At CES 2016, one of the big iterative improvements to the TVs that we’re seeing — that you’re going to be buying in the near future — is Ultra HD Premium, with explicit support for 4K video with high dynamic range. Sony is very much in the 4K HDR camp, with eight new TVs in its fifteen-screen Aussie line-up supporting the brand new standard.
Sony is one of the big drivers in the UHD Alliance, so it should come as no surprise that the top screens in its 2016 Bravia TV line-up are Ultra HD Premium compliant. It even has its own 4K HDR logo to make it clear when you’re standing in the store trying to make a decision. (Note that Sony loves the term “4K”, while everyone else is a fan of “Ultra HD”.)
Sony claims up to 4000 nit maximum brightness from its best TVs — that’s four times Samsung’s best 1000 nit screen just announced this morning, and 10 times the brightness of the kind of garden-variety That’s courtesy of something Sony calls Backlight Master Drive. We’re still waiting on more details, but just like last year, you can expect the same minimalist design, and the same crazy wide colour gamut courtesy of Sony’s brilliant TRILUMINOS quantum dot backlighting and LCD panels.
Here’s what you can expect some time from Sony over the next six months in Australia:
2016 BRAVIA 4K TV Line-Up
· X9400D Series (75” model) 4K HDR TV
· X9300D Series (55” and 65” models) 4K HDR TV
· X8500D Series (55”, 65”, 75” and 85” models) 4K HDR TV
2016 BRAVIA LCD TV Line-Up
· W750D Series (43” and 49” models) Full HD LCD TV
· W650D Series (55” model) Full HD LCD TV
· W600D Series (32” model) HD LCD TV
If Sony’s TV release schedule follows previous years, we’ll see the better displays drip-fed towards the later half of 2016, though the mass-market Full HD and entry-level Ultra HD screens should be out in the next couple of months.