Sony KDL-40W905A review



The Green Mile, Reds, Betty Blue all movies that would seem ideal fodder for Sony’s first Triluminos full-HD smart TV, the Sony KDL-40W905A. See all digital home reviews.

Triluminos LED edge-lighting, based on quantum-dot technology, extends a television’s colour gamut for richer, deeper hues. It may sound like marketing hyperbole, but it works exceptionally well. See also: Group test what's the best TV?

The Sony KDL-40W905A looks pretty spectacular too. With an aluminium hairline-finish bezel and diamond-cut edging, the design is unapologetically opulent. A chromed loop pedestal adds additional polish. The model is also available as the 46-inch Sony KDL-40W905A and 55-inch Sony KDL-40W905A.

There’s a choice of either Freeview HD or DVB-S2 satellite tuner. Two remote controls are supplied; a standard IR job and a simplified Bluetooth zapper which cunningly contains an NFC (Near Field Communications) chip, used to facilitate Miracast streaming from suitably equipped Google smartphones.

Select Smooth or Standard settings and details are kept crisp and clean.




The extended colour gamut makes the screen particularly suitable to X.V.Color sources, such as Sony’s soon to launch Mastered in 4K Blu-ray titles, all of which have extended colour space, along with certain camcorders and graphics cards.

There’s a wide range of streaming IPTV on tap, including Sony’s own movie rental and music subscription services, BBC iPlayer and Demand 5, LoveFilm, Netflix, Sony Entertainment TV, Crackle, YouTube, Blinkkx and DailyMotion.

The screen is 3D-ready, and uses Active Shutter rather than Passive technology. Two pairs of shuttering spex, which are compatible with the RF 3D standard, are supplied. These glasses are interchangeable with other RF 3D shuttering glasses from the likes of Panasonic and Samsung.

While they’re not particularly comfortable over prescription spectacles, full-HD 3D images appear clean and bright, with only occasional crosstalk.



The Sony KDL-40W905A’s audio performance is above average, thanks to some clever engineering which has allowed Sony to shoehorn a long-duct speaker system into the chassis for meaningful midrange. Clarity and imaging are good for a flatscreen. Angled stereo drivers cleverly bounce audio off a little lip on the underside of the screen.

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