A California-based gamer faces up to 20 years in jail after admitting crimes including making a hoax call to US police that resulted in them shooting an innocent man dead.
Tyler Barriss made the call after becoming involved in a dispute with other video gamers engaged in an online Call of Duty match.
The 25-year-old had meant to direct the police to another player’s home.
But instead he gave the address of the victim, a Kansas-based father-of-two.
Barriss had originally claimed to be innocent but on Tuesday changed his plea to guilty.
“His reasons were trivial and his disregard for the safety of other people was staggering.”
In addition, Barriss admitted to having made hoax bomb threats to the FBI, schools, universities, shopping malls and TV stations among other crimes.
As part of his plea agreement, he has agreed to contribute towards the victim Andrew Finch’s funeral costs and to be supervised for five years after his release from prison, according to local newspaper the Wichita Eagle.
Fake number
Prosecutors referred to the prank call as being an example of “swatting” – an attempt to fool armed police or other emergency services into disturbing a target at their home or other address.
It gets its name from special weapons and tactics (Swat) police units in the US.
In this case, Barriss is alleged to have been asked by another gamer to “swat” a third after there had been a fight over a Call of Duty World War II battle involving a $1.50 (£1.16) wager.
On discovering this, the intended target is said to have claimed he was living at an address he had in fact moved out of and went on to dare Barriss to send the police there.
Barriss did so by claiming that he lived at the property, had shot his father in the head and was holding other family members hostage.
He disguised his telephone number when doing so to make it appear to the Wichita Police Department that he lived locally.
Mr Finch knew nothing of this when police vehicles arrived at his home and he stepped out to see what was going on.
The police said he had then failed to comply with an order to keep his hands up in the air, leading to one officer shooting him with a rifle.
The officer in question was cleared of wrongdoing earlier this year.
The other two gamers involved in the affair – Casey Viner, 18, from Ohio, and Shane Gaskill, 20, from Wichita – deny the charges against them and are awaiting trial.
LG makes good phones. The LG V40 ThinQ (plain old V40 from hereon in) is the best one it has ever made with three rear cameras, an excellent display and exceptional wired audio.
It improves on the already great V30 in most areas, quite rare considering that phone’s quality. By all accounts, we should be crowning the V40 with a phone of the year award.
But it’s not on sale in the UK as LG hones in on Korea and the US as its two primary territories and the asking price is exceedingly high. LG’s smartphone sales dip is well documented but the high price and low availability means the V40 is likely to remain a curious enthusiast’s phone.
The only way to get the LG V40 in the UK or Europe is importing it, though you’ll have to pay a lot for shipping.
In the US the phone is on sale for a very high price. so it’ll work on AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon.
Amazon US has a $999.99 package of the phone, Bluetooth headset, 32GB SD microSD card and car phone holder.
This is an oddly supremely expensive phone and it’ll struggle to compete on a shelf next to the iPhone XR, which is $749. If LG wanted anyone to buy the V40, it really should not have made it more expensive than every phone in the world bar the iPhone XS – particularly in the US where iOS is dominant.
Different glass
Our review unit of the V40 has a lovely matt finish to the glass back. Most premium phones are now glass, both for style and to allow for wireless charging (sometimes: the V40 thankfully has it). But pick up a Samsung Galaxy S9 in black and within seconds it’s a greasy smudgy mess.
Though the V40 is also available in gloss we recommend this matt finish if you can find it. It’s slightly less grippy but means you can’t see any fingerprints, especially in the grey version. It’s a mini revelation.
The phone keeps LG’s fairly utilitarian design seen since 2017’s G6 with a plain back, metal rim and tall front display with Gorilla Glass 5 and a small notch at the top. That display is 6.4in but very manageable in one hand use thanks to the 19.5:9 aspect ratio. It’s LG’s best OLED to date with a 3120×1440 resolution, improving on the sometimes-grainy V30 panel.
Inside there are the specs you might expect with a Snapdragon 845 processor, 6GB RAM and 64 or 128GB expandable storage. It’s a curiously lightweight phone at 169g; LG seems to be going for this option rather than the heavy metal phones of Apple and Google.
Triple trouble
Like the Huawei Mate 20 Pro, the LG V40 has three rear cameras and they are by far the phone’s best feature. The set-up is one of the most versatile smartphone cameras you can buy and it’s a real pleasure to use. LG phones have long had two rear cameras to get cool wide-angle shots but adding a third means you can do this and optical zoom.
It packs in a 16Mp super wide angle (f/1.9), a 12Mp standard angle (f/1.5) and a 12Mp telephoto zoom (f/2.4).
This means you have three different modes for different shooting conditions and gives it an advantage over one camera phones like the Pixel 3 and two camera phones like the iPhone XS.
You can long press on icons in the camera app to live preview all three modes to quickly decide which to use, a neat touch. If you want to take all three photos at once you can with Triple Shot.
There’s a portrait mode for bokeh style shots too. Pound for pound the V40 has the most camera options of any mainstream, smartphone at the time of its launch.
Whether or not you like LG’s processing is worth considering though. The Pixel 3 may only have one lens but the quality of image is stunning and one of the best in the industry. It’s down to how the software processes the image, and LG is most of the way there.
The V40 handles colour well, with a pleasing level of saturation that we prefer to Huawei’s latest that tend to overblown natural greens. But Huawei is still better in the lowest of low light despite the good results of the V40. LG has added Super Bright Mode that automatically kicks in to lengthen exposure time to help with this and it’s pretty good.
Two cameras on the front can handle decent selfies and a wide-angle mode though they do need the right lighting to perform at their best as they are limited to 8Mp and 5Mp only.
Basically, if you want the versatility offered by three main camera lenses you won’t be disappointed. Check out the gallery below:
There is also a crazy number of manual controls for photos and video – the most of any smartphone out there, full stop. You’ll get the results you want, but only if you go looking. The camera app is pleasingly uncluttered if you just want to use auto mode.
The V40 is a very proficient as a video recording device. LG has always pitched the V series thus, and you can shoot up to 4K at 60fps but you lose the blur reduction at that frame rate.
With stabilisation on all other modes and HDR options, if you’re looking to use a smartphone for video the V40 should be considered.
Sounding it out
The audio from the V40 is incredible. If the cameras are a rung below the total best for stills then the audio from the headphone jack is hands down the best on any phone, much like the V30 before it.
LG’s built-in Hi-Fi quad DAC (digital-to-analogue converter) is excellent and boosts the quality of streamed audio substantially. Sounds presets improve EQ, too.
But playing full size files from the device is the best way to enjoy wired audio here and if you appreciate that sort of thing, you’ll never want to use Bluetooth again.
Bells and whistles
Despite its high price, then, the V40 is clearly fully featured. As well as the excellent camera and audio it has IP69 water resistance and is Qi charging compatible. It charges very fast with the boxed charger and has headphones in the box too.
Add to this the best haptics on an Android phone. The Pixel 3 is just about as good and the iPhone is still the best but LG has not only used an excellent vibration motor but it’s also integrated it in cool places. Little jitters in the camera app recreate a mechanical zoom and lens focus haptics and it’s a total delight to use.
The Boombox speaker from the G7 makes its move to the V series too and it’s much the same as before. Put the phone on something hollow or resonant and the sound is amplified. It’s fine and loud for podcasts but we still prefer dual stereo speakers on the Pixel 3 or Galaxy S9. And we still don’t think anyone should listen to music for any length of time out of phone speakers anyway.
Battery life is fine but nothing to get too excited about. The 3300mAh size is about average and the phone lasted us a day no problem throughout our time with it and didn’t drain too fast when using GPS for maps or streaming video over 4G. It’s not as long lasting as the Pixel 3 XL or Huawei P20 Pro though.
In benchmarks it performs well, pipped only by the OnePlus 6T which is capable of a higher gaming frame rate.
Same old LG
While LG’s Android skin has improved no end over the last few years it’s still a bit clunkier than it needs to be. Although we prefer it to Huawei’s EMUI it still changes a few parts of Android unnecessarily like the settings menu where things are hard to find, or the app drawer that annoyingly doesn’t keep apps in alphabetical order when you download more after sorting them, and endlessly scrolls on a loops from left to right.
It is not unusable by any means but it’s disappointing that it doesn’t come with Android 9 Pie and instead ships on 8.1 Oreo. LG’s track record for OS updates makes us think it’ll be a while till we see any updates, though it did receive a monthly security update in our time with it.
You can hide the notch with a black bar or make the ears of the display coloured, if you fancy. There’s a physical hardware button to use Google Assistant which is fine – Assistant is better than Bixby on Samsung phones and we didn’t press the button accidentally too often. A physical power button on the right means the fingerprint sensor on the back isn’t a button unlike older V series phones.
Face unlock is also lightning quick but is less secure than the fingerprint sensor, the latter of which you must use for app security.
Also, if you import the phone from Korea you will likely have a ridiculous amount of bloatware preinstalled, as we did. You can uninstall most of it, but not all, and it’s a bit of a turn off when you have to spend ages doing this when you first turn the phone on. Occasionally you’ll come across Korean characters in things like the calendar app but for the most part we got the phone working as we wanted. It just took a while to get there.
Verdict
At the time of launch the LG V40 ThinQ is LG’s best phone. It’s more of an iteration of the G7 than anything else but that’s no bad thing. It’s not a particularly sexy or exciting phone but with outstanding wired audio in a market that is shunning headphone jacks it’s a welcome differentiator.
The display is the best on an LG phone, the triple cameras are incredibly versatile and this is hands down the phone to buy if you want to record video with a phone.
Performance is outstanding and it’s got all the mod cons like waterproofing and wireless charging. This is one of the best phones you can buy, it’s just so LG that it costs too much at $900 and it’s basically impossible to get outside Korea and the US.
As its name implies, Movavi Video Editor (MVE) allows you to cut a movie from existing clips. Although it is a paid app, the developers let you download a seven-day trial version for either the Mac or Windows, which should give you enough time to explore its features and decide if they are for you.
Like any video editing app, the first thing you need to do when starting a new project is import media. MVE is very flexible in that regard, and allows you to import video, photos and audio stored on my computer, or external drives. You can also gain access to your computer’s built-in camera and start recording straight from within the application.
It doesn’t appear to be possible to import videos from an AVCHD camcorder however, which is quite frustrating and forces you to find another way to get the footage out prior to being able to import it into MVE.
There’s further disappointment in the shape of a false “Record Screencast” button in the import panel. Sadly this feature (which would record your computer’s screen, a must for those making computer tutorials or recording game sessions, for instance) only works if you’ve purchased the more expensive Video Suite. Clicking on that button merely opens your browser and takes you to Movavi’s online store.
The Clip’s Tools section allow you to easily modify your clip.
Importing and editing
Contrary to most other video editing apps, importing media doesn’t add it to a section in the interface where you can preview it, choose which parts to use, and likely discard the rest. Instead, MVE adds any clips you import directly into your timeline. This is not a good way to edit a video, since the order you chose them may well not be the order they need to go together. Therefore the best way to use MVE’s import feature is to select the clips as you need them, which makes for a poor interface.
It’s however very easy to move clips around the timeline. In a manner similar to Final Cut Pro X’s magnetic timeline, deleting clips will shunt any others on its right to the left to close the gap between all remaining clips. This process works when reordering clips on the first, and primary, layer. This does not apply to any other layers above it.
Editing clips is as you’d expect: you can trim their In or Out points by clicking and dragging their edges inwards. Alternatively, you can click on a clip to select it, move the playhead over the desired area and click on the Split button (the one shaped like a pair of scissors). These actions are non-destructive and dragging a clip’s edges outwards will restore the previously cut segment.
There is no obvious keyframing process but that’s because a lot of effects you would animate are actually automated in MVE, like fading in or out, or panning and zooming. You can find all this and more in the clip’s Tools section. This process works very well.
In order to help you create frame-accurate edits, MVE allows you to navigate your work on a frame by frame basis using keyboard shortcuts, although those that are included could be simplified, and there sadly isn’t enough of them.
The developers had an extremely puzzling decision to not breakdown the timecode by frames, but rather by hundredths of a second. To make matters worse, this division isn’t consistent. Try this yourself: move the Timeline’s playhead forward one frame, then make it go back one frame. Repeat this two or three times, and you’ll see the hundredth of a second value is different each time even though you revisit the same frame over and over again. This is not acceptable for precision work.
Callouts are a fun and easy way to highlight parts of your clip.
Titles and effects
MVE comes with a generous collection of filters and transitions which you can preview by clicking on their icon. To add them to your edit, just drag the one you need to the selected clip. The Callouts section houses animated arrows, circles and overlays. Stickers has a handful of clipart.
Text presets are easy to use and very customisable.
Titles work in the same way, but you can also easily customise them. You can change their position on the screen, alter the text, font, colour and size, all by selecting which section you’d like to change in the interface’s main Preview pane. Many of those titles are animated, helping you create fancy effects in seconds. It’s also easy to retime those animations to fit your edit.
Should you feel the need for more of these effects, you can purchase additional sets from the Movavi online store, and there’s a handy button in each section for you to do just that.
Although the interface looks nice and polished there are some odd inconsistencies: for instance you can select the Stabilisation tool (which doesn’t work very well) either by double-clicking on a clip and finding it in the list of tools, or via the sidebar of icons on the left. Pan and Zoom, and Chroma Key are present in this list of tools too, but you can also find them in the sidebar’s “More” section. Such lack of attention to detail is annoying.
There is also no audio levels or audio meters anywhere. You can see a clip’s audio waveform in the timeline, but it’s impossible to know if any part of it is peaking, and you have to resort to your own ears to make sure the volume remains consistent throughout – which is far from ideal.
Once your movie is done, you have many export options at your disposal.
Once you’ve finished your edit it’s time to export it. MVE does provide a wide array of options, from saving it as an MP4 (ideal for the web), to over a dozen other codecs. You also have access to Advanced settings for most, should you need to go beyond the basics. There are presets for various mobile devices, and you can also upload your video straight to Youtube from that interface.
Final verdict
Overall, Movavi Video Editor is a nice-looking application, but it has too many inconsistencies and failings to recommend it if you are serious about getting into video editing. At least it has a seven-day trial for you to check it out and make up your own mind.
Sony’s PlayStation 4 Pro was the most powerful games console on the market by some way since release in 2016, but it looks as if that crown has now been taken, as Microsoft’s souped-up Xbox One X is now available to buy in the UK. We take an in-depth look at it separately, in our Xbox One X review.
Some gamers might already know they’re planning to own both consoles, but that’ll be too pricey for a lot of us. So if you’re just looking for one, should you grab the PS4 Pro or the One X?
Pricing and availability
Sony’s console arrived in the UK on 10 November 2016, and the 1TB edition can be found for £349/$399. That’s only £100/$100 or so more than the standard PS4 (a.k.a. the PS4 Slim), making it a reasonably compelling value proposition.
The Xbox One X is also now available to buy, and costs £449/$499 – pretty much exactly £100/$100 more than the PS4 Pro, meaning Microsoft has to pull out all the stops to make the console worth it.
If you’re in the UK, head to , Amazon,Argos and the . There’s high demand for the console though, so you may have to wait a while before getting your hands on the console.
Specs and features
So the Xbox One X costs a fair bit more than the PS4 Pro, but will you get more for your money? On paper at least, yes.
The One X boasts a custom-built eight-core CPU, with each core clocked at 2.3GHz. That’s similar to the octa-core setup in the PS4 Pro, but that only runs at 2.1GHz, giving the Xbox a slight edge.
That’s needed to drive the biggest hardware change here: the GPU. The entirely custom AMD chip boasts 40 compute units each running at 1172MHz – dramatically faster than the 911MHz the PS4 Pro’s 36 units run at. Microsoft has lived up to its promise to offer six teraflops of GPU power, especially impressive when you consider the tiny dimensions of the console compared to the PS4 Pro.
The extra tech ensures smooth, consistent 4K gameplay, which requires plenty of bandwidth elsewhere. To that end, the One X has 12GB of GDDR5 RAM (versus 8GB in the PS4 Pro), with a total memory bandwidth of 326GB/s (218GB/s on the PS4 Pro).
In terms of how all those specs affect performance, the One X is capable of running games at 60 frames-per-second in 4K resolutions, or at least that’s the aim. The framerate can occasionally drop, but it’s not as noticeable as what we’ve seen playing certain games on the PS4 Pro.
By contrast, the PS4 Pro offers upscaled or ‘dynamic’ 4K, and doesn’t typically offer a smooth 60fps – the difference between the two is immediately noticeable.
Both consoles come with a 1TB hard drive by default. The PS4 Pro lets you upgrade this (e.g. to an SSD or a larger drive) or use an external drive to expand storage. While the One X will let you use an external drive, we don’t yet know if you’ll be able to upgrade the internal drive.
The Xbox One X also plays 4K Blu-rays, though the PS4 Pro doesn’t. That’s probably not a big deal for most people, but if you know you’re going to want to watch films in the highest definition you can, you might want to grab the One X.
Both consoles are also capable of improving performance for other games, not just those with specific Pro/One X support. Boost mode lets the PS4 Pro run at a higher GPU and CPU clock speed in order to improve gameplay on some PS4 games that were released before the Pro. It should provide higher frame rates for some games, and can reduce load times too.
However, One X has the slight edge here, because Boost Mode won’t work on every PS4 game, while Microsoft claims the One X will offer native performance boosts for every Xbox One title.
The company has emphasised that different games will see different benefits based on their software architecture, but that all should see some improvement, whether in resolution, graphics quality, or frame-rate.
Virtual reality support
Much of the hype around both consoles has been about one thing: VR. With increased processing power, both consoles promise serious performance upgrades for anyone looking to pick up a virtual reality headset, which both Microsoft and Sony are betting will be a big draw.
Sony has launched its own PlayStation VR, which comes with a variety of exclusive titles and retails at — pretty affordable by current VR standards. You don’t need the Pro to use PSVR — a regular PS4 will work just fine — but it will help make sure that VR games and experiences run as smoothly as possible.
Microsoft isn’t making its own virtual reality headset, and while consumers initially assumed that the company would partner with Oculus to bring support to the console, it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen. So, if VR is your thing, the PS4 Pro is the best bet.
Games
Last but not least, what about their game libraries? This is less of an important factor if you already own either console (or even both), but if you’re new to this generation then it might matter a lot more.
Obviously, to some extent it’s a matter of personal taste, and the main thing to look at is each console’s lineup of exclusives. The PS4 boasts the likes of and , and has major titles including Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding on the way. Thanks to the PlayStation Now streaming service, you can also play a whole range of older Sony titles for a small fee.
For the Xbox One, it’s a similar story: , , Crackdown, ReCore and are just a few of the exclusives that you can play on the platform. The more you care about those, the better the argument for sticking with Microsoft.
The Xbox One also offers backwards compatibility, offering the chance to play old Xbox and Xbox 360 games (though not all are supported). Microsoft is also launching the Xbox Game Pass, a subscription service that lets you download (not stream) a variety of Xbox One and 360 games for a set monthly fee – and it’s cheaper than PS Now.
Both consoles have a great selection of multi-platform titles to choose from as well, and the One X’s superior specs mean you’ll likely get the best version of these games on Microsoft’s platform.
Verdict
While Sony’s PS4 Pro is not to be sniffed at – it still provides a bump in performance compared to the PS4 – it simply can’t compete with what the Xbox One X provides. True [email protected] gameplay is stunning, and the inclusion of a 4K Blu-ray player means you can enjoy UHD movies too.
The PS4 Pro may be a better choice for those that are interested in VR though, as the console provides a high-end PlayStation VR experience (although the headset is sold separately). There’s also arguably better console exclusives on Sony’s console.
Tommy Fleetwood ended last season as European No 1 after beating fellow countryman Justin Rose to the Race to Dubai. This year Fleetwood is chasing Francesco Molinari’s commanding lead, made all the more intriguing after the pair’s obvious bromance during the Ryder Cup.
The two star men went some way to helping Europe win the Ryder Cup at a canter from the USA, and ten golfers from that contest are competing in the first round in Dubai. Rory McIlroy has a good record in the tournament that crowns a champion and a Race to Dubai winner at the same time. Who will it be this year?
Here’s how to watch the on TV, online and even without Sky Sports.
When is the DP World Tour Championship?
The DP World Tour Championship takes place from 15-18 November 2018 at the Jumeirah Golf Estates in Dubai.
The action starts at 10am UK time on 15 November thanks to the time difference.
How to watch on TV
The easiest way to catch all the action is on Sky Sports. The championship is live on the Sky Sports Golf channel. If you have Sky simply tune in.
If you want to get Sky Sports .
How to watch online
If you have Sky Sports you can watch on the go via the Sky Go app foror.
How to watch without Sky Sports
If you don’t want to get into a Sky Sports contract then have no fear, you can watch the golf legally by getting a Now TV pass. Now TV lets you watch every Sky Sports channel via its sports passes.
You can get a day, week or month pass .
will let you see all the golf over its four days. It’s the cheapest legal way to do it.
“Our vision is for Streams to now become an AI-powered assistant for nurses and doctors everywhere – combining the best algorithms with intuitive design, all backed up by rigorous evidence.
“The team working within Google, alongside brilliant colleagues from across the organisation, will help make this vision a reality.”
It is not only Streams that will be affected. The DeepMind Health division, which now has a partnership with 10 NHS hospitals to process medical data, will also fall under the remit of California-based Google Health.
Lawyer and privacy expert Julia Powles, who has closely followed the development of Streams, responded on Twitter: “DeepMind repeatedly, unconditionally promised to ‘never connect people’s intimate, identifiable health data to Google’.
“Now it’s announced… exactly that. This isn’t transparency, it’s trust demolition,” she added.
In response, DeepMind told the BBC: “Patient data remains under our NHS partners’ strict control, and all decisions about its use will continue to lie with them. The move to Google does not affect this.”
Privacy law broken
Streams began as a collaboration with the Royal Free Hospital in London to assist in the management of acute kidney injury. Doctors approached Google-owned DeepMind for help in developing software to help spot and alert clinicians about patients at risk.
Initially it did not use artificial intelligence, but still drew praise from the doctors and nurses using it because of the time it saved them in diagnosing and treating patients.
However, it emerged that neither the health trust nor DeepMind had informed patients about the vast amount of data it had been using.
DeepMind Health went on to work with Moorfields Eye Hospital, with machine-learning algorithms scouring images of eyes for signs of conditions such as macular degeneration.
In July 2017, the UK’s Information Commissioner ruled the UK hospital trust involved in the initial Streams trial had broken UK privacy law for failing to tell patients about the way their data was being used.
The controversy led to an independent review panel being set up to scrutinise DeepMind’s relationship with the NHS.
DeepMind confirmed to the BBC that the panel was “unlikely” to continue in its current form, given the US takeover of the health division.
It is not the first time an independent firm has been subsumed by Google.
Nest, which collects data from home security cameras, thermostats and doorbells, was set up as a stand-alone, with promises that no data would be shared with the search giant.
I’m always excited to see a new TV from Sony, and this $1800, 65-inch class version of the XBR X900F is no exception. Historically, the company has produced some of the finest sets ever to pass down the pike. In some ways, the X900F is one of them. In other ways, it’s not.
Design and specs
The XBR65X900F is a 64.5-inch (65-inch class) TV with an internal tuner, sporting 3840 by 2160p (4K UHD) resolution on a 120Hz panel. It’s thin bezeled, handsome, and weighs in at 56 pounds, including stand. Construction is top-notch. While some TVs arriving at the test center these days have a flimsy feel to their construction (including higher-priced brands), the X900F has no gaps, loose seams, or disturbing amounts of flex. It feels solid, as befits a TV in this price range. Sony
The back of the XBR X900F sports the usual assortment of ports. Several face to the side for easier access.
The back of the XBR X900F is home to a typical port selection, including side-facing HDMI and dual USB ports, an IR blaster port, an audio/video input, and a headphone jack. Another cut-out a bit further in hosts 100Mbps ethernet, the coax connection for antennas and cable TV, optical audio output, an RS-232 port for custom remote control, and three more HDMI ports. One of these supports ARC (Audio Channel Return). Wireless connectivity consists of Bluetooth and 802.11ac Wi-Fi.
I’ll skip over most of Sony’s marketing terms. What they boil down to is that the X900F has a decently powerful processor, quality components, and the company does a lot with them to deliver high-quality video renderings. On the processing front, Sony does better than just about anyone. The display components on the other hand, are lagging a bit behind the other two top vendors.
Interface and remote
Having just reviewed Hisense’s H9E Plus, my opinion of Google’s Android TV interface has improved quite a bit. Android on the Hisense I can live with. Android on the Sony? Not quite as nice. Sony’s version still features a sea of icons that makes navigating a chore, and the stylistic melding of Android and Sony’s own pop-up settings menus is slightly awkward. It’s all workable, just not as seamless as you what you see from, say, Samsung or Roku TVs. The channel guide, on the other hand, is absolutely stellar—the best in the business.
For me, the X900F’s somewhat old-school remote is a mixed bag. I like that it has dedicated transport control buttons, and the integrated microphone for voice control is handy, too. I understand it’s universal and trying to replace, among other things, a cable remote. But the layout is busy, and the advertising buttons (Netflix and Google Play) are prominently located and visually distracting.
I also found the the circle of buttons (Apps, Home, Back, etc.) surrounding the four-way cursor-control/enter button too easy to press mistakenly when operating by feel. Hear again, it’s workable, but not exactly what I associate with an $1,800 TV.
Sony
If your eyes weren’t immediately drawn to the advertising buttons, the Sony remote would be easier to use. For a $1,800 TV, I’d like to see something a bit classier and easier to use.
Then again, this is an Android TV, so you have access to all those apps and Google functionality, including Google Assistant. Like the channel guide, that will be a selling point for some.
Performance
The X900F has the best image processing in the TV industry. I’ve grown so accustomed to moiré, shimmering in detailed pans, jagged text, and backlighting blockiness found in other TVs that the absence of such things on the X900F is a real treat. Motion is also quite smooth when you increase the judder reduction, and the loss of detail is minimal. Believe it or not, there are Hollywood purists who want judder reduction removed from TVs. Take a hike, I say.
The X900F is capable of generating quite a bit of brightness for use in HDR: 990 nits was my highest reading with about 25-percent screen coverage white on black, though 770 nits was more the norm. HDR10 titles popped quite nicely, although getting HDR popping pretty much required turning on Sony’s Xtended Dynamic Range (XDR) feature, at which point the X900F bleeds a lot of light. That is, there’s quite a bit of “blooming” around bright objects on a dark background. In some cases, and from some angles, you could see bleed a foot or more from the bright object.
This is the conundrum with the X900F and many LED-backlit LCD TVs: You can have brilliant brights or decent black, but not both. With XDR disengaged, the X900F’s black is much better than most TVs, so standard dynamic material looks rich. The light sabers just won’t pop.
Sony wouldn’t tell me how many zones are in the backlighting array, but given what I saw, there are a fair number. I don’t know why vendors such as Sony and Samsung won’t reveal that spec. Kudos to the companies that do.
The X900F supports Dolby Vision, but it took a firmware update to our standard Dolby Vision player (an Oppo UDP-203 4K UHD Blu-ray player, forcing its HDR setting to Dolby Vision), as well as setting the X900F’s second and third HDMI inputs to “Enhanced Mode” (10-bit) before handshaking would commence. In the end, it looked pretty darn good with XDR enabled. Not so much with it off. Yes, the conundrum.
The X900F’s other weakness, albeit a minor one, is color acuity. The overall palette is fine in practical terms, but reds skew slightly orange, and greens ever so slightly to lime. Other sets I’ve seen recently, such as the Samsung QLEDs and even the much more affordable TCL 55R617, Vizio P-Series, and Hisense H9E Plus, produce more accurate reds and greens.
Sony
The X900F’s color is quite good, but it’s not as accurate as what we’ve been seeing from many other sets recently. On the other hand the Sony’s +/- 800-nit brightness renders HDR with considerable pop.
Sound from the X900F’s down-firing speakers is—middling. There’s plenty of volume, but it’s a bit lacking in clarity; i.e., there’s not a lot of treble. I was hoping this series would acquire the planar driver technology Sony employs to great success on its OLEDs, but perhaps the layered construction of LED-backlit LCD TVs makes them less suitable. In any event, you’ll be able to live with its audio performance until you connect it to something better.
Sony’s superior image processing, applied sparingly, generally makes up for its ever so slightly skewed color palette. There’s not a lot of material that will noticeably suffer from the light-bleed issue, so I also consider it a relatively minor deal. That said, I took to turning off XDR whenever possible.
Conclusion
Not having to deal with picture artifacts such as moiré, jaggies, and the like is a huge plus for the X900F. And despite my acuity and bleed complaints, its picture quality with the vast majority of material is well within the ballpark when compared to LCDs from Samsung and LG.
Bottom line: The X900F is absolutely one of the models you must compare if you’re purchasing a TV in this price range.
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