• expired

Sony KDL55W800A 55" FHD LED LCD 3D 100Hz Smart TV -- $1259 at Costco (Membership Required)

520

Seems like a pretty good deal for a decent TV — Not nearly as good as the 900A but hey, it's half the price. Has been on sale around $1450 before, the lowest price before on OzB was a Bing Lee deal at $1350. Currently $1700 at JB pre-haggle, and $1500 on BigBrownBox.

One unique selling point over a comparable TV (say a Series 6 Samsung) is that it makes an excellent TV for gaming — the input lag on Sony's 800A and 900A series is less than half most other TVs (covered by both reviews below…)

Sony page: http://www.sony.com.au/product/kdl-55w800a
Whirlpool thread: http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=2096813
Average review of the US W802A model: http://reviews.cnet.com/flat-panel-tvs/sony-kdl-55w802a/4505…
Good review of the UK W805A model: (albeit 47" version): http:// www.hdtvtest.co.uk/news/sony-kdl47w805a-201307043162.htm

Related Stores

Costco Wholesale
Costco Wholesale

closed Comments

  • Damn ..looking for deal on this TV for long time and bought this for $1489 from Harvey Norman last month .. Pretty good TV though …

    • +2

      Platinum card price match?

  • +1

    Which one is the better picture quality for movies and free to air TV channels(considering no gaming usage) - Samsung series 6 or this(Sony KDL55W800A) ?

  • Does Costco offer delivery?

    • No.

  • Pos for name and avatar. Excellent!

  • Does Costco sell Australian Stock & Covered by Samsung Australia Warranty ?

    • +6

      Not sure why Samsung would cover a Sony TV but yes it is Australian stock. But who needs a Sony warranty when you have the best warranty available…..the Costco no questions asked lifetime warranty!

      • That's the sort of warranty I like.

      • Sorry Mate :)
        I meant Sony Australia
        Just got too many Samsung products in Home

        Apologies. Can anyone confirm if Sony would cover warranty ?

        • LOL you would rather have Costco warranty than Sony. As long as your Costco membership is active, you can return the TV for full refund (faults or no faults). Why are you running behind Sony warranty. Thats only in case you are becoming a member, buying the TV and getting a refund of the Costco membership by cancelling it :P

        • Just checking if this is Aussie stock or parallel imports

        • Just checking if this is Aussie stock or parallel imports

        • I'm intrigued and just did some reading about this so called "lifetime warranty" which wasn't particularly complimentary. Can't find anything on Costco website. Got any links or an actual written statement from the Costco Australia?

        • Its not actually lifetime. If the product malfunctions in a time you would expect that type of product to last then you can get a replacement or refund. If you buy a TV and notice a dead pixel in 20 years time they are going to tell you where to go. Don't abuse it and they will gladly help you.

        • -1

          Is this your interpretation Boost or do you have something written? What you've said is pretty much what legally enforceable statutory warranty is about, but is entirely different to the "lifetime warranty" offered by Costco USA. If Costco Australia is simply implementing statutory warranty without any fuss then that's a plus for them because we know anecdotally that many companies will try and give consumers the runaround. What's the reasonable life of a TV in hours? I'd suspect 2-3 years for a cheapie and 5+ years of average use for a middling quality device. Most will last a lot longer of course.

        • Here is the reply from Costco I received regarding the warranty of my Bravia 55" LED KDL55HX750 I bought at a similar price last year:

          "
          Dear member,

          Thank you for your enquiry. Costco does not offer a warranty on merchandise, however we guarantee every item we sell.

          Our refunds policy is as follows: We guarantee your satisfaction on every product we sell, and will refund your purchase price. This is in addition to your rights under the Australian Consumer Law.

          We do not arrange repair, only offer full refund on your cost price."

          I enquired about the TV warranty as I'm having some issues with the in-built wifi, it randomly won't work sometime.

          What this basically means is that I can take my TV back to costco tomorrow for a full refund of the $1297 I paid last year and just buy the 800 model for 40 bucks less.

          Although, taking the big ass TV back to their warehouse is no easy task as I'll have to rent or borrow a ute/van from someone like last time.

        • -1

          So if I bring it in 5 years later they'll refund the price? Don't think so. Only bothered to read one blokes's experience and he was told he had 90 days to return whatever it was (can't recall and can;t be bothered looking it up again). If their guarantee isn't advertised or written then it's up to individual stores as to how they deal with it. Reputation and customer satisfaction will play a part, as will persistence but as they say "an unwritten contract isn't worth the paper it's written on" (with some exceptions).

        • Well I've been told I can bring it back for a full refund.

          "Dear member,

          Yes, you will need to bring the item back to get the refund. If possible, please bring the item back in original box."

        • +1

          No worries, you keep paying $200+ for an extended warranty that is next to useless. We'll sit back knowing if our Costco sourced products fail at any time we can get our money back, no questions asked!!

          My daughter had a pair of Sony headphones that I originally purchased at Costco for $49 around July last year. At the time they were selling for $69 at JB, DSE etc. In January she dropped her iPad with the headphones plugged in and snapped the end off the audio jack. Returned them to Costco got my $49 back no questions asked. I then went in to the store and purchased another pair at the now reduced price of $27.97!!

          Try doing that at DSE or JB….they'd laugh you out their store.

        • people like you who try to take advantage of what is written and or not written. eventually your type will see this warranty go out the window. just remain loyal and so will they. stop looking for contractual terms.

        • Are you sure about that?
          I remember seeing in Docklands Costco that they have since put up a sign saying 30days. above the sign that says "return if unsatisfied"

  • just out of curious, if people keeping buying these tv, then what become of their current tv ?

    • drive any street… lots of rear projection/tube screens on the lawn

    • we were silly enough to dump it at the council dump because our old CRT is too "heavy". what a hassle.

      • I bought my current unknown brand CRT TV for $20, it'd been several years now and it is still working good. Plus not much is excitement on tv any way.

        • since analog FTA TV has been switched off, unless you own a very rare CRT with a DVB-T tuner (and not using an external one), you must be enjoying only white noise — that would explain the lack of excitement!!
          ;-)

        • I rarely watch tv, it's for missus to watch " My kitchen rude" sometime. I do have a no name branch set top box ( and it was free too).

  • Can anyone recommend a good delivery service?

  • +10

    I just bought the 47" about two weeks ago for the bedroom and a 55" Samsung series 6 for the living room. So hope my unscientific comparison between the two helps someone. I did quiet a bit of research and looked at a whole bunch of TVs when buying the Samsung but tbh it's mostly subjective. I did use the THX Calibration tool and took off motionflow etc. from both TVs. Both have some eco stuff that play with the brightness depending on the light in the room, took that off cause it started driving me nuts! Apart from that just takes these musings from a regular bloke.

    TV/Movie Watching

    I prefer the Samsung, not that the Sony is bad but I think from reading reviews the blacks on the Samsung are quiet good compared to most things around the price range, not Plasma good though, and this possibly makes the difference. I did have a look at some Panasonic and Samsung plasmas but read that they aren't very good in well lit rooms which my living room is and tbh they underwhelmed me on the shop floor, yeah I know it's the shop floor and calibration makes a big difference but still.
    Winner: Samsung

    Gaming

    This is the big selling point of the Sony, and why I went for the Sony rather than another Samsung for the bedroom aka gaming room. Not hard to Google input lag for both TVs, I'm not a big twitch console player so I didn't notice a huge difference between the two when playing sport games. The difference that I did notice might have even been a placebo effect. BUT in my mind I did notice a difference.
    Winner: Sony even with a potential placebo effect.

    Smart Features

    They both access my home network just fine and stream video files as advertised. Sony is meant to stream MKVs but won't stream mine. Netflix and Hulu is a pain on the Sony, I still haven't got it working with Getflix, meant to work with UnoTelly though. Samsung works fine with Getflix. Both have screen mirroring functions from tablets etc. Sony's being Miracast won't let me use the Galaxy S4 on it though. I haven't tried the Note 10.1 on the Sony but the Surface Pro works fine on both.
    Winner: Samsung

    3D

    Not that this should be a deal breaker and it is passive vs active so it depends on what one prefers. I had active 3D TV before but after seeing both I prefer passive. Active is fine for that 1 movie every three months you might watch in 3D.
    Winner: Sony

    Sound

    Both are pretty rubbish but that is more or less to be expected. I bought a soundbar for the Samsung and I'm really impressed by it only cost me $250 and the sound now is night and day, not as good as a dedicated 5.1 setup but it makes for a very clean look as there is no wire from the soundbar to the TV or to the Sub and sound quality is quiet good.
    Winner: No one

    Overall unless you want to do gaming on it get a Samsung or spend the extra on the w900a which is $700! more.

    • Thanks for the comprehensive review, Fluffyduck77.

    • Curious what sound bad you got that is wireless from the TV to the soundbar?

      • +1

        Samsung HW-F450 Very very easy to setup, turn TV on, turn soundbar on and it automatically pairs up for the first time and from then on when you turn the TV on/off, soundbar goes on/off.

        • Thanks, will look in to it. :)

    • I have a 55" Samsung Series 6 as my main TV too. My bedroom is only a little 32" Sony W670A, but I can confirm that Netflix definitely works through Unotelly (I spent a few hours on Skype with them while they got it working, Unblock-us support was useless) and MKV works fine (the problem is most streamers don't have the right Sony profile. Serviio definitely does:
      http://forum.serviio.org/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=11147

    • I second what sama said - thanks for the comprehensive write up; I'm not even the market for a tv but I found your post very good!

  • Bought this for $1300 harvey norman chatstone vic early December and added $200 for extended 3 yr warranty being 4 years in total. This is a good price for a great tv still!

  • delete me

  • Definitely better than my 42" TV cum monitor.

    • +5

      Well, I have to admit that I don't use something that large for viewing p0rn…

    • +2

      How close are you sitting / how far are you shooting?

  • +1

    The Samsung 51" Plasma (not smart) for $719 delivered ends today -
    http://www.dicksmith.com.au/tvs/samsung-51-130cm-full-hd-pla…
    $540 cheaper for 4 inches less screen but a far superior picture is a no brainer.

    • Apples and oranges. Superior picture but sucks in daylight/ambient light, and terrible for games (65+ms of lag).

      • Hi Steve, can you provide a link that shows the input lag for the Samsung Plasma please?

      • If you don't game then input lag won't matter.

  • Is this Sammy better for gaming too? Or people still recommend the Sony LCD for gaming?
    Good price-tag on it I must say.

    Planning to get one for living room then swap it over to gaming room once the price for Sammy series 8 drops a little more.

    • Even the higher end Samsung LCDs still have a good ~45ms or so of input lag in game mode which is pretty average for an LCD.

      Plasmas are worse still — the otherwise excellent Panasonic ST60 has 75ms.

      Sonys 2013s are low across the board — around 16ms.

      HDTVTest have a big list including two different methods of calculation:
      http://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/news/input-lag

      I suspect Sony are really trying to minimise input lag given their Gaikai streaming service is coming to Bravia TVs and Playstations which will add lag.

  • Can anyone who has purchased this post their receipt? No Costco in South Australia, so would like to attempt a price match at another store. :)

    • +1

      Most stores will not pricematch interstate unless the retailer ships which they also add the shipping costs into it.

      Sadly Costco doesn't ship, so it maybe alittle hard to get it pricematched.

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