TVs will, most of the time, get replaced and updated every year. But that’s not always
the case. And that’s the situation we’ve got here. So let’s see if Sony’s used
their time to make any big improvements from the 800E.
Hi, I’m Carl with Abt, and this is the Sony X800 G series. The one we’re looking
at here is the 65”. This is the replacement of the 2 year old X800E series. Only this
version comes in more sizes, as you may have noticed when I said we were looking at the
65 inch set, which didn’t exist in an 800E. But that’s not the only difference. The
first thing you might notice, if you’re familiar with the older version, is the 800G
has a different design for both the bezel and the pedestal. People are gonna have different
opinions, but I gotta say, I personally prefer the older style. I think the monitor portion
looked more upscale, more like a Z series. The pedestals are different too, but they
both look good. I’m not saying the 800G looks bad by any stretch. I just prefer the
aesthetics of the 800E more. Now, as you move around to the back, you’ll
see a very similar setup with the inputs. There’s four hdmis, which on the 800g, are
all updated to HDCP 2.3. You do still have the same 4k limitation though. Only inputs
2 and 3 are able to play back full 4k resolution at 60 hertz. The other two can still play
back 4k, but only at 24 or 30 hertz. Then you’ve got 3 USB inputs, a shared component
and composite input along with ethernet, antenna, and rs232c. There’s also a 3 and a half
millimeter and optical audio output to go along with bluetooth and wi-fi. All the same
as what we had on the 800E. Now, where there’s a more notable difference, is in the larger
models of the new 800G. The 55 inch and larger sets get direct LED
backlighting. The 49 and smaller get the same edge lit backlighting that was on the 800E.
So the larger models are gonna be a little brighter and have better contrast, but they’re
about an inch deeper, which can be a drawback if you’re looking for a thinner TV. Picture
quality overall was decent. The colors looked natural and not oversaturated, but they do
fade pretty quickly as you move off to the side. So, if you’re planning on picking
one of these up your “best” spot to view it is gonna be right in front. Motion was
good too. Right in line with other TVs at this price point, if not a little better.
It wasn’t the best I’ve ever seen, but it was definitely good for this level of TV.
No crazy judder that I noticed and fast action appeared to move naturally. Overall, there
wasn’t really a ton of noticeable improvement in picture quality over the 800E, other than
the larger sets being brighter. Now, that’s not necessarily a bad thing since the 800E
had a fine picture. But it was a little disappointing since that TVs two years old. I figured they
might make bigger improvements to give people a reason to upgrade.
Smart features were the same too. It comes out of the box with Android 7.0, which isn’t
my favorite. It’s a little sluggish, especially when you compare it to the TVs that come with
Oreo. But there is a silver lining in that it will be getting an update to Oreo
soon. Or it may have already gotten it depending on when you’re watching this video. Another
thing of note that has to do with smart features, the wi-fi pickup didn’t seem to be very
strong so videos were taking longer to start up when we were streaming videos. To be fair,
our store is around 300,00 square feet and we have probably 30 different wi-fi networks
so that can sometimes factor in, but still, it was not as strong as the other sets we’ve
looked at in 2019 so far. I typically like the Sony TVs a lot, and I
didn’t dislike this one. I think I was just underwhelmed. The only reason I’m seeing
to upgrade from an 800E would be if you need a bigger size. Otherwise, there’s not enough
of a difference. Now, if you have an older TV and want to get into 4k HDR for what I
consider a fairly reasonable price at this level, this one would definitely be worth
taking a look at. If you want to see pricing on any of the available sizes you can click
on the link in the description below. Do you think there’s enough differences
to upgrade? Let us know in the comments. As always, we appreciate you checking out our
video and don’t forget to subscribe so you get updates whenever we upload new content.