499, the same price as the LG 48in CX and the Philips 48OLED+935.
In the US and Canada, the A9 is known as the A9S. It has not yet been released in Australia.
The Sony A9 OLED is a wonderful ‘little’ thing. Both the main screen, which is extremely thin, and the chunkier part that covers the back of the screen enjoy a premium finish. The bezel around the screen is also very narrow, and sits flush against the screen so the whole thing looks like it’s cut from a single glass shelf.
The Best Sony Tvs Of 2023
The screen sits on a nearly flat aluminum desktop stand, completing a design that’s clearly aimed at providing as little distraction as possible from the images you’re viewing.
Contributing to the 48A9’s incredibly slim frame is the fact that it has no conventional speakers. Instead, as I’ll discuss in more detail below, its screen actually produces its own sound, courtesy of Sony’s Sound Surface technology.
The set shares a nice premium remote, complete with a metallic finish and a very nice layout and more tactile buttons that we’re used to being frustrated with older Sony remotes.
The simple fact that the 48A9 is a 48-inch screen with a full 4K pixel count is the main story here, given how many years 55-inch screens have been our smallest OLED option. It turns out that there is much more to talk about.
Sony 42 A90k Oled Review
Image processing is provided by Sony’s X1 Ultimate processor. This is unchanged from the 2019 system; We won’t see Sony’s new processors until the brand’s 2021 TVs arrive at the end of the year, with their Bravia XR engines. However, that doesn’t mean the X1 Ultimate is in any way sloppy by today’s TV standards.
Its dual database image comparison system, for example, repeatedly delivers class-leading upscaling of sub-4K sources. Its MotionFlow processor provided generally class-leading motion handling. Here too, using the X-Motion Clarity system that can inject partial black frames to give 24fps movies a more cinematic experience, significantly darken the image like normal systems for inserting black frames.
Sony’s HDR Remaster system for converting standard images in dynamic range to HDR is also the most natural system in the television world today. So much so that I don’t really mind that Sony implements it by default in many of their picture presets.
Then there’s Sony’s Pixel Contrast Booster, which analyzes the image and manages power consumption down to the pixel level to deliver improved contrast and better shadow detail.
Sony’s First 48
However, all these features are also available on Sony’s A8 OLED devices. Aside from being the only 48-inch model in Sony’s current OLED range, the only real difference in picture between the 48A9 and the A8s is the A9’s use of a Master Series OLED panel. This indicates that the panel was individually tuned at the factory prior to shipment.
The previously mentioned Acoustic Surface technology produces TV sound by using actuators to vibrate the screen. This innovative approach means that the sound is projected further into the room, for a more direct, efficient and immersive experience. The only ‘traditional’ speaker in the 48A9 is a decent sized bass driver fired from behind the screen.
The smart features of the Sony A9 OLED are powered by Android TV. I’m still not a fan of Android’s full-screen home menu, and it feels pretty random, overwhelming. However, it runs much more stable and snappier than previous iterations on the 48A9, and offers a wealth of content and apps – including Netflix, Prime Video, YouTube, Disney+, the Google Play Store and Apple TV.
Sony has partnered with YouView to cover broadcast services for all major UK broadcasters not provided separately on Android TV.
Sony Bravia A8h/a8 Oled Tv Review
The 48A9’s connections, finally, present a disappointment: there’s no support for the main trio of 4K/120Hz, variable refresh rate (VRR) and automatic low latency mode switching (ALLM) features available on recent consoles and PCs. This feels especially unfortunate given how well suited the 48-inch screen is for gaming. And it goes without saying that these features will eventually be supported (via firmware updates) in Sony’s mid-range XH90 LCD models.
For serious gamers, this puts the Sony A9 OLED at a serious disadvantage against LG’s 48CX, which supports 4K/120Hz, VRR and ALLM on all four of its HDMI ports. Let’s hope, then, that the 48A9 has the performance quality going for it.
The Sony A9 OLED’s images fire on so many cylinders, happily, that it’s hard to really house them in something that looks so special.
Black levels are a good place to start. They dim easily and consistently when needed, with little to no hint of stuttering seen in very dark scenes on LG’s OLED systems. The 48A9’s grayscale handling and light gradation are also excellent from this black starting point, leading to the widest and most natural-looking reproduction of shadow detail I’ve seen on any consumer monitor.
The 2 Best Oled Tvs Of 2023
The sense of delicacy is not limited to dark scenes either. The color reproduction is also – for the most part – exceptionally refined, in terms of the range, balance and subtlety of the tones that the screen can reproduce.
The screen’s deft light touch also holds up well throughout the image’s brightness range, providing a great mix of contrast, 3D and texture with all kinds of content that helps images look good most of the time. Especially if you feed a good quality 4K HDR image to the TV.
The beauty is even greater if this HDR picture is mastered by Dolby Vision, as the additional scene-by-scene DV image data helps the screen get even more value from the incredibly effective Pixel Contrast Booster technology.
Sony A9 OLED also features HDR images, with light peaks that increase the sense of dynamic range beyond anything seen in previous generations of Sony OLEDs. This, combined with stellar black levels and local lighting controls, gives HDR images a beautiful intensity and sweeping pixel-level precision that many AV fans will consider more than adequate compensation for OLED technology at the same brightness level. Don’t beat the premium LCD TVs. Can do
Here Are Sony’s 2022 Bravia Xr Tvs In Singapore
The details and sharpness feel perfectly judged, which leaves you in no doubt that you are watching 4K despite the relatively small size of the screen. At the same time, the image is not overly sharp to the point where the image can start to look noisy or unnatural.
Clarity is maintained during camera turns and action scenes using Sony’s latest motion options – without, again, distracting side effects. A few other brands have improved motion handling in their current TV ranges as well, but for me Sony still leads the way.
While the 48A9 has all the color, light and motion accuracy it needs to get the best value from native 4K images (and then some), it’s also excellent at upscaling from HD to 4K. The X1 Ultimate processor adds detail and pixel density while simultaneously suppressing noise, as well as adding an almost three-dimensional feel to enlarged images as it applies its quality results to different parts of the image in different ways. Can be applied with
Add to all of these strengths the OLED’s usually pretty infinite viewing angle support, and you’ve got a picture that looks consistently great from every angle.
Sony Kd 48a9
The secondary image is a trio of swallows. First, the Sony A9 OLED’s images aren’t as bright as competing OLED systems. It peaks at around 665 nits in Standard mode, which drops to 588 nits for the Cinema preset, and 614 nits for Game mode. LG’s OLED48CX, for comparison, reaches a level of about 800 nits. Although you notice this difference in brighter HDR shots, the extreme precision and consistency of the Sony’s lighting and contrast controls mean that the 48A9’s images with the vast majority of content look sharper than their brightness measurements suggest.
Despite the generally positive efforts of , finely mixed HDR color tones occasionally have color banding.
Sony oled 48 inch, sony 48 inch oled 2021, sony bravia 48 inch oled, sony oled tv 48, 48 inch oled tv, 48 inch oled, sony oled 48, sony 48 inch oled tv, sony oled a9 48 inch, 48 inch oled monitor, lg 48 inch oled, sony oled 48 inch price
