Sony is too impressed with Sony
by Gary Sellars
(Housont TX, USA)
Sony has always suffered from, "We're the best and therefore we can not only charge more buy give a lower profit to the retailer."
Sony has made some extremely bad marketing decisions in the past and have paid the price for it and I, for one, am content to stand back and watch them continue.
I would never pay 2-3K extra for Sony based on your review and would never do it on my own evaluation unless I had "money to burn" and was convinced of their superiority.
You say that you're not recommending that people should wait to purchase, but I wouldn't purchase such a large TV for home use with such poor off-axis viewing, and that size is just a little large for my computer. ;-)
Sony doesn't stand behind their technology.
by Rich Hansen
(Springfield, OR. USA)
It's not mentioned in the article if people do decide to buy the Sony, what will they do if the TV fails due to an engineering flaw?
I made the mistake of buying a Sony 60" rear projection LCD (KF60WE610) for $3,400 on sale back in 2003. Several years later it's not usable due to blue blobs and thousands of blue pixels in the middle of the screen. There are multiple class action lawsuits against Sony for all their rear projection LCD TV's because Sony will not recall or repair these TVs (http://sites.google.com/site/sonylcdrptvproblems/sonyrearprojectionlcdtv-opticalblock.)
No one in their right mind should ever consider a Sony TV unless they are independently wealthy and don't mind replacing it in a couple years if it fails.
Sony has crummy customer service and warranties
by Dana
(Grapevine, Texas)
I vote for the Samsung. I am in the process of replacing a Sony 55" rear projection TV with an optical block problem that plagued many other Sony rear projection TVs. Sony has had several class action lawsuits filed for various models that have ceased to function properly after the 1 or 2 year warranty expiration. Sony appears to be significantly over priced for marginal differences and from the number of complaints on the Internet and number of class action suits no longer cares about customer loyalty.
I have listed a couple of websites with complaints and information about the class action suits on other Sony TVs:
http://splinke.googlepages.com/sonyrearprojectionlcdtv-opticalblock
http://www.sony.ca/view/286.htm
http://getsatisfaction.com/sony/topics/sony_grand_wega_optical_block_issue
If the only reason you are buying a Sony is for their reputation, I would suggest researching these issues and deciding for yourself.
I will be buying the Samsung. It is substantially less expensive and the price differential will pay for a 5 year warranty.
