Sony XBR55X900F 55-Inch 4K Ultra HD Smart LED Android TV with Alexa Compatibility - 2018 Model

5.0 out of 5 stars

By Indiana Jones - Reviewed in the United States on November 11, 2018

Sony X900F: Does It Continue the SONY Heritage ?

02-05-2019 (See Below for Our Original Reaction to this TV) UPDATE: In all fairness, I owe SONY an update and after using the TV daily for the last two months I've come to respect the picture quality of this TV. In watching network news, we can clearly see the difference in camera quality, especially when side by side interviews are taking place. The newer HD camera's pop out a clean, crisp image which 4K wishes it will do so well. Older camera's still show nicely but the clarity is visible. We will have to wait for COX to update with industry in the FCC's anticipated roll out of ATSC 3.0. Our question now is: are all these high end sets that we are buying, especially the very expensive QLED and OLED sets ... are they ATSC 3.0 ready or are they, as the FCC reports now, still NTSC at the core? I also need to report that we have been successful going right to a DVD or right to NETFLIX or right to MSNBC or HIST Channel without jumping through hoops. Our initial fear was that SONY's lend-lease program would aggravate us sitting by sitting but it has not. Bottom Line: We changed the overall rating to 5 Start based on the picture quality only. This is simply because the picture is so enjoyable and from one sitting to the next does not disappoint. No bleeding, blacks stay black but do not conceal the Film Noir images. Our 1st SONY was a glass semi-flat Trinitron, a 12" art deco push button carry around TV which lasted 40+ years. Our 2nd TV's were Sony Trinitron FLAT SCREEN TV's which we kept until we could no longer lift them (Over 25 years). If the heritage quality persists in this X900F unit, we will not need to buy another. We'll simply enjoy the ride. Cheers. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ORIGINAL REACTION TO THIS TV: We've just set up our NEW Sony X900F. So don't take this as a final or full review. I will update as necessary. And we may not even keep the set. We specifically requested (and checked the box for same) plain brown carton packaging. The Amazon order system agreed. For nought. It arrived in its original SONY box, advertising blazing so bright you could see what it was from a block away. So much for the first bump in the road. After laboring to get the wall mount done and the TV hung, we sat back with one desire: to watch a DVD or Netflix show as a reward for a hard day. We just wanted to see how good, if at all, the TV was. At power up, four small colorful "clocks" appeared, interacting with each other, and after 5 or ten minutes, these were replaced with a small gray swirling clock in the center. At least 30 minutes later the screen was still giving us the clock and now reporting it was "Checking For Updates". When this finally finished, the screen changed to a legal contract screen and it asked (sort of like Windows does) if we would download the updates now, including new APPS, and that it would take approximately 60 minutes to complete. Fortunately there was a "SKIP" option and so we moved on still hoping to watch a DVD. The next screen was a Google instruction to log-in to Google. It wanted our GMAIL account & password and if not available, we needed to start one. There was no skip. We did have a GMAIL account, like many people, and so logged in just like we would log into GMAIL. Once in more legal screens related to Android and our willingness to abide by the US Laws regulating use. No skip button, no way out. ACCEPT or back out and do without the TV. Exasperated, but knowing we could return the set, we hit the ACCEPT button and the TV then went Android feature by Android feature soliciting our agreement to install & use. This time there WAS a skip or a "no thanks". We opted out of the next four or five requests until the TV finally went to look for a cable connection or any live HDMI inputs. Finding none, I just pressed the "Netflix" button on the TV and everything became normal. We logged in, Netflix came right up and we finally were able to see the TV after an hour, maybe a little longer, of wondering "what in the world did we get into here ???". I need to mention for those enamored with the idea of having your own 4K TV that its money better spent on a cheaper simply HD 1080P set. We are on COX cable. Cox has no 4K programming and has no plans to implement 4K. Netflix prompted us, before showing us the selections, if we would accept UHD 4K streaming for only an additional $3.95 per month. We said "Okay". When we went to the Netflix selections, the UHD 4K selections were marked as such, about 1 in 75. In otherwords, NETFLIX has very few UHD 4K selections to stream. And it will probably be awhile because their portfolio of selections are simply regular DVD quality shows with a good many HD shows. The point here is: we were duped again. So, no brown paper double packing, no warning that this TV was an Android device just like the smart phones, no warning that there was no way to just use the X900F as a simple TV or monitor, and of course, whenever you start up the TV you are aggravated by slow boot, incessant sales pitches, reminders that such & such is not set up, etc etc. SONY & Amazon are like 3rd world Bazaar table sellers with glittering gold teeth, a smile to catch anyone's attention, but not a word of truth or helpfulness in the marketing of their products. My advice if you have not bought a set is get something simple like the Visio D series or just a large monitor and plug in what you want to use. If you already have a 1080P flat sceen.... keep it and save your money. The picture on the X900F isn't any better than 1080P because that is all companies are streaming or cabling. What a rip off. We may or may not keep this aggravating thing. Hope this helps someone. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1.0 out of 5 stars

By Edgar - Reviewed in the United States on August 23, 2018

Regretting this purchase

Final update - after dealing with apathy of which I never encountered before with Sony support, I am now dropping all recommendation for any Sony tv's. They refuse to fix the channel guide issues, their software is the worst of any tv manufacturer, and their support makes Xfinity and ATT look like customer focus driven goliaths. If you are unlucky like me and have a Sony Bravia tv, look into a complete external tuner and tv package via HDMI (assuming your HDMI plugs work), bypass all of their software and live as happy a life as you can with this overpriced, buggy tv. Update: After 16 months of frustration I am dropping two more stars, see below for my original optimistic review. The tv picture is still great, however the software and complete lack of support from Sony makes me want to warn people not top buy Sony tv's until they get their act together. Most apps are still flakey, there is the pissing match between xfinity and android tv meaning HBOGO and Xfinity app won't work, I switched to Slingtv and half the time that does not work (have to unplug tv to reset). Worst, OTA channels do not have guide data anymore. We had several frequency migrations and more to come, each time I at least can rescan the new channels, but because Sony is too lazy to update their guide information the guide shows no channel information for all new frequencies. I have heard that it takes several months for this to be resolved, however every other tv (Vizio, Samsung, LG) had this corrected within a week. If you are looking for a decent monitor and plan to bypass everything software or tuner related, then this is a good tv, otherwise save yourself the aggravation. So I was very irritated when my 5 year old Samsung 55" LED tv started shutting off randomly, especially since I have a 10 year old LCD version that still works fine. After much investigation it turned out to be a flawed (defective, should have been recalled) motherboard. I got a used replacement but I did not have much faith, so, time for a new present to myself. I wanted a clear upgrade, but was not ready to shell $2-3,000 for the state of the art OLED's (specifically because there is limited 4k content as it is), so I targeted the high end 4k HDR level. I was not going to get another Samsung, so that left Sony, LG, maybe Vizio, I was not going to consider the Chinese specials so no Amazon special TCL, audio sucks on those anyway). Did my research and had some very helpful discussions (and a visual comparison at some retail stores). Vizio did not compete at the top quality level, and their color scheme seemed cartoonish. So we were at the LG 9000 series and this Sony (900F). In the end the Sony (most expensive) won out. LG worked best at the 8000 level for a much lower price point, but the dual database processing, superior contrast (look at this model side by side with the 800E model and you really see the difference), the Sony won the 900/9000 comparison. LG 9000 was almost the same price but the small specifics and the processing power won it for Sony. That said, there are some sacrifices I missed, but none that were a problem. To start, there is no component input, which is a pain because one of my Directv tuners (goes through an HD PVR) used that output. There are issues with Directv if you have an HDMI cable connected and the tv is not on or tuned to that device when I make an HD PVR recording (which records on component). So, $20 for a component to HDMI adapter to connect that to the back of the tv. Fortunately there are 4 HDMI connectors, but I was counting on component to be the fifth input. There is a composite, but it needs an adapter which I think is the same as the old camcorder adapters, if you want an SD source like WII (see page 10 in the manual, I had a couple of these left over so no biggie there). Setup was not painless, I tried to use the google app from my phone, but it didn't communicate well. Eventually I went in and manually set everything up, which was a chore because I didn't realize setup was hidden in the home screen (Thanks Tom'sHardware for your installation tweaks). Basically they want the tv to behave like a large android system. At this point I have all my inputs setup, learned all my OTA tv channels, tested Netflix but have not installed Prime, Plex or Kodi yet. I had a Fire Tv cube that I was going to plug in here but it looks like that would be redundant (have not tested alexa commands to this tv yet, or ok google). I will update after I load software the way I want. I was pleased that there was an optical out for my SS receiver, although mostly I am using the tv speakers (sound quality was another big point for me). Security, turned off Samba and any permissions I did not want to use (including its voice control). I'll see how it behaves over time. For now hard wired to my router so very good streaming. Prime does 4k at no extra charge (yeah Prime!), Netflix is another $3/mo (which I may not do, in fact might put them on hold for a while to try Hulu or something else). Finally, video quality. My biggest complaint with my old LED was poor low light, high reflectance, and a ghosting image effect on black or dark images. (and it was 1080p). This tv seems to have all those covered. I have not been bothered with the soap opera effect on shows yet (default settings) so I will see how that works out over time, especially with more Bluray quality shows. In summary, priciest of this class but also best of this class, and competes with the entry levels of the next class up. Plan for no component and an adapter (sold separately) for sd composite. Setup YMMV, but definitely go through all the privacy settings and only agree to what you want. It is app driven, and really built for streaming services and gaming. I probably won't bother upgrading Directv to 4k (satelite's days are numbered anyway if you have good broadband speed) but will explore all streaming and bluray has to offer. Edit: So this is as much an android tv issue as it is a comcast/xfinity issue, and by that it means Sony should have thought first before getting involved. Xfinity refuses to let you register androidtv HBOGO, even though you have paid for it and it comes on your tv. This is incredibly stupid, and requires sideloads and usb or bluetooth mice, a real pain in the ass. Firetv had a similar issue (as did samsung) and those have both been resolved, seriously, get this resolves, you lost a star.

5.0 out of 5 stars

By Fallout Fry - Reviewed in the United States on August 20, 2018

Awesome TV, but Not for the Apps

In all, this is a great TV. Watching movies is awesome and there doesn't seem to be any motion blur while watching football (only watch a portion of one preseason game so far). My only issues are 1) There seems to be a lag in loading internet content via apps, and 2) The apps seem to make the tv unresponsive. To be fair, I did NOT buy this TV to use apps, but thought it would be easier to give it a shot (I mainly use Netflix and Hulu). Since I started using my xbox to run these apps, the TV hasn't required a reboot, and the content loads immediately (example: loading a Netflix show/movie on the tv would take 5+ seconds to load while the xbox is almost immediate). In all, I would recommend this TV as an exceptional display, but not for the other features. *I bought this TV a couple months ago.