Sony has held some meetings in Europe to give more details of their new TVs. We were unable to attend the UK event, but reports from elsewhere have clarified that the company will have new R Series (RE4) sets with a 32″ (HD Ready) and 43″ (FullHD) at the entry level and with no streaming or internet functions. However, they will support HDR decoding (HDR10 & HLG), as will all Sony 2017 sets, although all sets lose 3D support this year. The step up models will be the WE6 series, available in 43″ and 49″ sizes (FullHD) as well as another 32″ HD Ready set. New features include improved cable management (a big focus for set designers at CES).
In the higher quality LCD area, the WE75 range gets Triluminos (a generic Sony term for wide colour gamut), FullHD and will be in 43″ and 49″. The WE66 range are 49″ and 40″ (both FullHD), while the WE61 will be available in 32″ (HD Ready).
Moving up to UltraHD, the XE80 and XE85 ranges which are differentiated by the X1 Processor chip and VA panels in the XE85 and the IPS panels in the XE80. These ranges are edge-lit.
The XE90 is the first range that is direct lit and includes the X1 Processor.
At the top of the range of LCD sets, the XE93 (edge LED, 55″ & 65″) and XE94 (direct LED) use an Extreme X1 Processor. The backlight zone count has been increased and there have been improvements in the LGPs to boost dynamic range.
The ZD9 range was introduced towards the end of 2016 and is maintained for 2017. At the top of the range is the A1 OLED TV range (55″/65″/77″) that was reported on from CES. (Sony Adopts Dolby Vision for OLED and LCD TVs)
Sony’s OLED TV at CES 2017
