The Sony Bravia KDL-52Z5100 and Sony Bravia KDL-52XBR9 are two of Sony’s best models for 2009, so you might want to consider taking one of them home to be the new centerpiece of your living room. However, both models look identical, so which model is better?

To answer this question, let’s start by comparing their designs. At first glance, the two may seem similar, but if you take a closer look, you’ll find some small but noticeable differences. To be specific, while they both have sleek, slim bezels, the KDL-52XBR9’s bezel is the same width on all sides, while the KDL-52Z5100’s bezel is slightly thicker at the bottom, where you’ll see a glimpse of its dual speakers. On the other hand, the (four) speakers of the KDL-52XBR9 are invisible, which makes it look more attractive.

There is also a difference in the lighting used by both models, although this is not noticeable to most. While both use fluorescent lighting and not the LED lighting that many look for in LCD HDTVs, the KDL-52XBR9 uses WCG-CCFL instead of the plain CCFL used by the KDL-52Z5100, which means it has a slightly wider color gamut. wide. The KDL-52XBR9 is also equipped with Sony’s Live Color Creation technology, which produces deeper red and green tones and more accurate and vibrant colors overall, resulting in images that come to life on your screen.

Apart from this and the fact that the KDL-52XBR9 has a dynamic contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1 compared to the KDL-52Z5100’s 100,000:1 ratio, the picture quality offered by the KDL-52Z5100 and the KDL-52XBR9 is basically the same. same. In fact, everything else is. Both produce excellent, if not necessarily amazing, images and are equipped with Sony Motionflow 240Hz technology to prevent blurring during fast-action sequences.

Both also share the same interactive features, namely Yahoo widgets to keep you informed on the latest weather, news and stock market updates, built-in video streaming capability, which means you can watch your videos on online favorites from Amazon on Demand or YouTube and other providers without having to purchase Bravia Internet Video Link and enhanced DLNA compliance, allowing you to stream pictures, music and video files stored on other computers on your network.

Even in terms of power consumption, both the Sony Bravia KDL-52Z5100 and KDL-52XBR9 are on par, exceeding Energy Star 3.0 standards with an option to reduce power consumption by limiting maximum screen brightness to just two steps, a room lighting sensor to adjust screen brightness, a mode that lets you turn off the screen when listening to music, and a mode that automatically turns off the TV when not in use.

The connectivity suite on each model is also impressive, with three HDMI inputs on the side panel for easy access, along with the USB port and VGA input, and one on the rear with the component video connections and most audio connections. for both analog and digital devices.

So which one should you get? If you want a fancier HDTV with deeper blacks and slightly better picture quality, the KDL-52XBR9 is the obvious choice, but keep in mind that the Sony Bravia KDL-52Z5100 is just as good in most respects and not so expensive. .