Sony KDL-46W4100 Review

 

The Sony KDL-46W4100

The Sony Bravia line continues to be at the forefront of producing cutting-edge LCDs that are top-notch in both design and technology. For this year, the middle-range W4100 series – which includes the stylish KDL-46W4100 – succeeds last year’s highly popular W3000 series, and sports new enhancements that were only recently exclusive only to the high-end Bravias.

Design

The elegant design of the KDL-46W4100 consists of a uniformly thick glossy black frame surrounding the screen, highlighted by a see-through window below the bottom frame, just above the silver perforated grille that hides the speakers. The clear and attractive window affords a view of the black and silver pedestal and whatever else is at the back of the TV, making it blend perfectly well in home interiors.

The revamped remote for the KDL-46W4100 has a nice feel. It lacks backlighting, but with the buttons neatly arranged, one can easily select keys even by touch. It also doesn’t have the capability to control other devices attached to the TV, but generally, we believe it’s a good clicker. We’ve continuously griped about the XMB menu system copied from the PS3 and even the changes implemented in the menu of the KDL-46W4100 aren’t enough to stop our ranting. We welcome the grouping of picture controls under one heading, but generally, we remain adamant that the option-filled Cross Media Bar menu is quite cumbersome.

Screen/picture clarity

The KDL-W4100 delivers inky blacks that are just a tad lighter than those found in the high-end plasmas. The deep blacks made shadows more detailed and colours much more vivid. The KDL-W4100 also gives accurate primary colours, with just the secondary cyan colour found to be less than accurate. Decoding of red is also a bit off, but a little tweaking would make the images seem more natural. However, the backlight appears to fluctuate specially when the screen turns in a bright-dark-bright sequence – the subtle changes in the blacks and shadows even without changes in the picture are unnatural and quite distracting.

Sony’s 120hz, MotionFlow processing in the KDL-W4100 is better than last year’s version, resulting in less noticeable smoothing that in turn makes movies more realistic.  
We noted uneven screen brightness, with some areas noticeably brighter than the rest of the screen. On off-angle viewing, the uneven brightness as well as colour washout is too remarkable to be ignored.

Features

The 1080p full HD resolution KDL-46W4100 offers four independently-adjustable picture presets; white balance controls; four aspect ratios; and a Game mode that removes video processing during games. Other convenient features include the electronic TV Guide; limited picture-in-picture, and two-step power saving mode. Connectivity of this set is rich: four HDMI inputs, VGA-style PC input, and a slew of component audio/video input/output at the back and side panels.

Sony continues to widen its reach in the HDTV market by offering premium features in lower-priced LCDs such as the KDL-46W4100. For buyers who are after excellent performance without breaking the bank, this may just be the TV that will fit the tab.

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