Sony has announced U.S. pricing for its Z9J 8K TVs, and as readers may have already guessed, the range won’t will not come cheap.
In fact, it looks as if the Japanese firm is going to make this year’s 8K TVs even more expensive. The biggest of the bunch, the 85-inch Sony Bravia Z9J (pictured) will cost a cool $10,000 (around £7,180), which is the same price as last year’s 85-inch Sony ZH8 8K TV. But the 75-inch Sony Bravia Z9J will cost more than last year’s equivalent, being priced at $8,000 (£5,740) versus the $7,000 price tage that the 75-inch ZH8 commanded last year.
There’s also a 100-inch version of the Sony Bravia Z9J that will only go on sale in the U.S. which will set you back $20,000 (£14,350), along with whatever taxes and import fees that will be imposed should you try to bring it back to the U.K.
Despite the high prices, Sony claims that its new 8K TVs are well worth shelling out for. The Sony Bravia Z9J is the company’s most advanced 8K TV yet, equipped with the new Cognitive XR picture processor. First seen on Sony’s new A90J OLED TV earlier this year, the new processor uses a new AI processing method that aims to replicate the way humans see and hear in the real world. Sony said it uses that understanding to analyse the colour, contrast and detail of the content to adjust everything in the scene so it appears more synchronised and lifelike, beyond what conventional AI is capable of. It does this by splitting up the picture on screen into multiple zones so it can detect the focal point, similar to how the human brain processes what it sees.
The Sony Z9J TVs also come with the new Google TV user interface and provide three HDMI 2.1 ports that support advanced gaming features such as 4K at 120 frames per second, Auto Low Latency Mode and Variable Refresh Rate.
The TVs also come with an aluminium back-lit voice remote control and are fitted with a sensor that’s able to detect the ambient light in the room, in order for the chrominance and brightness to be automatically adjusted to suit the viewing conditions. Design-wise, they’re incredibly stylish too, with Sony’s Immersive Edge style that includes a titanium silver bezel and a three-position stand with both wide and central feet options, plus a third setting that makes room for a soundbar.
Sony said the 8K Bravia Z9J TVs will be available to pre-order in the U.S. in the summer, and we’d expect them to go on sale in other territories at a similar time.
For those looking for something a little less expensive, Sony does have a plentiful number of options in its 4K range of 2021 TVs. As well the high-end Sony A90J OLED TVs that starts at £2,699 for a 55-inch model, there’s also the cheaper A80J OLED TV that costs £1,999 for the same size.
Sony also has an extensive range of 4K LCD TVs as usual, starting with the high-end X95J that will cost $3000 for a 75-inch model and $4,500 for the 8-5inch version, it said today. Note those are also U.S. prices as U.K pricing is yet to be announced, and there will be a smaller 65-inch model for which pricing is also still unavailable.
One TV that does have U.K prices confirmed is the Sony X90J range, which is another 4K LCD model that will start at will start at £1,149 for the smallest 50-inch version, rising to £2,299 for the biggest 75-inch model. The Sony Sony X90J TVs are still pretty decent offerings, featuring the Cognitive XR picture processor, the Contrast Booster 5, Google TV interface and 4K at 120fps HDMI 2.1 ports.
There’s also a much bigger and much more expensive model in town that may or may not appear in the U.K., called the Sony Bravia X92J, that was also announced today.
The Sony X9J2 TV will go on sale in the U.S for a staggering $20,000, and we’re not really sure why it’s so much more expensive or who on earth would want to buy one when you can get a top-end OLED or 8K Sony TV for far less. The Sony X92J is said to be a spin off of the X90J series that weighs in at a much larger 100-inches. The TV will have most of the same features as the X90J TVs with the exception of their Acoustic Surface Audio tech that vibrates the panel to make the sound appear as if it's coming directly from the screen.
