Part of Sony’s penultimate W-series is the stunning 40” 40W2000 LCD TV. This award-winning TV has added yet another string to the LCD bow with its overly-generous spec and outstanding picture performance.
Design | | The sleek, compact design of the Bravia 40W2000 has definitely seen some improvements since the V-series. The modestly matt-black and charcoal frame is surrounded by a thin silver edge. The speakers run along the bottom of the frame, above a collection of control buttons to the right, which are perfectly placed for ease of reach. The table top stand is included, so you can expect to carry 27.5kg to your car, which won’t break your back. If you were to wall mount the Bravia 40W2000 you’ll find VESA mounting holes are already prepared for you to use. | | Setup/Installation | | We were thankful of such an easy set-up so we could get it going and see what the 40W2000 was made of. We quickly connected up a top-notch Pioneer DVD player, and the Xbox 360 at the same time using HDMI leads. We didn’t wall mount this one, but it looks very easy to do in the manual. From getting this beauty out of the delivery van to setting it up and playing on the Xbox 360, we counted a grand total of 32 minutes. | | Features | | Boasting futuristic connectivity and a Bravia Picture Processing Engine, you are guaranteed to be impressed by the Bravia 40W2000’s performance. It has digital and analogue tuners which are controlled by the auto-tune option as soon as you get the TV switched on. The 1920 x 1080 resolution and 8000:1 dynamic contrast are supplied to provide you with a superb picture performance for sure. With Sony’s famous LiveColour Creation, you’ll see what they mean by bold, vibrant colours, especially when you are used to watching any other inferior models. You can watch all programmes in widescreen, 4:3, 14:9, and the most common 16:9 mode. To provide you with a detailed picture, the 40W2000 has a digital comb filter installed. Taking up a small amount of space on the front of the TV is a light sensor; this means your picture is being enhanced all the time depending on how much light is in the room. Features like this not only improve your viewing experience, but are much safer on your eyes too. On the subject of a good view, the 40W2000 has a huge 178 degree viewing angle, but if you can’t see it, you will have no trouble hearing its pair of 10 watt speakers, with their Nicam stereo SRS TruSurround XT sound system. It’s nice to find that Sony haven’t overlooked those small, but important features that make life that little bit easier, like picture in picture, digital text and a 7-day electronic programme guide. As the LCD market toughens, so do Sony by the looks of things. With the 40W2000 comes some of the most futuristic connectivity we have seen to date in this price range. We won’t keep you in suspense, so starting with the best bits, its got 2 HDMI connections, 2 scarts (RGB enabled), PCMCIA card slot, PC input, S-video, digital audio output, earphone jack and finally a component connection. | | Performance | First things first, we thought we’d see how it handled the Xbox 360. We played table tennis, one of our favourites, and we were more than happy with how the game was handled. Motion was great, along with smashing colour and detail. Next up was the Pioneer DV989 DVD Player, with Pride and Prejudice. It’s always a good test, especially for sound. One of the best scenes features some swans flying noisily over a lake, and the 40W2000 handled them superbly, making them 3D surround sound enough to make us think they were flying right overhead. There is also a great motion testing scene, where Keira Knightly is on a swing in the farm yard, again the 40W2000 showed no sign of struggle. On both digital and analogue programmes the most noticeable feature was the amount of colour and detail. Every inch of the screen is covered in immensely colourful detail. Colours seem very well controlled and realistic, probably with help from the amount of detail. A perfect amount of contrast is noticeable with all sources, and black levels were superb too.
| | Overall Opinion | There is only one LCD screen that puts on a better all-round performance than the Sony 40W2000, and that is the X-series 40X2000. And that makes perfect sense to us, as we would be more concerned if Sony’s newest range didn’t show signs of improvement over the last range. This 40” LCD TV has won awards for not only being the best TV in this range, but it also won best product of the year too.
| | | By Lisa Malyon |
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The KDL 40W handles fast moving very well.
Black levels are deep and really bring out depth in a otherwise black image.
 The speakers use SRS TruSuround technology.
 Component and S-Video Side conections. " when is somebody going to put HDMI on the side as well as the back"
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