Sony KDL-46NX720 LED LCD 3D HDTV Review

Black Level

The KDL-46NX720 does have an impressive black level for a modern LCD TV of 0.07 cd/m2. When determining contrast ratios, a low black level is very important. More on how we test black level.

Peak Brightness

In addition to the low black level, the KDL-46NX720 also produced a great peak brightness of 323.12 cd/m2. It's worth noting that in order to view comfortably in a brightly-lit room, you'll only need your TV to have about 200 cd/m2 brightness, and anything beyond that is just gravy. More on how we test peak brightness.

Contrast

Due to its good scores in both peak brightness and black level, the KDL-46NX720 has a very wide contrast ratio for an LCD TV. Great job, Sony!. More on how we test contrast.

Tunnel Contrast

As you can see from the chart below, the KDL-46NX720 had minor issues in maintaining a consistently dark black level, regardless of how much or how little screen area occupied by black there was in our tests. You probably won't notice this too much, but if you think that the blacks get lighter at certain points, your eyes aren't fooling you. More on how we test tunnel contrast.

White Falloff

Like most other LCD TVs, the KDL-46NX720 had no issues here, maintaining an almost perfectly consistent level of brightness, regardless of how much or how little screen area occupied by white there was in our tests. More on how we test white falloff.

Uniformity

Here we run into the first issues we had with the KDL-46NX720, as the screen uniformity left a lot to be desired. On an all-black screen, we noticed several areas with false coloration and flares near the corners of the set, and some splotchy areas a little closer to the center. On an all-white screen, we also noticed the same areas with false coloration, but we didn't notice any other issues. It probably won't be distracting to you unless you're watching an extremely dark movie. More on how we test white falloff.

Greyscale Gamma

When we test greyscale gamma, we look at two aspects of our charts before scoring a TV’s performance: the smoothness and slope of the line. The smoothness of the line tells us whether or not there were certain values of signal intensity that the TV simply couldn’t produce, or if they were produced incorrectly. Ideally, the slope of the line should lie somewhere between 2.1 and 2.2, but depending on a TV’s performance, this may vary. If it does, that means it doesn’t quite produce the ideal values along the greyscale, which can result in lost detail, especially in shadows.

For the KDL-46NX720, only minor issues here to report: the measured greyscale gamma wasn't bad, but it wasn't exactly good either. If you look at the provided chart, you'll notice that the line closest to the darkest end of signal intensity has jagged points and inconsistent slope, indicating that there were some brightness values the TV simply couldn't produce. If you're a KDL-46NX720 owner, you can expect some loss of detail in a dark picture, or in shadows. In addition, the slope of the line is 2.67, while not horrible, is a far cry from "average". More on how we test greyscale gamma.