Plan
As you're assembling the 55XF8505 out of the blue - either hanging it on the divider or popping it onto its direct silver feet - you can't resist the urge to see that it feels significantly more plasticky in its work than Sony's more costly models do.
Luckily, however, you don't generally see the plasticky complete from a typical survey remove. Rather, you'll more probable be agreeably astonished by the downplayed, moderate polish of the limited dark screen outline and the absence of any noticeable cabling because of cabling 'channels' incorporated with the TV's feet.
The one potential fly in the plan balm is the way the 55XF8505's two feet are situated very wide on the TV's underside, which means you'll require an also wide household item to put the set on.
Plan TL;DR: The XF85 arrangement aren't the best assembled line of TVs we've ever observed, however they shroud their plasticky complete pleasantly behind their fresh, moderate lines. Helpfully, they additionally conceals every one of your links, as well.
Brilliant TV (Android TV)
The 55XF8505 is pretty tested in the smarts office because of Sony's progressing love-in with Google's Android TV stage: As well as persevering with the same inconvenient looking, ineffectively composed full screen home menu we've needed to endure for ages now, Android TV appears to put such a great amount of strain on the 55XF8505's accessible handling power that everything - including the TV's set up menus - some of the time runs agonizingly gradually.
You additionally can't modify the home screen as successfully as you can most other current brilliant TV interfaces, and programming updates to the framework are visit and, frequently, very extensive.
There are a couple of positive things about the 55XF8505's brilliant TV highlights. First of all, they bolster countless and Sony has figured out how to get round Android TV's issues with providing food for the UK's nearby get up to speed TV applications by including YouView. This unites the key BBC iPlayer, ITV Player, All 4 and My5 earthly telecaster get up to speed administrations, and gives you a chance to discover demonstrates you may have missed by means of a retrogressive looking over electronic program direct.
At long last, the Android TV stage currently bolsters coordinate Chromecasting to the TV, and also Google Assistant and Alexa voice acknowledgment usefulness.
Savvy TV TL;DR: Android TV is as unhelpfully laid out, carriage and lazy as ever. Just here it appears to have a much more adverse impact than expected on the running rate of the TV's set up menus.
HD/SDR Performance
As we'll see later, the XF85 arrangement is so defective with HDR playback that we'd contend that it's just extremely worth considering as a standard unique range TV. Yet, in truth, it's a long way from consummate even with SDR's restricted light and shading range.
The issue, fundamentally, is that the kind of LCD board - known as IPS - the 55XF8505 uses can't convey a persuading dark level/differentiate execution. The way IPS boards work implies that dim scenes tend to look exceptionally dim and washed out - an issue which can likewise observe unpretentious shadow points of interest becoming mixed up in the 'fog'.
This is all particularly obvious when, as with the 55XF8505, an IPS board is lit from its edges instead of straightforwardly from behind. What's more, significantly more so when, again as with the 55XF8505, the edge lighting doesn't have any neighborhood darkening to enable it to think light just where it's required in a photo.
Despite the fact that SDR content requires substantially less splendor than high unique range content, the 55XF8505 battles to convey anything moving toward a persuading dark shading amid dim scenes on Blu-beam or DVD, abandoning them looking level and unconvincing.
Not having extremely fulfilling dark levels likewise decreases the feeling of energy and dynamism of the 55XF8505's shading palette. Rich hues in blended brilliance shots are decreased both by not having profound darkness to 'ricochet off', and by the same uncontrolled light contamination that miracles the screen's dark levels.
The 55XF8505's dull scene troubles are made to look all the more grievous by the way that in different ways its photos are very unrivaled for its cash.
Gratefully, HD pictures are upscaled to the screen's local 4K determination pleasantly by Sony's X1 processor. There's a touch more clamor around than you get with advance up Sony TVs that utilization the all the more effective X1 Extreme processor - particularly with intensely packed computerized sources - yet contrasted all the more reasonably and comparatively estimated TVs, the 55XF8505 looks abnormally spotless and fresh with 'heritage' picture content.
The X1 preparing likewise figures out how to convey spotless, common movement generation, even while it's at the same time coming up with a large number of additional pixels to change over HD to 4K.
HD/SDR Performance TL;DR: All looks fine with splendid, vivid substance, and Sony's photo preparing is better than most. Shockingly, however, dull scenes are left looking unconvincing and boring by the screen's failure to convey anything near evident dark.
Decision
We extremely needed to like the 55XF8505. We'd trusted it would have been a more reasonable path for AV fans to get their hands on Sony's phenomenal video handling.
Lamentably, however, in its journey to lessen costs Sony has wound up putting a low-differentiate IPS board at the 55XF8505's heart. A choice which has tragically made the set essentially a restricted area for anybody intrigued by opening high unique range innovation's gigantic picture quality potential.
