Sony Bravia KDL-40EX503

The Essential EX503 range is part of Sony's collection of entry-level televisions, but that doesn't mean it can't compete with some of the best of the bunch.

On paper, it includes a multimedia player, support for the DLNA standard and Motionflow 100 Hz to improve the fluidity of moving images.

Build Quality and Design

As soon as we started unpacking the EX503, we noticed something we liked: the front of the screen is matte, meaning it won't show too many reflections,  which is a real improvement on the glossy finish on Sony's more expensive models.  That also saves you from having to find somewhere with no direct light sources. 


Another detail about the display itself: unlike the EX700, it's backlit using CCFL fluorescent tubes, making the EX503 3.5 cm thicker, meaning it measures almost 10 cm from front to back.   That's still hard to notice once it's up against the wall though.  This choice of backlight doesn't necessarily mean an increase in energy consumption, either.  All of Sony's 2010 range is descended from last year's eco-friendly WE5 family, meaning the energy consumption is limited and comparable to that of the Samsung 40C7700.  There's a sensor that adjusts the brightness according to ambient light levels.

At the back are two HDMI inputs, one component video, one VGA, two SCARTs and an Ethernet port.  They're joined by an digital audio output as well as analogue audio inputs and outputs.

Just like the W5500, the EX503 also has two HDMI ports on the side to make plugging extra devices in easier.  They're above the headphone jack, composite video input and analogue audio inputs.  There's also a USB port on the side of the TV to plug in external storage devices containing music, photos or videos.  Unfortunately, the multimedia player doesn't do that much: it only works with hard drives and USB keys formatted using FAT32, and only SD DivX files are compatible, with no support for either HD DivX or NTFS.

The BRAVIA Internet Video feature allows you to connect the TV to the Internet and download content from YouTube and RSS feeds along with other widgets.

Finally, although the new remote is very intuitive, its square shape makes it hard to hold and it still doesn't have backlighting.

Image Quality: Factory Settings

Using the default settings, the EX503 produces a decent quality image.  Most viewers will be happy with the results in 'Standard' mode.  Unlike many of its competitors, the picture isn't too unnatural.  We still noticed some shades that were a little too saturated as well as a luminance graph which wasn't quite right.


Image Quality: Custom Mode

To get as close as possible to the original quality of the content you're watching, we suggest you switch to Custom mode and set the backlighting to 3 to get brightness of 200 cd/m².  That removes the filters which attempt to artificially improve the image, and the colours take on a more natural look with a deltaE of 2.4.  These settings also gave an excellent contrast ratio, which we measured at over 4000:1 with very deep blacks of 0.05 cd/m².  The last piece of excellent news is that the gamma curve gets back on track too.

When watching films, jerkiness is kept in check by Motionflow 100 Hz.  However, we suggest that you leave it in Standard mode as the next level up introduces artefacts.  Just like the W5500 and WE5 series TVs, upscaling SD sources to HD loses a little detail and adds a slight blur.  Leave this task to your Blu-ray player or PS3, which will do a much better job.  When you're showing a HD film though, the quality is impeccable.  Watching Blu-ray discs is a real treat.

Sound Quality

The EX503 inherits most of its audio components from the WE5 and the W5500.  Speakers that point to the floor mean that treble loses detail.  The audio isn't as good as it could be, but you can still expect to enjoy a film.  If you really want to get immersed in the experience, we suggest you go for Home Cinema speakers.

Energy Consumption

The EX503 only requires the bare minimum amount of power, falling to 0.1 W after a few moments of standby.  At 200 cd/m², we measured consumption of 101 W.