KDL-40XBR6 – 40″ BRAVIA XBR6 Series LCD HDTV from Sony

Sony, the renowned competitor of the television arena has smartly stuffed their best features in the XBR series in their HDTVs. Only last year, Sony served us with 3 such treats namely, the pricey XBR8, the video processing skill enhanced XBR7 and the affordable XBR6, which is the topic of our review today.

Sony’s latest version of BRAVIA Engine, a video processor that is fully digital, utilizes a unique collection of Sony’s algorithms to drastically minimize noise and bring about vibrant, sharp and life-like images. This technology helps to enhance contrast, colour, clarity and the minutest of detail in every scene bringing about that outstanding performance that BRAVIA sets are famous for.

Sony BRAVIA KDL-40XBR6 LCD HDTV

Design:

Sony KDL-40XBR6 despite sporting a sleek design looks kind of bulkier in comparison to the sleek “Z-Series” and boasts of a fairly good dimension for a HDTV. With a glossy black frame it is uniformly thick on all sides. There is a bony see-through plastic sheet sneaking beneath the frame sporting a horizontal silver speaker shaped like a candy bar stretching to the screen ends. A screen of this size sure does seem optimum for rooms of any size with the resolution and diagonal size of the screen acting as complimentary factors to that effect.

Swappable speaker grills:

The swappable silver speaker grills seem nothing short of a treat to the ears. This can be removed/changed to colours compatible with the décor of your living room. This is one of the differences between the XBR6 and the Z-series. The optional grills are available in Red, Brown, Black and Gold colours.

Remote control provided:

The remote control that comes with the TV is not as attractive as the main set. The remote is not properly designed. With the buttons being inappropriately placed, it is kind of annoying to stretch and reach out for the channel and volume keys. On the flip side, it is backlit with an elegant blue lighting that looks stunning. By and large, we are not framing the remote as pathetic, but we did expect something more refined particularly this coming from Sony.

Connectivity:

The connectivity of the Sony BRAVIA KDL-40XBR6 LCD TV lives up to the expectations of any available hi-end technology. Towards the rear are four HDMI inputs with an additional one on the side. There is 1 AV input together with composite and S-video, yet another with just composite video, 2 component-video jacks, 1 PC input that is VGA-styled with a maximum resolution of 1,920×1,080, a cable i/p or RF-style antenna and an optical digital output along with an analog audio output. The HDMI port towards the side panel is joined by yet another AV input with composite video. There is also a USB port that allows you to display content in your flash drives.

The complex but improved menu system:

The menu sported by the BRAVIA KDL-40XBR6 LCD Television is looks pretty much akin to the XMB (Cross Media Bar) that looks to be an excess on a TV. Apart from the options that are usually available in the menu, two more options which includes photo and music is added to the main menu. This comes in handy when it is used with a USB port with a networked media being included for adding pictures/videos. Not a wise idea Sony, don’t you think?; as this option is barely used.

On the flip side, there have been quite a lot of improvements incorporated like the following. For instance, all options dealing with picture has been grouped as one under the “Picture” option. There is a secondary options menu added that offers bonus selections making life more easier for you by eliminating the need for visiting the main menu each time. The newly added “Favourites” screen hosts a list of inputs that were recently used, favourite channels that have been manually included along with a screensaver that is customizable with images shot via TV or composite i/p. With such improvements made, the menu would still seem to be complicated for most of the consumers. The menu could have been even more straight forward as the Samsung LN52A650.

The Bravia KDL-40XBR6 seems to lack a couple of basic functionalities in its feature list. The list of features are identical to that of Z-series’ list, which is a way less expensive. One of such missing features is the networking functionality. There is a Ethernet port towards the rear, which makes it easy to reachout to the media server software (DLNA compatible) in an attempt to import images from your PC to the TV screen. This feature can also been seen in Samsung LN46A750, Sony PS3 and Pioneer PDP-5020FD. With the only difference being in the above-mentioned models there is provision for video and music too. But this can be achieved by buying a Bravia Internet Video Link.

There are 4 picture presets available, all of which can be independently adjusted as per input, but for the Theatre preset that cannot be tweaked at all. You are also provided with a preset for colour temperature along with a setting for noise reduction. The colour temperature can also be fine-tuned via the white balance control. There is a CineMotion option that you can find beneath Video processing, which has an impact on the TVs 2:3 pull down performance. There is also the video/photo optimizer together with the game mode, which takes care of delays involving the on-screen display and the game controller.

Sony has managed to include for HD source 4 aspect ratio modes together with the “Full Pixel” setting in the Wide menu Display area slot. This allows for choosing any mode’s display content that boasts of a 1080 resolution that is devoid of scaling/overscan. The menu’s cool graphical display exemplifies the variation between all of the aspect ratios fairly well. Then again, the Picture-in-picture mode displays just the TV’s content in a secondary window.

The exceptional black-shade:

Looks like Sony did manage to accomplish the deepest blacks ever in the non-LED LCD TV category. The KDL-40XBR6 HD LCD TV failed to impress in areas like colour accuracy and sustaining the pitch black shade regardless of the background application. On the flip side, the primary colour accuracies looked to be amazing with not-so-impressive real life display. The darker scenes look to be a fab with its deepest black levels and does really help in saturation adding further richness to the rest of the colours. It sure does perform fabulously especially with the 1080p HDTV tag attached.

BRAVIA KDL-40XBR6 4o inch LCD Television

Performance factors:

This Sony LCD TV comes loaded with a 129Hz refresh rate, meaning no more blurring with motion and it also accolades couple of Sony’s technologies like Dejudder Video Processing, MotionFlow and Motion Enhancer that is dubbed. The native resolution of this Sony Bravia KDL-40XBR6 is 1080p, a highest available configuration as of now.

Energy efficient:

We appreciate Sony’s wise moves in incorporating a 2-step power save option in this 40″ KDL-40XBR6 HDTV which tweaks the peak brightness that in turn minimizes power consumption, hence making it one of the most energy efficient HDTV’s in the current LCD TV market.

Verdict:

Sony’s Bravia KDL-40XBR6 LCD HDTV looks to be a great entertainer, but doesn’t really live up to its price tag in comparison to the remaining 40? competitors in the market.

Sony BRAVIA KDL-40XBR6 – Technical Specification Table

Manufacturer Sony
Model Name Sony Bravia KDL-40XBR6
Dimensions (W x H x D) 37.6 x 27 x 11 inches
Weight 52 pounds
Display TFT active matrix
Display size 40 inches
Image aspect ratio 16:9
Dynamic contrast ratio 50,000:1
HDTV compatible Yes
Refresh rate 120Hz
Connectivity 4 HDMI inputs
2 HD Component inputs
1 PC Input
Audio 2 speakers, Subwoofer
Speaker Grill Piano Gloss Black with Onyx Speaker Grill
Remote RM-YD023
24p True Cinema Yes
DMeX capable Yes
BRAVIA Sync Yes

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