Sony 4K Ultra HD TV A80K Series (Refurbished)

VERTICAL LINE Five weeks after delivery, about a week after writing this review, a thin vertical line has developed on the TV about 1/3 from the right side. It's about 2-3 pixels wide and persistent. It changes color depending on the background. Guess this gives me a chance to update the review with Sony's support and service. I'm trying not to be too judgemental, otherwise I'm still very happy with the TV. Though the line is obviously a deal breaker. So far, I've spent 20 minutes chatting with support. I've uploaded photos to their support portal. Now I'm waiting 2-3 business days for their "concierge service" to get back to me. In the mean time, I'm going to start investigating my extended warranty options. PICTURE This is my first OLED TV and I'm pretty much blown away by the picture quality. I'm upgrading from a 50" Samsung LCD, circa 2010, and the difference is astounding. The pureness of the black and saturation of the colors is simply stunning in comparison. I gathered my normally indifferent family members and even they were forced to admit that the differences are staggering. Then, just for giggles, I set up both TVs, side by side, to play "Dune" - I can never go back to a regular LCD. That said, I have no idea how this OLED compares to other OLEDs. But, this is my ignorance speaking, I just can't imagine it being so much better that I could care or even notice the difference. To my untrained eye, this appears to be the pinnacle of television quality. Perhaps in another 13 years, if/when I get a new TV, I'll feel differently. GLARE My main concern was glare. This is not being used in any sort of home theater - just a normal living room with a big bank of windows. I specifically bought this model because it supposedly handled reflections really well - and it does! Whatever coating they use, along with its brightness, make daytime viewing a non-issue. Easily as good as my old Samsung, which actually had a semi-matte screen. GOOGLE TV And here's where my review is deficient. I have no idea how well this TV uses Google TV as I refuse to use it. I have never, and hopefully never will, connected this TV to ethernet or WiFi. I have little desire for Google and/or Sony to track my viewing habits to serve me ads. If you do a little sleuthing, you can find many reports of Google TV putting ads on your home screen. Who wants that? As a Dumb TV, this works perfectly well. There's nothing that forces you to connect it to the internet and setup any sort of account for it to work. MENUS The on screen controls and menu are nice enough. Sometimes, I feel like a few settings are buried too deep. But the overall layout is sensible. I prefer, "less is more" and the TV mostly gets that right with the on screen displays. Pressing "input" brings up a menu that has a little animation and colors. It's not too bad, but all I need is for it to read "HDMI 1" or whatever. REMOTE It feels great in the hand. And it has some nice button action. As I never use them, I wish it didn't have dedicated "Disney," "Prime," "Netflix," and "Youtube" buttons. Wouldn't it be better to have that area have non-permanent, user-assignable buttons? But I'm sure most people will appreciate the convenience. I'll stick with my universal remote. Overall, I'm really pleased with this A80K. I paid $1000 for it feels like a relative bargain. If you too are upgrading from a regular LCD, prepare to be amazed.

[REVIEWING Sony OLED 55" BRAVIA XR A80K] TLDR: Everything as advertised is true and amazing. Google TV is buttery-smooth, best TV OS. Audio is flawless! Better than the movies, and I'm not joking. Initially, out of the box, it does need a few tweaks in the Sharpness department and removing some eco-safe features, and the long Google TV setup. But after that, the TV is just truely amazing. Visuals, of course, is insanely good. Forget what people say about the brightness of OLED TV's not being nearly as good as QLEDs. It's still bright. This TV was the best decision I've ever made. I highly recommend this TV. Pros: - 4K, True HDR, OLED - perfect blacks and infinite contrast ratio - best visual experience in movie theather setting. - Audio quality is S-Tier! You do not need a soundbar for this TV. The bass is not dried out or has over-vibration when there is high bass content (ie: SFX, hip-hop) causing a horrible bass experience. The audio range on this TV is insane. It beats my 8 year old, $350 soundbar in audio quality. Samsung should take note! - Auto-compatability with PS5. - Google TV is severely underrated. It is much better than Amazon Fire TV. Google TV is smoother, still supports most Amazon Fire TV apps (basically any app on Amazon is most likely on Google TV as well) but with a better experience. Screencasting for Android users and Apple is great with Google TV! This was a pain for Samsung TVs who supported Apple TV but not Chromecast (very bad move Samsung). - SO much more functionality and control compared to other brands (especially Samsung) Cons: - Price-tag, but if you can afford it, it's worth it. Coming from two Samsung QLED TV's, I replaced my old 2018 Samsung 55" 1080p TV with a newer-ish 65" Samsung Neo QLED 8K. You would think this TV cant beat the 8K? Well, it does. The audio quality on the Samsung TVs were hot garbage and the TV was slow as dirt. I added this to put more emphasis on audio quality and functionality rather than simply visuals.

I've had this TV for 10 days now and am starting to really appreciate how good it is. I was concerned when I bought it that it wouldn't be bright enough (unlike its competitor, the LG C2). But it is very bright in "Vivid" mode - in fact, I had to turn down the brightness a little to get it to what I consider optimal brightness. I think Sony may have shot themselves in the foot because of the fact that the "Cinema" mode is very dark. And if some shop-rooms (e.g., Best Buy) or ratings sites (like rtings.com) are putting the Sony ON "CINEMA" MODE side-by-side with the LG C2, yes the LG will look much brighter. The key to falling in love with this TV is to optimize each of the bazillion settings to where you get the picture you've been dreaming of. I promise you, it can be done. But it is not an easy task, particularly if you are incredibly choosy about what it is you want. And who outside of a TV technician can intuit the difference between, say, "Sharpness" and "Contrast"? Or what "Gamma" means?? Fortunately, you can see the results of adjusting each setting immediately when you do so, so it's not like you have to go back and forth. Also, if you Google "a80k best settings", you can find a bunch of articles with suggestions on where to start, but I can almost guarantee you that you will need to fiddle around for hours until you arrive - PRESTO!!! - like I did - at the settings that will make you swoon at how dazzling the screen looks. Once you tweak all the various settings to get them just how you like them, this TV is to die for. The colors just leap off the screen, and the clarity often feels eerie. In fact, the amazing clarity can sometimes be problematic: movies that were made before the digital era and then sub-optimally remastered into 4K can look grainy. Every little wart will be visible! I should add that the BlueTooth with this TV works marvelously. No lag whatsoever. But setting up the stand was a bit more difficult than I'd expected it would be. Inserting the legs into the bottom of the TV took a lot more force than I anticipated. Finally, I've read more than one Amazon user (and others outside of Amazon) reporting that this TV developed some kind of issue, often just after the 1-year warranty. So I would highly recommend buying an extended warranty for the peace of mind it will bring you.

First - we did the delivery into the house but no setup. The delivery person was great and brought the box into our living room for us. Excellent service! From the box itself to the documentation it was super easy to setup and get installed. We didn't wall mount as we had purchased a stand for it. The different placement options for the feet are very nice and you can attach them before taking the TV out of the box! Picture is... stunning! We have gone back and watched many of our favorite movies in 4K (Streaming) or just sat and watched demos of the color... yea it's that good. The unexpected - upscaling! Watching TV shows from the 70s is amazing due to the Sony's upscaling technology. We knew it was good but didn't know it would be THIS good. Sound is excellent for a TV, for many it's probably all you need but we already had a Sony soundbar which truly fits perfectly underneath. OTA - within 24 hours of setup we had an over the air update with many of the 2023 models feature so we don't feel we are missing out on anything. I've owned primarily Sony TVs since the 70s and always been happy. Used other brands the for other TVs in the house (kids rooms) but now realize I should have just stuck with Sony all along for picture and features. Google interface - Because our previous TV was clunky at best we use Apple TV, it's super fast and works with all our devices. However from setup and just playing around had we owned this TV prior we probably wouldn't have purchased. The Google interface on the TV is fast and very robust, no reason to add something else unless you already have it. It's worth noting that the TV recognized our Apple TV on boot and our Siri controller works with the TV and the TV remote with our Apple TV as well. Overall we are super impressed, excited and very very happy with our purchase.

The TV looks great. The color, the quality of image and the size are all amazing. Unfortunately ours came with some minor damage. I'm assuming this happened in transit and it doesn't affect the display image at all. It's still upsetting though for the price of the TV. The top right side has a small ripple in the frame and a dimple in the screen. Let me tell you when we realized this it gave us a panic. We don't want to return it and will de with the minor damage. I'm waiting to hear back from customer service to see if they offer any solutions. Other than that the TV is amazing. The smart features respond to the remote quickly and they're many apps to use. I am excited to start watching some movies and play our games on this TV. I will update when i hear back from support.

I have specifically wanted a Sony Bravia for over a decade, but I couldn't afford one until now. I bought this TV for the brightness, speed, slim design, reputation, the sound and obviously as I mentioned before, the price (prime day special). I bought this on August 12th, and 60 days later (which was yesterday) these lines start zapping across the screen. I asked my boyfriend what the heck was the problem with the screen and he said it was just the movie. He was wrong. I have watched 3 different movies, on 2 different networks and a DVD as well as two different TV shows on two different apps (Netflix and Amazon) and it's the same thing. I have done SO much research before settling on this Sony Bravia TV and now I am really upset because there are screen issues and my window to return closed 2 weeks ago. Maybe I just received a lemon and in that event, I would highly recommend this TV. I upgraded my sound bar and didn't need to. The sound is immaculate. The brightness and picture quality (when it was working) is outSTANDING! The TV came very well packaged and was very light and easy to mount to my living room wall. I love all the settings options such as the picture quality (vivid is my favorite), that it is EASILY compatable with other Google products such as my Pixel phone and Nest Max Hub, that this TV will calibrate the sound and the remote's response from whereever you sit in the room and it only takes 3 seconds which makes a dramatic difference in your viewing & listening experience. I love that the microphone actually WORKS and that an easy switch under the TV turns it on/off. Last, but not least, this TV is FAST. You don't need to wait for response and that is also a big reason that I upgraded to this particular TV. I really loved this TV for 60 days, and now I am really sad... and broke :(

Short and sweet, everything works as expected and advertised. The picture quality is superb, and I haven't felt the need to do a lot of tweaking, much less calibration, to get it there (as I have in the past on other TV's). The overall look of the TV is very minimalistic, as the edge of the screen and the stand nearly disappear. Speaking of the stand, it's very stable while being low profile, and the multiple installation methods to modify the height, while I haven't needed them, are a useful feature that I'm sure many will appreciate. I can't speak to the internal speakers as I don't use them, but I can say the arc features work very well and very seamlessly. I can just turn on the Apple TV, and the TV and reciever both turn on and move to their correct inputs. Likewise, I can turn on the TV, and the same adjustments are made. I find I seldom need to adjust the TV or receiver. Just turn on the source and go. I've had issues with other TV's where arc either didn't do all I needed or at times, was fighting what I was trying to do. None of that with this TV. It does what you expect and need from arc pretty flawlessly. Now for all of the look and features, this TV is all about the picture, and it is awesome! I'm sure a tester could find some tiny flaw somewhere, but as a normal user with pretty big expectations, it delivers. I think you'd have to be looking for something to ding this TV on when it comes to picture quality, and even then, you'd probably need a pointer in the right direction to find it still. I'm sure there are likes and dislikes to be had on the smart tv features and the OS, but it's the picture that matters the most, and on that count, this Sony truly delivers! Oh, and set your Apple TV to use Dolby Vision and..... just wow! If you wonder about the true blacks of OLED, it's mostly what you don't notice that is the real story. None of the blooming or banding in dark scenes. Every once in a while, the depth of the black will pop out and make you notice, but most of the time, it's more subtle and, like everything with the picture quality on this TV, just "right". Nothing is drawing your attention so much as it all just looks natural and right, so your brain just moves on without notice. I can't say this is the best "deal" for a TV, or even for an OLED (I haven't tried them all to say the least). What I can say is the picture is spectacular, and I don't think you'll be at all disappointed.

I contemplated and debated on upgrading my entertainment center with a TV, but wasn't sure if I wanted to either get the Full-Array LED, the MIni LED display, or the highly recognized OLED display. I am SO GLAD I went with the Sony OLED Bravia XR A80K 4K Ultra HD TV, it has been nothing short of breathtaking. The setup was very easy and customizable to your needs when it comes to picture contrast, brightness, and even what kind of content your viewing on the display. If you have a PS5, this TV works very well with auto low latency, VRR support, and crisp clear visuals. Some of the older titles that I've played on my older 4K LED tv looked so much better and ran better too. But when it comes to watching movies or even TV shows that take advantage of the colors and visuals, the display is vibrant and beautiful to look at. Even in scenes where the darks appear to be "some-what" dark in LED displays, the OLED display makes the blackness very dark and as black as they can be. Overall, this is the best TV I've owned to date, and it's a Sony TV; so the quality is expected to be VERY good, my only gripe is not getting an OLED display sooner.

Updated to include the XR77A80K, as well as clarifications on settings. This XR65A80K I purchased was to replace an XR65X950H - the 950H is a very competent TV, and is still in use in a bedroom, but even as good as it is with its local dimming, the idea of zero blooming appealed to me. Fortunately, I have my oldest son's 55" LG C2 for a direct comparison, and while the C2 is slightly brighter and a better choice for next gen gaming, I felt the A80K was a better choice for my viewing habits, as most of my use is for movies, occasional YouTube browsing and every now and then, Nintendo Switch for retro games. After over a month to wring the Sony out on everything from 480 material ranging all the way up to 4K UHD Blu-rays, I can say that, as usual, Sony has done some awesome work here. Firstly, much has been made of OLED's shortcomings in moderately lit rooms - I'll make this point early, this panel is as capable as the Bravia 65X950H it replaced. Yes, specular highlights are brighter (1100+ nits for the 950 vs ~700 nits for the A80K), but those numbers only tell part of the story. With 8 million plus self lighting organic light emitting diodes, the blacks are perfect, and the brightness of those specular highlights are far more clearly defined. Yes, if you have a room flooded with sunlight, OLED isn't going to overcome that, but in a room moderately lit by sun, like mine, it's more than capable. Nighttime viewing is exceptional. The good: *Infinite contrast due to OLED technology. The inky blacks are only part of the story here, the clear distinction of a specular highlight against a far dimmer area create a far more enjoyable movie experience. *Out of the box color accuracy is amazing. First things first, on this and nearly every TV, Power Saving needs to be turned off. Picture Mode should be set to Custom, and in HDR, Gradation Preferred should be enabled for HDR10 and off for Dolby Vision. Only change I made to color itself was to slightly reduce the bias on the green sub pixels and slightly boost overall color saturation, the latter of which is something I've done on nearly every TV I've owned. *Processing. While I generally leave any additional video noise reduction and motion processing off, the few times I've felt the need to use any of them, they've been adjustable enough to add just what I wanted without the source material losing its sharpness or inducing soap opera effect. *Upscaling. As per usual, Sony's processing is second to none, although admittedly, LG has definitely closed the gap with the C2. Still, Sony has a visible edge here. *Sound. Although I use a Dolby Atmos/DTS X soundbar with surround speakers, the sound from the TV itself was surprisingly good. Since the panel is actually a speaker, the soundstage is pretty impressive - impressive enough to likely satisfy many people. *Operating temperature. I'd normally leave this out, but I honestly cannot believe how much cooler this thing runs when compared to an LED backlit LCD panel. I foresee this being a huge bonus this summer. *Lack of "black crushing": This is probably the biggest difference between the A80K and the C2 as far as picture quality. Details in dark scenes are clearly visible on the Sony, whereas they sometimes get lost on the C2. The "it could be better": *Brightness. This is really nit picking (no pun intended), but given that the A80K uses the same panel as the C2, yet is not quite as bright as somewhat of a mystery to me. To be honest, I can't see a definitive difference between the two, but it's worth mentioning. The Bad: *Only two HDMI 2.1 inputs, one of which is the same port used for a soundbar or receiver. To be fair, unless you're into next gen (PS5/Xbox X) gaming and have both consoles, this isn't going to be an issue, but a TV of this caliber should have four 2.1 inputs. *Potential for panel burn in. OLED technology has come a long way in the last decade, but the potential is still there for permanent burn in on individual pixels. If you watch a ton of TV (CNN with their bright white/red logo is a perfect example) that has a static logo, OLED probably shouldn't be on your want list, at least not yet. *Sustained bright picture will auto dim to protect the panel. While I've yet to experience this in anything other than intentionally trying to induce it, content with relatively bright areas over the majority of the panel, like ice hockey games, will activate auto dimming. *Dolby Vision. Please Sony, fix this. DV Dark is so out of whack that it's not even funny. While DV Bright can be made to look perfect as a DV Dark alternative, we deserve better. You did it on the A95K and LG's is great on their OLEDs, so we know it's possible. Remote: I get it, this isn't their flagship OLED, but it should come with the backlit remote. Movies and TV shows are this TV's strong points, and is particularly impressive with 4K High Dynamic Range/Dolby Vision content, both with hard copy and the built-in Google TV operating system. If sports (especially hockey) and/or the majority of your content has static logos, I'd probably stick with an LED backlit LCD TV. In closing, I did also consider the Sony A95K, the Samsung S95B and the LG C2 and G2. I passed on the Sony and Samsung because QD OLED is in its infancy, with a lot of long term questions about both burn in and longevity. The G2 lost out mostly because of the extra cost of a table top stand (wall mounting is not an option in my case). The A80K won over the C2 because of slightly better upscaling, the ability to pass DTS audio and the C2 having some problems with black crush. Since I first wrote this review, I've upgraded to the 77" version of the A80K, and everything still applies. I have changed a few things on settings that slipped my mind when I originally submitted the review.

This is my first serious TV purchase and I wanted an upgrade over an 8yo smaller LED tv. Overall I am quite impressed out of the box with the quality of the A80K Bravia and although it’s not perfect it’s meeting my expectations and then some. Purchase and Delivery from Amazon: The unit was purchased while on sale during Amazon prime day. $1100 for the 55” model and that included delivery with unpacking service. I wouldn’t have used the unpacking service but it was free and I’m kinda glad I did. They arrived within the 3hr delivery window. They unboxed the tv in front of me and then set the tv up for me. As I had ordered a soundbar, that required adjusting the feet before installation. They 100% took care of this for me. The best part was that they took the packaging with them so I didn’t have to haul it to the curb. Definitely will recommend the service, especially if it’s free. Build Quality: The TV is exceptionally thin. It’s amazing how thin the panel is until you see it for yourself. Besides that, legs come out as single bars and I was worried about the stability of the freestanding tv. That won’t be an issue, the tv itself is rock solid on my table and won’t be tipping over anytime soon. Another point to mention is that the finish to the surface of the TV is a bit shiny, but not as much as some of the other TVs out there (LG C2 for example). This was a big purchase factor for me as i placed the TV in a bright room. It has some glare, but nothing too intrusive during the day. My only little complaint is that the front trim of the TV doesn’t really feel as artfully crafted as the rest (or even the LG C2). It’s kind of blah if you ask me, especially at the bottom. This is purely cosmetic, and it entirely goes away when you turn the tv on. Onscreen setup: Once plugged in to the wall, the delivery guys turned on the TV to make sure it was working. The onscreen prompts guide you through setup. You need to install the Google home app on your smart phone, which I already use for my nest thermostat. Very easy. After clicking and scrolling through a bunch of settings, you finally get to a screen where you can select the apps you want preinstalled. All the usuals are there with the exception of Max. Max had to be installed after the setup, but would be nice to have it included. The TV automatically identified my Xbox and correctly set the HDMI and picture scale. All in all it took about 15 minutes but it was pretty easy. There’s a good YouTube video from Sony and I highly recommend watching it. Internal TV OS and Smart Features: This is a smart TV and the internal operating system has optimized settings for Netflix and other apps. I wanted to like the OS, I really did, but it’s clunky and dark. I’ll use it, only because of the convenience, but I won’t be happy about it. I think my expectations were set pretty high by the Amazon Firestick and the Sony just doesn’t live up. Using my the microphone on the Firestick remote, I can simply state any title of media and it will show me every option to consume said title. Google won’t do that. It instead brings me to the Bravia Core system, if it has it, and wants me to pay Sony for the pleasure of that title, even if it’s available on Netflix. Not great! I will try a bit longer to make it work, but I will probably find my way back to a different streaming device all together. Picture Quality: This is where the TV really shines. It’s a true OLED and the blacks are so silky smooth. It’s a massive upgrade to anyone who hasn’t had an OLED before. The colors are also fantastic. The TV has built in calibration settings that are pretty easy to access. It’s good to be able to tweak these settings as needed. The brightness of the unit is the only room I can see for improvement, but I’m no TV snob just yet. Brightness is passable, but it’s not pop brightness as in some of the higher end models. All in all, I think it’s a massive upgrade of a TV for anyone who hasn’t bought a TV in the last five years. Sound Quality: I did buy a soundbar, but that didn’t arrive until a few hours after initial install so I did get a chance to drive the internal speakers quite a bit. I’m a big fan of the speakers here. I never used a soundbar before and I found the built in speaker system fully capable of immersive sound. The unit even has some directionality with sound so low grade dimensional sound is totally attainable. Plugging in a soundbar though, was very easy (literally not single setting touched on the TV) and completely changed my setup. I got a NIB Bose Soundbar 600 for $350 on eBay and I now feel like I have a truly immersive home theater. It’s nuts how much difference a basic soundbar can make, no base unit, no satellite speakers. It’s amazing. Overall: I marked this review a five star, but realistically, it’s closer to a 4.5. It’s a great entry tv to the OLED market and that’s why I got it. It’s not the top of the line, but it definitely brings that amazing picture quality to the masses. I’m really glad I went with the A80K and I’ll keep this review updated with info as the TV ages.