Sony Bravia KDL-46EX720

Typically, 3D capability tends to make more expensive. Web apps can also jack up prices. And LED backlighting usually pushes prices up even more. That's why Sony's KDL-46EX720 is such a refreshing surprise. One of Sony's first 2011 models available, this 46-inch set combines 3D, a ton of Web apps, LED backlighting that gives it a thin frame and eco-friendly energy-consumption stats. Add in an excellent picture, and an affordable $1,599.99 (direct) price, and you've got a winner. With its price, performance, and feature set, the 46EX720 is our latest Editors' Choice LCD HDTV.

Design
At just 26 by 42.5 by 1.7 inches (HWD) and 31.3 pounds without its stand, the 46EX720 is remarkably thin and light for a sub-$2000 model. The set is attractively minimalist, with a completely flat, plain black bezel, which is just 1.1 inches thick on the top and sides of the screen and slightly thicker below. There's a metal Sony badge in the center of the bottom edge of the bezel and a few indicator lights on either side. It's not particularly glossy or flashy, but the simple black bezel makes the set look expensive, and it's unobtrusive enough that you'll never notice it while watching the screen.

On the back of the HDTV, the various inputs and outputs are split between a handful of side-mounted ports and a large number of rear-mounted ports. A single HDMI jack, a VGA output, and a USB port sit on a small recessed panel pointing out toward the left side of the screen, while the remaining three HDMI ports, optical audio out, component and composite video inputs, and Ethernet port face straight out the back. The set is a bit awkward for wall-mounting, since the majority of outputs face out toward the wall and can be difficult to reach.

For sound, the 46EX720 has a standard, unimpressive audio system. Two 10-watt, rear-facing drivers give the HDTV decent audio, but like virtually all HDTVs, it could be vastly improved by adding a dedicated home theater audio system or soundbar.

The 8.6-inch remote is large, rectangular, and well-configured. Most settings and features can be accessed by the direction pad and its surrounding Home, Options, Guide, and Display buttons. Playback buttons sit above the pad, and a number pad, Volume and Channel controls, and four color buttons sit below it. On the other side of the remote is a round, recessed alternate Power button that lets you turn the HDTV on or off regardless of where your thumb is placed.

Unlike many other Sony home entertainment products, the 46EX720 doesn't use Sony's familiar XrossMediaBar (XMB) interface in its default form. Instead, it adopts a modified XMB interface that shrinks the current video input to a smaller window, like the ($2,799.99, 3.5 stars), and arranges the various categories and menus in a row along the bottom of the screen, instead of in the middle. Using a smaller video window instead of an overlay makes the screen feel a little cramped, but it works just as well. Media playback and Web apps are all organized in different columns, letting users quickly access their most often-used inputs and services. Sony offers one of the most comprehensive libraries of Web apps on HDTVs and Blu-ray players, including Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, YouTube, Pandora, Sony's own Qriocity movie and music service, and many others. The HDTV even includes a fully functional Web browser. It doesn't support Flash and browsing with the included remote is awkward, but it still rendered the CNN home page perfectly on the 46-inch screen in my tests.

Besides the standard complement of Web apps, the 46EX720 comes packed with features. It's 3D-capable and features a 240Hz motion-smoothing mode, DLNA compatibility for sharing and playing movies and music stored on a local network, a power-saving motion sensor that can automatically turn off the HDTV if it doesn't detect movement after a period of time. The set will even be Skype-enabled after a system update later this spring, with the use of an optional HDTV-mounted webcam.

Performance
Picture quality is excellent, with a contrast ratio of 1:3897 and generally very accurate colors. Using the DisplayMate software and a chroma meter, we tested the screen's picture quality in the lab and found that it produced red and green colors almost precisely at the ideal levels. The blue channel veered slightly warm, but even that was fairly accurate. With black levels of just 0.07cd/m², the 46EX720 got satisfyingly dark, especially for an LED-backlit HDTV. If you want better black levels, you'll have to make sacrifices: The 42-inch ($1,699.99, 3.5 stars) offers an impressive 0.03cd/m², but it's a much more power-hungry plasma set, and doesn't offer nearly as many Web services.

If you're an intensive HDTV tweaker, the 46EX720 offers several automatic and manual adjustment settings, right down to individual Red, Green, and Blue Gain and Bias adjustments, for controlling how the HDTV handles each color channel in both bright and dark scenes. There are also several automatic image enhancement modes that claim to improve black levels, white levels, color, and other picture characteristics, but considering how good the screen looks out of the box, they're pretty unnecessary.

3D works very well on the 46EX720. We hooked up a Sony BDP-S470 Blu-ray player and played the Grand Canyon Adventure 3D Blu-ray disc. Visuals popped out with a minimum of crosstalk, thought we saw some small blurring on solid color logos. The HDTV uses a built-in 3D transmitter to work with glasses, so you don't need to plug in any additional devices. Unfortunately, the set doesn't come with any 3D glasses, so if you want to watch 3D movies on the 46EX720, you'll have to pay another $150 per pair for Sony's accompanying active shutter glasses. If you want out-of-the-box 3D (for a much higher price tag), the 65-inch ($3,699.99, 4 stars) uses passive 3D and inexpensive lenses (four pairs are included in the box) to produce its 3D images.

To test power consumption, we played the Mission Impossible 2 Blu-ray Disc and measured how much electricity the 46EX720 consumed. Like many HDTVs, the 46EX720 has a Power-Saving mode. With the mode disabled, the screen consumed 112 watts in our tests. With the mode set to high, a setting that darkens the screen while keeping it watchable, the screen consumed just 67 watts. Even without the power saving mode, the 46EX720 exceeds EnergyStar standards. Assuming an average of five hours of use per day at the national average cost of 11.55 cents per kWh, the screen will cost only $1.94 per month, and a scant $23.28 per year to run without the power saving mode (and $1.16 per month and $13.92 per year to run with the mode on)—that's enough to earn the 46EX720 our GreenTech approval.

With an affordable $1,600 list price, the Sony Bravia KDL-46EX720 is a top-notch value. It's inexpensive for a 3D HDTV, and when you add an impressive array of Web apps, great 2D and 3D picture quality, along with LED-backlighting, which offers excellent power consumption numbers, you've got the makings of an Editors' Choice television. The only thing you don't get is 3D glasses.

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