Guest blog by Lauren & Daryl.
I absolutely love playing around with a new TV so this was a lovely little treat to myself. When I first laid eyes on the KD55XD9305 I couldn’t believe how slim it was. It has a fancy new gold trim around the bezel and all the cables are hidden by a detachable panel making it look neat. It sits perfectly on a sleek and solid pedestal and also comes with the necessary equipment to mount it flush to the wall.
When I did begin to set it up I was pleased to see that there was only one remote! I’m happy that they have gone back to just the one remote because the second one in my opinion was quite unnecessary. There is a dedicated button which with one push will take you to Netflix or Google Play and there is a built-in microphone for it to take basic orders and questions such as; ‘who is George Clooney?’ This will then give you information on the person and any film he has starred in. It also brings up the Google Play films where you can either press to purchase or watch the trailer.
I knew this is one of Sony’s top televisions this year so I automatically expected big things from it and, as expected, I wasn’t disappointed. It has the slimline backlit drive as well as two rows of LED lights on each side giving you a much wider range of colours and ability to sustain the contrasts between the blacks and whites. 1000Hz of Sony’s Motionflow technology, means that motion is handled very well, even with the most frantic action on screen. With good help from its 4K processor with HDR capability, this also reveals levels of shadow with are normally hidden. As we all know 4K isn’t quite ready yet but the processor within the TV does a good job of up-scaling HD content with crisp detail and no motion blur.
Another fun feature the TV has is Android TV giving you so much more choice of content, such as Google Play apps and being able to download music, video and other content straight to the TV. You can also stream from YouTube and Netflix which will probably be the easiest and fastest way to stream 4K. You can also install something called Playstation Now which is a fun way to get hundreds of games without the stress of purchasing a console. This would cost you £12.99 per month or if you are really unsure you can free trial it for 7 days, all you need to purchase is a PS4 controller and away you go. You can also mirror from your phone if you have movies, photos and videos on there that you would want to share with friends and family and built-in Freeview which allows you to go back 7 days to catch up on any programmes you may have missed as well as having the catch up apps.
I had a look on the back of the TV to have a nose around the connections and the TV supports Wi-Fi as well as an Ethernet cable for a much more stable connection, 4 HDMI ports, 3 USB ports and also surprisingly includes a SCART. The headphone jack also doubles as a subwoofer output and as I mentioned before most of them are hidden beneath a detachable panel which is easily clicked off and on.
Looking back at last year’s KD55X9005CBU and comparing the two, the differences are subtle improvements. On the face of things, I like that they have done away with the wide stand as it makes it easier to have on the pedestal and feels much more well balanced. They have also stepped up when it comes to the Android TV as it runs much more smoothly.
So to end it all I definitely think that it is worth the money and is beautifully built. It seems to me that Sony definitely knows what they are doing right and are even improving on what didn’t seem to work for them.
Come and see what all the fuss is about at your local store or find out how to buy or rent this TV.
