Sony Bravia KDL-46X4500

The X4500 is at the very top of Sony's range of TVs.  With LED backlighting and the very latest Japanese technology, we're hoping that this 46'' screen produces images like we've never seen before.

Before we dive in, let's take a quick look round what you get for your money.

First of all, the LCD screen is--sensibly, we think--matte, meaning you won't suffer from reflections.

The number of ports is vast, including a pair of component video inputs, for instance.

Having this many options is a rarity on any TV.  But then again, so is needing this many ways to plug things in ...

The remote control is backlit, and has a Theater button that we found so useful on some of Sony's earlier models.  It allows you to toggle between your default settings and Cinema mode, optimized for enjoying movies.

Helpfully, the settings you program for each video source are memorized, so you can configure different settings for your games console and your DVD player, for instance.

The interface is based around the famous XrossMediaBar system, which has been tweaked a little for the X4500.


Another new feature is the inclusion of a series of touch screen buttons along the bottom of the screen.  They disappear when not in use but light up when needed.

Given the modern reliance on remote controls to interact with TVs, though, it's unlikely that you'll ever use this system.

If we were being cynical, we might condemn this extra input as a gimmick to justify the extremely high list price of the X4500 TVs.


We weren't at all surprised when our initial measurements produced excellent results.  The ANSI contrast ratio, for instance, gets up to 3000:1,with blacks as low as 0.05 cd/m².  These are some of the best scores that we've ever seen in this category.

As with other recent models, using the dynamic contrast offered by the LEDs, it is possible to reach a perfect, absolute black, but the pay-off is a skewed gamma curve.  Subjectively speaking, we preferred the picture quality without the dynamic backlighting, even though it does allow for a slightly improved technical score.

The color temperature is just as perfect, hitting the magic 6500 K without any trouble, while the DeltaE score of just 3.3 shows that the colors on screen are very close to the 'ideal' shades present in our test scenes.

It was the same story when we sat down to watch some movies: excellent contrast and color handling both helped the X4500 stand out from the crowd.

The lower resolution of regular DVDs is obvious, and the Bravia Engine 2 Pro doesn't help very much.  The 'Pro' version of the Bravia Engine 2 image processing chip doesn't really seem to be that different from the regular version, and it would have been nice to see an improvement in the upscaling of Standard Definition sources.  As you can see, though, the PlayStation 3 still does it better:


With genuine High Definition input, though, the results are incredible.  Watching HD digital television on this screen really is a revelation, and Blu-ray discs are just as impressive.

Although it supports 1080p/24 Hz mode, the X4500 still shows the tiniest amount of jerkiness when there's a lot of movement to handle.  It's nothing worse than on any other TV with no system to handle scenes like this.

Fortunately, though, the X4500 comes equipped with the Motionflow 100 Hz system--but not the 200 Hz version found on the Z4500, found in a model below.

However, the results are almost identical, and an updated version on the X4500 now allows more finely-grained control of the interpolation system: as well as 'High', 'Standard' and 'Off', you can also choose a 'Sharp' mode that allows you to reduce ghosting to an absolute minimum.  More choice is always a good thing, but we can't recommend this last option as it really darkens the image and makes it lose a lot of depth.

Sound Quality

The sound is perfectly acceptable, and definitely amongst the best of what's available today.  Nevertheless, it's nowhere near as good as what you'd expect when you pay this much money for a TV.

Once again, if you're looking for the real Home Cinema experience, we can only advise you to invest in an external sound system.