Sony KDL40W3000 Design

A common question asked by readers is, "is there any difference between the Sony KDL40W3000 and the KDL40W3000U?". My answer would be none whatsoever... the extra "U" at the end of the model name simply implies that this is a model that is available for sale in the United Kingdom.

Sony has always been at the forefront in the design department, and as such has fitted the KDL40W3000 with a very dark grey bezel with a brushed metallic finish, which is pored at the bottom to act as speakers grille. It comes with the table-top stand (that is shaped rectangularly) pre-attached out of the box. There are control buttons at the top of the panel that are lined up in the form of a crescent, although to be honest these are seldom called into use as the functions are all found on the infrared remote control.

The remote bundled with the Sony KDL40W3000 is of the thin long Japanese-type variant, which sits very comfortably in the hand. The individual buttons are well-placed and responsive, which makes navigating the user menu and surfing channels that much easier. The remote also feature backlighting (blue in colour no less) which is reasonably rare among television clickers. A cover at the bottom of the remote can slide away to reveal some extra keys to control a DVD recorder.

Build quality of the Sony KDL40W3000 is quite high: looking around the rear of the LCD TV revealed no nasty cheap plastics or instability of lesser models.

The Sony KDL40W3000 has three HDMI 1.3 ports, which can be considered normal by today's standards. As a rule of the thumb, HDMI gives the cleanest signal over short distance because of the digital rather than analogue characteristics, so when possible you should connect all your devices using this type of interface rather than component, Scart or ,heaven forbid, composite.