In the nick of time, Sony has finally got its flatscreen TV act together, delivering with its flagship HX853 series
arguably the best-performing LCD TVs ever. So it's with real enthusiasm
that we take receipt of the first model from the brand's new step-down
series, the Sony 32HX753. If this can manage to deliver most of the
quality of the HX853s for a bit less money, then happiness surely
awaits...
The Sony KDL-32HX753 follows the latest evolution of
Sony's Monolithic design by adding a glimmer of silver around the
bezel's outer edges - though it doesn't feel as well built as the HX853
televisions.
So far as its features are concerned, the 32-inch TV's headliners are its active 3D playback - now supported by a native 200Hz panel versus the 100Hz one used on last year's disappointing EX7 series - and its use of Sony's new, video-rich SEN online platform.
What's more, the Sony 32HX753 supports its online functionality by providing built-in Wi-Fi.
The
core technology behind the 32HX753's screen is LCD with an Edge LED
lighting system. It should be stressed right away, though, that the
32HX753 doesn't use the local dimming system that was put to such
superlative use with the HX853 models.
The Sony 32HX753 costs £699
(around $1,095) in the UK, but if you want something a bit bigger than
the 32-inch TV, you can also get the 40-inch 40HX753 (£899), 46-inch
46HX753 (£1,199) and 55-inch 55HX753 (£1,549), while if you want the
absolute best Sony picture quality currently available you should step
up to the 46HX853 or 55HX853.
Rival
models are tricky to define precisely, given the huge wealth of
televisions available this year, but the most likely direct competitors
would be the Panasonic DT50 or possibly Panasonic ET50 series, the LG LM660 series and Samsung ES6800 or ES6300 series.
Features
After
undertaking an extensive round of consumer research, Sony has this year
softened the striking but rather stark and masculine look of its
Monolithic TV design approach by reducing the bezel size a bit,
softening corners, and applying a sliver of outer silver trim to its
TV's extremities.
The Sony 32HX753 looks fine on the back of this
shift, though its reduced build quality means the design doesn't look
quite as elegant as it did on the step-up HX853 Sony TVs.
The
relatively small size of this 32-inch TV also doesn't really give the
design quite enough room to shine, so that it doesn't stand out from the
crowd as much as Sony's previous Monolithic TVs have tended to. On
the upside, though, the way the TV sits low and slightly angled back on
a pair of minimalistic legs is very pleasant and reduces the extent to
which the set intrudes into your living space.
Connections are
ranged helpfully around the side and bottom edge of the Sony 32HX753,
making it easy to wall-hang the set. They're also pleasingly plentiful
for an affordable 32-inch TV, including four HDMIs, a pair of USBs, and
both LAN and integrated Wi-Fi for accessing material stored on a DLNA PC
or Mac and Sony's SEN online content platform.
Clearly
the features associated with some of these connections warrant further
attention. The HDMIs are v1.4 in spec, so that they're compatible with
Full HD 3D Blu-ray feeds. The USBs, meanwhile, can play back a good if
not exhaustive selection of multimedia video, photo and music formats,
as well as enabling recording to USB flash drives from the built-in
Freeview HD tuner.
As for the LAN/Wi-Fi, this is supported by
Sony's mostly likeable new Homestream software (free to download for Mac
as well as PC) to enable streaming of a wide variety of material from
almost any computer. Or, of course, it can provide your portal to the
Sony Entertainment Network online system.
Pressing the new SEN
button on the remote control thankfully immediately throws up a new
'hub' for the online services that's light years ahead of the
cumbersome, ugly menu system used by last year's Bravia Internet Video
TVs. On
the left you get a reduced version of the picture you were watching,
along with - if you wish - a ticker-tape presentation of your Twitter
feed. This is an excellently unobtrusive way to integrate social media
into a TV environment.
Ranged across the screen to the right of
the reduced TV picture are various sections of content under Apps,
Video, Music and Favourites headers. The presentation for all these
sections is impressive, with lots of HD icons, and the content levels
are impressive too.
You
don't get the sheer overwhelming number of services and apps found on
the Smart TV platforms from Samsung and LG, perhaps, but Sony's
tradition of quality over quantity where online content is concerned
continues to impress.
Among the highlights of what's on offer are
BBC iPlayer, Demand 5 (Channel 5's catchup service), BBC News, Sky News,
Skype (if you add an optional extra camera), Twitter, Facebook,
Lovefilm, Netflix, EuroSport, YouTube, Sony's own 3D content channel,
Euronews, Crackle, aolHD (featuring Engadget and Huffington Post
content, among other things), WIRED, Blinkx, BillaBong, style.com,
DailyMotion, eHow.com, golflinks and Moshcam.
Sony also includes
its own app content, in the form of a Sony Entertainment Television
library, its increasingly impressive Video Unlimited film and TV
streaming service, and Sony's (also increasingly excellent) Music
Unlimited service. We
guess some might take issue with the way Sony gives its own content
platforms their own large Video and Music categories while rivals such
as LoveFilm and Netflix get shoved together on the second page of the
Apps section. But Sony has at least provided these alternative film
sources, so it's not like they're actually forcing you to use only their
own music and video platforms.
Sony has also started to introduce
a few smaller apps, such as a couple of fairly basic games and on-board
clock and calendar widgets. But it's the extensive selection of video
streaming sources that matters and continues to make Sony arguably the
most satisfying online TV service provider.
If you're a die-hard
picture tweaker, the Sony 32HX753 is reasonably well equipped with fine
tuners to keep you happy. There's a solid selection of thematic picture
presets (some perhaps unhelpfully stored under a separate 'Scene Select'
section) to get you started.
In
here you can tweak the backlight, brightness and contrast settings
separately; the amount of MPEG, dot and standard noise reduction; the
type of motion processing being used; the level of black level and
contrast enhancement; the set's basic gamma level; and the bias and gain
of the red, green and blue colour elements.
There are a few
other processing elements you might want to explore as well, such as
detail and Edge enhancers, and a 'Clear White' white level booster. But
chances are that you'll get the best results for most of the time if you
leave these peripheral options turned off.
The motion processing
warrants a bit more investigation. Because while the Sony 32HX753 'only'
uses a MotionFlow XR 400 system versus the 800Hz-like XR 800 system of
the HX853 series, it still has the same surprisingly wide-ranging
selection of different processing options. To be honest, most of these
are best avoided - even the new Impulse mode, which sounds interesting
on paper but ultimately leaves the picture flickering like an old 50Hz
CRT.
The
only mode you will probably consistently get much joy out of without
feeling images look a little syrupy or over-processed is the Clear
setting.
Two final points to mention are that the Sony 32HX753
only has Sony's X-Reality processing engine rather than the HX853's Pro
version, and that the TV uses frame dimming rather than the HX853's
local dimming for its Edge LED lighting.
With respect to the
X-Reality situation, it means that the Sony 32HX753 won't be as adept at
upscaling standard definition TV content - especially heavily
compressed content from the internet.
As for the use of frame
dimming rather than local dimming, this means that while the TV set can
reduce and increase all of its lights at once in response to picture
content, it doesn't join the Sony HX853 series in enabling different
segments of LEDs to deliver different levels of brightness. This has the
potential to significantly reduce the 32HX753's contrast performance
versus its more expensive siblings.
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