Answered Buying advice sony KD49XF8577/KD49XF8796BU vs Samsung QE49Q6FN

mogamal

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I'm torn between sony KD49XF8577 (679£) and sony KD49XF8796BU (669£) at currys, and I can't find a major difference, some websites says they are VA panel and others says it's IPS.

another option is buying Refurbished Samsung QE49Q6FN (599£) from Richersounds with only 12 months warranty.
Sony panels in stores seemed to be way better than Samsung (sony xf8577/xf8796 vs samsung nu8000/nu8070 for example)

for me viewing angles are not a main concern as I'll be sitting directly in front of the TV.
for usage I'll use it mainly for IPTV stream, watching movies from my external Hard disk and maybe PS4 Pro and Netflex in future.
I'm already stretching my budget with 680£ so I can't go up to higher models.
Thanks in advance, it would be helpful if I decided today.
 
I know you say you are stretching the budget but the xf9005 is 713 at Costco warehouse if you have a membership and one local. This is Warehouse price they dont have it online. for 33 quid more you get alot more telly.
 
The Sony's at 49" are all VA. The references to them being IPS will be at 43", 55", 65 and 75" which they are using IPS.

The Samsung Q6FN uses only a 60hz panel at 49" so its motion processing options won't be as good as the Sony. It does have better smart TV though.

If I were you and I could fit, I'd be lookimg for a deal on a 55" TV instead, much better deals on that size and generally better value for money options too. Even the Q6FN at 55" was reduced to £700 in a special a couple of weeks ago.

ps you posted this in the general section so I have moved it to the Which TV should I buy section. You'll also find past threads here including my guides which should help you choose. Please do not cross-post between forums too, it is against the forum rules. I have merged threads together.
 
ps you posted this in the general section so I have moved it to the Which TV should I buy section. You'll also find past threads here including my guides which should help you choose. Please do not cross-post between forums too, it is against the forum rules. I have merged threads together.
Thanks a lot for your reply, newbies mistakes, will avoid that.
If I were you and I could fit, I'd be lookimg for a deal on a 55" TV instead, much better deals on that size and generally better value for money options too. Even the Q6FN at 55" was reduced to £700 in a special a couple of weeks ago.
I read your guides and I found that sony's xf85/xf87 suitable for what i'm looking for, I'm a big fan of 55" tvs but current home will never fit one.
any idea where I can find better deals than currys ?
 
I know you say you are stretching the budget but the xf9005 is 713 at Costco warehouse if you have a membership and one local. This is Warehouse price they dont have it online. for 33 quid more you get alot more telly.
Thanks for your reply.
I did check that and I found I should pay around 30£ for membership plus transportation to and from nearst warehouse as there's no one in Cambridge.
I saw the xf9005 and it's obviously the best 49" I can get right now apart from the budget.
 
any idea where I can find better deals than currys ?
I usually recommend avoiding Currys, I use pricespy.co.uk to compare prices.

Most people here buy their TVs from AV specialist dealers like Richer Sounds, sometimes John Lewis.
But there are lots of independant places that are reputable too.
Curry's unfortunately have different model numbers sometimes, it means its not easy to compare their models with others. They do this so they do not have to match pricing.

However its pretty obvious when they do as the model numbers for each TV are usually very similar with only small differences at the end of the numbering scheme.
 
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Thanks for your reply.
I did check that and I found I should pay around 30£ for membership plus transportation to and from nearst warehouse as there's no one in Cambridge.
I saw the xf9005 and it's obviously the best 49" I can get right now apart from the budget.
Yeah it's only really worthwhile if you have one local and a membership. I have both was more a just incase :)
 
Hi mogamal. I bought a 49XF8796 a few weeks ago after some good advice from this forum - and I'm *very* happy with it. I got it from Sony Center for £629 ( inc delivery ) with a full 5 year warranty. They still have them at this price:-
Sony Centre - SONY KD49XF8796BU

If you have any questions about the set, I'll be happy to help if I can.
 
Hi mogamal. I bought a 49XF8796 a few weeks ago after some good advice from this forum - and I'm *very* happy with it. I got it from Sony Center for £629 ( inc delivery ) with a full 5 year warranty. They still have them at this price:-
Sony Centre - SONY KD49XF8796BU

If you have any questions about the set, I'll be happy to help if I can.


What did you consider prior to this choice? Did you physically compare to any other models side by side? And what were you coming from TV wise
 
What did you consider prior to this choice? Did you physically compare to any other models side by side? And what were you coming from TV wise

I had already bought a Philips 43PUS6753, which to be honest I was almost totally happy with. It was a great TV but its motion handling of 60hz PC games was poor; the response time ( ghosting ) was unacceptable to me. So reluctantly I sent it back. I was going to pull the trigger on a Samsung 49NU8000 but came here for some advice. It was suggested to me that a 120hz TV would be more likely to suit my needs as far as 60hz motion handling/response times. It seemed the Sony X85/X87 range we're the only 50" ( or under ) TVs in my price range that ticked all the boxes that mattered to me: Good response times, input lag and black levels. I'm very glad I followed the advice - I think the TV is pretty much as good as it can get for the £630 I paid for it.

Previously, I came from a 37" Panasonic plasma - which had tremendous motion handling. I would have stuck with it, but it was getting on a bit and losing some of its visual punch. Plus I wanted something bigger.
 
Brilliant answer, really appreciated. I ask as I've a 42" Panasonic U20 plasma, looking at the same options. Don't want to go bigger than 49", nor spend the earth. Plasma is OK at the moment. But its fairly dim, and being a low range model its not got much pop in the picture and fairly cloudy blacks. And fan whine. And the screen reflections in our bright room. But the motion is great I'm not a big watcher of sport but disliked motion on LCDs of old.

I'm torn between Phillips 7 series and Sony. Discounted Panasonic as too pricey. Discounted the LG nano cell TVs after seeing the backs on rtings review. Mainly like the Philips for ambilight and price, mainly like the Sony for the motion and blacks.

Was it purely the gaming lag that steered you away from the Phillips? If you weren't a gamer, would the Sony have been worth the extra?
 
Was it purely the gaming lag that steered you away from the Phillips? If you weren't a gamer, would the Sony have been worth the extra?

It wasn't input lag. That was very good on the Philips ( better than the Sony ). It was response times - basically the time it takes for the screen to switch its pixels from one colour to another.

The Philips was a very impressive TV as far as non-gaming content and considering it was £350. It actually had slightly deeper blacks than the Sony but it was a bit lacking on bright scenes, so it was at its best in a dark room. The motion issues didn't seem to affect movies/TV much, but became really apparent with games. I think the natural motion blur you get with film played a big part in hiding the ghosting.

So, to answer your question - I would have absolutely kept it if I wasn't a gamer... but... I'm glad I have the Sony now. It loses a few points here and there, but overall it's a better TV when looking at a wide range of content, especially due to the rock solid motion. For me, the extra money was worth it.
 
Final query, honest! I've noticed with our plasma that darks scenes such as in GoT, The Affair etc have almost no detail on current plasma. I'll assume your plasma was similar range (no premium 37" plasmas I recall), did both TVs offer a noticeable improvement?

Thinking of going 7 series Phillips now and save the money, we are no gamers. Nearly there now...
 
Final query, honest! I've noticed with our plasma that darks scenes such as in GoT, The Affair etc have almost no detail on current plasma. I'll assume your plasma was similar range (no premium 37" plasmas I recall), did both TVs offer a noticeable improvement?

Thinking of going 7 series Phillips now and save the money, we are no gamers. Nearly there now...

I can't say I had any issues like that with my plasma. ( Or the Panasonic plasma I had before that one ). The detail in dark areas was always pretty good.

As far as the Philips I had vs the Sony - regards details in dark areas - I would say the Sony comes out on top. I was impressed with the black levels on the Philips, but it did crush the black details more. It took a lot of fiddling with the settings while looking at various calibration test images to find the sweet spot between deep blacks and dark detail. It looked god awful out of the box. But eventually, I was pretty happy with my final settings. However, the Sony, after some light calibration, had a clear edge regards bringing out dark details.

So, while I would have stuck with the Philips and probably been happy with it. Being exposed to the Sony highlighted the shortfalls of the Philips image. But we are talking a considerably more expensive TV, so it's not exactly a dark mark against the Philips when I say its image was only marginally behind the Sony.
 
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I would always take Sony over Philips, for me Philips is not even in the same ballpark as Sony, LG and Samsung. And I have one in the house, ambilight and all...
 
If you have any questions about the set, I'll be happy to help if I can.
Hi Soojooki,
Thanks for your reply, should I upgrade to oreo or not ?
Do you know what will be the best app to watch IPTV ?
is there any way to make subtitles bigger if I'm using the default videos app of the tv ?
 
Hey mogamal

I've not updated to Oreo. Too many negative reports online.

Unfortunately, I barely use any smart features. The TV is connected to my gaming PC and I use that to play games and stream to the TV.

I can talk all day about the picture quality though! :)
 
I can't say I had any issues like that with my plasma. ( Or the Panasonic plasma I had before that one ). The detail in dark areas was always pretty good.

As far as the Philips I had vs the Sony - regards details in dark areas - I would say the Sony comes out on top. I was impressed with the black levels on the Philips, but it did crush the black details more. It took a lot of fiddling with the settings while looking at various calibration test images to find the sweet spot between deep blacks and dark detail. It looked god awful out of the box. But eventually, I was pretty happy with my final settings. However, the Sony, after some light calibration, had a clear edge regards bringing out dark details.

So, while I would have stuck with the Philips and probably been happy with it. Being exposed to the Sony highlighted the shortfalls of the Philips image. But we are talking a considerably more expensive TV, so it's not exactly a dark mark against the Philips when I say its image was only marginally behind the Sony.

As reference for anyone else with this search...

I went and saw a fair few of these models, but had discounted the Sony at this point..until I saw a base model 7 series 43" Sony. All the TVs were showing a feed of an avengers film, and all of them (up to a 55" Q6) were comprehensively shown up by the motion on the Sony.

Thinking this must have been something amiss I went to another store to see similar models, including the NU8000 at 49". And was amazed how so many TVs were tripped up by a scrolling BBC news banner. I'd always assumed the 'Samsung motion is crap' was just people being overly critical, but it was not a patch on any Sony model.

Bear in mind I've come from plasma, but I have gone for the 49XF8796 after seeing all the major brands in action.

It's also made me realise no matter what then reviews say, the best way is to just take a physical look over all the TVs in your budget and go from there.
 
Good choice! :)
Reading your post makes me feel even better about choosing the Sony. I would have given up and stuck with the plasma if I bought another set with poor motion again. Just remember to resist the temptation to turn motion flow to max. It can be quite intoxicating seeing the oily smooth motion for the first time - but it introduces a fair few artefacts which become really apparent after prolonged viewing. I have mine set to custom 2 ( out of 5 ) which is great for games and TV/films, without introducing any artefacts and the grim soap opera effect.

Out of curiosity, what did you pay for it?
 
I've gone refurb at Sony centres direct, so £480. I'll probably get a 3rd party warranty with accident cover which will nudge the cost up but I wanted to stay under £500 really. Very hard to resist stretching for the xf9005 but the 8796 seems plenty decent enough, I'm not worried about perfect HDR at this time.

Only thing I'm not sure about is how it will handle reflection in our bright living room, but sure it'll be better than existing plasma.
 
£480 is a great price for this TV. Let us know what you think of it once you give it a twirl. :)
 

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