As OLEDs continue to make their way into the homes of consumers who like to see their TVs in high quality, many companies are striving to keep their refinement work in parallel, bringing LCDs to the market that are strikingly close to other models. We had the opportunity to try, for this review, the Sony X90J in its 55 -inch version , a 4K TV that is maintained at an economic cost but brings home a series of features and decidedly quality specifications.

Sony X90J design and features

The Sony X90J TV comes in a very thin black frame, supported by two legs that you can mount in a modular way, so as to have them closer to the center or more sideways. As always, the concept that Sony proposes of classic is interesting: the TV in fact comes with black plastics  that make everything sober, suitable for any type of living room or bedroom (but without shining too much in terms of the quality of these materials. ).

At the rear, the Sony X90J TV offers side inputs (left) that allow the input of 2 USB (one for updating, one for recording on HDD), an optical output, an aux and a 3 audio / video input. , 5mm. It then continues with 4 HDMI inputs (one of which is eARC / ARC and two equipped with VRR and therefore capable of reaching 4K 120 Hz ). Finally, there is an ethernet entrance for internet and inputs for cable TV and antenna.

As for the panel, this manages to express a good power in terms of brightness ( from 500 to 880 nits ), which together with the use of LEDs positioned in various areas (for a total of 32), offers a superior quality to the classic. LCD. Also interesting is the compatibility with Dolby Vision , which allows you to make some of the images with pure blacks very close to the livable experience via OLED (although, of course, we are talking about an artificial quality).

The Sony X90J remains a bit lacking with some HDR content , showing a sort of halo obviously due to the limitations of the LCD, but at the same time it is proposed as one of the best TVs equipped with anti-glare, dynamic that often affects many TVs and which, on the other hand, in this X90J performs at its best, rendering quality images even in strong light. The owners of the previous X900H will finally be happy to know that the problems related to HDMI 2.1 have been completely solved , even if to take advantage of the VRR it will be necessary to do a firmware update (a very simple thing to do, just a USB stick).

From the interface to the potential, passing through the sounds

The Sony X90J uses Google TV, thus adapting to most applications: the way the software is managed is very similar to the XH90 ( which we have already reviewed ), and allows the opening of the product to set it as the main manager for the channels, or to switch to an external decoder (in case of cable TV already present).

The management via Google account allows you to quickly approach each app: this excludes from the equation that couple of software designed only for Smart TVs, but otherwise gives access to a series of really useful applications for a TV . Once connected, it will also be very easy to manage the apps, as well as arrange the various accounts (which can be taken directly from Google, also removing the burden of logging in for the first time).

It is once again necessary to specify it in this review, obviously Sony’s OLED family (which we will talk about shortly) remains better in terms of HDR content, but if you don’t use it a lot and you need a TV more for SDR content , then this X90J remains undoubtedly one of the best choices: on the other hand we are talking about a negligible cost when compared to the OLED , but definitely convenient if you are not so accustomed to HDR.

However, we remind you that the Sony X90J has all the features necessary to make the most of the new PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X / S consoles , thanks to VRR compatibility, 120 Hz and HDMI 2.1: to access it, however, you will have to do an update, nothing difficult but still an extra step that makes everything less plug and play . This is a further strength that (the lucky ones) owners of a next-gen console can consider while choosing whether to buy the Sony X90J subject of this review.