After its introduction at CES 2017, the cutting-edge Sony BRAVIA A1 OLED TV made its way to Southeast Asia in February, and subsequently landed on Malaysian shores in April. The visually-stunning TV not only features the best in Sony’s display technologies, but also break new ground in the audio department. The BRAVIA A1 is now available in 55-inch and 65-inch size options (with the top-of-the-line 77-inch coming soon).
The Sony BRAVIA A1 is the company’s first 4K OLED TV. It comes in a simple and zen-like design with slim and narrow bezels, making adjusting the new A1 in your home pretty much a doddle. If you remember the earlier post regarding the BRAVIA A1, you would have learned that the TV trend has shifted from 3D and curved TVs to 4K HDR displays.
Let’s start with the specs first. The BRAVIA A1 comes with either a 55-inch or 66-inch size display and runs on Android 7.0 Nougat. Sony did mention that the updates for Android 8.0 Oreo will roll out beginning next month.
OLED is still nascent technology, and inevitably there are some concerns from certain quarters. In some cases, OLEDs have a problem in long term use, and that is the fact that OLEDs “can burn in” after a period of time. But Sony has a solution for that. The 4K HDR Processor X1 Extreme chip has a feature that can “refresh” the entire screen to omit burn in’s. Sony says that this process should only be done once a year.
As you may know, OLED panels have self-emitting pixels, delivering unprecedented black, superior dynamic range, and accurate colour reproduction. And because the panel itself is super thin, it makes ultra-thin designs like on the Bravia A1 OLED possible.
Just so you know, in a 4K OLED TV there are eight million self-illuminating pixels.
With the BRAVIA A1, you get a “slate” styled TV with a kickstand which also houses the subwoofer. With the kickstand in place, it makes the BRAVIA A1 seem as if it’s floating. Put all that together with a simple and clean background of your home, and you have a real zen area.
For the audio, the A1 doesn’t have actual speakers that blast through the grilles. Instead, the BRAVIA A1 has an acoustic screen which utilises vibration technology called Acoustic Surface–similar to that of the Xiaomi Mi Mix. Basically, it channels the sound through the entire OLED panel.
The A1 does this by mounting four audio actuators on the back of the panel, two on either side. The actuators deliver vibrations to the panel according to the visual action on screen, and the sound literally emanates from the display itself.
Moving on, the A1 is powered by Android TV and has many apps supplied by Google. It has Chromecast built-in, meaning you can mirror apps or files from your tablet or phone to the a TV.
Also, it has Netflix pre-installed and comes with Sony’s Content Bar user interface.
Pricing and availability
Prices for the A1 start from MYR14,999 for the 55-inch model and goes up to MYR21,999 for the larger 65-inch model. Sony stated that an even bigger 77-inch model will be making its way very soon. Details will be provided later.
Read more about the BRAVIA A1 here. Check out the Sony A1 OLED 4K HDR TV official product page.
