Is this 52 inch Sony flat screen HDTV for you?This Sony flat screen HDTV (the 52 inch Sony KDL-EX700) does have Sony's automatic power-off feature to save energy. Unfortunately this set does not have the "presence sensor” which shuts the TV off if you’re not in the room.
These neat energy saving features coincide with all LED TV’s stingy power requirements. Gone are the days of the power hungry plasmas!
The Sony’s flat black screen works nicely in bright rooms but its black levels are not there with Samsung’s. The matte screen of the EX700 reduced glare and reflections. Like other LCDs the off-angle viewing causes the picture to distort a bit. These are common problems with LCD TVs. With this TV you’ll sometimes see artifacts in the High dejudder mode but this is less common in Standard mode. The 52 inch Sony KDL-EX700 has decent color and like the other LED TVs in this line its App services are top notch. Some of the services include Amazon Video and Netflix but picture quality suffers with the Netflix streaming video services. The EX700's remote control is the typical raised rubber variety with no backlighting feature. You can't command other components with it via infrared. This is a disappointment. The Sony menu system on the EX700 is pretty neat. The XMB interface does a good job of arranging the Internet services in a logical fashion. There’s a Favorites section that remembers often-accessed buttons and you can manually add items. This HDTV has an excellent onscreen user manual to help you explore the TV's features.
This Sony flat screen HDTV includes four aspect ratio modes for HD sources, and a "Full Pixel" option that displays 1080-resolution content without any scaling. Use this setting unless you see interference along the edges of the screen. What about the connections? There are four HDMI inputs - two on the back panel and two on the side. The side panel has a USB port for music, photos, and video as well as an AV input with composite video. The rear panel has a PC VGA-style analog input; there are 2 component video inputs and an antenna/cable RF input. Conclusion: We give this HDTV a 7 out of 10. It’s a midrange edge-lit LED-based LCD that does not stand out from the pack because of its picture. Its excellent Internet video and stingy power features will attract a lot of buyers. It doesn’t quite have the deep blacks needed for contrast and its darker areas are tinged blue. The dejudder processing really cannot be adjusted and there are some screen uniformity issues especially from off-viewing angles.
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