Hey, I'm Daniel from rtings.com
Today we're testing the Sony A9G.
It is a 2019 OLED TV and the successor to
the A9F from last year, putting it as Sony’s
highest end OLED model.
This means it competes with the highest end
models from other manufacturers, like the
Samsung Q90R and LG OLEDs.
We bought the US fifty five inch model to
test, but it is also available in sixty five
and seventy seven inches.
We expect these other sizes to have very similar
picture quality.
Note that Sony models do vary slightly in
model code depending on the region, so the
equivalent in Europe is the AG9.
We expect it to offer the same performance
and features.
In this review we'll start by looking at the
design of the TV and then move on to the picture
quality.
We'll look at the motion handling, input lag,
and sound and then compare to other competing
models which are currently available.
If you’d like to skip straight to our test
results, then see the links in the description
below.
The design of the A9G is impressive.
It is different to last year’s A9F, who's
distinct design resulted in a backwards lean.
This year the TV sits vertical on a very minimalist
stand.
It looks great, and feels stable.
A potential downside for some is that it doesn’t
raise the TV, so there’s no room to put
anything in front like a soundbar.
Moving around to the side, like other OLED
TVs the borders are very thin and look good.
The TV itself is also thin, so it won’t
stick out much if wall-mounted.
The rear of the TV is very interesting, as
it is broken up into a number of squares – some
of which hide removable panels to cover up
the inputs or cables.
This looks really neat, as the panels basically
disappear into the regular pattern on the
back of the TV.
The small three-button control is located
on the left-hand side of the TV and functions
the same way as other Sony TVs.
It can be a bit hard to find by touch when
you aren’t used to the position, which may
be frustrating if the TV is wall mounted.
It provides basic functions like toggling
the power, and changing volume or inputs.
The inputs are located at the side and bottom
of the TV.
There’s a wide range of inputs including
composite for older devices, but it requires
a small adapter which isn’t included with
the TV.
This TV also has speaker terminals, so you
can connect it to an external receiver to
play music through the TV itself.
All of these inputs can be completely hidden
out of the way thanks to the panels.
Looking at a thermal image of the TV, the
usual OLED heat distribution is visible.
The panel is relatively uniform as each sub-pixel
produces its own light.
Now we'll move on to the picture quality.
We'll be comparing to currently available
TVs, but competing models may change as new
TVs are released throughout the year.
For an updated comparison with new models
as we buy and test them, see the review page
on our website which is linked below.
A TVs contrast ratio measures the ratio between
the amount of light emitted by a display in
bright areas compared to dark areas.
We measure this on a checkerboard pattern,
comparing the brightness of a 100 nits white
to the surrounding black rectangles.
TVs that use a transmissive technology like
LCDs, have a light which is then filtered
to produce the correct brightness for each
sub-pixel.
This filter isn’t 100% effective, so increasing
the brightness of the display also results
in a raised black level.
TVs which use an emissive technology like
this OLED TV, don’t have this problem as
the black level doesn’t raise no matter
the brightness.
This results in a perfect contrast, which
is excellent for a dark room.
Now, although OLEDs are able to produce perfect
blacks, they do still tend to have some issues
in very dark scenes in a dark room, as there
can be issues with horizontal or vertical
banding.
Some people find this distracting, and unfortunately
the A9G appears to be in the same ballpark
as other OLED TVs like the C9 or A9F.
Note that just like when viewing these scenes
on the TV itself, you probably won’t see
any banding unless you’re also viewing this
video in a dark room.
Despite these uniformity issues in dark scenes,
for scenes that are brighter the uniformity
of OLED TVs is excellent.
To measure this, we take a photo of a brighter
fifty percent gray pattern on each TV.
This is because uniformity issues which tend
to affect all colors are most noticeable on
this uniform gray background.
Issues here can result in distracting areas
known as the dirty screen effect, which are
problematic when playing games or watching
sports.
The A9G performs exceptionally well, which
is excellent.
This is much better than the Q90 which has
vignetting around the edges and non-uniform
areas near the center.
Now, if you sometimes watch off-axis or have
wide seating then good viewing angles are
important to ensure an accurate image from
any viewing position.
The A9G offers excellent performance as the
gamma remains very consistent.
The brightness also doesn’t drop much which
is good, but the colors do shift so it’s
far from perfect.
All of these TVs perform well, as can be seen
in the video.
The Q90R has an optical layer to improve viewing
angles, so check out our review videos linked
below if you’d like to learn more.
Now, if you’ve got a bright room then good
reflection handling is very important.
The A9G offers almost exactly the same performance
as other OLEDs including the C9 and last year’s
A9F.
It is excellent, and does help to reduce the
intensity of reflections significantly but
also results in a purple tint which some people
don’t like.
The Q90R is the stand out among these TVs
with the best reflection handling we’ve
seen so far.
This is excellent for those in a bright room.
A bright image is also important to counteract
glare.
When watching SDR, the brightness is limited
to about three hundred and fifty nits.
As the brightness of the picture itself increases
further though like on our full-white slide,
the TVs ABL or automatic brightness limiter
kicks in.
This restricts the power usage of the TV and
limits the brightness of the whole screen
to about one hundred and fifty nits.
This is fine for most people, but in a bright
room it may not be enough to counteract glare.
When watching HDR content, a high peak brightness
is important to produce highlights that stand
out.
The A9G is brighter in HDR than SDR, and can
produce bright highlights in our HDR real
scene at about six hundred nits.
This is a bit lower than we measured on the
LG C9 which uses the same OLED panel, but
we don’t know if this difference is just
a result of variance between units.
Overall, while the A9G is likely bright enough
for most people, if you really care about
a bright image and highlights that stand out
then a bright LCD TV like the Q90 or Z9F may
be a better choice.
A wide color gamut is important for producing
vivid colors in HDR content.
The A9G can produce a wide color gamut which
is great, but it is actually a bit lower than
what we measured on the A9F and C9.
We compared the TVs side-by-side with the
same Rec. 2020 HDR signal sent to both TVs
to confirm this difference.
We don’t know why this is, but the difference
is small enough that it isn’t noticeable
without a side by side comparison.
Overall, it is still great for those who plan
to watch HDR.
We also measure the EOTF or electro-optical
transfer function of each HDR TV.
This measurement shows how the brightness
of the TV changes depending on the signal
level or stimulus.
The yellow line in this plot is the reference
PQ curve, or the brightness that an ideal
TV should follow.
This reference line is unachievable by any
TV at the moment though, so every TV has a
way to tone map the input signal to the display’s
capabilities.
This TV follows it accurately, which is good
for those who care about watching movies with
accurate colors as the director intended.-
Like other OLED TVs, the A9G may have the
risk of burn-in after displaying long periods
of static content.
It uses an organic compound to emit light,
which degrades with usage.
You can see our video series linked below
for an investigation into this issue, however
we don’t expect it to be a problem for most
people who change the content that they watch.
So now for the motion.
To learn more about motion on TVs, check out
our video series which is linked below.
OLED TVs like the A9G have an almost instantaneous
response time.
This results in very little blur following
moving content, as most of the blur is the
result of persistence from sample and hold
of the image.
This fast response time is great for gaming
and watching sports.
Unfortunately for low frame rate content this
also means that there is no blur to smooth
between frames of low frame rate movies.
This results in jarring movement when displaying
long, slow panning shots.
If you don’t mind the soap opera effect
then the motion interpolation feature helps
with this issue by increasing the frame rate
of content.
Although overall the response time is very
good, OLEDs tend to have more issues in darker
scenes.
This can result in some feint artefacts.
A lot of people don’t notice it though,
either because it is feint or the content
they watch doesn’t highlight these problems.
Now if you care about an even clearer image
when gaming, then black frame insertion can
be used to clear up the persistence blur.
Like the A9F and other recent OLED TVs, the
A9G also supports a black frame insertion
feature.
For 60 Hz content this displays each frame
for half the duration, with black frames between.
It works well to clear up persistence blur,
and is useful for gamers.
Those sensitive to flicker may find it distracting
and it reduces the screen brightness significantly
though so isn’t for everyone.
Now if you plan to game or use the TV as a
PC monitor, then a low input lag is important
to reduce the delay between an action in-game
and when you see it on the screen.
The input lag is low, at about twenty seven
milliseconds for sixty hertz content, whether
HDR or SDR.
At 1080p 120Hz it is a bit lower at a bit
less than twenty milliseconds.
Strangely, 1440p 120Hz measures noticeably
higher.
We don’t know why this is, but it may be
fixed in a future firmware update.
Overall it is fine for gamers, but not quite
as good as other flagships like the LG C9
or Sony Q90R.
Unfortunately, this TV doesn’t accept a
4k 120Hz signal.
Sony is one of the few manufacturers that
hasn’t been announcing future addition of
HDMI 2.1, so it is likely that this resolution
won’t ever be supported on the A9G.
On to the smart features.
Like the X950G, the A9G has a new and faster
processor compared to previous Sony TVs.
It feels much faster than last year’s models,
and results in a fluid experience when browsing
the menus or opening apps.
The remote has also been upgraded, and while
it keeps many of the same buttons as previous
Sony remotes, it does feel a bit more premium
and more intuitive to use.
There is also a button for direct access to
google assistant, and the remote works even
outside of line of sight which is nice.
Now for the sound.
The A9G has drivers behind the screen, which
is a feature designed to help with the sound
direction.
Overall the sound quality is decent.
It can get fairly loud and is good for most
environments.
It produces clear and well-balanced dialog
and can deliver a good amount of punch to
its bass, but it lacks thump or rumble.
For even better sound, dedicated speakers
or a soundbar is recommended.
A neat feature is that the TV has speaker
terminals so you can use it as a center channel
speaker if you’d like.
So overall, the A9G is an excellent TV with
impressive picture quality.
It is the successor to the A9F, and has a
very different design which looks great.
The overall performance is very similar though,
and we don’t know if the relatively few
differences are a result of variance between
individual units.
Compared to the LG C9, the biggest difference
is the cutting edge features on the LG.
It has lower input lag, which is great for
gamers, and supports the HDMI forum variable
refresh rate for nearly tear-free gaming.
The C9 also supports HDMI 2.1 for future proofing,
but we haven’t tested this yet as no HDMI
2.1 sources are available yet.
If you don’t care about this, then both
TVs have very similar overall picture quality
and they actually use the same LG panels.
LCD TVs like the Q90R have different performance,
so the best TV depends what you care about.
The A9G can produce perfect blacks in a dark
room and has excellent wide viewing angles.
On the other hand, the Q90R can get much brighter
which is especially great in a bright room
or with HDR content.
It also has plenty of features to please gamers
and has no risk of burn-in.
So that's it!
What do you think of the Sony A9G?
Have you bought it?
Let us know what you think below.
You can check out all of the measurements
on our website.
If you like this video, subscribe to our channel,
or become an insider on the website for access
to our latest test results first.
Thank you for watching and see you next time.
