Sony Master Series XBR-65Z9F Review

Sony's Master Series TVs are designed to offer average consumers the closest viewing experience to the company's professional mastering monitors, like the BVM-X300.

That's a high bar, considering the 30-inch OLED BVM-X300 costs approximately $30,000.

Still, the Master Series tries to come as close as it can for around a tenth the price, while incorporating features like Android TV with hands-free Google Assistant voice control.

The line is split into the OLED-based A9F and the LCD-based Z9F.

At $3,499.99 for the 65-inch XBR-65Z9F LCD we tested, it offers one of the brightest pictures we've seen and a wide color range.

It's an impressive TV that offers solid competition to other flagship LCDs like Samsung's Q9FN series, though if you're shopping in this price range you should have at least one eye turned toward OLED models.

Simple Sony Style

The Z9F embodies the same stark, minimalist design Sony uses for its smartphones, tablets, and e-readers.

It looks remarkably plain at first glance, with a flat, black, textured metal bezel 0.6 inches wide on the sides and top and 0.8 inches wide on the bottom.

Apart from the Sony logo in the center of the bottom bezel, just above an indicator light flanked by two microphone holes, the Z9F could be mistaken for a very well-made, svelte budget TV.

Two V-shaped black metal legs support it, positioned near the sides of the screen for stability (so make sure the surface you set it on is wide enough to hold both legs).

An HDMI port, two USB ports, a 3.5mm port for analog video input, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and two 3.5mm ports for an infrared receiver and blaster sit on the back of the TV, facing left.

Three HDMI ports, a USB 3.0 port, an Ethernet port, an optical audio output, an antenna/cable connector, and a 3.5mm port for RS232 controllers face down, perpendicular to the side-facing ports.

A multi-purpose power button and plus/minus buttons sit on the lower left corner; the power button can be held down to turn the TV off, or tapped to switch between functions like volume control.

Sony continues to be fairly uninspired with its button-filled remotes.

The Z9F's remote is a 7.9-by-1.9-inch (HW) black wand covered with membrane buttons.

A circular navigation pad sits in the middle of the, surrounded by menu buttons.

Power, Input, Google Assistant, Google Play, and Netflix buttons sit above the navigation pad, along with a number pad and four color buttons.

Volume, channel, and playback controls sit below the navigation pad.

The pad itself has small rubber nubs to make it easier to find under the thumb, but most of the remote's buttons feel very similar and require you to look at them to know what you're pressing.

Android TV and Hands-Free Google Assistant

The Z9F is an Android TV, which means it's fairly loaded with apps, services, and features.

The Google Play app store for Android TV is filled with big streaming video names, like Amazon, Crunchyroll, Google Play TV & Movies, Hulu, Netflix, Sling TV, and YouTube, along with plenty of channel-specific apps and even video players for local media on networked storage or plugged into the TV's USB ports.

It has some strong options for music, including Google Play Music, iHeartRadio, Pandora, Spotify, and Tidal.

There are even Android games if you want to pair a Bluetooth controller with the TV (though we still recommend a dedicated game system if you really want to play games on your TV).

As an Android TV device, the Z9F supports Google Cast.

This means the TV acts as if a Google Chromecast Ultra is plugged into it, letting you stream content from your smartphone or tablet, or stream Chrome tabs from your PC.

On top of all of the different streaming options the Z9F offers, it also features Google Assistant.

We've seen Google Assistant on previous Sony Android TVs, but the Z9F takes it a step further by going hands-free.

A far-field microphone array in the TV lets you say, "Hey Google," after which you can ask Google Assistant for anything without even touching the remote (which usually holds a pinhole microphone that enables voice assistant features, like on older Sony Android TVs and Amazon Fire TV devices).

This is very useful, joining the Android TV-powered Nvidia Shield TV and the Amazon Fire TV Cube as one of the few hands-free voice assistant-connected TV devices.

Google Assistant can provide information like weather reports, sports scores, language translation, unit conversion, and general trivia, with text and supporting graphics appearing on the TV.

It also lets you directly control the TV with voice commands, like adjusting volume and switching inputs.

Besides the TV function, Google Assistant can control a variety of smart home devices like connected lights, locks, and thermostats.

Of course, you can also use voice search to look for movies, music, and shows.

That all of these features can be used without touching anything is a really compelling hook (and the reason the Alexa-equipped Amazon Fire TV Cube earned our Editors' Choice for media streamers).

Performance

The Z9F is an ultra high definition (UHD, or 4K) TV that supports HDR in both HDR10 and Dolby Vision formats.

We test TVs using a Klein K-10A colorimeter, a Murideo SIX-G signal generator, and SpectraCal's CalMAN software using methodology based on Imaging Science Foundation's calibration techniques.

Out of the box, in Custom mode (Sony's preferred cinema mode if you don't have the TV professionally calibrated), the Z9F shows a peak brightness of 680.47cd/m² with a full field white pattern and a blindingly bright 1,677.49cd/m² with an 18-percent field.

Black levels aren't quite as impressive with 0.12cd/m² using the default settings and 0.06cd/m² with black enhancement set to High, but the panel still results in a very high 27,958:1 contrast ratio.

It's better contrast than the Samsung Q9FN, but like all LCD TVs, it can't touch the perfect black levels and "infinite" contrast of OLED models like Sony's A1E (and presumably Master Series A9F) and LG's E8P.

OLEDs can't reach the peak brightness of high-end LED-backlit LCDs, but they handle black far better.

Color performance is a bit perplexing out of the box.

The above chart shows P3 color levels as boxes and measured color levels as dots.

The Z9F shows a slightly cool but still fairly accurate white level and reds and blues that hit P3 levels, with green coming up a bit short.

Cyans run a bit cool, but the big surprise is how warm yellows lean, to the point of an outright yellow-red tint.

The Samsung Q9FN remains the most impressive TV we've seen in terms of color performance yet, hitting the full P3 color gamut with remarkable accuracy out of the box.

LG's E8P also performs admirably, but with a tiny bit less reach toward red and very slightly warmer (but not to the extent of the Z9F) yellows.

Professional calibration can be an expensive process that requires high-end equipment and training, but it doesn't need to be time-consuming on the Z9F.

Sony has added support for automated calibration on the Z9F and A9F TVs.

This lets calibrators (or anyone with access to a colorimeter and SpectraCal's CalMAN software) download an Android TV app that serves as a signal generator, connect their computer to the TV and the colorimeter to the computer, and go through a full white balance and color calibration process with only a few clicks and a few minutes of watching the screen change.

This is a fairly new feature that has also been rolled out to high-end LG and Samsung TVs, and could eventually make professional calibration more economical.

Out of the box, in Custom picture mode, the Z9F's strong contrast performance comes through well when showing BBC's Planet Earth II.

Sloth fur and tree bark, both dark and light in color and under direct sunlight and shade, get plenty of fine texture detail.

The slightly weak greens in relation to reds and blues give water and plants a slightly warmer appearance than we'd prefer, but they still look largely natural.

Deadpool looks very good on the Z9F, with the title character's red costume looking well-saturated and the skin tones of the gunmen appearing natural, without any bluish or purple tint under the very cool overcast lighting of the opening gunfight.

The burning lab fight scene later in the film shows plenty of detail in balanced, dark shadows against the bright yellows and oranges of the flames.

Some light bloom can be seen in the letterboxing with local dimming enabled, but it's fairly unobtrusive and only really comes out in moments with lots of extremes of light and dark.

The Z9F's excellent contrast makes the party scenes in The Great Gatsby looks excellent.

Dark suits and hair get plenty of shadow detail without looking muddy or washed out, and highlights retain their own strong details while looking very bright.

Skin tones appear natural against the extremes of light and dark, even when the light is fluctuating between harsh, cool white and warm amber.

Input Lag and Power Consumption

Input lag is the amount of time between when a TV receives a signal and the screen updates.

In Custom mode, the Z9F shows a very high 99.2ms input lag with a 1080p 60fps lag tester.

However, Game mode cuts that down to a much more reasonable 22.1ms, putting it close enough to the 20ms threshold we use for considering a TV to be very good for playing video games.

You can play games on any TV, of course, but competitive gaming demands a very responsive picture with low input lag.

Our list of the best TVs for gaming shows some other options with even lower input lag, including the Samsung Q9FN (15.6ms).

If you want a screen that does better than around 12-14ms, though, you need to turn to a dedicated gaming monitor.

Under normal viewing conditions, in the Custom picture mode, the 65Z9F consumes 191 watts.

Setting Power Saving to Low reduces that to 164 watts without appreciably dimming the screen.

Setting Power Saving to High dims the screen significantly, to the point where it's not comfortable to watch.

A Strong Flagship LCD

Sony's Master Series TVs are visually and technically impressive flagship models with prices to match.

The LCD-based Z9F has one of the brightest panels we've seen, for excellent contrast performance, though its color accuracy out of the box isn't quite as spot-on as we've come to expect from TVs in this price range.

Color can be improved with calibration, but that's another investment to make on top of the 65-inch model's $3,500 price tag, even if the support for automatic calibration makes the process faster for the calibrator.

Hands-free Google Assistant support and the powerful Android TV platform are great boons, however.

If you want a big-screen flagship TV around the same price as the Z9F, the Samsung Q9FN features fantastic color range and accuracy and strong contrast, even if its smart TV platform isn't nearly as powerful as Android TV, and Samsung's Bixby voice assistant is both less useful than and not hands-free like Google Assistant is.

If you can spend a bit more for the best picture, an OLED TV like LG's E8P and Sony's A1E are both excellent choices.

We look forward to testing Sony's OLED Master Series A9F TV in the future to see how it stacks up against its predecessor and LG's offerings, as well as its LCD counterpart.