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Is there anything bad at all to say about the 55X4500's pictures? One very - very! - minor point would be that, just occasionally, really bright parts of images can look ever so slightly bleached out. Also, the picture tends to lose black level and dynamism quite quickly if you start to watch it from much of an angle down the sides. And finally there are - shock, horror - traces of backlight seepage coming in from the TV's corners.

However, before you start immediately writing the 55X4500 off on the back of this news, you should know that we're not talking about a problem on anything like the scale of that seen with Sony's W4500 TVs recently. The area covered by the light spillage is no more than an inch or so in each corner.

Even more crucially, the problem disappears pretty much completely when the Backlight setting is ramped down to under '5'. And since the TV's pictures are undeniably at their cinematic best with the backlight set to just '4' or even '3', it's actually not a problem that many ‘serious' TV users or home cinema fans will have to worry about.

Reluctantly dragging my attentions away from the 55X4500's amazing pictures to focus on the TV's eye-catching speakers, they sound good without being outstanding. On the upside, they produce a wide, detailed soundstage with clear vocals and a reasonable amount of mid-range breathing room for meeting the challenge of action scenes. The bad news is the familiar one of a lack of real bass extension, though at least the set doesn't fall into the trap of trying too hard, so that its chassis vibrates or rattles.

Verdict

With a clearly superior performance to the Samsung 55in LE55A956 and a less controversial image processing system - and much bigger screen - than the Philips 42in 42PF9803, the 55X4500 is the all-round best LED-based TV I've seen so far. And as such, it's also the first TV to genuinely threaten Pioneer's established position as the previously undisputed king of picture quality.

I've had my problems with various Sony TVs over the past 12 months, but the 55X4500 is a truly landmark product that finally elevates the brand to the same sort of heights in the flat TV world that it once enjoyed in the CRT world. Honestly, it's that good. Whether anyone can actually afford to buy one right now, though, is sadly another matter.

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