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Review: Is A9G Master Series Sony's best in India?

By Veer Arjun Singh
October 07, 2019 11:29 IST
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A host of additional features makes the A9G more premium and very useful, says Veer Arjun Singh.

Photograph: Kind courtesy

I have suffered more drilling of my bedroom wall to test out a 55-inch A9G 4K TV so that you can be spared a store visit.

Allow me to explain what this TV does and why you might want to consider spending a few lakh rupees to acquire it.

Design (5/5)

I have reserved the top rating for a bezel-less, razor-thin TV of the future.

But until it arrives, the A9G is among the best you can get India.

It's enviably thin from all sides.

The machinery is hidden in a block at the centre of the back panel, which isn't visible from either side and is not very chunky either.

The TV is completely black, barring a small, barely noticeable Sony logo at the right bottom and a faint white light that comes on when the TV is powered on.

Its 55 inches is perfect for a large bedroom and small-to-medium common areas, but I would recommend the 65-inch version of the A9G (priced at Rs 3.69 lakh) for a large living room to make the most of 4K resolution.

It's best to mount the TV on a wall, especially with Sony's SU-WL850 wall-mount bracket.

The TV sticks to the wall with barely two inches in between but can be moved front and back to use the side panel and left and right to change viewing angles.

It's a whole lot of extra convenience for no extra cost.

Performance (4/5)

Photograph: Kind courtesy

Sony's OLEDs with its individually controlled pixels render perfect blacks.

We have been so used to pumping up the brightness to get more out of dimly lit scenes that the overall brightness of the A9G, which shoots for accuracy, may seem inadequate at times.

But it is so much better for the eyes than backlit LED screens.

The 2.2 Channel Acoustic Surface Audio+ will have you believe that the sound is coming directly from the surface of the screen and not some speakers.

The TV does however have two 20W actuators (the stuff that vibrates to create sound) and two 10W subwoofers.

Near-maximum volume levels are good enough for a large living room, the distortion is low and the bass is surprisingly powerful.

But you should have a speaker system or a soundbar for a cinematic experience.

A host of additional features makes the A9G more premium and very useful.

It supports HDR or High Definition Range modes, such as HDR10 and Dolby Vision, to liven up compatible content.

Its X1 Ultimate processor helps the TV scale up old SD (standard definition) or HD (high definition up to 2K) to 4K.

Try watching a pre-2000s film on it. It won't actually become 4K, but the quality is scaled up quite a bit.

You should anyway have the top-end Netflix subscription to watch stuff in 4K, but this TV adds to it a Netflix-calibrated mode to make the visuals as accurate as possible.

More on handy features, the A9G has a built-in chromecast for screen mirroring, which runs without any glitches and far-field mics for hands-free Google Assistant, which listens to you more than four out of five times.

The Android interface is almost as bare as Google likes to make it and impeccably smooth and the TV gets brownie points for supporting Bluetooth earphones.

Verdict (4.5/5)

Photograph: Kind courtesy

I would have liked an even thinner border around the screen and, along with one for Netflix, a dedicated YouTube button instead of a Google Play button on the remote, but these aren't flaws really.

However, I genuinely hope Sony comes out with a screen size bigger than 65 inches in the series.

The A9G OLEDs may be pricier than their nearest competition (from LG), but are nonetheless spectacular TVs.

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Veer Arjun Singh
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