I am planning to buy Sony LED TV. Online reviews summarises that WebOS in LG is user friendly, fast responding and well laid out UI than slow responding and poorly laid out Android TV UI. Does it make sense to r/AndroidTV? Do I really need to worry about while buying my next Sony TV? I perfectly understood that picture quality decides TV purchase, but I would like to know Android TV's experience will frustrate me beyond an extent?
Depends on what Sony TV you're looking at. The brand new Z9F and presumably A9F have amazing Android performance (F = 2018). Better than LG. Every Sony before those models, even the $60,000 100" Z9D, was powered by a Raspberry Pi. Total, utter garbage.
The Shield is great, but it lacks Dolby Vision. So TV apps are needed until someone can do bitstream audio and DV in a box.
I bought a Sony XBR65X900E in the spring and my patience for the Android TV functionality just ran out this week.
As others have said it's slow and unresponsive, and my main issue seems to be apps failing after updates. Netflix won't work anymore. That would be understandable since Netflix is a third party app, but even Google's own Google Play Movies & TV has been eating shit for the last couple of days.
I'm still happy with the TV itself, the picture is great and the upscaling engine is wonderful, but c'mon Google, I paid $2,000 for this thing six months ago. This is fucking embarrassing.
I read that lg buries you in ads on the interface. That was a deal breaker for me. I have a Bravia with Android TV and a Nvidia shield. For regular usage I really switch between the two. Meaning they're about the same to me (for regular/general usage- apps, Kodi, perfect player, etc). The Sony might be a hair slower but it's something that I can get used to and doesn't bother me day-to-day.
Biggest issue for me are the same things in android for phones: random slow downs, inconsistent application of the back button and lack of “simple” thought - for example why is there no unified TV guide across satellite, antenna and streaming services?
I’m coming from a Philips Android TV - Sony might be different.
I have a Sony XD93 and it's just fine. It's not blazingly fast, but it'll play everything I throw at it, Kodi runs decently well and Netflix et. al work just fine. It's... ok.
Nah, just make sure you also spend $190 to buy a Nvidia Shield and never use the "smart" features of your TV.
Sony’s picture quality is pretty amazing on my x900e. The androidTV can be a bit slow, but if you use an external box it is pretty much a non issue. I use an Apple TV 4K with mine and I very rarely even interact with the actual TV’s interface. So for me, it’s not a problem at all
Have a read of the following really detailed review for all the Gory details regarding Sony TV's:
The Sony Android TV Experience (2018/Nougat)
The Sony 2018 "Master Series" has a much more powerful Chipset to run Android TV.
They will have a beast of a GPU for a fast fluid interface, unless Sony bog it down with unwanted "Bloatware" and Spyware.
Yes you should pay attention to what people are reporting, I have a Sony Android TV and wouldn't buy that again. The image is fine but the laggy UI leave a bad taste in my mouth (sometimes several seconds for the volume indicator to show up, WTF?). They also install some crappy spyware to sell your watching habits.
Android TV on good hardware (Shield TV) is probably fine, I havne't tried it yet.
Apple TV 4K is pretty damn good on it. The Android interface is so sluggish on the Sonys.
I have an older, cheaper, 1080p model of Sony TV that's supposedly running a weaker processer and generally regarded as being inferior to the LG and Samsung TVs available at the time. If you're not constantly in a huge rush, even on the "cheap" version, Sony makes a great TV. Great picture, and a reliable version of the software, with fairly few modifications. I love it, and I love it more than my Parent's Samsung TV from the year before, and the LG OLED I'd played around with, mostly because if I decide I want to do something, there's guaranteed to be at least 4 or 5 different app options to do it, and more than half of them are good. With LG or Samsung, there's one or maybe 2, and no guarantee of ongoing support.
I can’t speak tot he quality of android tv on Sony but it’s nice to have an OS that has more app support and cast built in.
Then again you could buy the LG and pick up a cheap android tv in the future if you hate it. It would give you both options. I think you’ll be fine either way.
Look Sony is hands-down the best TV made it's not even a close competition the rest of the manufacturers are basically imitations. To be realistic I love my Sony but I have an Nvidia Shield because I want the best experience all around. Think of it is the same as you want good audio so you buy additional audio because no TV has good audio. No TV has a good experience with the interface because they all use cheap mediatek processors or worse
I wouldn't buy it for the Android TV only as it is pretty laggy. If you plan on hooking up other device/s to use as your main source of content and only use the Android TV features occasionally then they're great TV's.
Just to be clear: Sony's LCD panels are made from Sony, but LG, Samsung, Darwin too. The software behind is made by Sony.
For Android TV, I have one from 2016, and it's laggy as fuck. I did a factory reset this morning and it's better now.
Check out this video on how to speed up the Android TV interface on Sony TVs. It is definitely helpful.
FWIW, I find the picture quality of the built-in Android TV apps to be better than any of the many streaming boxes I've tried. And on my Sony 900F, the UI is fine. No, it's not as lightning fast as various streaming boxes, but it's fine. The better picture quality is worth it to me.
I certainly would. My experience with it has been very disappointing for two reasons: it couldn't any slower and its functionality is practically nil. Thank god the tv itself was a great buy and a very good TV without the androidtv so-called "features". I look at the the package as having a possible payoff in the future. RIght now it means nothing.
Don't pay attention to any negativity about Android TV. Buy it!
The interface is pretty nice, but it can be frustratingly slow. I added a Shield and it's perfect.