Sony’s latest X90 LCD TV could be king of the mid-range
4K TV | £1599 | whf.cm/Sony_X90L
TV tech is progressing with such speed that ‘standard’ OLED and QLED TVs are starting to fade into the background as QD-OLED and MLA models start grabbing the limelight. But before you go feeling sorry for those plucky OLEDs and QLEDs, spare a thought for their even less glamorous siblings, the standard LCD TVs. No organic materials, no Quantum Dots and no Mini LEDs; surely a ‘traditional’ LCD TV stands no chance? Sony’s mid-range X90L – the latest in a long line of very popular X90 models – says otherwise.
The 55in version of this TV that we are reviewing here (the XR-55X90L, to give it its full title) is priced at £1599. That makes it usefully more affordable than the superb A80L OLED TV, which will set you back £1999.
Previous generations of the X90 line have been particularly popular in smaller sizes, but this 55in model is as small as the X90L gets. You can go much, much bigger though – right up to 98 inches if you have the space and budget.
Conservative design
The design of Sony’s core TV models has varied little in recent years, and there is no design revolution for the X90L, which is conservative to the point of slight blandness. It’s quite thick (5.6cm) and heavy (17kg) by modern standards, though not to a startling degree.
As with most current Sony TVs, the X90L comes with feet rather than a pedestal stand. These can be positioned either at the extremes of the set’s bottom edge or closer to its centre. They can also be extended to create a gap beneath the TV for a soundbar.
Gaming options
First things first. Sony’s 2023 TVs still have just two HDMI 2.1 sockets at best and one of those is also the eARC port. That means that if you end up using eARC to connect a soundbar or AV receiver, you will have just one HDMI socket left that can handle 4K/120Hz signals from a PS5, Xbox Series X or PC. Xbox gamers should also be aware that, while the X90L supports Dolby Vision, it doesn’t have a dedicated Dolby Vision game mode, which means gaming in Dolby Vision suffers from pretty much unplayable levels of input lag.
While the X90L has a strong gaming feature set in the grand scheme of things, gaming clearly isn’t quite the priority to Sony’s TV division that it is to LG. Sony’s real focus is evidently movies, as it has been for a long time. That manifests itself in recurring unique features such as the exclusive Bravia Core streaming service, which streams movies in higher quality than any other service, and
