Sony Bravia KDL-46HX853 review

X-Reality Pro is just one of the many options available for tweaking picture quality. MotionFlow handles motion smoothing, with almost every pre-set working well – the exception is Impulse, which produced far too much flicker to be watchable. A range of noise cancelling and image sharpening features, colour enhancers and LED auto-adjust settings can be turned on and off as required, so you should always be able to get your TV looking its best.

Sony doesn’t include 3D glasses with the set, so you’ll need to buy them separately (part code TDGBR250, £44 from www.amazon.co.uk) but it’s definitely worth the investment – 3D content looks fantastic. 3D images had a believable sense of depth in every one of our 3D tests, without sacrificing colour clarity or brightness. Our only complaint was the small amount of crosstalk, but it’s barely visible and a major improvement over last year Sony TVs.

Sound quality was a step above the competition, thanks to the compact sound bar. It produced louder and punchier audio than the integrated speakers we’ve seen in other TVs, and even managed to produce audible bass thanks to the front-firing speakers, which preserve frequencies that are often lost with the more common down-firing speakers.

It’s clear that Sony has thrown everything at the 46HX853. It’s a superb looking TV with plenty of high-end features, but crucially both picture and sound quality are excellent. It still can’t beat a plasma set for rich colour and black level accuracy, but it’s up there with the best LCD TVs we’ve seen. It’s significantly cheaper than both Samsung and LG’s equivalent models, with better styling and more features than Panasonic’s line-up. If you want your TV to be a design statement, but also look good during films, this is a superb choice.