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HWM+HardwareZone.com Tech Awards 2012: Editor's Choice - Part 1

By Team HardwareZone - 29 Feb 2012

Best 3D LED Smart TV

Best 3D LED Smart TV

These five 3D contenders are undoubtedly the cream of the crop from major TV brands for the year 2011. And they do come in all sorts of flavors and combinations. For instance, we have a single passive 3D participant in the LG Cinema 3D 55LW6500 which made an appearance with their FPR screens last year, while the rest of the HDTV models remain as carriers of the active-shutter variant. In the backlighting aspect, only Samsung's and Sharp's are fitted with edge-lit LEDs. Philips' and Sony's displays actually feature direct LEDs with local dimming properties. For this category, we'll be looking at the best TV sets of 52 to 55 inches in size, fully integrated 3D features, and a Smart TV platform.  

Nominees:

  • LG 55-inch Cinema 3D 55LW6500
  • Philips 52-inch 52PFL9606
  • Samsung 55-inch Series 8 D8000
  • Sharp 52-inch AQUOS LE820M Quattron
  • Sony 55-inch BRAVIA HX925

And the Winner Is...

 Sony 55-inch BRAVIA HX925 - With its improved 3D imaging and confident HD and SD reproduction, it didn't take a lot for the Bravia HX925 to snag the crown.

Sony has crammed their flagship Bravia HX925 with loads of noteworthy features in every aspect. Besides the attractive gun-metal finish on its bezel, this beauty also comes equipped with an improved OptiContrast panel and reinforced Corning Gorilla glass face. Although the layout of its social media apps and widgets are a little scattered for our liking, the HX925 has a sizable number of video streaming applications and social networking apps to mitigate its messy interface. The BRAVIA also aced most benchmarks on HQV except for the noise filtering test. Screen uniformity and color accuracies on DisplayMate were spot-on as well, thanks to Sony's well-implemented full-array LED backlighting. With Blu-ray playback, the BRAVIA's display was quite impeccable with its satisfying crop of black depths and vivid contrasts. It's not comparable to plasma panels as yet, but it's definitely one notch better than its rivals here. The same can be said about its 3D performance, thanks to ample stereoscopic depths, clarity, and an almost crosstalk-free delivery. It certainly isn't affordable, but considering the technology and features implemented in the TV, along with its top performance, it justifies its asking price. After all, direct LED backlight based implementation doesn't come cheap, but it contributes to its stellar performance.

Scoring Breakdown
  LG 55-inch Cinema 3D 55LW6500 Philips 52-inch 52PFL9606 Samsung 55-inch Series 8 D8000 Sharp 52-inch AQUOS LE820M Quattron Sony 55-inch BRAVIA HX925
Physique 8.5 9.0 8.5 8.0 8.5
Features 9.0 8.5 9.0 8.5 9.0
Performance 8.5 8.0 8.5 9.0 9.0
3D Performance 9.0 8.0 7.5 8.5 9.0
User-Friendliness 9.0 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.0
Value 8.0 8.0 7.5 8.5 8.5
Total Score 9.0 8.5 8.0 8.5 9.0
Price S$4,999 S$4,799 S$6,499 S$3,699 S$5,999

For more details on how we selected our winners, check out the full reviews and articles listed at the References section at the end.

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