The Sony KD-65A8 is one other attractive OLED TV. What it lacks in eye-catching brightness it greater than makes up for with the precision, refinement and naturalism of its excellent image processing. Its revolutionary Acoustic Floor audio expertise means it sounds fairly superior, too.
Execs
- Fantastically refined, distinction wealthy photos
- Elegant, minimalist design
- Large, heat and immersive sound
Cons
- Vivid scenes lose a bit affect versus rivals in a vivid surroundings
- Android TV isn’t essentially the most user-friendly sensible system
- No HDR10+ help
Key options
- Native 4K OLED TV
- X1 Final video processor
- Android TV sensible system
- IMAX Enhanced and Netflix Calibrated accreditation
- Multimedia playback by way of Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or USB drive
The Sony A8 OLED (KD-65A8) is the model’s entry-level OLED for 2020. A standing it backs up with essentially the most aggressive worth we’ve seen on a brand new Sony 65-inch OLED TV up to now – £2,599.
It’s the primary entry-level Sony OLED TV to get the model’s (at the moment) high stage X1 Final video processing, and boasts Sony’s Acoustic Floor audio resolution, the place the display features because the TV’s audio system.
Sony A8 OLED worth and availability
The A8 OLED is available in two sizes, 55- and 65-inches (reviewed right here) The KD-65A8 OLED has an RRP of £2599/$2300/€2100/CAD$3898/AUD$4495. Within the UK, the worth has dropped to £1799 forward of the incoming 2021 Sony TV vary.
Within the US, Canada and Australia, the A8 OLED is also called the A8H OLED. There may be additionally the A85 variant, which seems to function totally different sort of toes for the stand.
Sony A8 OLED design — A minimalist aesthetic
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Minimalist aesthetic
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Wonderful construct high quality
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Adjustable toes stand
In case your AV design tastes lean in the direction of minimalist and industrial, you’ll adore the Sony A8 OLED. Its flat fascia is framed with a super-slim body, and the display sits low on a pair of small, darkish silver toes. Mainly the design couldn’t be any much less distracting from no matter you’re watching.
The outer edges sport a fetching brushed steel end, and though a bit of the rear juts out just a few centimetres additional, the bulge is added with a lot angular panache that it enhances fairly than detracts from the design.
The toes will be connected in order that they elevate the display so a soundbar will be slotted beneath and construct high quality is great for an ‘entry stage’ TV.
The Sony A8 OLED is accompanied by distant management. The metallic end is crisp and feels good to carry, and the important thing buttons are given respectable emphasis within the format. Issues get a contact crowded within the high third, although.
Sony A8 OLED options — The dearth of 4K/120Hz help is a pity
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No help for superior gaming options
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Android TV for sensible interface
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Nearly the identical image processor as 2019 OLEDs
Including Sony’s sometimes spectacular X1 Final processor to its most cost-effective 65-inch OLED TV is an enormous deal. On the very least it ought to put the 65A8 on a extra equitable stage with key rivals such because the LG OLED65CX and Panasonic 65HZ1000.
Whereas the 65A8 will get one of many newest OLED panel designs, its X1 Final processor stays primarily unchanged from final 12 months. This may increasingly properly not matter given how properly the processor has beforehand carried out.
Key X1 Final options embrace a twin database-driven upscaling engine for sub-4K photos, a Tremendous Bitmap system for eradicating color banding, object-based decision enhancement, object-based SDR to HDR conversion, dynamic distinction enhancement, and precision color mapping that runs together with Sony’s Triluminos color system.
A Pixel Distinction Booster system, in the meantime, is claimed to reinforce color and distinction, revealing a wider vary of pure shades and hues, enhanced picture depth, enhanced native distinction and finer textures.
Sony has additionally created an OLED-friendly model of its X-Movement Readability system that introduces partial black frames into the video stream to make movement with 24p sources look extra cinematic with out dulling the image an excessive amount of.
The 65A8’s huge audio story is its Acoustic Floor system. This vibrates the TV’s display to create sound, so there’s no want to slot in regular audio system and the sound is fired straight ahead into your room. Sony has added a pair of rear mounted bass drivers for 2020, too.
The Sony A8 OLED’s smarts are supplied by Android TV within the newest 9.0 iteration. This supplies entry to an enormous variety of apps and providers – although all most TV customers will care about are the streaming apps.
The 65A8 caters for many of your wants on this respect: Prime Video, Netflix, Disney+, Rakuten, Apple TV and YouTube are current and proper, with 4K and HDR help. Sony provides YouView to the combo to compensate for Android’s lacking UK catch-up TV apps.
Voice management choices are provided by way of built-in Google Assistant help, and the Android TV system means there’s built-in Chromecast help, too.
Connections embrace 4 HDMIs and three USBs. On condition that Sony makes the PS5, it’s a pity not one of the 65A8’s HDMIs help next-gen gaming options equivalent to 4K/120Hz playback, computerized low latency mode switching (ALLM), and variable refresh charges (VRR). Although I used to be impressed to seek out enter lag dropping to only 18ms in its Recreation preset.
The 65A8 additionally doesn’t help the HDR10+ format, or the brand new Filmmaker Node that many different manufacturers are delivering for 2020. There’s a Netflix Calibrated Mode that units the TV’s image choices to match these utilized by Netflix when it masters its exhibits. The set has achieved IMAX Enhanced accreditation, too, which means IMAX deems it able to delivering the total image high quality expertise from 4K Blu-rays and streams created utilizing IMAX’s particular mastering ‘sauce’.
Sony A8 OLED efficiency — Sony’s finest entry-level OLED TV but
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Beautiful distinction and black ranges
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Wonderful upscaling and movement dealing with
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Spectacular audio system
I’ve been essential of earlier Sony OLED TVs for not being vivid sufficient. The Sony KD-65A8, although, solves this downside in spectacular trend. Regardless that its measured brightness on a ten% of display space white HDR window continues to be really comparatively low at 640 nits.
Given this nonetheless comparatively low brightness measurement, the additional punch and dynamism you’re feeling from the 65A8’s photos is presumably right down to the additional precision created by means of the mixture of the X1 Final processor, the newest OLED panel and Sony’s Pixel Distinction Booster expertise.
In different phrases, the extremely exact and managed approach the display delivers each the darkest and the brightest pixels in each picture creates a way of localised depth that’s up there with one of the best of the OLED competitors. In reality, as a result of the depth is based on precision fairly than simply ‘aggression’, there’s a way of precise magnificence within the photos at instances that different brighter OLED’s don’t share – a minimum of as persistently.
The Sony A8 OLED’s amazingly intense and wealthy black ranges are delivered with far more consistency and stability than Sony has managed with an OLED TV earlier than. But as a result of the picture processing is so good, shadow detailing and darkish color particulars by no means really feel crushed.
It’s not simply the attractive management of sunshine that makes the Sony A8 OLED so pretty to observe. The sunshine administration combines with the Triluminos color system and the X1 Final’s Precision Color Mapping to ship gorgeously wealthy and clear, but in addition mesmerisingly delicate tones throughout even essentially the most complicated and dynamic pictures. This in flip helps photos look spectacularly detailed, dense and three-dimensional – particularly as Sony’s Bit Mapping system is readily available to clean away any potential distracting HDR color banding.
Because the 65A8 is an OLED TV, furthermore, there’s no lack of color or distinction even when it’s a must to watch the display from a large angle.
The 65A8 continues Sony’s lengthy profitable streak in relation to dealing with movement. Even with out utilizing any of Sony’s MotionFlow choices, digicam pans and fast-moving objects look much less aggressively juddery than they sometimes do on rival TVs working in comparable ‘native’ states. Sony’s Movement Circulation 1 choice takes the judder down a contact extra with out inflicting processing artefacts or extreme fluidity. The Clearness movement choice – which makes use of the partial black body insertion system – can also be an amazing new choice, delivering a extra cinematic really feel to films with out sacrificing a lot brightness.
The excellence continues with the 65A8’s upscaling of sub-4K sources and conversion of ordinary dynamic vary sources to HDR. The upscaler provides element and textures remarkably naturally and believably, helped partly by the intelligence with which it appears in a position to determine the totally different upscaling wants of various components of/objects in any given picture. And partly by Sony’s understanding of the best way including natural-looking pixel density will be simpler than simply massively sharpening the whole lot.
The SDR-to-HDR converter really kicks in by default and obstinately on a few of the 65A8’s image presets together with the Normal and Cinema modes. Usually this could be a foul factor, however Sony’s HDR upconverter works so gently and organically that it’s arduous to consider any cause to not use it. Except you’re a die-hard purist, by which case you’ll want to make use of the Customized presets.
I solely actually discovered two flaws with the 65A8’s photos. First, whereas they give the impression of being punchy sufficient in a reasonably darkish room, vivid HDR scenes can look a contact flat in a really vivid surroundings. Second, for the reason that 65A8’s distinctive native distinction works significantly properly with Dolby Imaginative and prescient content material, it might have been good to see if it might additionally eke out extra punch from HDR10+ sources.
The 65A8’s stellar photos are joined by a equally completed sound system. The Acoustic Floor expertise pushes sound ahead into your room, giving it a way more direct, speedy really feel. Additionally, for the reason that sound isn’t coming from a comparatively small ‘level’ as occurs with regular TV audio system, it creates a wide-ranging, well-dispersed stage that basically fills your room. Lastly, voices and particular results actually appear to be coming from the place within the image they’re purported to be coming from.
Bass is a contact gentle, maybe. Although it’s considerably higher than that of earlier entry-level Sony OLED screens.
You can purchase the Sony KD-65A8 if…
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You need gorgeous OLED image high quality
Its photos are issues of magnificence: refined, balanced, pure, intense, exact, just about noise-free and the beneficiaries of a few of the best color, upscaling and movement processing round.
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You desire a TV that appears glorious in a room
The 65A8 additionally advantages from a superbly elegant and minimalist design.
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Higher than common TV sound
The set sounds nice, with the Acoustic Floor audio pushing sounds right into a room.
You shouldn’t purchase the Sony KD-65A8 if…
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You need brighter HDR efficiency from an OLED
Different OLED TVs can go considerably brighter with HDR – significantly the costlier Panasonic HZ2000, but in addition the equally priced LG OLED65CX.
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You favor different sensible interfaces
Android TV brings a swarm of sensible options, however some could discover different interfaces extra intuitive
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You need common HDR help
The Sony doesn’t rely on HDR10+, although that’s a minor niggle contemplating how widespread Dolby Imaginative and prescient is on streaming providers.
Specs
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UK RRP
USA RRP
EU RRP
CA RRP
AUD RRP
Producer
Display screen Dimension
Dimension (Dimensions)
Dimension (Dimensions with out stand)
Weight
Working System
Launch Date
First Reviewed Date
Mannequin Quantity
Decision
HDR
Forms of HDR
Refresh Price TVs
Ports
HDMI (2.1)
Audio (Energy output)
Connectivity
Colors
Show Know-how
Sony KD-65A8
£2599
$2300
€2100
CA$3898
AU$4495
Sony
64.5 mm
857 x 326 x 1448 MM
1448 x 836 x 52 MM
23.6 KG
Android 9 Pie
2020
07/09/2020
KD-65A8
3840 x 2160
Sure
HDR10, HLG, Dolby Imaginative and prescient
100 – 120 Hz
4x HDMI 2.0, 2x USB 2.0, USB 3.0, Ethernet, Optical out, CI+ 1.4 slot, Composite in, 2x Satellite tv for pc, Aerial, 3.5mm out, IR out
eARC
30 W
Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.2, DLNA
Black
OLED
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