I believe that every enthusiast who pays attention to the display field can not calm down their mood after watching Sony's conference on January 4. 8K mini-LED, QD OLED one new technology after another in the form of consumer-grade mass production products have been brought to us, perhaps another revolution in large-screen display will begin today. But after a day of cooling, I carefully looked at the conference and product information and found that things were not so simple.
First, not so "mini" mini-LED, not necessarily worse mini-LED backlight and full array backlight is actually no essential difference. The principle is to achieve the enhancement of the contrast between light and dark of the picture by opening and closing the backlight beads. However, because the mini-LED is smaller, it can accommodate more lamp beads and partitions under the same size, which has more advantages in brightness and backlight control fineness. From the hardware point of view alone, this part is definitely the higher the number of lamp beads, the better. Although we do not know how many lamp beads are used in Z9K and X95K, from the official website, "to control thousands of tiny, high-dense Mini LEDs" thousands of mini-LED lamp beads, it is speculated that there may be hundreds of partitions. Compared to the Samsung QN900A with 1920 partitions and the Huawei V75 Super with 2880 partitions, the Z9K is not dominant in terms of quantity.
The reaction on the screen may be that the halo is poorly suppressed. However, please note that here I use the word "maybe", one is that no one can make a positive conclusion before seeing the actual picture. There is also the fact that Sony is best at using not-so-good hardware, and it is hard to get a great picture through tuning. For example, Sony's LCD TV color gamut ranking has almost always hovered in the middle of the ZHIDIAN TV color gamut list. But in terms of actual color performance, people still deserve to be the first.
Therefore, the XR dynamic backlight system master version highlighted at the press conference should be the key. First, the picture is analyzed frame by frame, and the picture is optimized in the form of software through calculation in the way that best suits the human eye's perception, and then with a mini-LED backlight. Presenting you with a picture of dazzling light and deep darkness.
Second, the QD OLED of technology upgrading is not necessarily good
Compared to mini-LED, QD OLED may not be as well known. It can be simply understood that it is a combination of quantum dots and OLED, and at the same time has a wide color gamut of quantum dots and the extreme light control effect of OLED. This technology originated from Samsung's bet on the new era of display technology, for which they even directly cut off the original LCD panel product line. I didn't expect that the first consumer-grade QD OLED to start was actually Sony.
Previously, all OLED TVs basically used panels provided by LG. It uses blue and yellow OLED compounds to generate white light pixels, and then forms red, green, and blue subpixels through color filters. In addition, to improve brightness it has an unfiltered white subpixel. So the LG panel is actually made up of four subpixels of WRGB (white, red, green, blue).
QD OLED directly uses the blue light with the strongest light energy as the light source, and converts blue to red and green through quantum dots, without the need for filters. Therefore, QD OLED has higher brightness than the previous OLED. The use of quantum dot technology will also make a leap in its color gamut coverage. It is rumored that the panel of QD OLED can cover 90% of BT2020, and 3% of the window brightness exceeds 1500nits. But after all, this is a completely new technology, Sony as a user of technology, compared to the developer Samsung, it can make a limited adjustment. The launch of the QD OLED also means that it has to take on the problem of optimizing in the shortest possible time.
And Sony's first generation of products has always been said. Like the WH1000XM1 wireless headphones, the first generation of Sony A7 micro single camera, these products have more or less not met consumer expectations for them. It wasn't until the second and third generations of products that they evolved into a more mature look. So I'm more or less worried about what the A95K can be optimized for.
Third, what is new to the heart may be these
The conclusions discussed in the first two topics must wait until the actual hand is used to verify them. Let's talk about the things that cloud reviews can also conclude about: cameras and remote controls.
My impression is that starting from huawei's smart screen, domestic TV manufacturers have followed up on the design of the camera, and now Sony is finally unable to hold back. In addition to taking photos and video calls, using cameras to achieve gesture control, somatosensory games or fitness and other functions, which we have seen before in the TV of domestic brands. Sony is also difficult to have any new tricks.
It is worth mentioning the Atoment Optimisation Pro mentioned at the press conference. The camera identifies the user's position and distance from the TV and tailors sound and image settings accordingly. Previously, we started to support the Dolby Vision IQ TV, which is based on the light and shade of the environment to adjust the picture of the Dolby Vision source, this kind of picture adjusted according to the environmental changes, in fact, the change is not large. So I'm looking forward to what Sony's user-adjusted picture and sound will look like, and according to the description, it should be able to support more specifications of the film source, rather than being limited to Dolby Vision.
There is also the remote control, since the beginning of the H series we have been complaining about how difficult Sony's "domestic special" remote control is, the button is small, the key range is short, and the feel is poor.
There is basically no way to blindly exercise without deliberately memorizing the keys. I don't know which little genius saw the domestic brand remote control designed with the wind, the most commonly used direction and selection keys can be designed so difficult to use, really can be copied crooked.
So I was not surprised when I deliberately gave the remote control lens at the press conference. From the styling point of view, it is more rounded than the current remote control, and the keys are more concentrated after clicking the number keys than the old remote control. The backlit keys don't matter to me, the most important thing is that its button size is normal size. Kneel and beg Sony to bring this remote control to China this time.
Fourth, the model and size
Tell you a little more about the information I found when I looked at the product profile. This year's K series has a lot of changes in screen size. A summary of the corresponding sizes of the different models of this generation and the previous generation I have summarized in the table below.
Among them, the Z9 series and X95 series with the highest positioning in terms of liquid crystals have not changed. The X90 series removed 50 inches, sold from 55 inches, and added 85 inches. Because the 95 series uses mini-LED backlighting, the X90 series has become the flagship model of the full array backlight, and the size increase is also in line with its positioning upgrade.
OLED part: A95K, currently only 55/65 inches two sizes, QD OLED in more than 65 inches of the absence may let some users turn to the A80 series or the previous generation of A90j. After all, the A90J has a large screen of up to 83 inches to choose from.
The A90K's 48-inch and 42-inch sizes are also very interesting. These two small sizes are definitely against the trend, and in my opinion it is more likely to be positioned on the user's desktop and go with the monitor to grab the market. Prior to this, LG's small-screen OLED TV was the mainstream choice for friends who had certain image quality requirements for desktop monitors, and now Sony's addition, as well as its own PS5 excellent compatibility, are likely to hang a wave of replacement monitors.
Fifth, conclusion OK, the above are some of the ideas that I have generated after watching Sony's conference and combining my experience with testing TV over the years. The X90K and A80K, whose technology has not changed much, have very little ink at the press conference. I predict that they will not be very much different from the J series, as for the other three, whether they can usher in a revolutionary upgrade of large-screen display technology this year will have to be known after the actual hand. We will also bring you the detailed evaluation video of these products for the first time after that, welcome everyone to pay attention to the account of Zhidian Xiaochun Brother, we will see you in the next test video.