Sony hasn't endeared itself to us in recent years. It's had a nasty habit of releasing TVs that weren't up to the high standard we expected, and cost an awful lot of cash. The company has promised a change of direction after a financial results shock, however, and it's determined to prove it's got what it takes to win over our TV-loving hearts once again.
The NX703 range is particularly stylish and offers a little more in the way of features than the average telly. The 46-inch model we tested costs around £1,700. We're certain that price will fall in time, but it's certainly not cheap. The question is, as always, what does it do to earn its keep?
Stylish new direction for Sony
Sony didn't offer much in the way of styling to differentiate its TVs from anything else on the market last year. For the most part, its screens were pretty mundane. This year, however, the 'Monolith' design has made the company as proud as a father walking his daughter down the aisle.
The model we tested was finished in white, which we found rather fetching. The Monolith concept is so-called because the single panel makes the TV look like one piece of glass. It's very smart, but it works better when the bezel is black, rather than white.
We really love the remote too. It's well thought out, and very funky. Its curved shape gives it an unusual but comfortable feel. The buttons work well and no complications arise from them being rather flat, in a half-moon shaped dip. Sony has seen fit to include a single off switch on the back too. This harks back to when the company used to offer remotes that could be flipped between a simple or more complicated style, but takes that idea to a new level.
One slight gripe: some of the sockets at the back of the TV are a little hard to push cables in to. The HDMI inputs in particular are hidden in a recess that makes it very hard to get a chunkier cable in. This isn't the end of the world, but it might cause you problems if you've invested in very sturdy, bulky cables. Other than that, the TV has enough connections, although four HDMI inputs is beginning to feel like it might not be enough for today's world.
Fully apocalypse-enabled
Like many modern TVs, the NX703 is Internet-aware. This means one day Skynet will instruct it to rise up, destroy all humans and create a machine dystopia. Until then, it'll happily fetch films, on-demand TV and other information from the Internet for you.
Services available right now include LoveFilm and Demand Five (as in channel Five), as well as Web favourites such as YouTube and DailyMotion. Upcoming, too, is the BBC's fabulous iPlayer. All of this makes your TV one of the most flexible entertainment centres you can buy.
LoveFilm is free if you subscribe to any of its 'unlimited' packages, although not all of its titles are available for streaming. To set it up, you visit a Web site and register your device with a short, four-digit PIN. Then you just select the movie you want to watch, and off you go. Brilliant.
Demand Five requires substantially less configuration, and works off the bat with no excessive tweaking. It's very cool indeed, and the perfect way to catch up with Extreme Fishing with Robson Green. We can't wait to see what other services Sony adds in the future -- it's certainly ahead of many of its rivals.
Sony does love a Cross Media Bar, or as it calls it, Xross Media Bar.
We can't bring ourselves to use such a vile brand name though, so we'll
stick with Cross if that's okay with you. The best thing about this menu
system is it displays a vast amount of content and options in an
unintimidating way. The main horizontal bar has icons for settings,
video, audio and channels, with vertical bars leading off them for each
option. Anyone who's used a PlayStation
3 will be familiar with the system, but there's no massive learning
curve for new users.
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byronvenn 29 September 2012
Good: picture quality is very good for fast moving action.
Bad: back light could be abit darker.
Comment: overall i am happy owner.
Xanath 10 June 2010
Good: Design and picture make it a stand out product
Bad: Bit pricey but has to be expected of a freshly launched TV
Comment: I bought the 46NX703/B as a replacement for my old 40W4500 as I really wanted a HD Freeview tuner for the upcoming world cup and I had received a decent offer for my old telly. I am not disappointed.
However, before I continue with the review, the first thing to mention is the difference between the 46NX703/B (As featured in the CNET review) and the 46NX703. Good old sony decided to use almost exactly the same code for two very different tellys, with the 46NX703/B the thin edge lit variant and the the 46NX703 a more traditional thicker backlit TV. This results in the 46NX703/B being about a quarter to third as thick as the 46NX703 which makes a big difference to the overall aesthetic of the set.
Now that we have got that out the way with, I would like to say that the picture quality from a TV as thin as this one is outstanding. Personally I would say the picture from the NX703/B is better than the old telly as I cannot see any of the clouding that I experienced previously with the W4500. SD picture quality also seems to have improved having moved from BRAVIA Engine 2 to BRAVIA Engine 3.
I am also lucky enough to already be receiving a HD Freeview signal and the picture quality on BBC HD and Channel 4 HD is excellent, although ITV 1 HD is less impressive with far more noise and poorly rendered picture in comparison with its rivals.
Blu ray and PS3 pictures are perfect but a little time tweaking the picture settings will pay dividends in regards to getting the best picture possible. I found that turning up the LED back lighting a little made the picture 'pop' that much more whilst playing with the more traditional settings a bit also helped as per usual.
The internet TV stuff is also very impressive although as you can imagine channels such as YouTube can look very grainy. LoveFilm on the other hand provides a very impressive HD signal but obviously this does not compare with a blu-ray signal.
The 46NX703/B also tops out at 100Hz and having done a side by side comparison in the shop of a similar 200Hz set (the 46NX803) I could not tell the difference, especially as the the 200Hz telly was another £400.
One last point of note if you have a PS3 and/or Sony amp is the Bravia Sync, which takes a lot of the hassle out of mucking about with different remotes and bits of kit. I know it sounds daft but once you get used to turning on your PS3 and surround sound with the press of one button on a Dualshock it is hard to go back.
In conlcusion, if you are looking for a set that will last you the next 3 - 5 years if you are a bit of Tech geek ( ... as long as you can live without 3D) then this set is thin enough, bright enough and downright slik enough to last the distance.
A very pleased owner.
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