Sony’s 84-inch 4K TV: eyes-on
Massive house? Outstanding eyesight? Bottomless pockets? If ‘yes’ on all counts, here’s your next telly
The 84-inch expanse of LCD at the heart of Sony’s 4K debut, the Bravia KD-84X9005, produces an astounding picture. Mesmerising even. Whether it’s fed a quality still image or vibrant 3840×2160 video of the likes of Spider-Man, it just looks incredible. When Sony’s CEO Kaz Hirai said the experience is as impressive to the first time you saw HD, he wasn’t kidding.
Like any super-hi-res display, it’s unforgiving. In the still image demos we saw, Sony was feeding it some Instagram-like art shots, and the visible noise almost overwhelmed the image. That said, an upscaled Blu-ray of Spider-man looked seriously impressive – not a patch on the dreamy 4K demo videos on show, but it gives us every reason to think it capable of breathing new life into HD film collections.
Our one gripe is that design. That design says, “I am an industrial device for industrial TV watchers. I do not make concessions to home interiors or feng shui.” It’s deep and chunky, a throwback to pre-LED TV days, and we just know it’s going to clash with the sideboard.
Part of the KD-84X9005s ‘unique’ style are the 10-driver speakers on either side. Sony promises they’ll summon a quality of sound to complement the incredible video performance – shame, then, that you’ll probably want to nip them off to integrate the set into your 11.2-channel home theatre system.
Believe it or not, this is not some kind of TV pipe-dream. It’ll be up for order from October and shipping before Christmas. Won’t Elf look spectacular? If you have a spare €25,000, of course.
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Dan Grabham
Editor-in-Chief 
