Sony X80K TV Review

The TV is slightly redesigned from the Sony X80J, and it looks closer to the Sony X85J. Although it's a basic design, it looks nice overall.

After four months on our TV accelerated longevity test, the brightness of this TV has dropped by more than 5%, but no new uniformity issues have developed.

The stand is typical of Sony, with wide-set metal feet that have a big footprint, so you'll need a large table to place it on. It supports the TV well, and it raises the screen 3.3 inches off the table, meaning most soundbars won't block it.

Footprint of the 65-inch TV: 47.6" W x 13.3" D x 2.60" H (to the bottom bezel).

The back features a checkerboard pattern that gives it a bit of character. The inputs are side-facing, but they're set into the back, so they aren't the easiest to access with the TV wall-mounted on a fixed bracket. There are clips on the back of each foot for cable management.

The TV has decent build quality. It's stable on the stand without much wobble thanks to the solid metal feet. The TV itself is made entirely out of plastic that's well-put-together, and there aren't any issues with it, but the plastic itself isn't very strong. The back panel flexes easily, especially towards the center.

The TV has a very low native contrast ratio, so blacks look gray in the dark, and it isn't a good choice for watching movies. Sadly, there's no local dimming feature to improve it either. If you want something with a higher contrast, then check out the Sony X85K or the Samsung CU8000.

This TV doesn't have a local dimming feature, so there's no blooming around bright objects or subtitles in dark scenes. But as the X80K is unable to brighten highlights without impacting the rest of the image, dark scenes look washed out.

This TV doesn't have a local dimming feature, so it can't adjust the backlight level of individual zones to brighten up highlights without impacting the rest of the image. However, the lack of dimming zones means that there's no distracting flicker or brightness changes as bright highlights move between zones.

The Sony KD65X80K is slightly brighter in Game Mode, but it doesn't make any noticeable difference in dark scene performance.

The HDR peak brightness is mediocre. It isn't nearly high enough to make highlights pop and deliver a satisfying HDR experience.

These measurements are after calibration with the following settings:

• Picture Mode: Cinema
• Brightness: Max
• Color Temperature: Expert 2

Although this TV is very slightly brighter in Game Mode, its overall HDR brightness is still mediocre.

These measurements are after calibrating the HDR white point, with the following settings:

• Picture Mode: Game
• Brightness: Max
• Color Temperature: Expert 2

The Sony X80K has good PQ EOTF tracking. Due to its poor contrast, near-blacks are significantly raised, but then the TV follows the PQ EOTF well until it gets close to its peak brightness. It then dips below the PQ EOTF target, meaning that the TV is darker than it should be at this juncture. The TV clips everything above its peak, resulting in a loss of fine detail.

The TV has decent SDR peak brightness. It's fine for rooms with a few lights around, but it doesn't get bright enough to fight a ton of glare if you place it opposite a window. Luckily, it maintains its brightness very consistently across different scenes.

These measurements are after calibration with the following settings:

• Picture Mode: Custom
• Brightness: Max
• Color Temperature: Expert 1 (Calibrated)

The Sony X80K has a good color gamut for HDR content. It displays a wide range of colors in the commonly-used DCI-P3 color space, but it isn't future-proof because it has limited coverage of the wider Rec. 2020 color space, which more content will start to use. Unfortunately, the tone mapping is off, so some colors don't look accurate, especially in the Rec. 2020 color space.

The color volume is okay, as some colors get bright. However, it's limited by the incomplete color gamut, and it doesn't display dark colors well due to the low contrast ratio.

The TV's out-of-the-box accuracy is excellent. There are only minor inaccuracies to colors and the white balance, and gamma follows the 2.2 target almost perfectly, but some scenes are a bit too dark. The color temperature is on the warm side, giving the image a slightly red tint, but it isn't that noticeable.

After calibration, the color accuracy is remarkable. Any remaining inaccuracies aren't visible to the naked eye, and both the gamma and color temperature are nearly spot-on with the target.

You can see our full calibration settings here.

The TV has very good gray uniformity. For the most part, the screen is uniform throughout, which is good for watching sports or using it as a PC monitor. However, there's some vignetting in the corners, and there's a bit of dirty screen effect in the center, which you can notice with sports that have large playing surfaces with the same color, like in hockey.

The black uniformity is disappointing. The bottom right side of the screen looks patchy as there's noticeable backlight bleed, and the rest of the screen is blue due to the low contrast. Unfortunately, it doesn't have a local dimming feature to improve it. If the black uniformity and dark room performance are important to you, then look into the Samsung Q60/Q60B QLED.

The TV has a very good viewing angle. The image remains consistent when viewing off-center, and even if the screen looks darker at really wide angles, it's still good enough for watching TV in a wide seating arrangement.

The reflection handling is decent. It's fine if you have a few lamps around, but it struggles when there are strong reflections coming from a window.

The Sony KD65X80CK's gradient handling is decent. There's some banding in every dark color gradient: dark greens, reds, blues, and grays, as well as in bright greens.

The TV's low-quality content smoothing is poor. There's some visible macro-blocking in dark scenes, although details are preserved very well.

This TV does a good job when enhancing edges or test in a low-resolution signal.

The test image was upscaled using the following settings:

• Sharpness: 60
• Reality Creation, Manual: 20

The TV has an ADS panel, which is similar to an IPS panel and shares the same characteristics. It has an RGB subpixel structure, so it displays text better than panels with a BGR subpixel layout, which negatively affects text clarity when using it as a PC monitor.

The response time is decent. There's a bit of blur trail behind fast-moving objects, and because there's overshoot in dark transitions, it has inverse ghosting in dark scenes. The response time is also particularly slow in dark scenes; this is not the TV for fast-moving dark content.

The Sony X80CK's backlight is completely flicker-free at all brightness levels, which helps reduce eye strain. It doesn't cause image duplications.

The Sony X80CK has an optional backlight strobing feature, commonly known as black frame insertion, to reduce persistence blur. It only flickers at 120Hz, which causes image duplications with 60 fps content.

The Sony X80K has a motion interpolation feature to bring lower-frame-rate content up to 60 fps. It works well in scenes with slow movement, but it struggles when there's a lot of movement. It doesn't actually stop interpolating with busier scenes, so there's a lot of artifacts.

Due to the relatively slow response time, there isn't much stutter with lower-frame-rate content as it doesn't hold each frame on for a long time.

The TV only removes judder from native 24p content, like from a Blu-ray player. Unlike the LG UQ9000, other sources like streaming or cable boxes that don't have a Match Frame Rate feature aren't completely judder-free, so motion in movies doesn't look as smooth.

The TV doesn't support any variable refresh rate technologies. If you want a similar TV with VRR support, then check out the Samsung Q80/Q80B QLED or the Hisense A6H.

The Sony X80CK has low input lag for a responsive gaming experience, as long as you're in Game Mode. You can enable the motion interpolation feature, but it negatively impacts the input lag and isn't suggested for gaming.

The Sony X80K supports all common resolutions up to 4k @ 60Hz. It displays proper chroma 4:4:4 with 1080p and 4k signals, which is important for clear text, but it doesn't display it properly with 1440p signals.

As the Sony X80CK is limited to HDMI 2.0 bandwidth and a 60Hz refresh rate, it can't play any game from the PS5 above 4k @ 60Hz. The Auto Low Latency Mode switches the TV into Game Mode when you launch a game from a compatible device to reduce input lag.

As the TV is limited to HDMI 2.0 bandwidth and a 60Hz refresh rate, it can't play any game from the Xbox Series X or S above 4k @ 60Hz. The Auto Low Latency Mode switches the TV into Game Mode when you launch a game from a compatible device to reduce input lag.

The Sony X80K doesn't support HDR10+, so if you want to watch HDR content with this format, you'll be limited to HDR10 instead. Some websites advertise that it has HDMI 2.1 inputs, but it's still limited to HDMI 2.0 bandwidth, and even if it supports eARC on HDMI 3 and Dolby Vision on HDMI 3 and 4, those don't require HDMI 2.1 bandwidth.

It has ATSC 3.0 support, meaning you can get 4k over-the-air channels in certain regions. Also, it doesn't have an analog output like the Sony X80J, so you can't connect headphones with a wired connection.

Thanks to the eARC support, you can connect a receiver and pass high-quality lossless audio by connecting the sources directly to the Sony X80K.

The TV has an okay frequency response. It has a well-balanced sound profile with lower and moderate volume levels, but there's a dip in the treble range at the max volume, so dialogue sounds less clear, especially if there are background sounds. Like most TVs, it doesn't produce much bass, so it's best to get a soundbar or dedicated surround sound setup for the best sound possible.

The distortion performance is unremarkable. There isn't too much distortion at moderate listening levels, but there's a lot more in the mid and treble range at the max volume.

The TV comes with the same Google TV interface as other Sony TVs. Navigating through the menus feels smooth, and there aren't any big issues with it, but it may take some time to learn if you aren't used to it.

Unfortunately, like most smart platforms, there are ads throughout the interface. You can opt-out of personalized ads, but that just means you'll get non-targeted ads instead.

The Google Play Store has a ton of apps you can download, so you're sure to find your favorite streaming service. The TV is compatible with the BRAVIA CAM, which is sold separately, and you can use it to make video calls or use hands-free gestures.

Sony released a redesigned remote with the 2022 TVs. It's smaller, with a sleeker look than the 2021 and older models, and it doesn't have a numpad. Instead, you need to press the '123' button for a virtual numpad to appear on the screen. It has a built-in mic for voice control, and you can ask it to do most common demands, including switching inputs, opening apps, and changing certain settings like the brightness.

There's a single button underneath that you can use to turn the power on/off, switch inputs, change channels, and adjust the volume.

• Remote
• 2x AAA batteries
• 4x VESA mount adapters
• 2x clips for cable management
• Power cable
• Manuals and user guides