Sony Bravia KDL-52EX700

Black Level (8.00)

The Sony KDL-52EX700 did well on the black level test. The Panasonic was the winner here, which is no surprise, given that its a plasma display. The KDL-52EX700 was more or less the same as last year’s Sony KDL-52XBR9, though it’s not necessarily a direct upgrade. The Samsung UN55C7000 produced the least impressive black level of the bunch. More on how we test black level.

Read Reviews of Comparison Products
Sony Bravia KDL-52XBR9	Panasonic Viera TC-P50VT20	Samsung UN55C7000

Peak Brightness (9.39)

The Sony KDL-52EX700 produced a very bright white. In fact, it kind of hurts to look at an all-white screen if you’re in a dark room. On the plus side, this means that even if your living room was brightly lit on a sunny afternoon, you’ll have no problem seeing the screen. Only the Panasonic TC-P50VT20 failed this test, but if you don’t mind compromising your black level, boosting the Contrast setting to raise the whites. More on how we test peak brightness.

Contrast (8.69)

The contrast ratio on the Sony KDL-52EX700 is very good, a little over 4000:1. It was a match for a Sony TV from last year, and trumped both the Panasonic TC-P50TV20 and Samsung UN55C7000. Of course, these numbers may pale compared to the contrast ratios that manufacturers like to cite. Our lab tests try to emulate more what you would experience in real world viewing. More on how we test contrast.

Tunnel Contrast (8.87)

The Sony KDL-52EX700 is sufficiently capable of maintaining a consistent black level, no matter how much of that black area is surrounded by bright white. We expect an even performance from LCD televisions; plasmas tend to have problems on this test. More on how we test tunnel contrast.

White Falloff (9.97)

The Sony KDL-52EX700 is also fine at maintaining an evenly bright white, no matter how much or how little of the screen was taken up by that white. More on how we test white falloff.

Uniformity (5.00)

The screen uniformity on the Sony KDL-52EX700 was surprisingly bad, considering we’ve already reviewed the 46-inch model in this series and we’re currently in the middle of testing the 32-inch version. Only the 52-inch, so far, has shown such obvious blotchiness. On this particular display, we saw a lot of bright patches in the upper-left corner. We’re hypothesizing that because the screen uses edge-lit LEDs, there’s a negative correlation with uniformity and screen size. The bigger the screen gets, the further the lighting elements are from the center. The materials and techniques used to maintain an even illumination may simply have reached their limit. Of course, there’s also the more mundane possibility that our particular unit was defective. More on how we test white falloff.

Greyscale Gamma (7.10)

The Sony KDL-52EX700 produced decent results in our greyscale gamma test. As you can see from the chart below, the line is fairly smooth, which means the TV is capable of producing a gradual transition across the greyscale. There’s a little bumpiness in the lower left, which represents the shadows. This means you may lose a little detail there. The slope of the curve is steeper than we’d like. An ideal curve should fall between 2.1 and 2.2. The Sony KDL-52EX700’s slope of 2.68 indicates that the greyscale spectrum may lack some of the finer details in the mid-tones. More on how we test greyscale gamma.

Other Models in the KDL-xxEX700 Series
For more information on other models in this series, check our Series Comparison Page.
Sony Bravia KDL-32EX700 32 in.	Sony Bravia KDL-40EX700 40 in.	Sony Bravia KDL-46EX700 46 in.	Sony Bravia KDL-60EX700 60 in.