I'm thinking about buying the Sony XE8396, and after reading reviews, it seems like most people have issues with the Android OS and how slow and clunky it is. Can anyone with a Sony with Android TV comment on the OS, and how they overcame any issues?
I have an older XD93 and it's... ok. Kodi, YouTube, Netflix, etc. work just fine. It might be a bit laggy at times (e.g. you may have to wait for a second right after power on for the menu to start responding smoothly) but I didn't feel like the device is unusable or broken.
The only real issue I had was the fact that Kodi can't properly passthrough DTS to my AV receiver - but that's only relevant to you if you want to watch downloaded content and have a 5.1 audio system.
Some people look at my 75 inch Sony TV UI and see stutter. I never have, except after a fresh start. Need to reboot about 4 times a year. It is slow sometimes, bringing up search or assistant, but those are slow on google home sometimes also. Is there any youtube videos of the clunkiness? I suspect most people looking at such a video, without apps slowing it down, will say the issue is trivial.
There definitely is a class of people who have installed apps like kodi, plex, etc, where the TV does slow down. Apps that have background services and consume RAM will slow down the TV.
I have a 2015 sony smart tv.
I limit the max processes to 4 and it runs fine. It is clunky and a little slow sometimes, but I only use it for youtube, hulu, and netflix so I don't need a separate box
I gut a Sony W805C and I am very happy with the picture and Android. You can do some tweaks like removing the sony presorted menu and create your own. Loading speed is also fine. The TV got really a lot of Android updates since I got it - that's a big plus. Smartphones don't get any major updates after one year.
My UI was slow and clunky. After disabling all apps from the recommendation rows (which is an awful randomly populated row of video items) everything works perfectly fine! It's blazing fast now.
I'm really glad I found this subreddit...I'm between the TCL P607 (better UI but slightly worse picture quality) and the Sony X900e (better quality but from everything I've read, worse UI)...hearing all the ways to improve the UI puts me back towards the Sony which is good. I was feeling conflicted about picking a UI over picture quality.
I'll just leave that link here. 65XD8599 owner here, next time I'm looking for a dumb TV with great picture quality and getting Shield instead.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EPzlq_ipIPMCDoMqMgDl0IuKmTsMoZHeKKwE_zxbFUk/pub
If you're looking to buy the TV because it has great picture quality, then don't let the UI deter you. Just buy a Mi Box or Shield and use that instead of the built-in apps.
If you're looking to buy the TV for its smart features, then don't. Buy a TV based on picture quality alone.