Sony Reveals Pricing and Availability of its X950G UHD TVs

Sony Reveals Pricing and Availability of its X950G UHD TVs​

(March 6, 2019) Sony is poised to unleash its brand-new X950G Series of televisions next week, with store availability pegged to begin on March 12th. Offering a bump in performance over last year’s wildly popular X900F models, X950G TVs are expected to capture quite a bit of attention. Some of the Series’ more notable performance improvements include a move to Sony’s Picture Processor X1 Ultimate, improved audio performance (thanks to Sony’s Acoustic Multi-Audio system), a Netflix Calibrated Mode, and Sony’s proprietary X-Wide Angle technology for wider viewing angles.

Announced pricing is as follows:

• 55" class (54.6" diag) XBR-55X950G: $1,399.99
• 65" class (64.5" diag) XBR-65X950G: $2,199.99
• 75" class (74.5" diag) XBR-75X950G: $3,499.99

Sony has yet to reveal pricing on the largest member of the X950G family, the massively large XBR-85X950G TV. As of now, the company is only stating that the 85X950G’s sure-to-be-hefty price tag will be announced later this year.

 

[tripplej]

Nice. Thanks for the update. Would like to see a review on these.

 

[Grayson Dere]

"...Netflix Calibrated Mode.."

Funny how RIGHT before viewing this post I was reading about Netflix's Display Calibration best practices document...

https://partnerhelp.netflixstudios..../215669787-Display-Calibration-Best-Practices

The new Sony display's look promising on paper, too! I also am looking forward to a review.

 

[jdubs75]

Thanks Todd! So no 49" X950G in the works........I am in the market for a 49-50" and have been waiting for the new models. Looks like I'll be waiting for the 49X900F to go on sale. And yes, I said 49"......unfortunately it needs to fit into the wife's armoire in the Greatroom. So thankful for my basement where I can run wild

 

[Todd Anderson]

I'm in the same boat. I actually bought a 65" X900F for a new room in our basement renovation... and another area of the basement is getting a bar. I'd like to stick the 49" X900F in there (I sure wish OLEDs were made in smaller sizes!)

 

[Matthew J Poes]

I'm in the same boat. I actually bought a 65" X900F for a new room in our basement renovation... and another area of the basement is getting a bar. I'd like to stick the 49" X900F in there (I sure wish OLEDs were made in smaller sizes!)

Me too! I want an OLED computer monitor, but apparently they are still a few years away and pricing is expected to start at the same price as a 55" LG OLED TV, which makes no sense.

 

[Todd Anderson]

With the burn-in issues associated with OLED TVs... would an OLED monitor have the same problem? I can't imagine why it wouldn't

 

[Matthew J Poes]

With the burn-in issues associated with OLED TVs... would an OLED monitor have the same problem? I can't imagine why it wouldn't

Probably, but I want it for video editing. Shouldn't be as big a problem as the content isn't static. When I started doing Video of myself for our site and various other projects (including my day job), I started noticing problems with using my laptop monitor. First, if I do voiceover of the video, the mic pics up the fan in the laptop, so I need to move the laptop somewhere away from the mic. Second, the monitor isn't accurate in my laptop and can't be made that accurate, causing me to color grade incorrectly. Third, I shoot and edit some of this in 4K so I can move around the images and crop in for different shots or angles (or the illusion of that) and my monitor is only 1080p on my laptop. I wanted a 4K with full DCI P3 color coverage monitor and good contrast to help me do a better job with the videos. What I found was that professional video editing monitors don't have great contrast and are way too expensive. Cheap monitors don't have full p3 color coverage. A TV display from Sony, Vizio, or LG is actually the cheapest way to get an accurate monitor to edit on, but they are way too big. I want something that is like 25-30 inches.

Can they introduce the same tricks they did on Plasma to address this burn-in? I have a panasonic Plasma tv that is now about 8-10 years old and it doesn't have any burnin issues. It had a setting that automatically moved pixels around for each pixel in the image in some random way that wasn't noticable to the eye (you could see it if you stuck your face against the tv, but it wasn't otherwise noticable) and reduced the chance of burnin. Some times you had minor image retention, but a wipe pattern would get rid of that in a few minutes. That TV has been in heavy use for all of it's life, like probably on 8 hours a day, and it has no problems. I would assume OLED could be handled the same way, no?

 

[Todd Anderson]

Not sure... but RTINGS.com has been doing the burn-in tests and they're the ones saying it is, indeed, a fact of life with OLED. My LG OLED hasn't shown signs of burn-in. But, truthfully, I don't really watch tons of TV.

I just gave away my Panasonic Plasma (purchased in 2008 or 2009)... it had incurred notable burn-in across the bottom of its screen.

 

[Matthew J Poes]

Not sure... but RTINGS.com has been doing the burn-in tests and they're the ones saying it is, indeed, a fact of life with OLED. My LG OLED hasn't shown signs of burn-in. But, truthfully, I don't really watch tons of TV.

I just gave away my Panasonic Plasma (purchased in 2008 or 2009)... it had incurred notable burn-in across the bottom of its screen.

Well I think that proves my point. So we know that plasma had a burnin problem. How severe diminished throughout its existnace. The last generation we’re not as bad as the first. In addition, not everyone experienced it the same way. You had it on yours, I don’t on mine.

I’m sure Rting is doing the same kind of artificial test that was being done on plasmas and is showing a worse case scenario. Doesn’t mean that image retention and burnin aren’t an issue, but my experience with Plasma was that the problem was way way way overblown by the media. I remember people who were terrified of plasma because of burnin. Internet trolls who bashed them as junk because of it. That simply wasn’t true.

In any case I still want one for my video work if possible. I currently have a Dell monitor with full and accurate Rec.709 color but my camera shoots in P3 and it can’t be turned off or restricted. It’s not a huge problem but it’s making it hard for me to edit. I feel like I’m provably not the only person having this kind of issue who wants a modest priced color accurate extended gamut monitor.

 

[Todd Anderson]

I thought you were intending to use a "computer monitor" which could be problematic because a desktop has static areas. But what you're talking about - an editing monitor... probably fine.

I generally agree that burn-in is overblown. It really comes down to how you use your TV.

• Airport Monitors - not a great use for plasma or OLED... or CRT for that matter. Any airport traveler has seen the results of plasma/crt in those situations.
• General TV/Movie watching: Plasma/OLED fine
• Using to watch a 24/7 news channel 8 or 9 hours a day: I probably wouldn't buy OLED
• Gaming: Probably wouldn't buy OLED

The most significant thing I watch is baseball. Typically on the same network. Within about 1 year of ownership, that Panny I owned started showing ghosting from score boxes, etc. The ghosting would disappear when the channel changed (took 5-10 min). No biggie. Probably 5 years in, that ghosting was becoming more significant.... and eventually there was evidence of what I'd call burn in. By the time I gave it away, it showed permanently ghosted images on a dark screen.

The good news is that I have a pioneer plasma with about 500 hrs of service time that has slipped into its place. Image is killer despite only being 720p.

 

[Matthew J Poes]

I’m not a sports guy so I never have had that problem. I tend to watch shows, movies, and the news. I am not wed to any one thing so it changes all the time.

 

[Todd Anderson]

The big dig on the X900F series was viewing angles... I wonder if Sony has taken steps to address that in this new revision?

 

[Matthew J Poes]

Isn’t that a product of the VA panel they use. I always assumed it just wasn’t fixable.

 

[Todd Anderson]

Based on how how they perform in ratings, they definitely have the qualities of VS. But some Sony models are less dinged for view angles. I’m assuming they aren’t switching between IPS and VS.

We’ve definitely seen some improvement on viewing angles in LCD in the last few years... but I’m not sure if those models that are improving are strictly IPS.

 

[Matthew J Poes]

Based on how how they perform in ratings, they definitely have the qualities of VS. But some Sony models are less dinged for view angles. I’m assuming they aren’t switching between IPS and VS.

We’ve definitely seen some improvement on viewing angles in LCD in the last few years... but I’m not sure if those models that are improving are strictly IPS.

Yeah I’m not sure about the second point Todd. I know companies like LG have mostly used IPS panels and the viewing angles are great. The black levels are terrible.

The Sony I’m fairly certain used a VA panel.

I was in an office waiting room the other day and they had the previous generation Sony 900 series. The business owner let me play around with it a bit. Seriously nice tv to place in a waiting room. Apparently he bought the OLED model for his home and wanted something cheaper for his office.

 

[Todd Anderson]

You crack me up. The passion extends to waiting rooms.

Samsung has really improved its off-axis viewing (which was a big point of emphasis for them at CES)... again, not exactly sure of the tech behind the tech.

I'm torn with my 49" TV purchase. The X900F really gets dinged for off-axis performance and our bar seating hooks around to one side. Then again, the next best TV (according to RTINGS) is an LG that has better viewing angles BUT worse black level performance. :-/ And the space really can't handle a 55"... so no OLED.

Compounding the issue: the LG is 1/2 the cost of the Sony.

 

[Matthew J Poes]

This may be blasphemy but in my house, I have a mix of tvs right now that range from excellent contrast and poor off-axis to poor contrast and great off-axis. In a lot room under normal conditions. I prefer the IPS panels. The off-axis is a bigger problem than black levels. In my bedroom, I had a TCL and replaced it with a Samsung. First had VA panel and second has IPS panel. I like the Samsung better due to angle issues. I only miss the blacks at night.

 

[Todd Anderson]

In watching this video, it doesn't really look like any of the TVs in this group (which includes LG) have great off-axis viewing...