Sony Bravia W50D Android TV review: A pricey yet beautiful Android TV

Televisions are more of an investment than a yearly purchase. Most buy a TV thinking it will last them at least five to seven years. Unless the technology changes completely, like it happened when thin tubes such as LCD’s and Plasma’s became mainstream. Sony has been in the Indian market for decades, this time they've come up with another marvel from their factory, a slick television that we recently got to review.

We played this new Android driven TV and dropped some high-res videos on its screen. We were quite amused (in a good way) with the results. Here is our review of the

Sony Bravia W50D Android TV

.

Design

We are suckers for great design and Sony has been feeding its users with excellent form factors for quite some time now. The Sony Bravia W50D

Android

TV has an appealing design. A slim bezel carries a 43-inch LED panel in the front and hides all the connectors and buttons at the back. The power and other buttons are placed at the left side of the back panel and are well within reach.

Black is a bold but beautiful choice, and the

Sony Bravia W50D

Android TV makes use of it fully. The entire TV is dressed in black, barring the sound bar, which shines in silver and grey. You can place the sound bar at the back when the TV is sitting on a table or can attach it to the bottom when the TV is hung on the wall.

Read Also: Sony Bravia 50W950C Android TV review

Sony Bravia W50D Android TV is just 7 CM thin and comes with a plain universal IR remote, which has a dedicated Netflix button on it, but more on that in the performance section. Sony has again managed to impress us with a simple yet futuristic design, with this thin TV.

Performance

People say a picture can speak a thousand words, however, we say a moving picture can speak a million. This is exactly what the

Sony Bravia

W50D Android TV does. It blew us away as soon as we turned this smart TV on. The colours are vibrant and close to life. This TV set supports full HD 1080p resolution and can give some of the best 4K TVs a run for their money.

Sony has installed Android for TVs on the Sony Bravia W50D, which works nicely. Users get several pre-installed apps such as YouTube and Netflix on it. You can also play games, video-chat with friends using the supplied web cam and also catch the latest shows off the internet.

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Sony Bravia W50D carries 4 HDMI inputs, which is a good thing as most devices today are HD ready and require an HDMI port. One can easily connect multiple HD devices such as a HD set top box, gaming console and a Blu-ray player with this TV (all at the same time). Besides that, this thin tube also features 2 USB, Ethernet and composite ports along with Wi-Fi.

The TV connected easily with the Wi-Fi or an open Ethernet wire for internet. We were able to stream HD content or play it via USB or HDMI with absolute ease. The Sony Bravia W50D Android TV does an exceptional job when it comes to sound. Simply put, it is bombastic, much better than some of its siblings in the category.

Since Netflix is here in India, the addition of a standalone button on the IR remote is wonderful. It takes you directly the Netflix’s home screen and you can start watching your favourite online shows from there.

Verdict

Setting up and turning on the Sony Bravia W50D Android TV was a trouble-free task for us, but we do recommend you take a look at the manual first to setup the TV fully. The 43-inch screen is excellent for medium to large rooms and one rarely finds pixilation or noise on the screen. Yes, the TV is 3D ready, but sadly Sony does not supply any 3D glasses with it.

The Sony Bravia W50D Android TV already costs Rs 82,900 and one would need to shell out another Rs 3,000 to 4,000 on a single pair of 3D glasses (which if you ask us, are not worth picking up). There is not enough 3D content available and those glasses just make the users look goofy. All in all, Sony has produced a great TV set with a steep asking price.