Sound & Vision 2006 Editors' Choice Awards
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Sony KDL-40XBR2 40-inch LCD HDTV
November
Sony KDL-40XBR2 40-inch LCD HDTV
0702_edchoice_videoThe year 2006 marked a turning point — and I'm not referring to the recent congressional elections. I'm talking about the video performance of LCD TVs finally starting to catch up with other display technologies. As the first-ever LCD model to receive an S&V Editors' Choice award, Sony's KDL-40XBR2 ($3,500) racked up that honor by putting out a picture discerning viewers can hang their hats on. The biggest advancement here is in the set's handling of dark images: Even the gloomiest movies show rock-solid blacks and a high level of shadow detail. And the plentiful picture adjustments, including a variable backlight and flexible color-temperature and gamma settings, all pitch in toward achieving great performance. When you add features like 1080p resolution, automatic contrast enhancement for daylight viewing, and a side-panel HDMI input for plugging in a PlayStation 3, Sony's 40-inch LCD, while far from being the most affordable model in its size range, is definitely the most desirable.
sonystyle.com
— Al Griffin
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