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Sony KDL-32W705B review

 Review: June 2014  
 

Rating: 5 stars

In a nutshell: The Sony Bravia KDL-32W705B is a top quality 32 inch TV. With an appealing design, excellent picture quality and useful Smart TV functions, it delivers a top viewing experience at a very reasonable price. Highly recommended!



 

Review

Sony may be directing its marketing firepower at Ultra HD monster screens, but its 2014 range includes much more affordable options too, including this corker of a 32 inch TV. 

Design & looks

If you're looking for a high quality second TV or simply lack the space or budget for a 40-incher, then you could do a lot worse than choose the 32 inch version of Sony's W7 range.

The W705B has an upmarket design, in common with the more expensive W8 model. It works particularly well in its 32 inch version, as the design is light and airy, featuring a very narrow black bezel surrounding the screen and an open-style chrome stand. A Sony logo below the screen illuminates gently to provide subtle visual cues when changing settings with the remote control. Although the set bulges out to a rather thick 6cm at the back, the bulge is confined to the lower central region and contains all of the bulky parts, leaving an incredibly thin edge to the top half of the screen.

Overall its a design that's very stylish and contemporary. It's fittingly upmarket, since this is Sony's top-end 32 inch model in its 2014 range.

Picture quality

The 32 inch W7 uses the same image processing kit as the 42 inch model, and isn't very far removed from the more expensive W8 range either. That means that picture quality is excellent, as a 32 inch screen is much more forgiving of any minor defects compared with a larger screen size.

Blacks are suitably dark and colours nice and bright, resulting in an impressive dynamic range and making images look vivid and real. The 200Hz motion processing is fast for a television of this size, so there are no problems with motion blur or judder. The TV is equipped with Sony's X-Reality PRO processing engine, which successfully upscales standard definition broadcast material and DVDs as well as displaying high quality Blu-Ray.

All of these features mark the TV out as an excellent choice for anyone who values picture quality. Additionally, when in Game Mode, the input lag is very low, so this is perhaps one of the best choices for use with a PS4 or Xbox One, either as a main TV or for a bedroom.

Audio quality

The power output of the speakers is just 10W (5Wx2), which is about half of many rival TVs. Although Sony has provided features like ClearAudio+ to enhance sound quality, the compact bass reflex speakers just aren't big enough to deliver truly spectacular sound. If you want to get the best out of this TV, you'll consider pairing it with some kind of external speaker system, like a hifi or dedicated soundbar/subwoofer.

Smart TV

The W705 is fully kitted out for Smart TV, with integrated Wi-Fi and an ethernet connection, so its easy to connect to the internet. This gives you full access to Sony's Smart TV functions including Catch-up TV from the BBC iPlayer and Demand 5, YouTube, Twitter, Netflix and Amazon Instant.

TweetView lets you watch what people are tweeting about the current programme - you don't need a Twitter account to use this.

The TV is also Skype-ready, but you'll need to add an optional camera to make use of this feature. You can also buy a One-Flick remote control that makes using the Smart functions even easier.

Connectivity

Often smaller TVs struggle with connectivity options, but that's not the case here. No shortcuts have been made to meet the budget, and as well as Wi-Fi and ethernet (including Wi-Fi Direct), there are 4 HDMI and 2 USB ports, ARC compatibility, plus a good range of legacy connections. The TV also has the benefit of NFC display mirroring with compatible smartphones.

Freeview HD and satellite tuners are built in too.

Conclusion

This is Sony's top-end 32 inch TV for 2014 and it's clearly a winner! Not only is it great to look at, with a real premium design, it delivers outstanding picture quality too. The Smart TV is excellent and so is the range of connectivity options. The only weak area is the audio, and that can easily be fixed by plugging the TV into some kind of speaker system if desired. We'd rate this as one of the outstanding buys of the year.


Sony KDL-32W705B features include:

User questions

Sorry - questions and comments on this page are now closed.

Is it touch screen?

Asked by sanket from nepal on 6th Nov 2016
Is it fully remote operated or we can touch it?

Skype camera?

Asked by Pedro from uk on 10th Oct 2016
Does any webcam work with Skype on this TV? For example will a Samsung Skype camera work with it?
Many thanks Pedro

Sony KDL32W705B vs Sony KDL32W705C input lag difference?

Asked by TARAN HASE from WALES on 9th Sep 2016
HI

I know the 705b has the best input lag less TV you can buy for gaming but what is the comparison for the 705c model?

Thanks

Taran

See all 6 questions

Sony KDL-32W705B user reviews

Sorry - reviews and comments on this page are now closed.