Sony KLV-S40A10 (40-inch LCD)

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By Alex Kidman, CNET.com.au
Dec 13, 2005

In October, we took the top-of-the-line 32-inch Sony Bravia "V" for a spin in our Lab and were impressed with its outstanding visual prowess. A month has passed and we cant help but speculate on the potential of its less-endowed but more pocket-friendly Bravia "S" siblings. Even more intriguing is that fact that both series share an identical 7th-generation LCD panel driven by the familiar Sony WEGA engine and a new advanced light sensor.

Design
The first thing you'll notice about the top-of-the-range Bravia "S" series LCD TV when you lift it out of the box is its size and weight. There's no getting past 26.2kg of TV that measures in at 999 x 693 x 103mm sans stand. That's not a problem specific only to this panel--most 40-inch TVs are rather weighty--we'd suggest having a few burly blokes handy, especially if you're considering wall-mounting the unit. It does come with a supplied small stand that works quite well at keeping the set stable.

The most impressive thing about the KLV-S40A10 is naturally the size--a 40-inch LCD tends to dominate all but the smallest of rooms, and as always it's worth noting that if you're going to be using the panel in a smaller room, you're essentially wasting your dough, as you'll be forced to sit too close to the screen for comfort or optimal viewing conditions.

The KLV-S40A10 has the general hallmarks of Sony's well-established design ideas--it's stark where it needs to be, with a minimum of visual clutter on the front display, and suitably recessed buttons that run along the top of the TV itself. All of the unit's inputs lie at the back of the panel--which could be of concern if you're planning on wall-mounting it and want to change inputs on any kind of regular basis. The side of the panel does offer up a composite/S-video connector for the PlayStation generation to plug games systems in on an ad-hoc basis.

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