Sony KD-55A1 £1899
FOR Classy design; good sound; invisible speakers; deep blacks; vibrant colours AGAINST Dolby Vision update still not yet available; interface not as slick as some rivals
LG selling its OLED panels to other manufacturers is a good thing for TV buyers – a wider spread of the OLED tech means more choice and, ultimately, lower prices. But it also raises the question of whether it’s actually a bad thing for LG’S own OLEDS.
On this evidence, it might just be. The A1, Sony’s striking OLED, is an absolute belter of a telly – one that will have LG a bit worried.
Radical design
Making a TV that looks unique is a tricky thing, but Sony has managed it here with an easel-like design that has the screen leaning back at a slight angle. The display portion of the chassis is just 78mm thick, with the chunkier stand portion housing all of the connections and a subwoofer.
The rest of the speaker system is extremely clever, consisting of four drivers that vibrate the glass panel to create a sound. To all intents and purposes, this is an invisible speaker system that means the bezel can be super-thin all the way around. Let there be no doubt; it’s a beautiful bit of design.
Do be aware, though, that you’ll want a wide piece of furniture for the A1 to stand upon. The ends of the 122cm-wide display can hang over the edges of a shelf or stand without issue, but it doesn’t look quite right. You won’t want to plonk it on top of something that’s too high either, as the angle of the screen makes it look odd. You can wall-mount if you want – the sub/connection portion of the chassis means the TV stands a fair way off the wall, but that gives the pleasing impression that the display is floating.
Functional, if a little fusty
It’s fair to say that the user-interface hasn’t been lavished with as much attention as the physical design. The A1 is powered by Android Marshmallow 6.0, which is perfectly useable and has just about every on-demand app you could desire, but it isn’t as slick or welcoming as the equivalents from Samsung or LG.
TV picture and sound settings are contained within Sony’s own menus, and TV is supplied by Youview. It all leads to a slightly jarring user experience as you flit from Sony’s serious black-and-white menus to Youview’s blue highlights and Tv-show thumbnails, then to Android’s grid of apps and games. What’s more, LGS and Samsungs are snappier.
That’s not to say there aren’t good things about Sony’s software. If you have a Google phone or tablet or regularly use a Google account, signing in is quick and gives you easy access to your Google Play Movies & TV content.
The Discover feature is nice, too. Tap the dedicated button on the remote and a row of cards appears, each one representing a (customisable) piece of content that you can access instantly.
It’s a quick way to get directly to what you want to watch (immediately pick up where you left Daredevil without having to first open Netflix and search for it there), but the new Samsung TVS have a similar feature that supports more apps, including Amazon.
Sony has let LG and Samsung overtake it in terms of remote control, too. Compared with Samsung’s streamlined silver zapper and LG’S pointer-like wand with user-definable shortcuts, the A1’s remote is basic and rather cluttered. Six buttons around the direction-pad feels too many, for example.
If the Sony’s user interface is a mixed bag, the picture performance is a resounding success. What’s more, you don’t have to tweak too many settings in order to get the screen looking its best.
The colours are a bit overdone by default, but this is easily remedied by dropping the Colour setting down a few notches and switching Live Colour from Medium to Low.
We’d also recommend turning off the Light Sensor, which automatically adjusts the brightness of the screen according to the ambient light in the room. We leave a few other processing options on, such as the Advanced Contrast Enhancer, X-tended Dynamic Range and Motionflow.
What a picture it is. Start with some HDR content from Netflix (as you do) and, while there’s – still! – no Dolby Vision support yet, it’s hard to imagine it being much better when it’s added.
You get everything you expect from an OLED in terms of deep blacks combined with punchy, perfectly uniform whites, but the way the A1 defines edges and reveals textures is beyond our already lofty expectations for this TV tech.
Into the third dimension
It makes everything look that little bit more solid and three-dimensional, with images popping from the screen. It’s stunningly dynamic but, with our tweaked colour settings, also superbly realistic, steering clear of over-saturation but lending a lovely lusciousness to vegetation and the right amount of warmth to skin tones.
Motionflow plays its part here, too. On an LG you have to choose between the slight soap-opera look when you add a little bit of Trumotion or a slight blurring when you turn it off. The A1’s Motionflow gets the balance just about spot on, removing blur without adding weirdness.
Switch to 1080p Blu-ray and the A1 is, if anything, even more impressive. There’s the expected drop in resolution but the Sony’s dynamism goes beyond that offered by other TVS. Play Fantastic
Beasts And Where To Find Them and, as Newt and Tina walk through the streets of New York, the cobbles are more clearly defined and more obviously slick from recent rain, with patches of sunlight reflecting effectively.
Watching standard definition, you’re likely to be pleasantly surprised by the quality of the picture too. There’s a good balance of realism and dynamism, and detail levels are relatively high.
Once gamers have switched the Colour Temperature from (over-warm) Expert 1 to Neutral, they’ll find the picture quality for games is absolutely stunning. The input lag with a 4K source is around 30ms (good), and when receiving 1080p, it’s around 47ms – still quick enough for most gamers not to register any lag at all.
Sonic boon
So, does the A1’s unusual approach to sound work? Actually, it does. Compared with most TVS, this is a more direct and weighty delivery with a good amount of punch. The sound is projected a long way into the room, and there’s even a bit of stereo separation. A decent soundbar will still offer a better performance, but by flatscreen standards this is decent.
Two quick tips: leave the Surround Mode off and switch off Clearaudio+. The former just doesn’t do a great deal and the latter artificially boosts bass and treble at the expense of overall balance.
This Sony OLED television is absolutely brilliant. It has a stunning design, a unique sound solution and picture processing tech, and software that’s so good that it beats our lofty expectations of OLED – it sets a high standard at this size and price.
“This Sony OLED is absolutely brilliant – it has a stunning design and a unique sound solution”