Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 Review: Best flip phone of 2023

So that was my detailed review of the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5. This, by all means, is the most refined flip smartphone in the market right now. Samsung’s new approach towards this form factor has worked extremely well for the brand. Yes, we saw a similar implementation with the Moto Razr 40 Ultra. In fact, the outer display and software on the Moto Razr 40 Ultra is much better, but with a bit of effort, you can also bring a similar experience to this 3.4-inch cover display. The important thing to note here is that this kind of an outer display implementation will possibly extend the smartphone’s life, since people won’t be opening their smartphone for every other task. What Samsung has done better is refinement. The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5 feels like a much more complete phone. It feels sturdy, it feels premium, and it makes me feel confident about holding the smartphone. The hinge is smooth through and through, and there is no wobble given the excellent build quality that Samsung has showcased here. So yes, it does everything every other flip smartphone of 2023 does, along with offering the best build quality, design, and the best software experience with Samsung’s promise to bring 4 OS updates to its flagship smartphones.

It is the season of foldables and we have seen a few groundbreaking launches this year. From the cheapest foldable (Tecno Phantom V Fold) to the largest outer display (Moto Razr 40 Ultra), we have seen quite a bit this year in terms of the new smartphone form factor. Among all these new devices in the segment, I have noticed a certain lack of refinement. Especially in the clamshell-like flip designs where we have seen new innovation like bigger outer displays with more advanced features and tech like huge AMOLED displays with high refresh rate and whatnot. I remember using the Motorola Razr 40 Ultra and after absolutely loving everything about the device, I still didn’t feel very confident when I used the Moto Razr 40 Ultra. That was largely because of the hinge not being or feeling as sturdy as one would like. Then came along the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5, which, from the first time I held it, made me feel confident about holding it, using it, opening it, and closing it.

The fit and finish, along with newer implementations like the large 3.4-inch AMOLED display, put just one thought in my head - “is the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 the best modern flip smartphone to have ever landed?” Let’s find out in my review:

SAMSUNG GALAXY Z FLIP 5: DESIGN

Design on the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 is what grabs your attention. From the very first time I held it, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 just felt more refined, more complete. I like how the smartphone looks with the flat frame and large outer display. First things first - the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 closes completely shut. This time around, there is no gap in between the two flaps of the smartphone, which is probably the best design update of this year. The hinge also feels super smooth and sturdy and you can hold the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 in any position, in order to use the smartphone’s camera or other features in the “flex mode.”

The second-best design element is of course, the outer or the cover display. The 3.4-inch AMOLED display gives the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 its own distinct look apart from enhancing the usability. When opened, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 has a proportionate design, but like last year, the aspect ratio is more towards a taller orientation, making the smartphone very hard to use with one hand. Furthermore, I wasn’t able to notice any significant difference in the crease so Samsung’s new mechanism hasn’t really made any major difference in terms of how prominent the crease on the display is.

One thing I liked more about the smartphone when it’s open is how sturdy the smartphone feels. Throughout my usage, I was feeling very confident with the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 in my hands. The seamless and super premium in-hand feel is worth mentioning here. At the back, we get a simple glass panel. We got the mint colour for our review and according to my taste, this colour is absolutely stunning. 

Overall, this is the biggest design update on the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip series and Samsung’s experiment with the larger outer display and a more boxy design has worked quite well. 

SAMSUNG GALAXY Z FLIP 5: DISPLAY

Coming to the display, first I’m going to talk about the cover display. This is a 3.4-inch AMOLED 720p panel with a 60Hz refresh rate. This display does a lot. We get the ability to take calls, messages, run apps like WhatsApp, Netflix and YouTube by default, and there is a slew of widgets that you can make use of. Further, with Samsung’s Good Lock app, users can also run all apps on the cover display.

The display isn’t as smooth as the one on the Moto Razr 40 Ultra, which is a 144Hz panel, but it does pretty much everything the display on the Motorola does, just not natively since we need the Good Lock app to run more apps on this cover display. In terms of brightness and colours, this display felt adequately bright and colour accurate for all kinds of environments and users. Of course, you won’t watch a lot of content here so the colour accuracy isn’t of great importance.

It is the 6.7-inch main display where the colour accuracy matters and here, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5’s display looks quite saturated. We compared the display against some of the smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra or the iPhone 14 and the Galaxy Z Flip 5 was a bit too vibrant and saturated as compared to these two. Now, this is something a lot of people out there will prefer, but the colour accuracy on this panel isn’t as good as some of the options in the market.

Coming to brightness and responsiveness, this is a Samsung so there is no doubt this display is super bright. The sunlight visibility is as good as indoor visibility, and I never felt any lack while using both the outer and inside display in bright outdoors. I also tested the brightness using a Lux Meter, and on a plain white screen, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5 showed a maximum luminance of 831 nits. This is brilliant for any smartphone as this basically means that in sunlight, users won’t feel any lack of visibility for using this display.

With the 120Hz refresh rate, this display also feels nice and smooth. My experience of scrolling through the screens and feeds on the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5 was as good as on any other flagship. One thing I wish Samsung could have implemented is giving us a higher refresh rate on the outer display, which is limited to just 60Hz, making it feel a bit slow as compared to the main display. I was coming from the Moto Razr 40 Ultra to the Samsung, and the Moto Razr 40 Ultra uses a 144Hz refresh rate so the Galaxy Z Flip5 made me wish that Samsung should have put at least a 90Hz display.

SAMSUNG GALAXY Z FLIP5: PERFORMANCE

Now, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5 is today’s flagship and comes with the latest bleeding edge specs. We get the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip with 8GB of RAM. We get the latest UFS 4.0 storage, and we get new cooling tech, along with a stunning display to pair it with. As expected, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5 is a brilliant performer. The smartphone put up very good scores, which are at par with the other flagships of this year. On AnTuTu, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5 put out a score of 1,125,032 points, which is right up there with other Snapdragon 8 Gen 2-powered smartphones. For perspective, the Galaxy Z Flip5 beats the Samsung Galaxy S23 and comes a bit behind the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra. Further, the smartphone comfortably beats both its rivals - the Oppo Find N2 Flip and the Moto Razr 40 Ultra.

On Geekbench, the smartphone scored 1917 points in the single core test, and 4868 points in the multi-core test. Further, in PCMark Work 3.0, which is another CPU-based benchmark, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5 scored 14,872 points which is again very good and at par with other Snapdragon 8 Gen 2-powered smartphones. For comparions sake, this is again better than the other two flip smartphones of 2023, the Oppo Find N2 Flip and the Moto Razr 40 Ultra. Just the Razr 40 Ultra beats the Galaxy Z Flip5 in PCMark Work 3.0.

In GPU-based tests as well, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5 performed well, coming close to the big brother, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 and the Galaxy S23 Ultra and marginally beating the Samsung Galaxy S23. So in terms of benchmarks and tests we ran on the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5, the smartphone performs as well as any other Samsung flagship of this year.

Coming to real-world performance, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5 never felt slow or lacking in any sense. The smartphone is snappy, it’s quick and best of all, the start-up time is brilliant. While gaming also, I didn’t experience any frame drops or lags. Just the tall aspect ratio isn’t exactly ideal for those who game a lot on their device.

One thing I noticed with the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5 is that the smartphone heats up quite a bit. At times, the Galaxy Z Flip5 just started heating up in my pocket and I was left wondering as to why that is happening. While gaming, however, the smartphone manages thermals pretty well. Given the weird heating patterns, I ran the CPU throttling test, and the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5 throttled a bit. The smartphone throttled to 62 percent of the CPU performance in my test so that is not great.

Overall, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5 performs as well as any other flagship smartphone. It is super quick, super responsive, and it runs games smoothly (if you can deal with the improper aspect ratio).

SAMSUNG GALAXY Z FLIP5: BATTERY

Coming to battery, this is one of the smartphones in the market that people are very skeptical about its battery. The smartphone has a 3,700mAh unit, which sounds very small as compared to the 5,000 or 6,000mAh batteries. Further, the charging is also slow by today’s standards at just 25W. Now, yes, on paper this isn’t impressive. But the battery on the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5 lasts a while. During normal usage, I wasn’t blown away by the battery backup. Yes, it has improved from last year, but it's not a dramatic improvement.

In our tests, however, the results were good. The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5 lasted a good 770 minutes in our video loop test, meaning that the smartphone went on for just under 13 hours (12 hours 50 minutes), which is pretty good.

The charging is also slow at 25W. For a 3,700mAh battery, it charges from 0 to 100 percent in 93 minutes. In today’s era, when we have smartphones that charge in just about 30 minutes, this feels super slow and takes almost forever to charge to a full 100 percent.

SAMSUNG GALAXY Z FLIP5: CAMERA

Optics wise also, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5 doesn’t seem too impressive on paper. In fact, the camera setup is the same as last year’s Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4. The smartphone has a dual rear camera setup with a primary 12-megapixel wide angle shooter and another 12-megapixel ultra-wide angle shooter. Up front, we get a 10-megapixel selfie snapper.

The images from the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5’s camera are flagship-level. The photos from this camera have brilliant dynamic range, making scenic shots look stunning. The colours are more on the saturated side, not very true to life, but then again, that is something that most users actually prefer over true-to-life images.

 

 

In terms of details also, the photos from the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5 are very good. I took a lot of shots in different environments on this smartphone and every time, I was impressed with the amount of detail this primary 12-megapixel shooter was able to put out. The images are sharp and very vibrant.

 

 

 

The portrait mode is also very good. I found no issues with the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5’s edge detection or background blur. Even in wide angle, the shots are as sharp and detailed as the primary shooter, just the colours aren’t very consistent. The difference is only minor and at times in ideal lighting conditions, I found the colours to be a bit more towards my taste in wide angle shots.

 

 

Overall, this is a flagship-level camera setup by all definitions. The images are crisp, sharp, and detailed, showcasing great dynamic range at all times. It does portraits well, and the ultra-wide angle shooter is in-line with the primary shooter in terms of the quality of images. Good stuff.

SAMSUNG GALAXY Z FLIP5: VERDICT

So that was my detailed review of the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5. This, by all means, is the most refined flip smartphone in the market right now. Samsung’s new approach towards this form factor has worked extremely well for the brand.

Yes, we saw a similar implementation with the Moto Razr 40 Ultra. In fact, the outer display and software on the Moto Razr 40 Ultra is much better, but with a bit of effort, you can also bring a similar experience to this 3.4-inch cover display. The important thing to note here is that this kind of an outer display implementation will possibly extend the smartphone’s life, since people won’t be opening their smartphone for every other task.

What Samsung has done better is refinement. The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5 feels like a much more complete phone. It feels sturdy, it feels premium, and it makes me feel confident about holding the smartphone. The hinge is smooth through and through, and there is no wobble given the excellent build quality that Samsung has showcased here. So yes, it does everything every other flip smartphone of 2023 does, along with offering the best build quality, design, and the best software experience with Samsung’s promise to bring 4 OS updates to its flagship smartphones.

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Kodak 65-inch CAPRO 4K LED Smart Google TV Review: Immersive experience on a budget, but with a few trade-offs

The Kodak 65-inch CAPRO 4K LED Smart Google TV offers a large and decent 65-inch display at an affordable price point. While it may not boast cutting-edge technology, it supports popular features and manages to provide a satisfactory viewing experience for those seeking a budget-friendly option and especially those who will be viewing high-resolution content from OTT apps. All said and done, Its flaws are easier to overlook for the price. 

For consumers who prioritize color accuracy, the SDR content in Movie preset and Dolby Vision HDR should meet their expectations. However, the HDR10/ HDR10+ experience on the TV is not as impactful. As for the sound quality, it is acceptable considering the price range.

Kodak 65-inch CAPRO 4K LED Smart Google TV: Specifications

Panel Size: 65-inch (available in 43, 50, 55, and 75-inches)

Panel Type: LED LCD

Panel Resolution: 3840 x 2160 - 4K

Panel Refresh Rate: 60Hz

Supported HDR Formats: HDR10, HDR10+, HLG, Dolby Vision

Speakers: 40W

Audio formats supported: Dolby Atmos, DTS HD

Software: Google TV

Weight (with stand): Approx. 18 kgs

Connectivity options: 3 HDMI ports (HDMI 3 has ARC), 2 USB ports, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5, Ethernet, AV In

Built-in storage: 16GB

Price: Rs. 44,499

Kodak 65-inch CAPRO 4K LED Smart Google TV Review: Design, Remote, and Software

The TV is manufactured by SPPL in India, which also licenses other brands like Thompson and Westinghouse. This Kodak CA Pro -series TV has extremely slim bezels on the side. The gold-finish metal stands are positioned a little away from the corner, which is why the TV will easily fit on moderate to large-sized tables. 

The stand rests sturdily on our table, but since this is a large 65-inch TV it expectedly exhibits a slight wobble upon being flicked. The rose gold colour of the bottom bezel has a subdued tone that doesn’t feel tacky and doesn’t get distracting. The power chord is detachable and you should be able to easily replace it with a suitable length alternative if needed. 

All ports are side-facing and positioned on the left, which makes them easy to access. The TV has three properly spaced HDMI 2.0 ports with HDMI 3 supporting ARC. There are two USB ports positioned back to back, AV In, optical output, Antenna port and an ethernet port. As for wireless connectivity options, you get dual-band Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.0.

The remote feels a bit flimsy but is quite ergonomic and has 4 hotkeys for popular apps. We liked that the fourth key is a ‘Daily Key’ that you can remap to open any app of your choice.  The Frequently used keys, such as the home button and D-pad, are conveniently distinguished in low light by their white color, which should be quite helpful - at least until your muscle memory adapts to the layout.

The software is a Google TV interface powered by a MediaTek quad-core processor backed by 2GB RAM and 16GB storage. This is a powerful configuration and perfectly apt for TVs in this price segment. UI transitions felt responsive and features like screen mirroring via Chromecast built-in and voice commands worked smoothly. 

Kodak 65-inch CAPRO 4K LED Smart Google TV Review: Picture Quality

This is a 4K LED LCD TV that supports all popular HDR formats including Dolby Vision IQ and HDR10+. There are several picture modes and during our testing, we noticed that the TV could randomly switch to presets like HDR (energy saving) or User mode which are not properly tuned. For the best experience, you will need to switch to movie mode in SDR and HDR content. 

Color accuracy is excellent in SDR in the Movie mode as measured by Claman Ultimate Colour Checker using Spectracal C6 HDR2000 colorimeter. We recorded an average Delta Error of just 2.3, with maximum error in the greyscale region.

Bright and dark SDR sequences are rendered faithfully and skin tones look natural. 

We recorded a maximum brightness of 345 nits for the panel, but in the cinema mode, you will get an average of approx 288 nits. We measured a contrast of around 930:1 which is standard for LED LCD panels in the segment.  

In spite of great chromaticity performance, the overall quality was slightly let down with the greyscale performance in SDR. The TV is using a basic LED LCD panel where the screen uniformity is about average and you can see the light from edge LEDs bleed in the letterbox bars when viewing content in the dark.  

We didn’t notice any unnatural motion smoothening by default. The upscaling for legacy 480p content is also about average.

Due to the low native contrast and low brightness of the panel, the overall HDR experience isn’t very impactful. When it comes to different supported formats, Dolby Vision works best. Colours look natural and scenes with average APL are properly displayed.

With HDR10 and HDR10+, the skin tones look slightly reddish and shades of blue in sky and water look a bit unnatural. As you can see in the greyscale analysis, the TV doesn’t track EOTF diligently for mapping luminance values in HDR10 in the Movie preset.

The TV covers 98% of the rec 709 colour space, which is to say it can reproduce most of the colors in content mastered in SDR. As for HDR, we recorded a BT2020 colour volume of 59.28 in UV terms, which is again standard for affordable LED LCD TVs. 

Kodak 65-inch Ultra HD (4K) LED Smart Google TV: Audio Quality

The TV comes with 40W speakers that can get loud enough for listening in a large hall. Dolby Atmos is supported, but don’t expect much in terms of surround sound from TV speakers. The dialogue clarity is decent enough in the movie audio preset, but if you are particular about audio, you will need to invest in an external soundbar or sound system. 

Kodak 65-inch Ultra HD (4K) LED Smart Google TV Review - Verdict 

The Kodak CAPRO  offers a large and decent 65-inch display at an affordable price point. While it may not boast cutting-edge technology or the most advanced features, it manages to provide a satisfactory viewing experience for those seeking a budget-friendly option and will be viewing high-resolution content from OTT apps. All said and done, its flaws are easier to overlook for the price. 

For consumers who prioritize color accuracy, the SDR content in Movie mode and Dolby Vision HDR settings should meet their expectations. However, the HDR10 and HDR10+ capabilities of the TV might feel somewhat underwhelming. As for the sound quality, it is acceptable considering the price range.

If you are looking for alternatives, you may also consider the Nu 65-inch Ultra HD (4K) Smart TV that runs LG’s WebOS TV interface and ships with LG’s magic remote. This one too lies in the same price segment and offers decent value for money. 

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Sony Bravia A80L 65-inch Review: Premium OLED TV in a competitive market

The Sony Bravia A80L is a premium OLED TV that boasts a range of Sony's proprietary image and video processing technologies, enhancing the cinematic experience. This television excels in handling legacy SD content and motion, ensuring amazing performance. Moreover, the HDR10 and Dolby Vision experiences are also mostly impressive, though we noticed that highlights don’t get bright enough to pop. Acoustic Surface Audio+ technology adds realism and further elevates the overall viewing experience.

It is worth noting that the Sony Bravia A80L lacks a colour-accurate Filmmaker mode. Additionally, with numerous technologies dynamically optimizing picture quality, it becomes challenging to determine if the original intent of the content creators is faithfully preserved.

The Sony Bravia A80L is a premium OLED TV that boasts a range of Sony's proprietary image and video processing technologies, enhancing the cinematic experience. This television excels in handling legacy SD content and motion, ensuring amazing performance. Moreover, the HDR10 and Dolby Vision experiences are also mostly impressive, though we noticed that highlights don’t get bright enough to pop. Acoustic Surface Audio+ technology adds realism and further elevates the overall viewing experience.

It is worth noting that the Sony Bravia A80L lacks a colour-accurate Filmmaker mode. Additionally, with numerous technologies dynamically optimizing picture quality, it becomes challenging to determine if the original intent of the content creators is faithfully preserved.

Sony Bravia XR-A80L Review: Specifications

Panel Size: 65-inch (also available in 55, 77 and 83-inch as well)

Panel Type: OLED (WRGB), 100Hz native refresh rate

Panel Resolution: 3840 x 2160 - 4K

Panel Refresh Rate: 120Hz

Supported HDR Formats: HDR10, HDR10+, HLG, Dolby Vision

Speakers: 50W Acoustic Surface Audio+ (3 Actuator + 2 Subwoofer)

Audio formats supported: Dolby Audio, Dolby Atmos, DTS Digital Surround

Software: Google TV

Weight (with stand): Approx. 24.3kgs

HDMI Ports: 4 (2 full bandwidth HDMI 2.1 ports - HDMI 3, HDMI 4) 

HDMI 2.1 features - 4K@120, eARC, VRR, ALLM

Other connectivity options: 2 USB ports, Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 4.2, Ethernet, RF connection input, Headphone out, Digital audio out

Built-in storage: 16GB

Price: MRP: 3,49,990; Best Price: Rs 2,84,990

Sony Bravia A80L Design, Remote and Software

Sony continues to follow its minimalist design approach, and the A80L is a sleek and stylish TV that also feels solidly built and extremely premium. The aluminium slim-wedged stand of the TV can be mounted in three positions, with each successive angled-in position raising the TV a bit higher. With the feet set straight, the TV can accommodate most conventional soundbars at the front without blocking the display view.

The power cord is detachable and should be easy to replace. All ports are placed toward one side. The HDMI ports are properly spaced, and of these, HDMI 3 and HDMI 4 are full bandwidth HDMI 2.1 ports (HDMI 3 supporting eARC). HDMI 1 and HDMI 2 are based on HDMI 2.0. There are two USB-A ports on the rear positioned back to back, so it might be a tad inconvenient if, for some reason, you need to use both simultaneously.

The remote is quite ergonomic and has 6 hotkeys for popular apps. The buttons are sensibly laid out, and we got used to the layout in no time. However, they are not backlit, and we wouldn't be fussing about this if we hadn't experienced the luxury with the Sony Bravia A95K.

The Google TV interface on the Sony Bravia A80L ran perfectly smoothly during our testing. The TV further integrates Google Assistant, Chromecast Built-in, Apple AirPlay, and HomeKit, so you will be able to easily cast from all popular mobile devices.

Sony Bravia A80L Picture Quality

To start with, the Sony Bravia A80L uses the WBE OLED panel (WRGB) sourced from LG displays without any heat sink. While this is a good quality OLED panel supported by Sony’s deft image processing algorithms, it must be mentioned that the panel falls below the QD-OLED panel that Sony uses on the A95K or the latest MLA OLEDs available in this year's LG G3, both of which can achieve significantly higher brightness.

If this is your first experience with an OLED TV, the Sony Bravia A80L will definitely wow you. The deep blacks, high contrast, wide viewing angles, and fast response times are advantages that make watching good-quality OTT content truly amazing. Sony TVs are also renowned for their expertise in upscaling low-quality content, smoothing gradations, and handling motion in a balanced manner.

The Sony Bravia A80L does not include a Filmmaker mode to accurately reproduce the creator's intent. The most colour-accurate profile on the TV is Custom, but most people will understandably use Standard, Vivid, and Cinema modes that enhance colours and contrast to make the content look pleasant.

Since the Custom mode is the closest to a colour-accurate profile, that is what we tested using the Spectracal C6 colourimeter and Portrait Display’s Calman Ultimate software. Sony has a number of custom settings enabled by default, and we disabled power-saving and light sensor adjustments before our testing.

In SDR, the greyscale has a significant blue bias, thus impacting white-point accuracy. As you can see, the gamma over tracks the standard in the shadow region, resulting in some compromise in shadow details.

As for colours, the average delta error is below the humanly perceptible value of 3, with the maximum error occurring at 100% white. Skin tones felt natural in both SDR and HDR content.

Sony Bravia A80L HDR performance 

The Sony Bravia A80L supports HDR10, Dolby Vision, and HLG. It does not support HDR10+ and Dolby Vision IQ. However, we don't believe that is a deal breaker. Overall, the nuances of the HDR experience are handled really well.

Dark scenes with some bright objects thrown in are rendered beautifully. 

Like all White OLED panels, it struggles in the near-black region. For example, you can notice a lot of artefacts in scenes where a meteor shoots through a grey sky. 

The overall peak brightness of the Sony Bravia A80L is on the conservative side, which is noticeable in less-than-dazzling highlights in bright HDR scenes.

We measured a peak brightness of 1080 Nits on a 1 per cent window using our lux meter in the vivid mode. In the custom mode, we measured around 700 nits on a 10% window measured and full field brightness measured 140 nits. This is better performance than last year’s Sony Bravia A80K. 

As seen in the chart above, greyscale in HDR content is still skewed toward blue. The Sony Bravia A80L accurately tracks the EOTF curve in HDR content, although it slightly undertracks the reference in dark scenes.

Colours in HDR are once again fairly accurate, with maximum error at the white point. We measured an average delta error of 3 which means that the colour inaccuracies will not be easily discernible to users. 

As for colour volume, we recorded 72.04% of BT2020 colour space in the XY terms and 73.67% in the UV term, which is again standard for the White OLED panels. 

Sony Bravia A80L gaming 

With fast response time, fluid motion and VRR support, Sony Bravia A80L is quite good for gaming. The TV has two HDMI 2.1 ports, supports ALLM, and 120Hz VRR (NVIDIA G-Sync, AMD FreeSync Premium). Dolby Vision gaming is capped at 4K@60Hz. It also has a dedicated game mode where you can pull up a game bar to quickly enable or disable VRR and access a few other settings.

High-end TVs from Samsung and LG come with some additional perks like 4 HDMI 2.1 ports and HGiG mode for accurate tone mapping in game mode.

Sony Bravia A80L Audio

Sony Bravia A80L uses Acoustic Surface Audio+ technology where the screen becomes the speaker and this adds a lot of realism to the experience. The 50W audio system includes three 10W actuators and two 10W sub-woofers. 

This is certainly one of the best TV audio systems that we have experienced so far. Movie dialogues are crisp and clear, while the soundstage feels impressively expansive, occasionally simulating convincing surround sound effects. Additionally, the TV offers an auto-calibration option that employs a microphone in the remote control to gather data and optimize audio settings based on your typical viewing distance.

Sony Bravia A80L Review - Verdict 

The Sony Bravia A80L is a premium OLED TV that boasts a range of Sony's proprietary image and video processing technologies, enhancing the cinematic experience. This television excels in handling legacy SD content and motion, ensuring amazing performance. Moreover, the HDR10 and Dolby Vision experiences are also mostly stunning, though we noticed that highlights don’t get bright enough to pop.  Acoustic Surface Audio+ technology adds realism and further elevates the overall viewing experience.

It is worth noting that the Sony Bravia A80L lacks a colour-accurate Filmmaker mode. Additionally, with numerous technologies dynamically optimizing picture quality, it becomes challenging to determine if the original intent of the content creators is faithfully preserved.

The Sony A80L lies in the middle of the stack and costs a premium, but it justifies its price for cinema buffs who watch a lot of legacy content and for users who like how Sony handles and enhances content. Its main competitor, the LG C3, is a similarly priced OLED TV and might have a stronger appeal to gamers. When considering other OLED options, both the LG G3 and the Sony A95K are expensive but offer a brighter OLED panel. However, if you're looking for a more affordable OLED option, last year's Sony A80K provides a comparable experience and is currently available at a better value price. 

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NU 65-inch 4K TV Review: Great value for money

The NU 65-inch 4K TV offers very good picture performance at an aggressive price. Paired to the fact that it also brings support for webOS and the Magic Remote makes this a very good value-for-money offering. Our only qualm with the NU 65-inch 4K TV is its average audio performance.

The last 24 months have seen a lot of movement within the smart televisions space. New players have thrown their hats into the ring in a bid to capture this growing market. One such player is NU, which recently launched new smart TVs in the Indian market across multiple sizes and budget segments. 

Arguably the most interesting of its TVs line-up is the 4K 65-inch smart TV, that in our opinion offers very good value for the Rs 49,990 price tag slapped on it. From its impressive build quality to its good picture performance and support for some interesting features, there are multiple reasons why this TV is the value-for-money king in the 65-inch 4K TVs segment. Read our review for an in-depth take on all of them. 

NU TV 4K 65: Picture performance

Let's dive right into what's arguably the most important factor in making a TV buying decision: the picture performance!

The NU 65-inch 4K TV offers brilliant picture performance for the price. In fact, as we found in our display tests, it managed to punch above its weight, not only managing to hit similar numbers in crucial tests as more expensive TVs from the likes of Sony and OnePlus but also surpassing them. 

For example, in the Calman Ultimate's Color Checker test, the Spectracal C6 Colourmeter recorded some really good numbers on the TV. Clocking an average DeltaE of just 2.2 and a max variance of 5.9 at Point 2G --  shade of blue -- the NU 65-inch 4K TV easily surpassed the testing results of far more expensive TVs such as the Sony X75K. 

Gamma tracking on the TV was also good and along with it also the RGB balance, with reds and greens, staying very much in check, and some over tracking on the blues. However, the TV maintains a good balance for these colours and the average correlated colour temperature also remains very close to the D65 point. 

The panel also covered almost the entire container of the sRGB colour space. While the numbers were good, the gamut coverage number at 95 per cent was nothing to get too excited about. This was also the case for the peak brightness of the panel, which remained stable at 332 nits. To the TV's credit, this number was higher than we've seen on competing LED backlighting TVs such as the Sony X75K, OnePlus U1 and the Micromax Matrix QLED. 

In our opinion, much of this is because the TV brings with it some really well-tuned colour presets, with the Cinema preset generally giving very good results not only in benchmark testing but also in real-world usage -- especially while watching movies and shows on the TV. 

For HDR content, the TV again performs well. However, it does have some limitations, like the lack of Dolby Vision, that need to be mentioned. Although, it'll only be fair to mention that Dolby Vision is a standard that despite being supported on a lot of 4K TVs these days, is not something that you should be basing your buying decision on, because it's still a standard that remains unavailable from the entire line-up of TVs from many brands like Samsung. To compensate for the lack of Dolby Vision, we do get support for HDR10+ on the TV, which does a good enough job of handling content that's mastered to take advantage of it. 

The dark scene performance of the TV is also good, with very little blooming effect. Blacks look closer to black, and no noticeable grey tinge is noticed in such scenes, which again is impressive for a TV in this budget segment. Apart from this, we also get decent content upscaling on the TV, however, it's not on the same level as we've seen on TV from more premium brands. 

Overall, the picture performance is quite good, with the NU 65-inch 4K TV adopting a mature approach, and instead of going down the path of oversaturated visuals, choosing well-balanced colours to reproduce scenes on the TV, which in my opinion makes the experience of watching movies, shows and even live sports on the TV a more enjoyable experience than you'd find on competing TVs. 

NU 65-inch 4K TV: Sound 

For sound, we have two 20W speakers, which are not only loud but also offer clean and crisp audio for watching shows and movies. In scenes with a lot of chatter, the audio remains clear, and loudness also is not a problem. However, there's not enough thump in the bass, to offer fuller audio if you plan to use this TV for listening to a lot of music. For that, we'd recommend getting a nice soundbar, or even a good budget home theatre system to improve the cinema and music listening experience on the TV. Another thing to note is that it comes with Dolby Audio support, along with MPEG, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, and HE-AAC. 

NU 65-inch 4K TV: Design, UI and Remote

One of the most interesting features of the NU 4K TV is that it brings a premium UI experience with it thanks to the fact that it rocks the latest version of LG's webOS. This is a custom UI which is generally found on premium segment TVs from LG. It brings with it access to thousands of applications and over and above that, some well-tuned colour presets that set this TV apart from the crowd present in this segment. 

It also gets support for LG's ThinQ app, which lets users control the TV and its various applications straight from their phone. It's one of the best, if not the best, applications for controlling a smart TV from your phone. 

Thanks to NU's partnership with LG, we also get access to Magic Remote, which again is picked up straight from LG's line-up of premium TVs. While there is the NU branding on it, there is thankfully nothing new about the remote. It feels solid and offers impressive control of the TV through its mouse cursor-like navigation support. Apart from this, the remote also comes with a variety of functions, including voice assistant and predefined app shortcuts. 

We also get a good number of connectivity options on the TV, with 3 HDMI ports, dual-band Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. It also comes with support for Miracast and Apple Airplay. 

All of this is inside a frame that's quite premium for the price. There are very slim bezels around the panel and the plastic used for creating the TV's shell is also of high quality. Both these are things that we definitely appreciate in the NU 65-inch 4K TV.

NU 65-inch 4K TV: Verdict

This is a simple one. 

The NU 65-inch 4K TV offers very good picture performance at an aggressive price. The resultant price-to-performance ratio, paired with the fact that it also brings with itself support for webOS and the Magic Remote make this a very good value-for-money offering. Our only qualm with the NU 65-inch 4K TV is its average audio performance. But that's honestly both understandable and expected because of the price point it retails at. So if you're looking for an upgrade for your living room, then do consider this TV.

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Redmi Smart Fire TV Review: Interesting deal for the price

The Redmi Smart Fire TV 32 is a good option if you plan to use a TV in your bedroom or a small space at your home or workplace. At its price, it makes for a good budget TV that also offers snappy performance.

 

If you're in the market for a new smart TV and are on a tight budget, chances are you're already considering options from Xiaomi and Redmi. But have you considered the Redmi Smart Fire TV 32-inch?

Redmi's latest TV is a budget-friendly offering that comes with a number of interesting features for its price. This TV is great for smaller spaces and bedrooms and is perfect for buyers who are not too keen on breaking the bank for their next television. This is a TV that comes with a 32-inch display which provides decent picture quality at a competitive price. You get support for HD resolution and a 178-degree viewing angle, making it perfect for a small room or apartment.

But, its biggest USP is the fact that it's the first TV from Xiaomi to come with Amazon Fire TV on board. There is also built-in Alexa voice control, which makes navigating the TV and accessing popular streaming services a breeze.

Redmi Smart Fire TV 32: Design and remote

This new TV from Redmi has a sleek and modern design with thin bezels and a sturdy stand, making it a good fit for modern home entertainment setups. And with two HDMI ports, two USB ports and Bluetooth support, this TV from Redmi also allows for connecting multiple devices such as gaming consoles and soundbars through ARC. 

Talking about the remote, this is your standard Redmi TV remote, but with a twist. 

It looks and feels the same as other remotes from the company, and comes with dedicated buttons for popular streaming services. However, there's also a built-in microphone and a button for Alexa voice control, plus an IR blaster. 

Redmi Smart Fire TV: OS and Alexa integration

So the out-of-the-box Alexa integration is an interesting addition to the new Redmi TV. It not only makes searching for content easy but also makes it convenient to control other smart home devices with your voice.  This Alexa integration is a by-product of Xiaomi's new partnership with Amazon, which sees the TV come with Fire TV OS. 

Which sadly also means there is no PatchWall on the TV. But if that's not a concern, then know you are getting a clean, snappy OS experience courtesy of Fire TV OS, which also brings with it a catalogue of over 12000 applications ready to install on your TV.

Fire TV OS also makes this new Redmi TV simple and user-friendly. Setting it up or customizing it to your needs is also easy. 

Redmi Smart Fire TV: Performance

As for its performance, we did run a few tests to benchmark the new Redmi Smart Fire TV 32 against other TVs. Although the numbers weren't anything to get too excited about. For example, our testing revealed the brightness to not be too high, and peaking at 370 nits. Gamut coverage was also just barely acceptable. 

But then again, this TV is not about numbers, but about performance, as you'd see in real life. 

For casual gamers, the Redmi Smart Fire TV is a decent option as it offers low input lag, which goes a long way in improving the gaming experience. It's also good for consuming content as it generally offers punchy, if not always accurate colours while watching movies. 

While there is no Full HD support, the TV's ability to display content natively in HD quality at its size means, the visuals still look crisp. 

The TV also supports HDR, providing a wider range of colours. Plus, there is decent contrast between dark and well-lit zones which creates immersive viewing experiences.

For audio, we have two 10W speakers which provide acceptable sound quality. Adding a soundbar through the ARC--enabled HDMI port is always an option, but one that may not be for everyone considering the price of the TV.

Verdict

In my opinion, the Redmi Smart Fire TV 32 is a good option if you plan to use the TV in your bedroom or a small-ish space at your home or workplace. At its price, it makes for a good budget TV that also offers snappy performance. So if you're in the market for an affordable 32-inch smart TV, then this new TV from Redmi may just be where your search comes to an end. 

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