What a coincidence… on the very same day that we published our review of the Sony KDL40W5500, What Hifi has decided to release their own Sony KDL-40W5500 review (which was originally scheduled for 8 April 2009) on their website.
What Hifi’s originally scheduled Sony KDL-40W5500 review date |
More research material for those of you who are considering buying the Sony KDL-40W5500 HDTV then. To help you with your purchase decision, here’s a breakdown of how the calibrated Sony KDL-40W5500 LCD television fared against its predecessor (the outgoing W4500 series) and its closest competitor (the Samsung B650) in our tests.
Note: The specific model we tested was the Sony KDL40W5500U (which denotes the 3-pin-plug United Kingdom version), but the terms KDL40W5500, KDL-40W5500 and KDL40W5500U may be used interchangeably throughout this article and the full review.
Both sets exhibit roughly the same amount of clouding and backlight bleed out of the box, which can be reduced to unobtrusive levels with the correct picture settings.
For all intensive purposes, black-level performance and input lag (with [Game Mode] engaged) are similar on both TV sets.
The Sony KDL-40W5500 and the Samsung B650 are the top two non-LED-backlit LCD TVs available on the market at the moment… you can’t go wrong with either, because both of them are capable of delivering top-notch picture quality. Your final choice should boil down to the importance you place on their respective pros and cons, brand preference, and of course your own budget.