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The 46-inch Sony Bravia KDL-46EX523 doesn t stand out from the HDTV pack in design, features, orpicture quality, but once you look at its price and its range ofconnected features, it starts to get a little more interesting. Priced at $990, this set has a lot of features that a budget buyermight want, including an edge-lit LED display, full HD support,built-in Internet apps, and Wi-Fi capabilities that make it a goodoption for people who enjoy Netflix streaming. The major trade-offsinclude a lack of 3D, a slower-than-most 60Hz refresh rate, andgood but not great picture quality. Picture and sound quality In our lab s subjective tests, the Bravia KDL-46EX523 turned indecent scores across the board. Our panel of five reviewers gave itsolid scores of Average, noting that colors occasionally looked alittle muted and that the set had some motion issues, especially intest scenes containing a lot of panning or fine detail. Colors on the KDL-46EX523 always seemed to be just slightly off inour tests. In our 720p NASCAR clip, which is designed to testfast-motion handling from an over-the-air broadcast, multiplejudges noted that colors appeared muted and a little washed outnext to other sets in our test pool. In our 1080i football clip,the field s green grass seemed a bit too artificial, and theoverall scene was noticeably less bright than it was on the otherHDTVs in our test batch. The KDL-46EX523 s motion issues were most prominent in ourhorizontal-panning test, which is designed to bring motion problemsto the forefront. All of our reviewers found the horizontal-panningtest image to be blurry as it moved across the KDL-46EX523 sscreen, perhaps largely due to the set s low 60Hz refresh rate.Motion problems were also apparent in our Dark Knight Blu-ray clip, in which the check pattern of Morgan Freeman s suitshimmered and appeared to jump around. In our testing, picture quality was generally okay. Off-axisviewing angles weren t a problem up to about 45 degrees, though wedid see a loss of contrast and brightness at moderate angles. Insome scenes, especially in our Baraka clips, we saw some graininess, noise, and loss of detail, butnothing to be too concerned about considering the price. The KDL-46EX523 s built-in speakers and audio options are standoutfeatures. The set sports two 10-watt rear-facing speakers, whichare very loud for built-in units. When we sat approximately 8 feetaway from the HDTV, the speakers offered a comfortable volume levelat around 60 percent, but presented some distortion at full volume.You can adjust a few individual settings, including the treble,bass, and balance. Sound is deep and full, and the simulatedsurround-sound feature does a good job of imitating the real deal:In our casual tests, the simulated surround sound seemed to comefrom areas on either side of the set, though it didn t exactlywrap around behind our ears. Design and peripherals The KDL-46EX523 has a fairly basic design, punctuated by atwo-color bezel: Your typical shiny black plastic borders the top,left, and right sides of the screen, while a slate-coloredbrushed-aluminum finish decorates the bottom. A silver Sony logosits in the center of the brushed aluminum, and a Bravia logoresides in the upper-left corner. A few small LEDs on thelower-right corner indicate power and whether the timer is turnedon. With a screen measuring just under 2 inches thick, the KDL-46EX523has a slim shape that should work well for wall mounting. If you drather not wall-mount this HDTV, however, it does come with a wide,rectangular, shiny black plastic stand that swivels 20 degrees toeither side. The HDTV sits low on the stand, and doesn t adjustvertically. The set s buttons are located just behind the screen, on thelower-right side. Here you can control the power, channels, volume,and input; you ll also find a Home/Menu button for maneuveringthrough the menus. A few ports two USB 2.0 ports, one HDMI-in, one RGB/PC-in (VGA),and a headphone jack sit on the left edge of the screen. Theremaining ports are on the back-left area of the set; you get threeadditional HDMI-out ports, a digital audio-out (optical audio), acable/antenna hookup, audio-in, a composite video hookup, acomponent-in (with audio), and an ethernet port. All ports areclearly labeled. The KDL-46EX523 comes with a large, black remote with a flat backand a scooped, concave front where the buttons reside. The flatback, shiny and peppered with matte dots, has only two features:the Sony logo and a large, green-lined power button. The remote sfront buttons include dedicated media buttons (for Netflix,Internet TV, and Qriocity), four programmable hot-buttons, andbasic menu buttons such as Sync Menu, Display, Guide, Options,Home, and Return. Internet-connected TV, basic setup, and on-screen menus When you turn on the KDL-46EX523 for the first time, you see aninitial-setup wizard. It s basic, but it hits all the majoroptions: viewing environment, language/region, time, tuning forchannels, network setup (wireless or wired), and automatic scanningfor any software downloads. The on-screen menus are sleek, attractive, and easy to navigate.Pressing the Home button on the remote brings up the main menusystem, which resizes whatever you re watching to about half thewidth of the screen; you can keep an eye on the programming whilebrowsing the menus. From the main menu system, you can access thefull boat of settings (picture and display settings, audio options,network setup, and input selection), Web applications, streamingservices, and a list of customized favorites. If you d rather not go to the full menu system, you can press theOptions button on the remote to pull up a truncated menu that letsyou deal with the basics: adjusting picture and sound, adding achannel to a list of favorites, or selecting preset scene modes.From this menu, you can also program the picture-in-picturedisplay, which lets you pick from a traditional small box or largerside-by-side viewing. The KDL-46EX523 comes with a number of scene presets that optimizethe display and audio for assorted content types (movies, sports,music, games, general, and an auto-selector among them).More-granular picture adjustments include the basic backlight,brightness, color, hue, temperature, and sharpness adjustments, aswell as advanced settings for custom-mode users. Among the advancedsettings are controls for black-level optimization, gammaadjustment, and white balance. This set comes with a wide variety of Internet content, in additionto widgets, a built-in Web browser, and Skype. However, becauseneither a mic nor a camera is built in, you can use Skype only witha separately sold Sony microphone/camera attachment. Content-wise,the set offers Amazon Instant Video, Hulu Plus, Netflix, andYouTube, as well as niche channels like NHL Vault and Internetradio channels such as Pandora and Slacker. Macworld s buying advice As the sub-$1000 price suggests, this isn t Sony s highest-endHDTV. Its refresh rate is only 60Hz, and it doesn t have all thebells, whistles, and advanced picture-adjustment settings thathard-core videophiles may be looking for. However, it does offer a good blend of wireless connected featuresand decent performance for the price. Its interface and menus areeasy to use, it has a built-in on-screen manual, and its ports areclearly labeled. On top of that, it sports a sleek design and aslim profile, so it should fit nicely into any living room. The overall picture quality is just about average, with mutedcolors, motion-blur issues in some panning scenes, and a moir effect in some highly detailed patterns. But the set produces good,loud simulated surround sound. In short, the Sony BraviaKDL-46EX523 won t win any prizes for design, performance, orpicture quality, but it is an affordable model for users with basicneeds who like to have a little Netflix as well as spending cash onthe side. I am an expert from healthy-e-cigarette.com, while we provides the quality product, such as China E Cigarette Accessories , China Mini Electric Cigarette, Mini e Health Cigarette,and more.
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