Let's all tip our caps to Vizio for making its first foray into OLED TVs with aggressive price points this past summer. At the time I expressed my hope it would usher in an era of more affordable OLED pricing in general. That seems to be happening, at least with today's Prime Day deals. Specifically, Sony's excellent A8H series is deeply discounted right now, with both the 55-inch and 65-inch models selling for their lowest prices ever.
Starting with the 55-inch model (XBR55A8H), Amazon has it marked down for $1,298. That is $200 below its previous low, when it dipped briefly in September, and well south of its typically $1,900 price tag. Not likely by coincidence, the sale price puts it a hair lower than Vizio's 55-inch OLED TV.
The folks at Rtings gave the A8H series an overall 8.7 (out of 10) score, noting that it "delivers an incredible picture quality for any type of content and is a fairly decent upgrade over its predecessor." Or a "significant upgrade" if looking solely at gaming performance, due to the "great low input lag" in Game mode.
If you'd like to go bigger, the 65-inch model (XBR65A8H) is on sale for $1,798. Previously the lowest price was around $2,300, while it normally sells for $2,800. So in other words, it's another gigantic discount.
Both of these are Sony's latest models (2020), powered by the same X1 Ultimate processor that powers the company's 8K televisions. They are Android TVs as well, meaning Chromecast is built into the sets, which you can control by voice using Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa.
So, what are the caveats? Burn-in is always a risk with OLED, and though these are the newest models, they lack HDMI 2.1 connectivity and variable refresh rate (VRR) support. Otherwise, however, these are all-around superb OLED displays at price points these models have never seen before.
