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  • Tour & Design

  • Performance Features

  • Connectivity & Media

  • Controls, Menu & Remote

  • Conclusion

  • Series Comparison

  • Tour & Design
  • Performance Features
  • Connectivity & Media
  • Controls, Menu & Remote
  • Conclusion
  • Series Comparison

Tour & Design


The KDL-60NX800 uses Sony's new monolithic design philosophy, where the display front is composed of a single sheet of glass. When the display is turned off, the panel is almost invisible. On the bottom right corner of the bezel are a number of small indicator lights to show the status.

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Back**


On the back of the display are a couple of removable panels that cover the ports where the cables connect. At the bottom of the back, you can see the black bar that sticks out of the stand, to keep the display stable.

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Sides**


On the left side of this display are a number of input ports. On the right side are the controls. The screen itself is tilted upwards by 6 degrees, because Sony thinks that people are increasingly wanting to put their displays on lower bits of furniture, and tilting it like this puts it at a better angle for comfortable viewing.

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Stand/Mount**


The stand of this display is unusual; it is styled to look like a solid piece of metal. This is balanced by a plastic extension at the back that ensures stability. It's certainly a striking design that makes the TV look more like a piece of sculpture. The speakers are also built into this stand, and output sound through the grille on the front side.

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Aesthetics**


Sony has adopted a new design ethos for their 2010 line called monolithic design, which is about turning the HDTV into a single object, with the display being almost invisible when it is turned off. It is certainly a striking and attractive design.

Performance Features

Display Size & Technology


The KDL-60NX800 is built around a Full HD panel, with a resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels. It can also handle all of the lower resolution signals, such as 1080i and 720p. The backlight for the display is handled by an array of LED lights around the edge of the screen. While this keeps the screen thin, it means that it cannot provide the local dimming that many other displays are offering.

The KDL-60NX800 does not support 3D viewing, unlike the more expensive LX900 and HX800 series.

**

Formats & Resolution**


As a Full HD TV, this display can handle any of the HDTV signals currently in use, including the 1080p signals produced by Blu-ray players and every other lower-resolution format.

**

Brightness, Blacks and Contrast Ratio**


We were not able to do our usual in-depth testing of the KDL-60NX800, but the demo footage that Sony was showing on this HDTV looked good, with deep blacks and bright whites. But we'll have to wait to get it into our testing lair before we can put any numbers on this.

**

Color**


We were also not able to test the color performance of this display, but again the demo footage looked good, with bright, accurate color and subtle details.

**

Motion & Refresh Rate**


The KDL-60NX800 is another one of Sony's displays that has received a speed boost in its motion processing: it uses Sony's own Motionflow Pro 240Hz processing, which they claim is improved over previous versions that refreshed the screen at a frequency of 120Hz. In our tests, we have generally found there isn't a whole lot of difference between 120Hz and 240Hz processing, but we did test previous versions of this technology: we'll look forward to getting a review unit into our labs to find out if it does live up the promise.

**

Viewing Angle**


We saw no major problems with the viewing angle of the demo unit on show at CES: it appeared to keep a good contrast ratio out to a wide angle, and there were no major color changes at wide angles. But, once again, we'll have to wait until we get the model in for review before we draw any firm conclusions.

Connectivity & Media

Audio & Video Ports


The KDL-60NX800 offers a lot of ports to connect it to other devices, including 4 HDMI, 2 component video, 1 composite video and one VGA port. There are also two analog audio inputs and a single optical digital audio output. Two of these HDMI ports are located on the side of the display in a slightly recessed bay on the left side.

The other ports are located in a bay on the back of the display. When all of the cables are connected, a panel can be snapped into place that covers all of the ports and helps to route the cables tidily.

**

Media & Other Connectivity**


The KDL-60NX800 is a well-connected display: it offers both two USB ports and an Ethernet port for connecting to the Internet via wireless dongle or hardline respectively. The USB ports allow you to play back audio and video from USB devices such as thumb drives, while the Ethernet port allows you to connect this display to your home network, and through that to the Internet. From this, the KDL-60NX800 can stream audio and video from services such as Netflix or Amazon Video using Widgets. Other internet info such as stock prices and twitter feeds can also be displayed on screen, floating above the TV image. You will need an Ethernet cable to do this, though; this display does not offer the wireless network support of some more expensive models.

DLNA support is also offered, which means that this display can play back audio and video from computers or other devices that support this standard. An increasing number of computers, cameras and other devices are supporting this.

**

Placement**


The controls and ports of the KDL-60NX800 are mostly well placed: you should be able to easily reach around and plug in a HDMI cable attached to a camcorder to digital camera.

**

Audio**


The speakers of this display are built into the large base, which has a grille at the front to let the sound out. We were not able to test the quality of these speakers.

Controls, Menu & Remote

Remote


The remote of this model was not available for us to test.
**

Controls**


The controls for the KDL-60NX800 are located on the right side of the display, just below the lip of the bezel. This means that they would be easy to use by touch. The large switch behind the main controls activates thepower saving mode, which reduces the brightness of the backlight to save energy.

**

Menu**


The menu of the KDL-60NX800 was not accessible for us to look at.

Conclusion

 

Series Comparison

NX800 Series


The NX800 series contains models ranging from 46 inches to 60 inches. All of the models in this range offer

Meet the tester

Richard Baguley

Richard Baguley

Contributor

@@rbaguley

Richard Baguley is a veteran writer who has written about technology ranging from Alphabet to Zip file utilities. He has contributed to pretty much every major tech publication, including Amiga Format Magazine, PC World, Wired, CNET, Toms Guide, Forbes, and many others. He lives in the Boston metro area with his wife, dog, and an indeterminate number of cats.

See all of Richard Baguley's reviews

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