Our Verdict
The Sony W800C has a good contrast ratio and limited motion blur, but it doesn't really stand out from the competition, especially given that the input lag is higher than last year.
- Great motion handling.
- Good picture quality in a dark room.
- Not very bright.
- Limited viewing angle.
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We buy and test dozens of TVs yearly, taking an objective, data-driven approach to deliver results you can trust. Our testing process is complex, with hundreds of individual tests that take over a week to complete. Most of our tests are done with specially designed test patterns that mimic real content, but we also use the same sources you have at home to ensure our results match the real-world experience. We use two main tools for our testing: a Colorimetry Research CR-100 colorimeter and a CR-250 spectroradiometer.
Test Results
The Sony W800C has the thinnest frame that we have measured so far. The pixels start at 0.39" (1 cm). The top half of the TV is also slimmer than the bottom half.
The stand is a curved metal rod. The TV moves back and forth when you push it, but it isn't something to worry about.
The left and right edges of the screen are darker than the center, as is the top half.
The colors change when you sit at an angle. This won't be a deal breaker for most people, but it isn't ideal if you have a wide living room.
Update 01/06/2017: We have changed the methodology of testing. Since this is an old TV which we don't have anymore, we extrapolated the results from 2016 TVs.
Our unit had a few brighter clouding spots all around the screen on a black background.
The W800C's semi-gloss finish doesn't reflect a lot of light.
It can't get bright, so do not buy this TV if you have a lot of windows in your room.
The 3D picture has less crosstalk than last year's W800B. It doesn't come with 3D glasses though, so you will need to buy them separately.
The amount of motion blur on this TV is average-good. You also have full control over the flickering of the backlight using the Motionflow feature (more details here).
The input lag of the Sony W800C is 37.4ms under game mode. This isn't bad, and most gamers won't notice it, but it is an unfortunate step down from last year's version, which had 24.3ms of lag.
The Game and Graphic modes support chroma 4:4:4, but have an issue with certain alternating pixel patterns (see here). The TV accepted a 120 fps input, but it didn't pass the frame skipping test.
The frequency response is poor at higher levels, most likely due to pumping. But it is good at lower volumes. This TV does get very loud and the bass extension is decent for a TV.
Minimal distortion at comfortable listening levels, but the distortion jumps dramatically as the TV is pushed to its limits.
