2020 Sony X950H / XH95 (49", 55", 65", 75" and 85")

[Paul Anderegg]

Was hoping to upgrade my 48" X950H this year. In 2021 the X90J was the highest tier you could get 50". Now in 2022, the X85K is the highest tier you can go to 50" in, and that piece of garbage won't even have local dimming! Seems like for 48-50" the X950H is still the king of 4K LCD TV's.

Paul

[MechaGodzilla]

Originally Posted by Paul Anderegg

Was hoping to upgrade my 48" X950H this year. In 2021 the X90J was the highest tier you could get 50". Now in 2022, the X85K is the highest tier you can go to 50" in, and that piece of garbage won't even have local dimming! Seems like for 48-50" the X950H is still the king of 4K LCD TV's.

Paul

Yeah, I was surprised to see that there's no premium 49"/50" LCD whatsoever in Sony's line-up this year. I guess the 50" X90J didn't sell well.

Now 48" OLEDs are all they offer if you want a high-end TV in that size class.

[Paul Anderegg]

Originally Posted by MechaGodzilla

Yeah, I was surprised to see that there's no premium 49"/50" LCD whatsoever in Sony's line-up this year. I guess the 50" X90J didn't sell well.

Now 48" OLEDs are all they offer if you want a high-end TV in that size class.

Rtings says the X90J isn't a replacement for an X95H.

Paul

[MechaGodzilla]

Originally Posted by Paul Anderegg

Rtings says the X90J isn't a replacement for an X95H.

Paul

I would agree with that. Going from the 49" X950H to the 50" X90J would be more of a "sidegrade" than an upgrade. You'd gain some, lose some.

I'd hold on to the X950H.

[Paul Anderegg]

I think what we are seeing here is the beginning of the phase-out of LCD TV technology, replaced by little OLED starting with the smaller OLED panels which are basically able to be snapped off of larger panels. They just released a 97" 8K OLED panel, and guess what, 97 divided by 2 (8K cut into four 4K pieces) is 48!

This will eventually be a god thing, but the transition will mean a dearth of 50" quality televisions for a while. I have been wanting to stay away from OLED because of burn in and half the HDR brightness as the X950H, but realistically 95% of my TV use is 100nit calibrated SDR broadcast and cable TV. I may just bite the bullet and go A90K or C2 for 4K 120Hz assuming those models don't exceed $1500 for a 48". The only things that really bother me about my X950H are the lack of real blacks and the horrendous HDR blooming and backlight glow.

Paul

[MechaGodzilla]

Originally Posted by Paul Anderegg

I think what we are seeing here is the beginning of the phase-out of LCD TV technology, replaced by little OLED starting with the smaller OLED panels which are basically able to be snapped off of larger panels. They just released a 97" 8K OLED panel, and guess what, 97 divided by 2 (8K cut into four 4K pieces) is 48!

This will eventually be a god thing, but the transition will mean a dearth of 50" quality televisions for a while. I have been wanting to stay away from OLED because of burn in and half the HDR brightness as the X950H, but realistically 95% of my TV use is 100nit calibrated SDR broadcast and cable TV. I may just bite the bullet and go A90K or C2 for 4K 120Hz assuming those models don't exceed $1500 for a 48". The only things that really bother me about my X950H are the lack of real blacks and the horrendous HDR blooming and backlight glow.

Paul

Yeah, it definitely looks like Sony are phasing out premium LCD in smaller screen sizes. X950H was the last high-end Sony LCD available in 49", then the following year the upper mid-range X90J was the only FALD LCD available in 50". This year, there's none.

We've seen something similar happen in the 55" size class as well. The X950H was the last high-end LCD offered in that screen size too, while its successor the X95J starts at 65". Last year X90J was the only FALD LCD available in 55", and the same is true of its successor X90K for this year.

Meanwhile, look at OLED. If I want a 55" OLED from Sony, there's one such size model offered in nearly every series going up to the Master Series A95K, the absolute top of the line.

[Synchg]

just sold my 950h 75 inch for 1k. gonna save up for x95k or z9k or a lazer projector or that glasses free TV. who knows