The crown of Bravia 2013 line-up was undoubtedly the 4K Ultra HD XBR LED series. Yet it wasn't what the average consumer would look to for a new purchase with the still novel and rare 4K content. with the W Series and R Series being the LED LCD line-up. R Series provides a more economy friendly TVs across the 32" to 60" with a more stripped down specifications. Which leaves us with the W Series that would compete in the mass consumer market.
I would say KDL-42W670A is a great option if 3D and one-touch Sony Xperia phone mirroring aren't what you look for and SGD 1k is roughly your budget. Otherwise, the W954A would certainly represents a absolutely superb option.
Having said that KDL-42W670A is still offers the latest Sony technology with X-Reality™ PRO image processing engine and Motionflow (200Mhz), just about most features you find in a 2013 TV model and most importantly, a great panel with terrific picture quality.
Highlights of KDL-42W670A:
- 42" LED LCD
- 1080p support
- 200 Mhz refresh rate
- DVB-T Tuner
- 2x HDMI
- No 3D support
- No NFC enabled remote control (for direct screen mirroring)
Picture Quality:
In the Bravia's is Sony X-Reality™ PRO image processing engine. It takes the source image and remastering it into some really great picture quality in the price range. Colour performance is great, deep yet bright.
At just SGD 850, it is not all perfect. For one, the colours and contrast might be a tab too unnatural for the less adventurous for the conservatives. Which is the criticism from the sales guys at Courts and Harvey’s while I was there. Also the sharpness could still be a distance away from their more expensive fellow models in the Bravia series.
Yet most of the time decisions are personal and for me Bravia delivers. Captain Philips on 1080p playback from my NAS, a 10GB file, it was sharp, natural and realistic. The scene in the engine room looks especially satisfying because of how easy this Bravia dealt with the fight between the shipping crew and the Somali pirates in the dark. And this is before any tuning I did.
Aesthetic:
In the department of looks, Sense of Quartz is how Sony describes the 2013 Bravia line up. Which it really is. The slim aluminium bezel and metallic base quite simply defines it. For me the distinctive design stood out from the rest of its competitors and looks the most modern to me.
Unfortunately the other parts of this Bravia aren't consistently good. The significant one is the glowing Sony logo on the base of the TV. The plate is too big, so is the font. As for the glowing part, I am not sure what I think of it. Sometime it distracts me from the movie, other times I thought it look very classy.
One thing I am sure is that the back of the TV does not look very good. The connectivity panel spreads across the lower portion of the TV creating a big area of bulge. The panel is amazingly thin, not these ports. Somewhat reduces the overall thinness of the product and look a tab too cheap. Luckily everything is hidden from the front view.
Smart TV:
There are over 30 apps of which you will probably not use any of them because they are simply too sluggish. DLNA playback is ok but lacks subtitles support and struggles a little with big files. But then again most Smart TV have the same issues, for me right now the manufacturers are still not getting it all right with the Smart TV concept.
The current best solution to pipe content to the TV is still a media box. Or screen mirroring?
Screen Mirroring:
With KDL-42W670A you can mirror your devices with wirelessly via the Miracast technology or the wired option of MHL (Mobile High-Definition Link).
With Miracast built-in, the setup is really easy, turn on Miracast service on the TV and screen casting on your device (in my case, Nexus 7 2013), the TV would be shown as a screen which image on your device can be mirrored to.
While screen mirroring is setup friendly, but the quality of playback isn’t.
I tried with my Nexus 7 2013 16GB and one other Sony Xperia Ultra Z, the Sony Xperia is much clearer and smoother but the end result is just still too pixelated for my liking.
Some other Features:
KDL-42W670A comes with what Sony calls "Bass Reflex Box Speaker" that is suppose to produce "full-range, distortion-free sound". The outcome is really not bad, clearer than most TV I have come across but really if you have gone to the extend for a quality TV, why don't you add a sound system to it?
Mirroring images from devices is probably one popular feature in recent times.
Summary:
In a sentence, the KDL-42W670A is a great-looking screen with very good image quality at it's price without much of the other fancy features like NFC for instance.
Full Specifications (Taken from
Sony KDL-42W670A - Product Page):
| Screen Size |
42" (107cm), 16:9 |
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| TV System |
1 (Digital/Analog): B/G, D/K, I, L, M |
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| Colour System |
PAL, SECAM, NTSC 3.58, NTSC 4.43 |
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| Video Signal |
480/60i, 480/60p, 576/50i, 720/50p,576/50p, 720/60p, 1080/50i, 1080/60i, 720/24p (HDMI™ only), 720/30p (HDMI™ only), 1080/24p (HDMI™ only), 1080/30p (HDMI™ only), 1080/60p (HDMI™ / Component), 1080/50p (HDMI™ / Component) |
|---|
| Display Resolution |
Full HD |
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| Video Processing |
X-Reality™ PRO |
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| Motionflow™ |
Motionflow™ XR 200 |
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| Intelligent MPEG Noise Reduction |
Yes |
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| Advanced Contrast Enhancer (ACE) |
Yes |
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| Viewing Angle |
178° (Right/Left), 178° (Up/Down) |
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| Screen Format |
TV: Auto Wide/ Full/ Normal/ Wide Zoom/ Zoom/ Caption/ 14:9/ PC: Full 1/ Full 2/ Normal |
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| Picture Mode |
Vivid, Standard, Custom, Photo-Vivid, Photo-Standard, Photo-Original, Photo-Custom, Cinema1, Cinema2, Game-Standard, Game-Original, Graphics, Sports, Animation |
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| CineMotion/Film Mode/Cinema Drive |
Yes |
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| Sound Mode |
Standard, Cinema, Sports, Music, Game, Compressed Audio |
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| S-Force |
S-Force Front Surround 3D |
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| Audio Codec |
Dolby® Digital, Dolby® Digital Plus, Dolby® Pulse, HE-AAC |
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| Speaker Configuration |
2ch, Full Range (30x80mm) x2 |
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| Ethernet Connection |
1 (Bottom) |
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| Composite Video Input(s) |
2 (1 Rear/1 Bottom Hybrid w/Component) |
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| Component Video (Y/Pb/Pr) Input(s) |
1 (Bottom/Hybrid) |
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| RF Connection Input(s) |
1 (Side) |
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| Analog Audio Input(s) |
2 (1 Rear/1 Bottom) |
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| Digital Audio Output(s) |
1 (Bottom) |
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| Audio Out |
1 (Side/Hybrid w/HP) |
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| Headphone Out |
1 (Side/Hybrid w/Audio Out) |
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| USB Play |
MPEG1/ MPEG2PS/ MPEG2TS/ AVCHD/ MP4Part10/ MP4Part2/ AVI(XVID)/ AVI(MotionJpeg)/ MOV/ WMV/ MKV/ WEBM/ 3GPP/ MP3/ WMA/ WAV/ JPEG/ MPO |
|---|
| DLNA |
MPEG1/ MPEG2PS/ MPEG2TS/ AVCHD/ MP4Part10/ MP4Part2/ AVI(XVID)/ AVI(MotionJpeg)/ MOV/ WMV/ MKV/ WEBM/ 3GPP/ MP3/ WMA/ LPCM/ JPEG/ MPO |
|---|
| Scene Select |
Photo, Music, Cinema, Game, Graphics, Sports, Animation |
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| PAP (Picture And Picture) |
PAP (Variable) |
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| OSD Language |
Afrikaans/ Arabic/ Persian/ English/ Fench/ Indonesian/ Portuguese/ Russian/ Swahili / Thai/ Vietnamese/ Chinese(Simplified)/ Chinese(Traditional)/ Zulu/ Assamese/ Bengali/ Gujarati/ Hindi/ Kannada/ Malayalam/ Marathi/ Oriya/ Punjabi/ Tamil/ Telugu |
|---|
| TV Guide On Screen / EPG |
Yes |
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| Dynamic Backlight Control |
Yes |
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| Power Requirements |
DC 19.5V |
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| Power Consumption |
Approx. 84W |
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| Standby Power Consumption |
Approx. 0.5W |
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| Dimensions (W x H x D) with Stand |
Approx. 954 x 595 x 197mm |
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| Dimensions (W x H x D) without Stand |
Approx. 954 x 568 x 69mm |
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| Weight with Stand |
Approx. 11kg |
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| Weight without Stand |
Approx. 9.9kg |
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