My Blog: Sony demos Bravia HX950 flagship HDTV at IFA, confirms pricing from €2,999 (hands-on video)

Friday, August 31, 2012

Sony demos Bravia HX950 flagship HDTV at IFA, confirms pricing from €2,999 (hands-on video)

Eager to get your hands on a top-of-the-line set without shelling out five figures for a super-slick 55-inch OLED? Sony's Bravia HX950 may have caught your eye, with its Intelligent Peak LED Backlight that's said to deliver "the best contrast Sony has to offer." According to representatives at IFA (who don't always tend to offer the most consistent specifications), the full-array system includes 196 individual zones, letting the television adjust backlighting on a more granular level, resulting in brighter whites and deeper blacks. We caught up with both the 55- and 65-inch flavors of Sony's HX950 at the company's booth, where several demo stations were arranged to highlight the backlighting, along with features called 3D Super-Resolution, Internet Video Super Resolution and HD Super Resolution. All of the side-by-side demonstrations provided noticeable improvements, though all three Super Resolution settings may be a tad too sharp for some viewers.

The set itself is as gorgeous as you'd expect for a flagship model, with a black glossy bezel and a narrow design that's sufficiently svelte without stepping into ultra-thin territory. The specially designed glass panel does indeed help to reduce glare, as we experienced in the visually congested IFA booth. Perhaps most interesting is the price -- €2,999 (about $3,800) for the 55-inch model, and €4,999 (about $6,300) for the 65 incher -- a steep drop from the 650,000 yen (about $8,270) the HDTV is commanding in Japan. We weren't able to confirm US availability or pricing, which will likely come in below the European tag, but reps did quote a November 1st ship date, which seems to be in line with the November 10th date we heard for Japan earlier this week. You'll have but two months to wait before adding this monster to your collection, but you can snag a look today in our gallery below and hands-on video after the break.

Gallery: Sony Bravia HX950 HDTV hands-on