Sony BRAVIA KDL-40NX723 Pro Reviews

It’s just as well, given the price-tag, that the Sony KDL-40NX723 looks expensive. Less than 3cm deep, fronted by a single sheet of Gorilla glass and impeccably finished, it’s undeniably a desirable object. And it has the specification to match: Freeview HD, 3D, edge-arrayed LED backlighting, integrated wireless LAN giving painless access to Qriocity, iPlayer and a stack on social networking possibilities, Skype-ready… it is, as they say in the motor trade, fully loaded. There are no 3D glasses included in the price, however – that, apparently, is asking too much.

We really like the 2D picture put out by the Sony KDL-40NX723 LED TV: blacks are decent; greyscale and gamma calibrate extremely well; colours are quite accurate out of the box; and its standard-def video processing is very impressive. It even looks gorgeous switched off to boot. 3D-wise, we’d tone our praise down half a notch owing to crosstalk which, while in line with what we would expect from a non-plasma 3DTV, is nevertheless still present to a certain degree. Fortunately, the fact that greyscale on the Sony KDL40NX723 can be calibrated extremely close to D65 in 3D mode undoubtedly makes extra-dimensional viewing that much more enjoyable. Ultimately, the single most important issue that may put off potential buyers is the possibility of getting a set affected by the dreaded “crease”. For reasons mentioned earlier in this article, we actually didn’t mind it at all throughout our time spent with the review unit sent to us – after all, most large-sized LCD televisions exhibit screen uniformity issues in one form or another – which is why we still awarded the Sony KDL-40NX723 our “Recommended” badge primarily for its highly competent 2D performance.

Sony’s 40NX723 sure looks the part with its Monolithic design, and its 2D pictures are very good by edge LED standards. It’s well featured too, with its online functionality deserving special credit. If you’re seriously interested in 3D, though, the 40NX723 is a deeply flawed proposition. Not exactly what you want to be hearing about a 40in TV that costs comfortably north of £1,000.

When you take a look around at what some of the competition have to offer, at this price-point, the NX723 is hard to recommend. Sure the 2D performance is generally very good but, if we consider that many manufacturers are no longer charging a premium for 3D and yet deliver a better performance in that area, we don't consider the 2D sufficiently good to warrant the cost. It looks great, it calibrates well, it's capable of high contrast pictures but so are plenty of other TVs costing far less.

There's no denying that the Sony KDL-40NX723 is an expensive TV, but what that money gets you is a feature-packed, cutting-edge set that delivers excellent pictures from a variety of sources. It's an accomplished 3D performer, and with an extensive range of picture adjustments on board you can tweak away to your heart's content. Some minor aspects gall, but on the whole it's a mountain of pros against a molehill of cons, which means it's money well spent if you can afford it.