SonyKD-77AG9

The KD-77AG9 belongs to Sony's "Master Series" and promises its buyer a breathtaking picture in combination with excellent sound and flawless equipment. However, the price of the OLED television, which has meanwhile settled at around 3.000 euros, is also excellent. Can you really look forward to a perfect premium television for that much money, which can convince in all areas across the board? Our following test report provides you with the answer to this legitimate question.

Design

Sony has already proven with previous Smart TVs that an attractive design plays a major role in the in-house models. The Sony KD-77AG9 also impresses with its extravagant optics, which will certainly quickly be envied by its visitors. Made from high quality aluminum Housing is only 4 cm thick and therefore extremely slim - which proves to be advantageous not only in the classic installation, but also in an alternative wall mounting. In addition, the Sony KD-77AG9 is almost borderless, which means that the viewer's gaze is better directed to the displayed content. There is also a big plus point for the base that Sony has given this device: Instead of the angled mini bases that are known from various Samsung televisions, Sony uses a massive middle base here is made of very thin, but nevertheless robust metal. The highlight of it: The said stand raises the TV only minimally, which gives the impression that it is just floating above the TV shelf.

In terms of looks, the supplied remote control doesn't do quite as well as the television itself: the design looks a bit clumsy due to the elongated shape, and Sony apparently couldn't decide on a uniform paint finish. While the front shines in elegant smooth silver, the back is in rough black. Netflix fans should at least be happy about the integrated quick button for opening the streaming service faster, and another quick button is also on board for the Google Play Store.

Hardware and software

The Sony KD-77AG9 is a high-resolution 4K OLED television, which has a resolution of 3.840 x 2.160 pixels. Film fans who prefer to enjoy their favorite films in the form of UHD Blu-ray discs will get their money's worth with this device, as it can play back the corresponding content without any loss of quality - the same naturally also applies to all other 4K Content, such as Netflix productions or your own recordings. On the other hand, if you have mostly classic Blu-ray discs with 1.920 x 1.080 pixels on your shelf, you can look forward to outstanding picture quality here too, because the Sony KD-77AG9 is equipped with 4K upscaling. It automatically upscales all content with a lower resolution to 4K resolution, so that it shines in a completely new light from now on. Of course, the image produced in this way cannot be compared with real native 4K material, but in practice the responsible X1 Ultimate image processor does its job amazingly well.

The Sony KD-77AG9 has four HDMI ports to connect a wide variety of end devices such as Blu-ray players or game consoles, and there are also two USB inputs on board. The latter can be used to connect a hard drive or a USB key to play the multimedia files stored on it directly on the big TV screen. Alternatively, you can also connect a second hard drive, which is formatted by the television and can be used from then on for recording TV programs.

An important aspect of USB recording is also the fact that Sony has given the Sony KD-77AG9 a triple tuner, the individual receiving parts of which are available in duplicate. Thus, it is possible for the TV owner to record a program on program A while watching program B. The program can be received either via satellite, cable or DVB-T2. However, it is annoying that the Sony KD-77AG9 does not support timeshift: the popular function allows the user to pause a current TV show in order to watch it later or start it from the beginning. Unfortunately, the fact that this feature is not available on a television that costs around 3.000 euros must be seen as a very clear negative point.

At least Sony is generous with the rest of the equipment: a WLAN interface for wireless connection to the home network is also on board, as is an alternative Ethernet input, and a wide variety of equipment such as wireless keyboards or wireless Bluetooth speakers can also be connected via Bluetooth. Although the latest version 5.0 is not installed here, the existing version 4.2 at least achieves a speed of up to MBit/s with a maximum range of around 100 meters.

picture quality

Now we come to the topic of image quality, in which the Sony KD-77AG9 fortunately secured the top mark. The 4K Ultimate X1 processor built into the television does an excellent job here and not only impresses with a pin-sharp playback of high-resolution films, but also with strong and bright colors and a flawless contrast ratio. The built-in OLED panel has a positive effect, especially in scenes with dark colors, because the color black is really deep black here - while you usually have to be prepared for unsightly gray casts with cheaper LCD televisions. The Sony KD-77AG9, on the other hand, doesn't even have any problems distinguishing different shades of darkness from one another, which means that a black cat, for example, comes into its own in the dark night and is not mixed up with the black background - which, unfortunately, is the case with some models case is. However, the Sony KD-77AG9 delivers its best performance in the playback of HDR content: Since each individual pixel is precisely controlled, the result is an outstanding picture experience, which, thanks to its extremely realistic and almost plastic presentation, makes mouths open.

Audio quality

Many more expensive Smart TVs that deliver a flawless picture are also disappointing when it comes to audio quality. Here, however, the Sony KD-77AG9 provides a small surprise, because the sound of the television can definitely be heard. This is mainly due to the fact that Sony has dispensed with the classic stereo speakers on the sides of the device and instead placed special actuators directly behind the OLED screen. This means that the sound now comes directly from the picture, which of course has several advantages. The Sony KD-77AG9 even has no problem with sounds containing bass, since two subwoofers are integrated on its back.

If you still don't feel like the really good standard sound of the television, you can of course always connect a separate surround system or an alternative soundbar to the Sony KD-77AG9.

Service

The Sony KD-77AG9 is equipped with the Android TV 9 operating system and thus enables very uncomplicated operation. Who already has an android Smartphone or an Android tablet in your hand, will not have any problems with the control of the device, but even completely inexperienced career changers will find their way around here very quickly. If desired, you can install numerous entertaining apps via the Google Play Store, but the most important applications such as YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video or Disney+ are of course already preinstalled. But be careful: If you want to enjoy the full number of apps, you must connect the TV to your Google account. Otherwise you can only access various broadcaster media libraries and a few streaming services (including Netflix).

If you want, you can control the Sony KD-77AG9 not only by remote control, but also by your own voice. In this case, this is possible via the voice assistant Google Assistant, but the Smart TV is also compatible with Alexa from Amazon. To use Google Assistant, however, you have to press and hold the microphone button on the remote control and speak your command. However, hands-free voice control is not possible due to the lack of a microphone in the TV itself.

And finally ...

The Sony KD-77AG9 is comparatively expensive to buy, but scores with an outstanding picture in combination with a surprisingly clear and bass-strong sound.

The equipment of the television is also convincing, consisting of 4 HDMI inputs, 2 USB connections, USB recording, double triple tuner and voice control - we only sorely missed the popular time shift function for time-delayed television. Anyone looking for a high-performance television with an extravagant look and above all who values ​​flawless picture quality will find it extremely difficult to avoid the Sony KD-77AG9 4K OLED television.