Sony Master Series XBR-65Z9F - Review 2022
Sony'south Master Series TVs are designed to offering average consumers the closest viewing experience to the company's professional mastering monitors, similar the BVM-X300. That's a high bar, considering the 30-inch OLED BVM-X300 costs approximately $30,000. Yet, the Master Series tries to come as shut every bit information technology tin for effectually a tenth the price, while incorporating features like Android Goggle box with hands-free Google Assistant voice control. The line is separate into the OLED-based A9F and the LCD-based Z9F. At $iii,499.99 for the 65-inch XBR-65Z9F LCD we tested, it offers one of the brightest pictures nosotros've seen and a wide color range. It's an impressive Tv that offers solid competition to other flagship LCDs like Samsung'south Q9FN series, though if y'all're shopping in this cost range you should have at least one eye turned toward OLED models.
Uncomplicated Sony Style
The Z9F embodies the same stark, minimalist pattern Sony uses for its smartphones, tablets, and east-readers. It looks remarkably plain at first glance, with a flat, black, textured metallic bezel 0.vi inches broad on the sides and tiptop and 0.eight inches broad on the bottom. Apart from the Sony logo in the eye of the bottom bezel, just above an indicator light flanked by two microphone holes, the Z9F could be mistaken for a very well-made, svelte budget TV. Ii V-shaped black metallic legs support information technology, positioned near the sides of the screen for stability (and then make sure the surface you lot prepare it on is wide enough to agree both legs).
An HDMI port, 2 USB ports, a three.5mm port for analog video input, a three.5mm headphone jack, and two three.5mm ports for an infrared receiver and blaster sit on the dorsum of the TV, facing left. Iii HDMI ports, a USB 3.0 port, an Ethernet port, an optical sound output, an antenna/cablevision connector, and a 3.5mm port for RS232 controllers face downward, perpendicular to the side-facing ports. A multi-purpose power button and plus/minus buttons sit down on the lower left corner; the ability button can be held downward to turn the Telly off, or tapped to switch between functions similar
Sony continues to be fairly uninspired with its button-filled remotes. The Z9F'due south remote is a vii.9-by-1.9-inch (HW) black wand covered with membrane buttons. A round navigation pad sits in the middle of the, surrounded by menu buttons. Ability, Input, Google Banana, Google Play, and Netflix buttons sit in a higher place the navigation pad, along with a number pad and four color buttons. Volume, channel, and playback controls sit below the navigation pad. The pad itself has small safe nubs to make it easier to discover under the thumb, simply most of the remote'southward buttons experience very similar and crave you lot to await at them to know what you're pressing.
Android TV and Easily-Gratuitous Google Assistant
The Z9F is an Android Television set, which means it's fairly loaded with apps, services, and features. The Google Play app store for Android TV is filled with big streaming video names, like Amazon, Crunchyroll, Google Play TV & Movies, Hulu, Netflix, Sling TV, and YouTube, along with plenty of channel-specific apps and even video players for local media on networked storage or plugged into the TV'due south USB ports. It has some strong options for music, including Google Play Music, iHeartRadio, Pandora, Spotify, and Tidal. There are even Android games if you lot want to pair a Bluetooth controller with the TV (though we notwithstanding recommend a defended game system if you actually want to play games on your Tv).
Equally an Android TV device, the Z9F supports Google Bandage. This means the TV acts as if a Google Chromecast Ultra is plugged into information technology, letting you stream content from your smartphone or tablet, or stream Chrome tabs from your PC.
On top of all of the different streaming options the Z9F offers, information technology also features Google Assistant. We've seen Google Assistant on previous Sony Android TVs, only the Z9F takes it a step farther past going easily-costless. A far-field microphone array in the TV lets you say, "Hey Google," afterwards which you tin can ask Google Banana for anything without even touching the remote (which ordinarily holds a pinhole microphone that enables voice assistant features, like on older Sony Android TVs and Amazon Fire Telly devices). This is very useful, joining the Android Boob tube-powered Nvidia Shield Goggle box and the Amazon Fire Television set Cube as one of the few hands-free
Google Banana can provide information like conditions reports, sports scores, language translation, unit conversion, and full general trivia, with text and supporting graphics actualization on the TV. It also lets you directly control the TV with voice commands, like adjusting volume and switching inputs. Besides the Idiot box part, Google Assistant can control a diverseness of smart home devices similar connected lights, locks, and thermostats. Of course, you can as well use vocalization search to expect for movies, music, and shows. That all of these features can be used without touching annihilation is a really compelling claw (and the reason the Alexa-equipped Amazon Fire Television Cube earned our Editors' Choice for media streamers).
Performance
The Z9F is an ultra high definition (UHD, or 4K) TV that supports HDR in both HDR10 and Dolby Vision formats.
Nosotros test TVs using a Klein K-10A colorimeter, a
Color performance is a flake perplexing out of the box. The above nautical chart shows P3 colour levels as boxes and measured color levels every bit dots. The Z9F shows a slightly cool only nonetheless fairly authentic white level and reds and dejection that hit P3 levels, with green coming upwardly a chip short. Cyans run a bit cool, but the big surprise is how warm yellows lean, to the signal of an outright xanthous-cherry-red tint. The Samsung Q9FN remains the most impressive TV we've seen in terms of color performance however, hit the total P3 color gamut with remarkable accurateness out of the box. LG'due south E8P as well performs admirably, merely with a tiny chip less accomplish toward red and very slightly warmer (but not to the extent of the Z9F) yellows.
Professional calibration can be an expensive procedure that requires high-end equipment and training, but information technology doesn't need to exist time-consuming on the Z9F. Sony has added support for automated calibration on the Z9F and A9F TVs. This lets calibrators (or anyone with access to a colorimeter and SpectraCal's CalMAN software) download an Android TV app that serves as a signal generator, connect their computer to the Goggle box and the colorimeter to the computer, and go through a full white remainder and color scale process with only a few clicks and a few minutes of watching the screen modify. This is a adequately new characteristic that has also been rolled out to high-end LG and Samsung TVs, and could somewhen make professional person scale more economical.
Out of the box, in Custom picture mode, the Z9F's strong contrast performance comes through well when showing BBC's Planet World II. Sloth fur and tree bark, both dark and light in colour and under direct sunlight and shade, get plenty of fine texture detail. The slightly weak greens in relation to reds and blues give water and plants a slightly warmer appearance than nosotros'd prefer, only they nevertheless look largely natural.
Deadpool looks very practiced on the Z9F, with the title character'due south red costume looking well-saturated and the peel tones of the gunmen appearing natural, without any bluish or purple tint under the very cool clouded lighting of the opening gunfight. The burning lab fight scene later in the film shows plenty of detail in balanced, dark shadows against the vivid yellows and oranges of the flames. Some low-cal bloom tin can be seen in the letterboxing with local dimming enabled, but information technology's fairly unobtrusive and merely really comes out in moments with lots of extremes of calorie-free and dark.
The Z9F's excellent contrast makes the party scenes in The Slap-up Gatsby looks fantabulous. Night suits and hair get plenty of shadow detail without looking dingy or done out, and highlights retain their ain potent details while looking very bright. Peel tones appear natural against the extremes of light and dark, even when the light is fluctuating between harsh, cool white and warm amber.
Input Lag and Ability Consumption
Input lag is the amount of time between when a TV receives a bespeak and the screen updates. In Custom mode, the Z9F shows a very high 99.2ms input lag with a 1080p 60fps lag tester. Notwithstanding, Game mode cuts that down to a much more than reasonable 22.1ms, putting it shut plenty to the 20ms threshold we use for considering a TV to be very expert for playing video games.
Yous can play games on any TV, of course, simply competitive gaming demands a very responsive flick with depression input lag. Our listing of the all-time TVs for gaming shows some other options with fifty-fifty lower input lag, including the Samsung Q9FN (15.6ms). If you want a screen that does better than effectually 12-14ms, though, you demand to turn to a dedicated gaming monitor.
Under normal viewing conditions, in the Custom picture mode, the 65Z9F consumes 191 watts. Setting Power Saving to Low reduces that to 164 watts without appreciably dimming the screen. Setting Ability Saving to High dims the screen significantly, to the betoken where it's non comfortable to lookout.
A Potent Flagship LCD
Sony'south Master Series TVs are visually and technically impressive flagship models with prices to match. The LCD-based Z9F has one of the brightest panels we've seen, for excellent contrast performance, though its colour accuracy out of the box isn't quite every bit spot-on as we've come to await from TVs in this cost range. Color can be improved with calibration, but that's another investment to make on elevation of the 65-inch model's $3,500 price tag, even if the support for automatic scale makes the process faster for the calibrator. Hands-gratis Google Banana support and the powerful Android Tv platform are bully boons, however.
If you want a big-screen flagship TV around the same cost equally the Z9F, the Samsung Q9FN features fantastic color range and accuracy and stiff dissimilarity, fifty-fifty if its smart Tv set platform isn't about as powerful every bit Android Tv, and Samsung'south Bixby vocalisation banana is both less useful than and not hands-gratis like Google Assistant is. If you tin can spend a bit more than for the all-time flick, an OLED TV like LG's E8P and Sony'south A1E are both excellent choices. We wait forward to testing Sony'south OLED Chief Serial A9F TV in the future to see how it stacks upwards confronting its predecessor and LG's offerings, besides equally its LCD analogue.
Source: https://sea.pcmag.com/hdtv/29981/sony-master-series-xbr-65z9f
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