Sony Bravia KDL-55HX925 Review

For the last couple of weeks, we have been ogling at one of the best LED TVs in the market today. Every day, we would walk into our labs and start grinning ear-to-ear, and then slot in one of our test Blu-Ray discs for a few minutes of absolute eye-popping visuals. 

Internally, in our many discussions, we have thrown in the unmentionable “best in class” back and forth. Initially during the first few rounds of viewing tests, we shied away from giving it that badge, but after every session of getting sucked in by its gorgeous renders, we were giving into what our eyes kept telling us: that the Sony Bravia KDL-55HX925 may very well be the best LED TV in the market. 

Scoring such an expensive product anywhere near 9 meant we had to be super-sure of our test results and review conditions. And hence we did a marathon run of tests under a variety of calibration settings. The review is also a collective effort in more ways than one, because not only did we get many qualified reviewer eyes on this model, but we went through every real-world scenario to ensure that this TV got the testing treatment it deserved.

The TV has just left our labs, and we are now feeling the first pangs of eye-candy withdrawal symptoms as we write this review.  If you want to jump right into the performance bit of the review, click here. 

Design and Build Quality

The 55HX925 looks worthy of its pricing, the lack of a clearly visible bezel separating the display from the frame makes it look like a solid black slate. From afar, it looks like a single sheet of glossy black awesomeness. It’s a conversation stopper, and it makes you pause and look at it.

The TV is just a little more than 3.5cm in thickness, which makes it sleek given its overall size. And while there’s a large stand provided for it to sit on, we think that it would be a crime not to wall-mount this TV. Of course, if you have the space to spare, then mounting it on a corner table would be quite a sight, too. Besides the clean-flush look, a Sony logo lights up at the centre of the bottom bezel, there are no other visible controls or labels on the front. The left bottom has a power indicator and there are a few sensors that include a small camera, again very neatly embedded within the frame. Sony also bundles a camera for use with Skype.

The stand could've been sturdier

The display is glossy and with it turned off, it does reflect quite a lot. Sony has used Gorilla glass on the surface, which makes it very sturdy and there’s little chance of ruining the finish, while cleaning it or if you happen to bump into it.

The controls are positioned on the back of the TV to maintain its elegant look. Besides, no one really uses the physical controls on a TV. The back of the TV is made of metal - it is sturdy and there are no fans visible for cooling purposes. There are a whole bunch of connectivity options on the rear of the TV. Like on all modern televisions, there are four HDMI inputs at the rear. There are two rows of connectors at the rear - one placed vertically and the other horizontally. The connectors have been positioned in such a way that it won’t interfere if you wall-mount the TV. Surprisingly, there is no component or composite connection on the TV itself, but there is a separate panel that connects it to one of the interfaces that allows the additional connects. There’s also D-Sub to connect older PCs to it as well as an optical audio input on the television.

The back of the TV does have large vents that should offer necessary ventilation. During extensive testing, the TV did not get too warm at the back, and while our studio has inhumanly chilly air-conditioning, we reckon it should get only slightly warm in normal temperature conditions.