Sony A90K (OLED)
Sony A90K (OLED)
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PICTURE QUALITY: Very Good—8.5/10
MOVIES & TV: Excellent—9.1/10
GAMING: Very Good—8.8/10
SPORTS: Excellent—9.1/10
CARTOONS & ANIMATION: Very Good—8.4/10
NEWS & TALK: Very Good—8.7/10
BRIGHT ROOM: Fair—6.7/10
The Sony A90K OLED TV is considered to be in the upper midrange price segment. It offers excellent overall picture quality, gaming and sports content viewing, exceptional dark room performance, and very good movie, news, and cartoon experiences. However, its performance in bright rooms is only fair, which means it may not be the best option for very well-lit environments. The TV provides great viewing angles and excellent motion processing, making it suitable for a variety of content. Additionally, it supports high dynamic range (HDR) content, including Dolby Vision and HLG, but does not support HDR10+. For gaming, it has a very good response time and input lag performance. The OLED screen ensures deep blacks and high contrast, but its SDR brightness is only fair, which could be a concern in brighter rooms. It comes with 4 HDMI ports, but does not have built-in speakers considered to be great. It is a versatile TV that works well as a monitor with a 4k @ 120Hz @ 4:4:4 support, and offers three positions for its pedestal stand, including one that can raise the TV to accommodate a soundbar. Give Feedback
this description is based on the product variant with some specs. At the time of writing, the variant with some specs cost some dollars.
Evaluation
Pros
- Excellent sports content viewing
- Perfect contrast with pure blacks
- Wide viewing angle
- Great motion processing
- Accurate colors out of the box
Cons
- Average bright room performance
- Fair SDR and HDR brightness
- Sound quality is only good, not excellent
- Lack of HDR10+ support
Ratings by Category
Movies & TV shows:4.8
The Sony A90K OLED provides exceptional contrast and black uniformity, ensuring deep blacks and high contrast scenes that are vital for a cinematic experience. The TV also offers good color accuracy out of the box, and wide viewing angles, meaning colors remain vibrant and consistent even at different seating positions, which enhances group movie watching experiences.
Sports:4.8
PerfectRec’s sports score prioritizes response time and refresh rate as the most important factors to ensure clear images of fast-moving scenes. In addition, we consider gray uniformity, which ensures that the turf looks the same across the whole screen, reflections, to avoid distracting ambient light from the action, and viewing angles and brightness, to avoid color distortion and washed-out images, especially when not seated directly in front of the TV.
Gaming:4.6
PerfectRec’s gaming score measures a TV's performance when it comes to playing video games. It is based on several factors that can significantly impact the quality of the gaming experience, including screen response time, input lag, and refresh rate. Screen response time is a critical factor that determines how quickly the TV can transition from one color to the next, while input lag measures the delay between the gaming console output and the TV display. Refresh rate refers to the number of times per second that the TV displays a new frame, which can impact the smoothness of the gaming experience. The gaming score also takes into account two other features: local dimming in gaming mode, which can enhance contrast and picture quality, and black frame insertion, which can reduce screen brightness and create a smoother gaming experience.
News, Talk & Reality TV:4.6
The Sony A90K performs well for news and talk shows because it has strong upscaling capabilities, ensuring that lower resolution content is displayed clearly, and it also offers good colors out of the box, which means that content appears vibrant and accurate without the need for much adjustment.
Overall Picture:4.6
The Sony A90K (OLED) has excellent picture quality primarily because of its perfect contrast ratio and effective local dimming feature that lead to outstanding black uniformity, essential for deep blacks in dark scenes. Additionally, its out-of-the-box color accuracy, wide color gamut, and color volume contribute to vibrant and true-to-life images, which enhance the HDR experience.
Cartoons & Animaton:4.5
The Sony A90K boasts strong performance in displaying a wide range of colors with its very good color gamut and is known to deliver good colors out of the box, making it particularly appealing for watching cartoons and animation that often use vibrant and varied colors. Additionally, its uniform gray production and high contrast capabilities further enhance the viewing experience for these types of content.
Bright Room:3.8
The Sony A90K may not perform optimally in a bright room because its SDR and HDR brightness levels are only fair, which means it doesn't get very bright. However, it handles reflections very well, which can help mitigate the impact of some ambient light.
Full Specs
GENERAL | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | |||
| Price | $1,198 | ||
Brand | Sony | ||
Release Date | June 1, 2022 | ||
Full name | 42A90K | ||
Screen Size | 42" | ||
Screen Resolution | 4K | ||
TV FEATURES | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Operating System | Android TV | ||
Sound Quality Score  | 7/10 | ||
NextGen Ready | Yes | ||
HDMI Ports | 4 | ||
Coax Ports | 1 | ||
DISPLAY QUALITY SCORES | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Picture Quality Score | 8.6/10 | ||
Bright Room Score | 6.8/10 | ||
Gaming Score | 8.8/10 | ||
Movies & TV Score | 9.1/10 | ||
Sports Score | 9.2/10 | ||
PHYSICAL | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Dimensions w/o Stand (H x W x D) | 21.5" x 36.7" x 2.2" | ||
Dimensions with Stand (H x W) | 21.7" x 36.7" | ||
Weight without Stand | 29.3 lbs | ||
VESA Mount | 200 x 200 | ||
DISPLAY | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Color Depth | 10 bit | ||
Black Frame Insertion | Yes | ||
Auto Low Latency Mode | Yes | ||
Contrast | 10/10 | ||
Local Dimming | 10/10 | ||
SOUND | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Speaker Setup | 2.1 | ||
Speaker Power | 25 W | ||
Dolby Atmos | Yes | ||
DTS:X | Up to DTS Digital Surround, Bypass only | ||
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