Sony's V series of televisions have traditionally been in the middle of the manufacturer's range, and that's why this new V5500 doesn't include Motionflow 100 Hz, despite being a considerable improvement on the V4500--especially now that it has a Full HD resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels in place of the 1366 x 768 pixels found on its predecessor.

Build Quality & Design

That's not all. The V5500 has also gained an Ethernet port which allows it to join DLNA compatible networks, giving it access to MP3s, photos and videos.

The Applicast feature isn't included--it remains one of the treats reserved for the higher-end models--meaning the V5500 can't access content from the Internet though. 

Apart from that, the feature set is pretty complete, with the XrossMediaBar interface first seen on the PS3 as practical as ever. While the USB port is fine with MP3 music and JPEG photos, it steadfastly refused to play any of the DivX video we presented it with--or any other video for that matter.

The remote control is as easy to use as we could wish for, but isn't backlit.


Image Quality

If you're tempted to compare the new V5500 to its predecessor, we should tell you straight away that our testing procedure has changed we tested the V4500. We now set the brightness of our TVs to 200 cd/m², instead of 150 cd/m², meaning that, for example, blacks on the V5500 would seem artificially lighter when compared to the V4500. In practice, the two screens are quite similar--apart from the resolution, of course.

We measured blacks of 0.12 cd/m², a score which, although excellent last year, now places this TV in the middle of the table. It reaches a contrast of between 1500:1 and 1600:1, which should give a good quality image. That confirms its status as a very decent TV, as only the best reach 2000:1 while the worst fall below 1000:1. Even better, it has an extra trick up its sleeve, because by turning the backlighting up to maximum, it reaches a brightness of 316 cd/m², perfect for enjoying your TV even in a sunlit room.

As it's something of a bad habit for Sony, we are always careful to look for clouding or light leaking. We didn't notice anything out of the ordinary this time round, and the image was perfectly even. The viewing angles were even quite wide for an LCD screen.

At the end of the day, the V5500's main weaknesses are down to ghosting and the fact that it doesn't have the Motionflow system. Without a 100 Hz mode, ghosting is visible in panning shots, moving both horizontally and vertically. Motionflow would added a little more fluidity to films, which sometimes appear a little jerky. The fact that it isn't included isn't a problem per se, and we've been watching TV for years without it; fitting it here would definitely have been a strength, though.

In practice, the image quality is excellent in both SD and HD, with a good contrast, accurate colours and a brightness evenly divided amongst different colours. And ghosting is only noticeable in certain circumstances such as scrolling text and panning shots.

The V5550, is, therefore an excellent choice for anybody who wants to buy a good TV and keep a handle on their budget.

Sound Quality

The sound on the V5500 is pretty reasonable. It won't worry the best TVs, but it's definitely above average. It's important to note that it's helped a lot by the positioning of the speakers at the front, meaning you can hear all of the frequencies clearly, rather than the confused echo bouncing off the wall behind the screen.

Power Consumption

This television is part of a new generation which use practically no energy at all while on standby, that is, less than 0.1 W. When it's switched on, it needs 147 W, a very respectable score, and excellent compared to TVs from two or three years ago. Back then, it wasn't at all uncommon to find 32'' TVs that needed as much, if not more, power, than this 46''.