The Sony A90J OLED is set to release this month, with the electronics manufacturer confirming global pricing and release dates for its flagship 4K OLED for 2021.
You can now pre-order the A90J in the UK and Europe – where it's known as the 'AJ90' – with "deliveries expected in late March". US availability is set to follow shortly, though we still expect it to launch in North America in the same month. Sony TVs tend to come to Australia a little later (the A90J isn't even listed on Sony's AU website yet) but it should happen eventually.
The A90J is available in a variety of sizes, starting at $2,999 / £2,699 for a 55-inch model, going up to $3,999/ £3,499 for a 65-inch model, and £6,999 for an 83-inch model (US pricing not yet confirmed, but likely just above $7,000).
83-inch is a new OLED TV size for this year, and will also be coming to the LG C1 OLED (the successor to last year's LG CX). It's clearly being positioned as the new big-screen OLED experience, given the A90J has skipped the usual 77-inch size entirely in favor of the larger option.
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Sony steps up
The A90J is sure to be one of Sony's biggest sellers this year, with a new top-of-the-range Cognitive Processor XR that brings new AI processing to its TV range. Sony tells us that it utilizes a “completely new processing method designed to replicate the ways humans see and hear”, detecting a so-called “focal point” in the TV’s picture to focus processing around the more important parts of the image.
“While conventional Artificial Intelligence (AI) can only detect and analyze picture elements like color, contrast and detail individually, the new processor can cross-analyze an array of elements at once, just as our brains do,” Sony says.
You'll be getting 4K resolution, as well as 4K/120Hz video at 48Gbps through multiple HDMI 2.1 ports, and both VRR (variable refresh rate) and ALLM (auto low latency mode). The A90J also supports Dolby Atmos passthrough, as well as HDR10 and Dolby Vision dynamic HDR.
For those after a similar experience at slightly less cost, we'd recommend keeping an eye out for the step-down A80J OLED. There's no pricing for it yet, but we expect it to launch almost immediately after the A90J, and it'll come with the same processor and inputs. It's likely that the casing will be slightly less premium, though, and it looks like the contrast processing won't be as advanced.
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