Sony is practically synonymous with quality TVs, and its new X900H family offers a stylish design, accurate colors out of the box, and loads of features thanks to the Android TV platform. It would be a strong choice for a budget-friendly line based on its performance. Unfortunately, it’s priced squarely in midrange territory, with the 55-inch XBR-55X900H we tested retailing for $999.99. That’s several hundred dollars more than stronger performers like the Hisense H9G and the TCL 6-Series.
A Stylish Design
The X900H looks simple and stylish, with a narrow matte black plastic bezel running around the screen, slightly wider on the bottom than on the sides and top. The bezel itself is framed by a band of brushed metal that curves around to flat, gunmetal sides. Along with thin, metal, V-shaped feet, the X900H gets a high-end-looking splash of chrome that doesn’t try to outshine the screen.
The power cable connector sits on the right side of the back panel, while all other connections can be found on the left side, facing out. They include four HDMI ports (one with ARC), two USB ports, an Ethernet port, an antenna/cable connector, a 3.5mm headphone jack, an optical audio output, a composite video connector (a 3.5mm port designed to work with a 3.5mm-to-RCA adapter that, oddly, isn’t included with the TV), and two more 3.5mm ports for plugging in a remote sensor and connecting the TV via RS-232C for smart control (a feature useful for complex home theater installations, but nothing the average user needs to worry about). A small button sits in the middle of the bottom edge of the TV, providing simple controls.
The included remote is typical for Sony smart TVs. It’s a long, narrow black wand covered in buttons. The center is dominated by a circular navigation pad. Power, number, and dedicated Google Play and Netflix buttons rest above the pad, while volume and channel rockers and playback controls sit below it. A microphone near the top enables voice control with Google Assistant.
It’s a functional remote, but many of the buttons feel very similar under the thumb, and it lacks the elegance of LG’s motion-sensing Magic Remote, or the very simple remotes used by Amazon Fire and Roku TVs. It’s quite busy.
Android TV Features
Like all Sony TVs, the X900H uses Android TV as its smart platform. It’s a powerful system, with a wide selection of streaming apps (including all major ones like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Disney+, Hulu, Netflix, Sling TV, Twitch, and YouTube) and plenty of additional useful features. That includes Google Cast support, which enables streaming your phone screen or Chrome tab (as well as a wide selection of Google Cast-compatible apps from your phone) to the TV, along with Apple AirPlay support for streaming from iOS devices.
Android TV includes Google Assistant voice support, which can do many things with the press of a button and a few words spoken into the remote. Google Assistant can search for content, open apps, and provide general information like weather reports and sports scores. It can also control a wide variety of smart home devices that work with either Apple HomeKit or Google Assistant. It doesn’t use a wake word for hands-free voice control, though; for that, you need a flagship-model Sony TV like the Master Series A9G.
Average Picture Quality, Low Input Lag
The X900H is a 4K LED-backlit LCD TV capable of displaying high dynamic range (HDR) content. It supports HDR10, HLG, and Dolby Vision.
We test TVs using a Klein K-80 colorimeter, a Murideo SIX-G signal generator, and Portrait Displays’ Calman software using methodology based on Imaging Science Foundation’s calibration techniques. Out of the box, in Cinema mode and using an SDR signal, the TV shows a peak brightness of 316.804cd/m^2 and a very high black level of 0.825cd/m^2, for a poor 384:1 contrast ratio. That number can be significantly improved by setting Black Adjustment and Auto Local Dimming settings to High, which results in 293.840cd/m^2 peak brightness and 0.310cd/m^2 black level for a 948:1 contrast ratio—still not great, but better than the default.
How We Test TVsHow We Test TVs
Fortunately, HDR signals produce much better contrast numbers, resulting in a peak brightness of 494.711cd/m^2 with a full-screen white field, a 591.625cd/m^2 peak brightness with an 18% screen-size white field, and a 0.09cd/m^2 black level. That makes for a 6,574:1 effective contrast ratio, which is better than the Vizio M-Series Quantum (1,416:1), but significantly lower than the Hisense H8G (56,104:1) or the TCL 6-Series (74,326:1), since both of those TVs get markedly brighter and show much lower black levels.
The above charts show the X900H’s color performance with an SDR signal compared with Rec.709 broadcast standard color levels, and an HDR signal compared with DCI-P3 digital cinema standards. For SDR, the TV shows nearly spot-on greens and blues, though reds are wildly oversaturated. Even in HDR, reds reach a bit past digital cinema color levels, while greens fall fairly short. In both cases, despite the oversaturated reds, colors are generally well balanced and aren’t particularly skewed in any direction.
The color performance makes BBC’s Planet Earth II look balanced and natural, though the relatively weak green range means that foliage isn’t quite as saturated as it could be. The blues of water are nice and vibrant, and the difference between the two elements isn’t so great that the picture appears uneven. It doesn’t look bad at all—it’s just that the greens could be a little greener. Strong details come through in textures like fur and bark, both in direct sunlight and in shade.
In Deadpool, the TV’s very strong reds really make the titular character’s costume pop, looking vibrant even under the cool lighting of the opening scene. The flames in the burning lab fight sequence later in the film look bright and natural, though shadow details appear slightly washed out against the brightness, due to the relatively weak contrast performance.
In the party scenes of The Great Gatsby, the fine details of black suits sometimes disappear into muddiness, or can look a bit faded under bright lighting. The picture otherwise looks very good, with whites properly standing out and skin tones appearing natural.
Input lag is the amount of time between when a TV receives a signal and the screen updates, and it’s important for making video games feel responsive. We test input lag using an HDFury Diva HDMI matrix, and in Cinema mode the X900H measures a fairly high 85.6 milliseconds. Fortunately, switching to the Game picture mode drops that number to 8.4ms, well under our 20ms threshold we use to consider a TV to be one of the best for gaming.
Solid, But Overpriced
The Sony X900H stands alongside the Samsung HU8000 and the Vizio M-Series Quantum lines as being good, but not great. It’s the brightest of the three, and that means it shows solid contrast despite middling black levels. It has generally balanced color performance, but reds are oddly oversaturated out of the box. Ultimately, it’s quite expensive for what you get, starting at $1,000 for 55 inches, nearly twice that of the Samsung and Vizio models. The Hisense H9G and the TCL 6-Series, meanwhile, simply outshine all three of these big names with brighter brights, darker blacks, and wider colors, and the H9G even offers hands-free Google Assistant.
