Sony X940E 75" (XBR75X940E) Review

The X940E's performance can be considered on par with the OLEDs in this price range. It has everything necessary for true HDR: high native contrast (4941:1, can go up to 11634:1 with local dimming enabled), wide color gamut, great black levels and uniformity. Beyond all that, its panel is one of the best in the market — even in a bright room, this TV can still really shine because of how bright it can get.

Local dimming is the TV's ability to dim areas of the screen for deeper black levels and better contrast — they are separated into different dimming zones, where each zone can be individually dimmed as needed. The local dimming on the X940E is the best in LED TVs of 2017 — it is capable of doubling the contrast ratios from 4941:1 to 11634:1. The only other LED TV with this capability is the VIZIO P65-E1, but its contrast with local dimming enabled is lower than the X940E's (at ~9.3k:1).

The user interface of modern smart TVs can include some advertisements similar to those on the internet or in a mobile app. The X940E does not include any, and it also has a feature for limiting ads in third-party applications.

The X940E can handle dark scenes very well thanks to its high native contrast levels, which clocks in at 4941:1 native, and it can go up to 11634:1 with local dimming enabled. This, along with excellent black levels and uniformity, gives the TV the ability to achieve great representations of dark scenes beyond most expectations.

The black levels of a TV affects the viewer’s perception of other colors next to it. If the black levels are not deep enough and doesn’t remain uniform across the screen, the overall picture quality will look “flat” without much depth. The X940E handles this extremely well with one of the lowest deviation (<0.6%) ever in a non-OLED panel. This is measured across the entire screen from what a pure black screen should be, giving it significant gains in its native contrast levels thereby increasing the picture quality by a ton.

The X940E has a practical peak brightness of ~1,100nits for both SDR and HDR content — this is by far the second brightest ever in a VA panel, only bested by the X930E. It can sustain this level of brightness when playing content and it will not have any issues with fighting light in bright environments thanks to its virtually reflection-less panel.

The X940E runs on Android TV — normal Android apps from the Google Play Store (or other app stores) will work on it.

Unlike the OLED panels in this price range, the X940E has a VA panel and thus it does not suffer from image retention issues.

The X940E shines in dark environments — it is great at reproducing dark scenes, making it suitable for enjoying media in a cinema-like setting. It performs extremely well in movies with many black highlights/scenes where this is immediately noticeable even to undiscerning viewers (e.g. Interstellar).

The X940E's panel has a glossy finish, unlike the X930E which has a semi-gloss finish. This, along with its ability to get very bright, means that this TV is excellent at handling reflections — even in a bright room, the picture quality will remain more or less the same.

The color gamut of a TV refers to the range of colors the display can reproduce — the wider the color gamut, the more colors it can display, and the better the overall picture quality will be. This is extremely important for HDR content because it requires a much wider color gamut than SDR content. The X940E has no issues with accurately reproducing the colors necessary for true HDR because its color gamut is one of the widest and only bested by some OLEDs.

The X940E is the best LED TV of 2017, outperforming its competitors in nearly every aspect. Its picture quality is top-notch for any kind of content and it can handle all sorts of use cases really well.