Our Verdict
The Sony Z9F is a great TV for most uses. It's especially well-suited for playing video games, and it's a good choice for use as a PC monitor. Movies look great, but dark room performance isn't as great due to the contrast ratio. The TV is extremely bright, making it a good choice for use in a bright room, as it can easily overcome glare.
- Extraordinarily bright in SDR and HDR.
- Excellent low input lag.
- Great local dimming feature.
- Disappointing contrast ratio.
The Sony Z9F is great for watching movies in a dark room. Unfortunately, the native contrast ratio isn't great, but the great local dimming feature somewhat compensates for this. Unfortunately, there's a lot of blooming that's especially noticeable around subtitles. The TV has an excellent fast response time, great for action films, and can also remove judder from any 24p source.
The Z9F is a great TV for watching TV shows during the day. It's extremely bright, great for overcoming glare in a bright room, and it has excellent reflection handling. The viewing angles aren't as wide as most IPS or OLED TVs, but still good if you like to move around while watching TV. The motion interpolation feature is great if you enjoy the soap opera effect.
The Z9F is great for sports fans. It has good gray uniformity; there's some dirty screen effect but it isn't too noticeable. It has an excellent fast response time, with very little motion blur. The TV is extremely bright, and although the viewing angles aren't perfect it still looks good when you're watching the big game with a group of friends.
The Sony Z9F is an excellent TV for playing video games. It has an excellent fast response time, and excellent low input lag. Unfortunately, it doesn't support VRR or auto low latency mode. Playing games late at night isn't perfect, as the contrast ratio is low and blacks appear gray in a dark room.
Great TV for watching movies in HDR. The TV has a great wide color gamut and is extremely bright, able to deliver a picture closer to what the content creator intended. Unfortunately, the contrast ratio isn't very good and blacks can appear gray in a dark room. Watching with subtitles on can also be extremely distracting as there's a lot of blooming around the subtitles.
Excellent TV for gaming in HDR. It has excellent low input lag and an extremely fast response time, so motion is fluid and responds quickly to every button press. It has a wide color gamut, and HDR content is extremely bright, making highlights pop. Unfortunately, late-night gaming in a dark room isn't perfect, as blacks tend to appear gray.
Excellent TV for use as a PC monitor. It has an extremely fast response time and excellent low input lag, so it feels responsive. It supports all of the common resolutions without any issues, and chroma 4:4:4 / RGB is displayed perfectly, as long as either the 'Game' or 'Graphics' Picture Mode is used.
Changelog
- Updated Jul 07, 2020: The operating system has been updated to Android 9.0.
- Updated May 21, 2020: Converted to Test Bench 1.5.
- Updated Feb 21, 2020: Converted to Test Bench 1.4.
- Updated Feb 28, 2019: Converted to Test Bench 1.3.
Check Price
Differences Between Sizes And Variants
We tested the 65" Sony MASTER Series Z9F (XBR65Z9F), and for the most part, we expect our review to be valid for the 75" model (XBR75Z9F) as well.
The European variant of the TV is also known as the ZF9, and we expect it to offer the same performance.
If someone comes across a different type of panel or if their Sony Z9F doesn't correspond to our review, let us know and we'll update the review. Note that some tests such as the gray uniformity may vary between individual units.
| Size | US Model | Alternative Name | EU Model |
| 65" | XBR65Z9F | XBR-65Z9F | KD-65ZF9 |
| 75" | XBR75Z9F | XBR-75Z9F | KD-75ZF9 |
The 65" Z9F we tested was manufactured in Aug. 2018.
Popular TV Comparisons
The Sony Z9F is a great TV, with decent picture quality and some welcome improvements. It faces some tough competition in the high-end market, though, and there are some TVs out there that outperform it for less. See our recommendations for the best TVs on the market.
The Sony Z9F is better than the Sony Z9D, unless you watch movies in the dark from directly in front. The Z9F is much brighter in SDR, and a bit brighter in HDR. The 2018 Z9F has much better motion handling, with significantly faster response time and less input lag, great for gaming. The Z9F also has faster smart features, running a newer version of the Android TV operating system. The Z9D is a bit better in a dark room, as it has a better contrast ratio and better local dimming feature, but the image degrades rapidly when viewed at an angle.
The Vizio P Series Quantum 2018 is a bit better than the Sony Z9F for most people. The P Series Quantum performs better in a dark room, as it has better native contrast and better black uniformity. The Quantum also has a much wider color gamut and better color volume. The Sony Z9F has much better gradient handling, and more advanced smart features, including access to the excellent Google Play Store.
The Sony Z9F is slightly better than the Sony X900F. The Sony Z9F has wider viewing angles as it incorporates Sony's 'X-Wide-Angle' technology at the expense of lower contrast ratio. The Sony Z9F can compensate slightly for the lower contrast ratio through the better implementation of local dimming support. In most other aspects, the two TVs are very similar.
The Sony A8F OLED is better than the Sony Z9F, unless you consume a lot of static content and are concerned about the possibility of permanent burn-in inherent in OLED panels. The A8F has perfect dark-room performance, thanks to the perfect blacks provided by the OLED panel. The A8F also has better motion handling, with a near-instantaneous response time, and much wider viewing angles. The Z9F does not have the risk of burn-in, and is much brighter, better suited for use in a bright room.
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 use 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
Older Test Bench: This product has been tested using an older TV test methodology, before a major update. Some of the test results below aren't directly comparable with other TVs. Learn more
for pictures & test results
for pictures & test results
for pictures & test results
for pictures & test results
for pictures & test results
for pictures & test results
