Sony - 43" Class X800G Series LED 4K UHD TV Smart Android TV

I wear behind the ear hearing aids. I still tend to crank up the sound and my wife will work from home on occasion. Plus she is almost always “on call” for her job. I needed to find a TV with a headphone jack which would allow me to plug in a Bluetooth transmitter to connect with my Bluetooth headphones. Another feature that I needed was a TV that worked with Google Assistant. Sony is one of the few TV’s that fit my needs. The quality of the picture and build are fantastic. We had another major brand, which has now been relocated to our bedroom, and while removing/remounting the TV’s, I found the sturdiness and weight of the Sony far surpassed the other brand. Since we have the TV mounted on a portable stand, sturdiness is reassuring to us.

Initially, I didn't want a tv that I considered too large so I upgraded from 32 inches to 43 inches. The viewing quality was perfect from any angle. I added a soundbar because I wanted more base.

Had been eyeing this TV for a while. Once saw it was on sale took the opportunity and purchased it. Great deal really happy I got it. Casting capability from phone and tablet. Wish the remote was back lit.. Perfect size for bedroom..

I researched this decision a lot, and decided to spend a bit more for this Sony than go for the other two main brands. The leading consumer's ratings organization listed this one as best of the 43" models, with a very good viewing angle, good sound, and an excellent predicted reliability. I also wanted a model that had the feet or stand centered or away from the edges in order to fit on my small entertainment center. This TV is almost perfect. The picture's excellent, after some tweaking of course. I don't watch sports, so I set mine to "cinema pro" under picture adjustments, for a more natural looking picture with a refresh rate of 60 to eliminate the dreaded soap opera effect. I also set the sound to cinema, which provided more depth and dynamics. The TV was much easier to set up than I was expecting, with Android 8 pre-installed. The smart TV features are fast and seamless with no wi-fi connection problems on the first try, so I don't imagine I'll need my ROKU player much anymore. Even the remote was simple to sync up to my cable box after plugging in the included "IR Blaster." And once I set up a Google account, adding the Amazon Echo Dot to voice controls also went smoothly. The fine, flat edge around the front is very stylish, unlike the cheaper competitors' shiny black plastic, and the feet are heavy duty and sturdy. My only minor complaint is that the set doesn't quite sit high enough up from the table top, so the largish cable box blocks the remote receiver on the lower front center bottom edge. But we got around this by resting the feet on four elevated pads. And soon we'll get rid of the cable box anyway.

Besides excellent picture quality, very good sound and smooth wireless performance, which this TV has, the objectives in my particular situation for this new TV are; 1-Reduce clutter to eliminate multiple remotes and need for any external media playing devices. The TV is replacing a 2009 32” Sony 32XBR9, a Sony BDPS-3700 BlueRay-Streaming-Player, a WD TV Live Plus and a Yamaha YAS-107 sound bar. 2-Ability to play local media such as mp4, mkv, ISO and quicktime files located on either a SMB share or flash drive. 3-Watch local programming using an antenna for OTA (Over the Air) broadcasts. While the Logitech Harmony or equivalent would reduce the number of remotes, there still leaves the 2 media players and soundbar. The built-in video app does not support ISO but the TV can play these files using either VLC and KODI. Kudos to SONY for selecting Android TV as the OS. Been a SONY customer for over 30 years and wanted to stick with SONY. Their adoption of Android TV enables that. The Sony – Android TV combination is great! Being able to install the wealth of Android TV apps, including media players like VLC and Kodi places the Android TV OS on top. The TV has 3 USB ports. Copied some mp4s to 2 flash drives. Inserted both into TV, opened the video app and it was able to play video from either flash drive. Excellent. KODI and VLC, though different in setting up to see a SMB share, played all media types flawlessly. For the sake of testing, only installed approved Apps that are available from Google’s App store for Android TV. Besides VLC and Kodi, also installed a number of free and pay sites such as Tubi, PlutoTV, HayStack, PBS, ABC, NBC and CBS. All played beautifully, crisp, clean and stutter free. Side loading apps is possible but did not want to evaluate the TV with technically “unsupported” apps. Unfortunately, only the ABC affiliate WFTS-TV app content is very close to their OTA broadcast. The other network affiliates DO NOT offer essentially the equivalent of their local broadcasts without authenticating to a user’s carrier account which means, if you do not have Direct-TV, cable TV or FIOS TV, or you receive OTA, there is no way to receive the equivalent of their local broadcasts using apps and the internet. The sound output is very good, especially the surround simulation. Lacks a little in the low end frequencies, however, it sounds almost as good as the YAS-107 soundbar. In testing the ability of the TV to change directions quickly (as the saying goes) There has been only a couple of times where the TV was slow to change channels or switch apps. This was probably caused when quickly switching between multiple apps and OTA viewing. Interestingly, there were some apps, like VLC, where an exit or quit app option does not seem to exist. A power down (reset) fixed the issue. Other troublesome points and Wish List, --Not fond of the external power supply that powers the TV --Conspicuously missing, is a google browser, No Chrome? This seems to be an intentional Google oversight. Installed Puffin and it worked surprisingly well. Puffin played a number of website videos from a variety of sources. --As TV OS’s become more customizable with user apps and configuration, it is hoped that future releases of Android TV will have some sort of “backup” option. One might exist, but was unable to find it. --The stand, like other have commented. Sony should correct this in the next generation that employs this design. -As of this writing, there is no scheduled Andoid 9 update for this 2019 model year TV however Sony released Andoid 9 last month for other TVs. It is hoped that Sony releases the update for this TV. Android TV OS 10 is in beta. It will be interesting to see how Sony supports newer versions of the Android TV OS on existing models. -Inconsistent use of fast forward and reverse buttons from one app to another. This is not necessarily the fault of the TV but more how apps are developed to work with the myriad of remotes that are used with Android TV. In reference to the title of this review…. Decision time on whether to keep or return the TV is rapidly approaching. The only issue is OTA reception. NextGen TV products will be introduced at next week’s CES 2020. The migration that broadcasters are making should be in operation in over 50 markets by the end of this year. Using ATSC 3.0 technology, if widely adopted, will render the tuner in this TV obsolete, for OTA reception, within the next 5 or so years. There will be adapters available just like in 2009 when broadcast technology went to digital HD however, as stated in the beginning, one of the reasons for this TV purchase was the elimination of multiple remotes and media devices. I’m waiting till mid next week to see who introduces what at CES and attempt to gauge by the number of NextGen TV products before making a final decision. This concern only exists for those who receive local programming OTA with an antenna. This would not be a problem for those who obtain local programming from Direct-TV, a cable carrier or FIOS. The bottom line… If it were not for the NextGen TV broadcast changes beginning this year, the TV would definitely be a KEEPER!! The ability to install Android TV apps such as KODI and VLC is a huge plus for those, like me, who have media locally in a variety of digital formats-ISO, mp4 eg. This is a great TV!!!

Replacing my 12 yr.old 32" Samsung HD, TV which still worked really good, but time for an upgrade... I looked at a lot of TV's TCL, Hisense,etc. and another Samsung as well, all had really good picture quality, but when you view from an angle, it just was'nt good. The Sound was another factor, they all were weak, needing a sound bar added. Samsung sound was really disappointing. Another factor was Ability of Remote which was very important to me, Not much options on control of functions. So as i looked at this Sony 43' i was very impressed, quality of picture overall from all angles was excellent, and the Sound is also better than all of them, no really need for a sound bar, at least for me, plenty good, if you want to blast it, then add a sound bar. The Remote has many options for adjustments, to dial in everything you can think of, it sets up fairly easy, i had afew hiccups, but that was on me. This is my first Sony, though it was priced a bit more than i was looking at, it was worth it, and did'nt mind paying that extra cash. I do like the Andriod TV Idea, it pairs up with my Andriod phone, but the Play store feature, does'nt get all the apps, your phone gets, it's formatted a bit different, and seems to be limited,but it may be just me. I read alot of reviews as well , this was so consistent with overall reviews, and helped me make that final decision.

We were looking for a 43" flat screen for the bedroom. We first decided to just make our decision based on lowest price on a good name Brand TV. We purchased a 4K Ultra something or other LG. It sounded like a good idea, but after installing I noticed quickly that the refresh rate on it was horrible, meaning noticeable pixelated edges at times on moving people/things. We also have a LG 55" OLED in our family room that has a great picture, but pricey. I went to best Buy to see what they had that would compare to the LG OLED, that they don't make in the size we wanted. A salesperson quickly pointed to this 43" Sony Bravia that had a great picture and said it was luckily on sale at that time. With the -250 sale price, it wasn't much more than the cheap LG. Returned the LG and bought this Sony. Have had it for a few months and love it, no regrets.

After some months of hesitation and review, we decided to upgrade our TVs (13 yrs old) and to cut the cord on cable. Best Buy staff led us through the options, needs and installed the new systems (we are not very tech oriented with this stuff). Two 4k HD smart TVs, Roku, Sonos sound bar and eero Wi-Fi system later we are very pleased. We did need to enlist our 12 yr old grandson to assist (get it done) in the connections to our final streaming choices and show us the operations points again but we are now off and enjoying the new system. Not to mention cutting our monthly cost in half!