The Sony A9F is an outstanding OLED TV, one of the best we have ever tested. Like all OLEDs, it delivers perfectly deep blacks, and has wide viewing angles. HDR looks great thanks to the excellent wide color gamut, and the best color volume that we've measured so far on an OLED. It has excellent motion handling, low input lag, and all four HDMI ports support HDMI 2.0 full bandwidth. Unfortunately, it isn't very bright with bright white scenes. The Android 8.0 smart platform is much faster than previous Sony TVs.
- 4K HDR: Enjoy lifelike details
- OLED: Exquisite, unprecedented contrast
- X1 Ultimate processor: Ultimate realism
- Pixel contarst booster: Maximising OLED contrast in every colour
- Acoustic surface audio : Taking sound into multiple dimensions
- Triluminos display: Life's brilliance revealed through extra colours
- 4K X-Reality pro: Best clarity ever
The A9F has an outstanding design. It looks great, and is built with premium materials and an impressive attention to detail. The TV has excellent cable management, providing for an extremely clean look. Like the A1E, there are small rubber feet under the screen, so the screen itself is not resting on the table beneath it, and the screen tilts back slightly. Unfortunately, the design makes the A9F difficult to move, but most people are not going to be moving the TV often, so this shouldn't be an issue.
The stand design of the A9F is very similar to the Sony A1E. The stand is large and quite bulky, but supports the TV extremely well. Like the A1E, the stand causes the TV to lean back at a slight angle. The stand cannot be removed, as it contains the majority of the TV's electronic components.
There are two sets of feet underneath the screen portion of the A9F. The inner set of feet are larger, and appear to play a larger role in supported the TV. These feet require a surface at least 12.8" (32.5 cm) wide.
Footprint of the 55" stand: 11.5" x 48.3"
The back of the A9F looks extremely clean with the covers on, and has excellent cable management. The back panels have a fabric cover on them, similar to speaker panels.
Borders
The display itself is quite thin, but the stand behind it is large. The stand can be folded in when wall mounted. The display portion of the screen is almost twice as thick as the LG OLED TVs, but still very thin.
The thickness measurement was taken with the stand folded in, as if the TV was wall mounted.
Outstanding build quality. The A9F is well built using premium materials. There are no gaps or cracks in the framing that could cause issues down the road.
Picture Quality
The XBR-55A9F delivers excellent picture quality. The OLED panel is especially well suited for a dark room, as the self-emissive technology delivers perfect blacks. The A9F is bright enough for most rooms, but it doesn't get very bright with bright white scenes. It has an excellent wide color gamut, and the best color volume we've measured on an OLED. Out of the box picture accuracy is good, and most of the measured inaccuracy is due to the fact that Sony is now targeting 2.4 gamma instead of 2.2. Large areas of similar color look great, as the A9F has the best gradient performance we've ever seen, even better than the Z9F.
Good peak brightness in SDR on the A9F. Overall, it is similar to the A8F. Large white scenes aren't very bright due to the TV's ABL. When Peak Luminance is set to 'Off', the A9F displays at a constant luminance of ~140 cd/m², regardless of content. In any mode, the TV automatically dims after about 2 minutes of displaying static content, and this can't be disabled.
Update 10/03/2018: Retested the brightness after firmware PKG6.0348.0059NAA. All measurements are essentially the same as before (+/- 15 cd/m²). Notably the TV's aggressive dimming over time is unchanged; sometimes the TV dims after just two minutes of static content, as shown in the plot over time. The measurements in the review have not been changed.
Decent peak brightness in HDR. Small highlights in some scenes get bright enough to stand out, but bright white scenes are dim. Overall, the A9F's HDR brightness is slightly worse than the A8F, as some small details in some scenes aren't as bright.
If you find HDR content too dim, you can adjust the Contrast and Gamma to your liking. If it is still too dim, increase the Adv. Contrast Enhancer setting to your liking.
Update 10/03/2018: Retested the brightness after firmware PKG6.0348.0059NAA. All measurements are essentially the same as before (+/- 15 cd/m²). Notably the TV's aggressive dimming over time is unchanged; sometimes the TV dims after only one minute of static content, as shown in the plot over time. The measurements in the review have not been changed.
The Sony A9F has excellent gray uniformity, similar to the LG C8 and Sony A8F. There is very little dirty screen effect, and there shouldn't be any issues watching sports. In dark scenes, as measured with the 5% gray, there are some noticeable vertical bands. This is commonly seen on OLED TVs but shouldn't cause any issues.
The A9F has nearly identical viewing angles to the other 2018 OLED TVs, like the A8F and C8. Like all OLED TVs, the image remains very accurate even at wide viewing angles.
The Sony A9F has perfect black uniformity thanks to the OLED panel which can turn off black pixels completely.
The new Sony CMS is easier to use than LG's, and results in excellent color and white accuracy. Any remaining inaccuracies are not noticeable without specialty equipment. The gamma is flat at our target of 2.2, and the color temperature is close to our target of 6500 K.
You can see our recommended settings here.
1080p content is displayed well, but when sent a 1080p signal with a 60 Hz or lower refresh rate, the A9F switches to nearest neighbor upscaling, like the Sony X900E. This type of upscaling looks more jagged than other methods, but retains the sharpness of the original image.
Native 4k content is displayed perfectly.
The A9F has an excellent wide color gamut; slightly better than the A1E and nearly identical to the A8F. The EOTF follows the input stimulus perfectly, but clips at the TV's peak brightness. The 'Game' and 'Graphics' EOTFs are nearly identical to the 'Custom' EOTF, which is great.
If you find HDR content too dim, you can adjust the Gamma, Contrast and Adv. contrast enhancer, all of which make the TV brighter. With everything at maximum, HDR content will be noticeably brighter.
Unlike previous Sony TVs, all picture modes on the A9F and Z9F follow the same EOTF. On older models, some picture modes would have a smoother roll off at the TV's peak brightness, so there would be less clipping.
You can see our recommended settings for HDR here.
Outstanding gradient performance, better even than the Z9F. There is slight banding in all colors, but no significant banding in any color. If you see any banding, the Smooth Gradation feature can help, but may also result in some loss of fine details.
There is very slight image retention on the A9F. These results are better than all other OLED TVs we've reviewed so far, with the exception of the LG B8. Note that there is some variation in temporary image retention performance, even between units of the same model so this difference may just be panel variance.
This test is only indicative of short term image retention and not the permanent burn-in that may occur with prolonged exposure to static images. We are currently running a test to help us better understand permanent burn-in. You can read about our investigation into this here.
The Sony A9F has an above-average sound quality. This TV gets loud enough for most environments, produces clear and intelligible dialog, and has a decent punch to its bass. However, its bass lacks thump and rumble (no sub-bass) and tends to produce pumping and compression artifacts under heavier loads. Although this TV may sound good enough for some people, getting dedicated speakers is still recommended for a better sound. The older A1E measured slightly better in our test room, however, the difference won't be noticeable to most people in real life situations. The A9F features a new 'Audio System' mode, and can replace the center channel when connected to an audio receiver. The TV needs to be turned on for the speakers to work, and enabling this mode disables the TV's internal sound.
Remote
The A9F has the same remote control as the Z9F. It has a rubberized back, and soft touch buttons. There are a lot of buttons, more than most remotes from other brands. There is also a quick access button for Netflix, the Google Play Store, and Google Assistant voice control. Most of the remote functions require direct line-of-sight to the TV.
TV Controls
The A9F has a similar control scheme to the other 2018 Sony TVs like the Z9F and X900F. It allows quick access to change channels, inputs, and adjust the volume, as well as powering the TV on or off.
In The Box
- Removable power cable
- IR Blaster
- Instruction manual
- Batteries
- VESA Spacers
- Remote
- Setup Guide
Differences between Sizes and Variants
We tested the 55" Sony MASTER Series A9F (XBR55A9F), and for the most part, we expect our review to be valid for the 65" model (XBR65A9F) as well.The European variant of the TV is also known as the AF9, and we expect it to offer the same performance.If someone comes across a different type of panel or if their Sony A9F doesn't correspond to our review, let us know and we will update the review. Note that some tests such as the gray uniformity may vary between individual units.Size US Model Alternative Name EU Model 55" XBR55A9F XBR-55A9F KD-55AF9 65" XBR65A9F XBR-65A9F KD-65AF9 The A9F we reviewed was manufactured in Aug. 2018- Sony A8F55" 65"The Sony A9F is slightly better than the Sony A8F. Both TVs have excellent dark room performance thanks to the OLED panel which can produce perfectly deep blacks. The A9F has better color volume and displays gradients better. The A9F also has lower input lag, and native support for 1080p @ 120 Hz, great for Xbox One S/X owners, and all four ports on the A9F support HDMI 2.0 full bandwidth. The A9F also has faster smart features, thanks to a newer version of Android TV OS, and a newer chipset.
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