Sony Bravia KDL-22EX320

As well as its larger TVs, Sony also offers this smaller EX320 range available in three different sizes: 22', 24'' and 26''.  Although all three models have the same name, they aren't as similar as you'd think.  The 22'' and 26'' models have a 1366 x 768 pixel HD Ready display, while the 24'' version has a 1920 x 1080 pixel Full HD display.

Build Quality and Design

The three different models share everything else though, including Edge LED backlighting and the standard version of Sony's X-Reality image processing engine.

That's not all you get with the EX320 though.  It also has built-in WiFi, meaning you can connect it to your home network and enjoy online services from Sony, including widgets, video on demand and video calls with Skype.  A USB port allows you to either record TV programmes or play your own media content.  Don't get too excited, though, as the media player, which still doesn't support MKV files, isn't very impressive.

At the back, there are two HDMI inputs, a VGA port, component video and a SCART socket.

Ghosting and Input Lag

Sony really doesn't seem to have put much effort into improving the input lag on its TVs.  With a delay of 66 ms—that's four whole frames—compared to a CRT monitor, it's hard to see how dedicated gamers would get much out of this TV.  The IPS display has a ghosting time of 13 ms, which is just about average for a TV.

Image Quality

Unlike the input lag, Sony has put some effort into the image quality on the EX320.


You need to switch to Custom mode to enjoy accurate colours.  We measured a deltaE—the average discrepancy between the colours requested by the video source and those actually shown on screen—of 2.9.  Remember that we generally consider any remaining imperfections to be invisible below 3.0.



Our contrast tests were less impressive, reaching just 715:1.  That's largely down to blacks that have 0.25 cd/m² of light, making them looking very grey.  Fortunately, both the colour temperature and gamma are correctly configured.


With no 100 or 200 Hz mode, ghosting is visible with fast-moving objects.  The picture is also less sharp than we'd like: the 1366 x 768 pixel resolution obscures some of the fine detail in Full HD content, a problem which is immediately visible on our 1080p test card.

Finally, as is so often the case with Sony, upscaling DVDs leaves rather blurry results.  We could have done with slightly sharper results in this area.

Clouding

Despite having a low contrast ratio, the EX320 still manages to suffer from clouding.  As you can see in the photo above, light only leaks out from the Edge LED backlighting at the bottom right, which is a real pain when you're watching films.

Audio Quality

Audio quality is often the Achilles' heel of thin TVS of any size, but to make things worse, the EX320 is so small there's only room for a 2 x 8 W speaker system.  The sound really isn't anything to write home about and is clearly lacking in power.  The bass is non-existent, the mid-range and treble jumbled and confused.  You'd be better off with just about any old 2.1 speaker kit.

Energy Consumption

With just 0.1 W of energy use on standby and 40 W while switched on, the EX320 can't really boast about being the most efficient we've ever tested—it uses almost as much power as some 32'' TVs.  Then again, it's not incredibly greedy and didn't leave us shocked.