Sony Google TV
Ranked 9 of 9 smart TVs by recommenders
Praised for reasonably fast performance and a dumb mode that boots straight to HDMI; critics call its UI sluggish.
Praised for reasonably fast performance and a dumb mode that boots straight to HDMI; critics call its UI sluggish.
6 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 5
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 83%
Recommended in 6 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 5 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 6 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Optional dumb mode hides home screen
“You can literally click to boot into "dumb mode" on all modern Google TVs such as Sony once and forget about it.”
Comment from 10 Dec 2025 in “Valve: HDMI Forum Continues to Block HDMI 2.1 for Linux” “reasonably fast, and doesn't even show its home screen unless I specifically summon it”
Comment from 22 Jul 2026 in “LG to Ban Residential Proxies from Smart TV Apps” Smooth, usable smart TV experience
“reasonably fast, and doesn't even show its home screen unless I specifically summon it”
Comment from 22 Jul 2026 in “LG to Ban Residential Proxies from Smart TV Apps” “it's been the best smart TV experience I've had in a long time”
Comment from 15 Jun 2026 in “Fox to Buy Roku Streaming Service in $22B Deal”
Other smart TVs people recommend
The four most recommended other smart TVs, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LG smart TV | 57 | 303 | 16% | 11 | 5 yrs16 owners | — |
| Samsung TV | 37 | 134 | 22% | 9 | 10 yrs14 owners | — |
| Sony Bravia TV | 19 | 6 | 76% | 7 | 11.8 yrs9 owners | Approved |
| TCL TV | 17 | 14 | 55% | 9 | 6 yrs4 owners | — |
| Sony Google TVThis page | 5 | 1 | 83% | 6 | — | — |
What people said
6 of the 7 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“turns on directly to the active HDMI, more or less reliably for most devices”
“pretty good in "Basic Mode" without an internet connection though”
“reasonably fast, and doesn't even show its home screen unless I specifically summon it”
“it's been the best smart TV experience I've had in a long time”
“The Sony UI is a lot more sluggish than the Google stick device”
“You can literally click to boot into "dumb mode" on all modern Google TVs such as Sony once and forget about it.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.