Sony took a step towards a new era of televisions with their announcement of the A1 BRAVIA OLED series. A line of TVs that first got the famed “Acoustic Surface Audio” technology. Sony then followed-up with the more powerful and refined BRAVIA A8F. Is it the 4k TV to get? Let’s found out in our full review.

Design and Construction

The Sony BRAVIA A8F is a gorgeous looking TV, despite its simple design. It has a slim flat screen display with minimal side bezels and a stand that fits perfectly with the overall form of the TV. It feels sturdy and premium to the touch but is quite heavy because of its overall size.

Moving the TV can be quite the challenge even if you only have the 55-inch version. Other than that it’s a TV that can blend well with furniture and shelves. It’s also a relatively slim and sexy 4k OLED television.

All of the ports are located on the left side of the back panel. We have four HDMI ports, two USB 2.0 Type-A ports, a USB 3.0 Type-A port, Audio-in, Ethernet, Video-in, and Audio-out. If you’ll be using a soundbar be sure to use HDMI 3, as that’s the one with ARC (Audio Return Channel) support.

Display and Multimedia

The Sony BRAVIA A8F features a 4k OLED display at 3840 x 2160 resolution. Handling the processing side of images and video is the X1 Xtreme processor. The processor combined with Dolby Vision and 4k X-Reality Pro provides crisp and clear images with impressive dynamic range and contrast. Watching movies and videos was a joy and a blast.

This is another highlight of the television, audio. As we’ve said earlier the A8F is equipped with Sony’s famed “Acoustic Surface Audio” technology, meaning we have two actuators behind the screen where sounds will be coming from. The brand created this technology to mimic a movie theater setting, where the audio is coming from behind the screen and directly aimed at viewers. They also added in a single subwoofer, found at the back.

Sound quality is superb, for a TV speaker. Highs and mids are impressive and clarity is well-maintained even at max volumes. Speaking of max volumes, it can get extremely loud when pumped to 100, enough to fill a large room. Although realistically, you wouldn’t need to raise it to max volumes as 60-80 will be more than enough.

As for lows, it can be felt but is still a little bit lacking. In any case, you’ll really feel the sound coming directly from the screen rather than on the side or down below. Sony came really close to replicating a movie theater experience.

OS, UI, and Features

The A8F is not just a beautiful 4k OLED TV, it’s smart too. Running the software side is Android TV on 7.0 Nougat. You’ll get to enjoy the customization of Android as well as compatible applications and even Google Assistant.

The UI itself is simple and straightforward, the home screen offers a quick selection bar, your installed applications, navigation through google play, and at the very bottom the settings, WiFi connection, and help sections. Granted, it can be a bit overwhelming at first, but once you grasp the basics it’s pretty easy to navigate.

The remote itself offers a lot of shortcut buttons, including Netflix and Google Play ones. There’s also a built-in mic on top for quick voice searches on any search bar you encounter. Anything you’ll ever need to quickly access the TV’s functions is found here. In particular, the home, back, and action menu (a quick settings menu when you’re not at the home screen).

The TV has 16GB of internal storage, which you can expand by connecting supported storage drives. Although be warned, the storage drive you’ll plug-in would have to be formatted in order for it to be compatible.

Conclusion

Sony created an impressive television in the BRAVIA A8F. It has a stunning image and video quality, a superb audio system, a lot of features and customization thanks to Android, and a slim and premium body. With all these features though comes a very hefty price tag though. The 55-inch version of the A8F comes in at Php155,599/$2,910 while the 65-inch costs a whopping Php222,299/$4,158. Still if you have that much dough to shell out, then the A8F is one 4K TV to get.

Sony BRAVIA A8F specifications

• 55 or 65-inch 4k Triluminous OLED Display @ 3840 x 2160 resolution
• Sony X1 Xtreme processor
• 4K X-Reality PRO Dual database processing
• Dolby Vision
• Acoustic Surface Audio
• Dolby Digital, Digital Plus, Pulse
• WIFi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac
• Bluetooth 4.1
• Chromecast
• Miracast
• Video and TV SideView (iOS/Android)
• 4x HDMI (one with ARC support – HDMI 3)
• 2x USB 2.0 Type-A
• USB 3.0 Type-A
• Combo Audio port
• Audio in
• Digital Audio out
• Composite Video in
• Android TV (Android 7.0 Nougat)
• 16GB built-in storage

What we liked about it:

• Gorgeous display
• Impressive Audio System
• Android Customizability
• Slim form factor
• Easy to navigate UI
• Remote with useful shortcuts and built-in mic

What we didn’t like about it:

• Expensive

(yugatech.com, http://bit.ly/2P1Pczh)