Sony Bravia KDL46EX1 LCD television

A thin Sony television with a great picture frame design and wireless media streaming

Good Gear Guide

The Sony Bravia KDL46EX1 is a thin and stylish Full HD LCD television that has decent but not spectacular picture quality, a good range of multimedia features and a great design. It is an expensive package, though it does come with a wireless media streamer.

Pros

  • Media streamer hides cable clutter, picture frame design is stylish in any environment

Cons

  • No 1080p or 24p streaming, picture quality inferior to other (uglier) TVs

Bottom Line

The Sony Bravia KDL46EX1 is a thin, well-designed Full HD LCD television with average image quality and a good wireless media streaming system. It may not be as competent as other models in its price range, but you’re paying for some high-class style as well as a thin design.

Would you buy this?

  • Price

    $ 6,099.00 (AUD)

Without a doubt, this is one of the best television designs we’ve seen in a while. It looks like a picture frame thanks to its thick white bezel, with a thin aluminium strip running around the edge. It will look equally at home on a wall or in an entertainment unit; it's far more interesting than the regular piano black most televisions are adorned with. The slim design and the absence of the usual cable clutter make for an enticing television setup.

There is a single HDMI port on the side of the television, which you can use to quickly plug in a device like a high-definition camcorder, but if you’re hooking something up long-term you’ll most likely want to use the bundled wireless media streamer. The streamer has three HDMI ports and single VGA, composite, S-Video and component connectors, as well as a composite monitor output. It has a quoted maximum range of around 10 metres, and during our tests the picture quality was good with no noticeable distortion or break-ups.

The wireless media streamer — identical to the one used by the Sony Bravia KDL40ZX1 — accepts inputs with a resolution up to 1080p, but it downscales content to 1080i for wireless transmission; this may annoy those striving for the highest possible picture quality. The 24p movie framerate standard is not supported, making Blu-ray movie content slightly jittery and not as cinematic as possible.

The Bravia KDL46EX1 has Sony’s Motionflow 100Hz motion smoothing technology. With four settings — High, Medium, Low and Off — it offers a degree of control, but we would have liked Sony's Motionflow 200Hz technology to make an appearance.

Nonetheless, picture quality from the Sony Bravia KDL46EX1 is pleasant. It doesn’t have the most thrilling specifications, with a maximum dynamic contrast ratio of 50,000:1, but we appreciated the deep blacks and it displayed high-contrast material well. Colours were vibrant and skin tones were reproduced well. In very dark scenes we were able to notice a small amount of backlight bleeding thanks to the old-school WCG-CCFL fluorescent backlights, but during regular viewing this wasn’t noticeable.

Sound from the integrated 8W speakers was quite good. There was little bass to speak of, but the television was able to reach high volume levels with minimal distortion.

If you want a television that is above all else stylish — but at the same time don’t want to compromise too much on other aspects — consider the Sony Bravia KDL46EX1.

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