Amid the doom and gloom, lest us not forget Sony are churning rather class leading products of late
1. Just announced
RX100MK3 - slight overpriced but a freaking pop-up EVF!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ab89NU0QPyY
2. Another great camera
A6000 - super fast, super light, super newest sensor and rather affordable!
The Sony A6000 hands down has what could arguably be called the best autofocusing system out there. While it isnt the fastest, it by far is the smartest and the most responsiveputting some DSLRs to shame in our tests for sure. Granted, Sony did this with an APS-C sensor and have yet to do this with a full frame sensor. If that doesnt bother you, then youll have an autofocusing beast in the palm of your hand.
For the old school folks who like to use the center focusing point and recompose, youll totally fall in love with this camera.
Beyond this, it retains many of the great ergonomics of the NEX 6 while giving a bump in the megapixels. At the lower ISOs, youll get some absolutely beautiful images with excellent resolution. Even at the higher ISOs you wont be getting such bad resultsbut a very good argument can also be made that Sony put too many megapixels on the sensor or the processor just isnt powerful enough to deal with the extra noise from an APS-C 24MP sensor.
Those megapixels and the design of the sensor give you tons of dynamic range and loads of color latitude. So you wont ever have a problem with those.
To take the most advantage of this camera, we recommend pairing it with one of the best APS-C E mount lenses. Anything less would be a total waste of your money.
In the end, the Sony A6000 receives the sites Editors Choice rating and a 5/5 star achievement.
http://www.thephoblographer.com/2014/05/16/review-sony-a6000/#.U3Yf0PmSxH_
3. Yes and more cameras..
.RX10, RX1R, A7, A7r, A7s, A77mk2...all rather innovative and class leading/competitive!
4.
Playstation!
PS4 - simply built better than its direct competitor for the 'same' price!
PS Vita - i think it is really good with the fighting games on it, it uses quad core CPU + GPU with dedicated VRAM in 2011, handily outgraphics 3DS and Smartphones back then! Cheap console, expensive memory cards though...
PlayStation®Plus - Didnt think Sony could catch up with MS service, but they came a long way since the hacking incident, and they are so good now that even MS had to revised their XBL service!
5. Smartphones and tablets
Xperia Z2 - All reviews pretty much agreed Sony phones has come of age with the Z2 which easily competes with S5,M8,5S. Personally, i love it much! <3
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/smartphones/388717/sony-xperia-z2
Tablet Z2 - Besides some reports of a funky touch firmware, again all reviews calling it the best android tablet atm!
Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet review: slim, light, powerful Android tablet is best iPad Air alternative
Xperia Z2 Tablet is the first Android tablet that rivals or beats the iPad Air: Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet video review
Read more:
http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/reviews/tablets/3503806/sony-xperia-z2-tablet-review/#ixzz31tJKw4x4
6.
TVs !
Ok their 2014 flagship uses IPS instead of VA and have problems with the contrast, so just buy their 2013 models or the 2nd tier 2014 models!
(i think they should exit the TV market if they continue make worse flagships)
What so good about Sony TVs? imo they are boring! They dont have the curviest of curves nor the punchiest of colours. But straight edges look classy and their default picture quality is very accurate. Not to mention low input lag!
2013 - 1st tier model
However, where the 40W905 really delivered the goods was in terms of its picture. The out-of-the-box accuracy was exceptional and, after tweaking the greyscale, the 40W905 delivered a reference level of colour accuracy - which is just a well since it doesn't have a CMS.
The video processing was generally excellent and the local dimming feature proved highly effective without introducing unwanted artefacts. In fact, the native black levels were excellent even without the local dimming engaged which, along with the limited viewing angles, suggested the use of a VA panel. The ANSI contrast ratio was also very impressive, with plenty of dynamic range. The picture quality with 2D material was lovely, with accurate images, good motion handling and plenty of detail. The 3D performance was also excellent, with no visible crosstalk and plenty of depth to the images.
The energy consumption was extremely efficient and at
23ms the 40W905 has one of the lowest input lags we've measured.
http://www.avforums.com/review/sony-w90-kdl-40w905a-3d-led-lcd-tv-review.434
2014 - '2nd' tier model
Gaming Performance
Perhaps, someday soon, competing manufacturers will be able to unravel the secrets behind Sonys Game Mode but, until then, they will be ahead of the pack when it comes to producing TVs with incredibly low latency. Using our specialised testing equipment we took measurements ranging between 19.5 to 22.3 milliseconds lag to controller input, which is just in to the second frame of a game running natively at 60fps and within the first of one running at 30.
Where it really matters, however, the W829B definitely delivers with images that combine an excellent degree of accuracy with deep and consistent black levels, for maximum impact. Very few of Sony's clever processing tricks are needed for this TV for it to deliver, something we couldn't say of the supposed flagship W955. It was only the 3D performance that was really lacking but who but a very small minority really care about that?
Sony probably wont thank us for saying this but the Sony W829 performs far more like a top-end TV than the W955 although perhaps they'll forgive us with the award of a Highly Recommended badge.
http://www.avforums.com/review/sony-w8-kdl-50w829b-led-television-review.10178
7. Another area i noticed Sony is slowly moving into/back is
"Hi-Res Audio"!
http://discover.store.sony.com/High-Resolution-Audio/
A logical return of the Walkman?
The branding is having good reviews
HAP-S1
In case you haven't noticed, Sony's been enjoying a bit of a resurgence of late. Back in the day, Sony was the unquestioned leader when it came to cool electronics. Products such as the Walkman, the seemingly endless line of yellow (read waterproof) gadgets, the must-have 8mm camcorders and, of course, those epic and incredibly heavy Trinitron televisions, albeit in more recent memory, it has been companies such as Apple and Samsung that have been dominating headlines and lightening people's wallets.
Thankfully, Sony hasn't been asleep. Rather, the company has been reminding us of its technological prowess with game-changing products such as the SS-AR1 loudspeaker, which proves that Sony can play ball with anyone when it comes to speaker design.
You might have also noticed some of the headlines regarding Sony's new Playstation 4, which is punishing rival Microsoft's Xbox One in sales. The subject of this review, the HAP-S1 High-Res Music Player ($1,000), is not only another game-changer from Sony, it just might help pull high-res audio out of semi-obscurity and into the mainstream. This is a bold statement, I know, but I'll explain in detail how Sony has managed to get it right on just about every level with this product.
http://hometheaterreview.com/sony-hap-s1-hi-res-music-player-reviewed/
SRS-X9
The SRS-X9 uses a seven speaker design with a woofer, two bass radiators, two magnetic fluid speakers and four tweeters, to create a wider sound field. There's a built-in S-Master HX Digital Amplifier to deliver 154W to the speakers and Sony include DSEE HX technology to upsample your compressed recordings.
Whilst in terms of high resolution support, the speaker is compatible with all the major formats including DSD, WAV, AIFF, FLAC and ALAC. The SRS-X9 delivered a wonderful audio performance, with a wide and open soundstage that could fill a good sized room. The clarity and detail was excellent, with nicely rendered high frequencies and well integrated low end that resulted in very enjoyable listening.
The SRS-X9 was at it's best when playing back high resolution audio tracks but it was also very capable with compressed files and was able to upsample them very effectively. We also found that we had no problems with any of the files we tried to play on the Sony, so it will be able to handle just about any music collection. So, regardless of your musical tastes or the type of audio files that you use, Sony's SRS-X9 will deliver a great all round performance that more than justifies its price tag. It also proves just how good high resolution audio can sound, even from a wireless speaker, so it would be good to see Sony release more high-res content, themselves
http://www.avforums.com/review/sony-srs-x9-high-res-wireless-speaker-review.10312
p.s. Any recent Sony products i missed out and you love them?
