Sony Bravia KDL-50W829B review – 55in now £630 on Amazon today

For this review we tested the 50in model in the W829 range, but it’s also available in 42in (KDL-42W829B) and 55in (KDL-55W829B) screen sizes. All models have identical specifications except for their dimensions and power usage. We’re confident that image quality will be practically identical across the range.

The Sony W829 is one of the first 2014 TVs from Sony, reviewed here with a 50in screen size. It may not be the flagship model, but it has every feature we’ve come to expect from one, including a revised SEN smart TV interface and an incredibly minimal design that puts other TVs to shame.

When we originally looked at it, the W829 cost £1,000, but because Sony was one of the first out the gate for 2014, you can now pick one up for significantly less. [a href=”http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/tv-dvd-blu-ray/televisions/large-screen-tvs-32-and-over/sony-bravia-kdl50w829bbu-smart-3d-50-led-tv-with-htct60bt-soundbar-10009231-pdt.html”]Currys[/a] is currently selling the 50in model with a bundled soundbar for £739, making it something of a bargain – even when compared to newer sets from the likes of Samsung, Panasonic and LG.

In fact, Sony has gone to such lengths that it has removed the internal power circuitry to make the set as thin as possible, opting for an external power adaptor instead. This is great if you plan on wall-mounting the TV, as it’ll sit a lot closer to the wall than other models. A minimal bezel, metal edges and subtle blue activity LED (which also doubles as the point of contact for near-field communication (NFC) connections) all give the impression of a premium set.

The thin design leaves less space for speakers, but the W829 does an impressive job with its two 8W drivers. They produce a clear sound and even create a small amount of bass. The sound produced can easily fill a small or medium size room with sound. It’s possible to push them too far, though, so we’d suggest staying below 70 per cent of maximum to avoid any possible distortion.

The W829 certainly doesn’t skimp on connection ports. There are four HDMI inputs, along with SCART, composite and component video, digital optical audio, Ethernet, a Common Interface slot, satellite and aerial inputs, and two USB ports. These can be used to play multimedia files from a flash drive or record broadcast TV to an external hard disk; we were able to play all our test files, including DivX and MKVs.

It’s easy to find and play your files, too. Sony’s SEN smart TV system has always been one of the best looking, even if it didn’t always have the same number of catch-up or on demand services as other manufacturers, and the company has improved things further for 2014. The refined user interface really makes use of the Full HD resolution with much smaller yet still clearly legible fonts, icons and images. This fits significantly more information on screen at once, so you don’t have to scroll through long lists or multiple pages of content to find a particular app or channel. It’s also very responsive, with no waiting between pressing a button and the changes taking effect on screen.

Unfortunately on-demand video is still a little limited; you do at least get BBC iPlayer and Demand 5 for catch-up TV, and both Netflix and Amazon Instant Video (formerly LoveFilm) for films and US shows, but there’s no 4oD or ITV player. Sony’s own Video and Music Unlimited services go some way to balancing this, however.

The user interface takes something of a toll on startup times, with the TV being all but unresponsive for the first 30 seconds after switching on from standby. This is fine if you remembered to set the channel or input when you last turned it off, but it’s frustrating when you want to watch a Blu-ray or play a game, but can’t switch inputs from another endless repeat of Top Gear on Dave for half a minute. Sony tweaked this behaviour in a recent software update, letting you quickly toggle between active inputs with the remote control without having to wait for everything to start up – a welcome improvement, but still lagging behind the competition.

Whatever content you end up watching, the W829 does a fantastic job of making it look good. 2D picture quality was excellent out of the box, with bright, detailed pictures. Colour accuracy was superb, helped by the Neutral colour temperature setting which prevents a cold blue or warm yellow screen cast. Images were slightly muted, though, and enabling Live Colour would often push things too far in the other direction.

Despite being an LCD set, black levels were also impressive, with very little light bleed during dark scenes. The backlight doesn’t bleed into the image and there were no bright spots in corners or at the edges of the set. We noticed that images weren’t quite as sharp as our reference Samsung set when watching HD broadcasts, and despite playing with the sharpness and Reality Creation menus it was impossible to match it on the Sony set. You certainly couldn’t call pictures fuzzy, but they simply aren’t as crisp as the competition.

There’s room to improve things further in the settings menu, which contains a whole host of image processing options. The most important is Reality Creation, which adds extra detail to images without creating much excess noise or digital artefacts. It works incredibly well, scaling standard definition content to 1080p resolutions and even sharpening some HD content, although it does introduce a few artefacts during fast-moving panning shots and action scenes.

The W829’s standard motion smoothing setting is likely be the preferred setting for most people, as it reduces stutter but doesn’t make video overly smooth so that it looks like a TV soap opera. True Cinema is best used when watching films, while the Impulse mode ensures the smoothest possible playback at the expense of brightness. You’ll have to watch TV in the dark, though, as the image is significantly dimmer than the other presets.

The W829 also supports 3D video, with two pairs of active shutter glasses bundled in the box. Sadly, we weren’t too impressed with the depth effects. Although there was very little flicker and pictures were bright, Avatar never felt as if it was jumping out of the screen at us. Unless you’re a real fan of 3D films, we don’t think this is a major concern.

When we originally reviewed the W829, it’s closest competitor was the similarly priced, 50in Panasonic TX-L50ET60B – which is a 2013 model. The TX-L50ET60B had fewer smart TV features than the W829 and limited image processing, but there were still plenty of picture quality settings to adjust. Now, however, you can pick up Panasonic’s 48in AX630 4K set for £900, which makes the decision a little trickier.

Right now though, we still think the W829 is a better deal. It produces beautiful images for the price, needing very little in the way of calibration or tweaking to get the best results, and Sony’s smart TV interface is one of the easiest to use. With prices hovering around £700 with a sound bar thrown in too if you shop around, the Sony Bravia KDL-50W829W829B is a fantastic buy.