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Sony Bravia ZX1 (KDL-40ZX1) review: Sony Bravia ZX1 (KDL-40ZX1)

The 40-inch Sony Bravia KDL-40ZX1 LCD TV with LED edge lights looks stunning and is remarkably thin. Also capable of receiving a 1080i signal wirelessly -- which means less cable clutter -- it's a good choice if you want a TV whose mere appearance will make your friends insanely jealous

Ian Morris
5 min read

Sony is not a company that's enjoying the success it used to. Its computer-games division is getting a pounding from Microsoft and Nintendo. It's also lost the music-player market to Apple, and there are dozens of companies selling TVs that are just as good as Sony sets.

6.5

Sony Bravia ZX1 (KDL-40ZX1)

The Good

Beautiful design; wireless connectivity is a technological step in the right direction.

The Bad

Patchy wireless connectivity; can receive only a 1080i signal wirelessly; expensive.

The Bottom Line

The Sony Bravia KDL-40ZX1 is a wonderful-looking TV that's basically all style and no substance. The wireless system offers only a 1080i resolution and still can't manage to send a consistent signal over relatively short distances. Hi-def pictures are detailed and blacks are good, but colours aren't accurate and the backlight bleeds at the edges. We like where Sony is going with this TV, but its cost and relatively poor performance mean we can't recommend that you spend your hard-earned money to be part of the experiment

What can Sony do to revive its fortunes, then? Well, products like the 40-inch, 1080p Bravia KDL-40ZX1 should generate a fair amount of public interest. It's an ultra-thin LCD TV with LED edge lights, designed for people with plenty of spare cash and a desire to make their friends green with envy. 

The KDL-40ZX1 currently has a street price of around £2,200, but that's excluding any sort of stand or wall-mounting apparatus. Our review sample doesn't include speakers or a stand, so we won't be commenting on the set's sound quality or ability not to fall over.

Super-thin, super-desirable
This TV is certainly thin. It's currently one of the thinnest televisions on the market, although, undoubtedly, there will be even further depth reductions in future years. The depth of a TV isn't especially relevant to most people, though. After all, if you put your TV on a stand, it's unlikely to matter how deep the TV is, because it will be much thinner than the stand.

The KDL-40ZX1 is remarkably slim, making it well-suited to being mounted on a wall

If you want to mount your set on a wall, however, the depth of your TV may  be crucial. A thin and light TV is ideal for this purpose. In terms of this consideration, LCD  technology has plasma licked at the moment. There are currently no plasma TVs on the market that are as thin as the KDL-40ZX1, although the likes of Panasonic have told us to expect some remarkable plasma-based advances in the future.

Many people who've seen the KDL-40ZX1 around our offices have commented on how svelte it is. It's been the recipient of more admiring glances than almost any other piece of equipment we've seen in recent months. Some people have even asked if it's an OLED TV, such is its slenderness. In fact, the KDL-40ZX1 is simply a standard LCD screen with LED edge lights. All around the sides of the LCD panel are collections of LEDs. These shine onto a special diffusing layer, which creates the light behind the image.

Wireless disappointment
The wireless capability of this TV is nowhere near as impressive as that of the Panasonic Viera TX-P46Z1 that we reviewed recently. The most annoying problem is that the KDL-40ZX1 can receive only a 1080i signal wirelessly. The panel itself has a 1080p resolution, so connecting an HDMI cable to its single input will result in a 'Full HD' image. But why on earth would you spend more than £2,000 on a wireless TV only to plug in a £3 HDMI cable?

A 1080i resolution isn't always a problem, though. We've seen it implemented so well that you'd struggle to tell the difference between 1080i and 1080p pictures. Certainly our reference TV, the Pioneer Kuro PDP-LX5090, manages to take an interlaced picture and turn it into a very compelling progressive image. Watching Sony's own Casino Royale, the KDL-40ZX1's 1080i transmission wasn't much of a problem. That said, film material is more easily compressed using interlacing than video-based footage acquired on tape.

We also noticed that, in our reasonably open office, the wireless signal would occasionally suffer a glitch that would result in a sudden white line of interference on the screen. We never saw a similar problem with the Panasonic set in the same environment, and it was managing 1080p signals too. Also, if you try moving the TV too far away from the wireless base station, it all goes very wrong -- and we aren't talking an especially massive distance.


Because of the wireless system, the Freeview tuner and inputs are all built into the wireless transmitter, which acts as a media receiver. You get three HDMI inputs, component video in, a place to plug the aerial in and a single Scart socket. For old equipment, there's also a composite video in, with stereo RCA jacks. Optical digital out means you can connect your TV to an AV receiver to get the best out of Dolby Surround.

Funny colour
Another problem we noticed with the KDL-40ZX1 is that its colour reproduction never seems to be quite right. Use the 'vivid' mode and everything looks ridiculous -- the brightness is dialled right up and it's like looking into the sun. Switch to 'standard' and everything is still too bright, with the backlight overpowering the TV. Most images seem to have a yellowish hue to them.

With the 'cinema' and 'custom' modes, we felt that the overall colour and tone was more accurate, but skin seemed to be slightly on the yellow side. The fact is that, although we did somehow get a good-looking picture eventually, it was never especially accurate. If you like very vivid colours --and many people do-- you'll enjoy the vivid mode. If you prefer more natural-looking pictures, this set is going to frustrate you.

Motionflow and film smoothing
As always, the Motionflow and film-smoothing features will either appeal to you or leave you cold. Both will adjust the appearance of film to the point where it looks smooth and judder-free like video. People who don't like the look of film will want these features turned on. Purists will want them turned off, but, because the colour reproduction of this TV isn't especially accurate, we doubt many video enthusiasts will give this TV a second look.

Detail and black levels
As much as we hate the KDL-40ZX1's colour reproduction, we couldn't help but be impressed by the amount of detail in images. Our Blu-ray movies and other high-definition test footage all looked excellent. Black levels were also respectable. Night-time scenes were impressive too, with black in the right places and plenty of detail in dark areas.

We weren't totally happy though, because there's quite substantial backlight bleeding at the four corners of the LCD screen. This isn't especially visible when watching TV, but it will have an effect on the overall evenness of the picture. In normal light, it's unlikely to pose a problem, but, in darkened rooms, expect to notice it.

Conclusion
The Sony Bravia KDL-40ZX1 passes the footballer test with aplomb -- it's very expensive and technically deficient but aesthetically pleasing. As such, it will probably be seen in designer homes across the country before too long. It's not, however, a device for videophiles. We don't rate the picture quality for the most part and the wireless functionality just doesn't work well enough to justify the extra expense. The Panasonic Viera TX-P46Z1 is much better in every way, even though it, too, is somewhat lacking in terms of overall picture quality.

Edited by Charles Kloet