Sony X85J 43 Inch TV: 4K Ultra HD LED Smart Google TV with Native 120HZ Refresh Rate, Dolby Vision HDR, and Alexa Compatibility KD43X85J- 2021 Model

So far we've been in love with this TV. This was kind of a family splurge in response to extra money coming in but honestly it cost less than the 50" I bought years ago, shhh. Its huge taking up majority of a wall (in a good way) but light enough me and my 5' wife could lift it to the mount without too much effort. Read the instructions upon opening though. The box is a genius design wasted as we opened it like a book (in our defense it practically opened it self at barest pull on a seam).The brightness and the picture have been great with a certain glare that plagued our old tv not being a problem. The sound is so good that its rarely turned on. We had an existing LG soundbar and its own remote which no one bothers to keep up with so I stuck it in a drawer and haven't been bothered to try and get it controlled some other way. On the rare occasion we sit down for a spectacle movie I may turn it on for more sub woofer bass but it mostly adds some depth.The software brings a tear to my eye, as a software developer watching the increasing software based world we live in becoming commoditized garbage that works properly so little that people have become used to it even in critical situations, in contrast this TV has been a dream. Responsive not buggy, but also thoughtfully engineered and ergonomically design for great user experiences. I chose it specifically for google tv because I trust no company to have microphones and internet connectivity in home without control (no you don't have any even if they say you do and thats been proven repeatedly) but my 8% trust in google is higher than my 0% trust in Alexa. Plus I have a pixel phone so I can at least limit the number of companies listening to every word. Somehow Amazon still displays listings for things I mention to my wife in person when the microphone is supposedly disabled but I digress.We cut the cord over 5 years ago and it mostly means navigating simple ui to select apps whether on the TV itself or roku etc... This is streaming service management done right making it feel almost like these are channels just playing their whole catalog all the time. At Christmas its category on holiday movies pretty much presented every available holiday movie we could find with deep searching in the apps themselves. A few years ago we used an old laptop for playing PC games on the family TV but it was in the way and the fam rarely did anything with it if I wasn't setting it up. I saw a steam app in the app store and installed it... then began playing all but the most graphically intense with an xbox controller bluetooth paired to the TV directly. The ones it can't play are not even the TV's fault its the network unable to handle the latency even with ethernet. No idea how successful using wireless would be but I imagine all the family and party games would be ok. Which brings me to the one and only con I can even reach for and it is a reach.Cons:Since phone apps usually require you to be on the same wifi as the device, even though the device is on ethernet on the same network, it won't work with wifi turned off.The two biggest headaches aren't even sony's fault entirely (maybe not at all) since they are likely caused by the apps. With the the above even when wifi is on some apps seem to have trouble working properly with it mostly using ethernet. Google apps seems to work fine but I doubt it maintains a stable wifi connection when may be used for 1 second twice a day at best. The other issue is misbehaving apps (looking at you steam when I let my PC go to sleep you won't let go of control while presenting a black screen). But in an seemingly obvious but apparently genius stroke, some buttons like power, settings, input and usually home work even when the thing appears locked up so I can hit settings go to apps and force stop the app in about 6 seconds. Our roku in similar situations may need the power cord yanked.The other change is in the previously unused, unwanted and seemingly redundant service of Stadia. Streaming games has latency issues and isn't ready for primetime, but my xbox controller is already paired and I got months of free trial due to pixel phone and youtube music accounts I should fire it up out of boredom and mild curiosity right? Its not like I'm going to pay for another service, right? Especially for games when it can't do VR and many of the games I play don't work well for streaming due to latency so what would be the point... its just curiosity while its free... crap.

My old TV was just wearing down to the point that a "Burn Mark" took form at a couple of corners. Figured it was time to invest in a new TV. I figured if I'm gonna get a new TV, get a 4K with a higher refresh rate. I won't lie, I did a lot of research just trying to find any TV. A lot of TVs made the promise for a refresh rate of 124hz, but a lot of public reviews for those same TVs note the HDMI ports were all 60hz.Eventually I come across this Sony TV X85J series and while it does have 4 ports, two of them only support the 124hz while the other two is 60. Which is fine, at least when I get a 4K Blu-Ray or a PS5 (which will be a LONG time before I can, thanks to Parasite Scalpers) I'll be prepared to maximize the potential. The Smart part of the TV honestly caught me by surprise, I wasn't expecting for my TV to just connect to the internet and yet, it did. Set up was kind of confusing too but once I fiddled around I understood and got a more comfortable set up.Watching movies and shows is REALLY night and day from the old TV. Granted the old one still did 1080p but honestly the X85J squeezes the color, it looks beautiful. While the Nintendo Switch can't get the 124hz refresh rate, games like Smash Bros. DragonBall FighterZ, and even Monster Hunter Rise just makes all those colors pop. And when I do make use of the the refresh rate, it makes a lot of movies and shows I watch on here look smooth and clean. The only downside is I can only make use of the 124hz refresh rate from streaming apps at the moment because I don't have the hardware means... yet... But I took full advantage of when I connected the TV to my internet and downloaded a lot of apps. The first movie I played was Godzilla vs. Kong when my Blu-Ray copy came with a free digital download, and I doubt I will ever go back to the 1080p for movies.I do love this TV and I can't wait for the day I get a PS5 because that's gonna make a lot of games I got look beyond great. You might notice though I did 4 star the money value. While this is still a pretty affordable high-end TV, the 55 model was actually going for the same price as the 50. Why is that a problem? The problem is the 55 was too big for my current entertainment center while the 50 inch fit perfectly so I got the 50. I had to pay the smaller one for the same as the bigger one and I won't lie I'm a little bummed about it.One other note that I find a bit annoying at the beginning is every Input has its own visual settings (Brightness, Contrast, ect.). In the long run it's kind of smart, you can literally have every input be a different visual output for certain media preferences. But its annoying in the beginning because if you have multiple devices to hook up, you got to set it to how you want it for every single one which makes it a little inconvenient. But once its set, it stays like it until you change it.All in all, I really do enjoy this TV. Was it expensive, yes, oh very much so. Did I have to pay that much... no. Do I regret it? Not in the slightest. This TV has opened a whole new way of watching movies and games even look gorgeous with the color that pops out.