Sony's latest A9G flagship Oled TV maintains the excellent picture quality of previous models, while fixing some of their flaws.

The first major change is that the easel stand of last year's A9F model has been supplanted by a thin base stand. First seen in the Bravia A1 a couple of years ago, the easel stand caught the eye for its unique and adjustable design, but it took up more space on the TV console.

But this new stand is so thin it barely lifts the television above the console, so you cannot fit a soundbar under the TV. This could be a minor problem for soundbar owners that do not plan on mounting the TV on the wall.

The Oled screen itself is just a few millimetres thick, but the electronics powering the TV, as well as the inputs, make the back bulge out slightly. Removable panels help to conceal the inputs and manage connected cables.

It runs on Android TV, a designed-for-TV variant of the Android mobile operating system (OS). Sony has added its own customisations, such as a Quick Settings shortcut that lets you access useful settings like the picture mode and brightness with a tap of the remote control.

The A9G uses the newer Android TV OS based on Android 8.0 and runs more smoothly than the one I tried in last year's A8F. For those who like to do more with their TVs, the Android platform has a wider variety of apps than competing smart TV platforms, including games like the Asphalt racing series and the Grand Theft Auto action-adventure titles.

Sony has improved the remote control - it now has fewer buttons that are more clicky than the squishy ones in the previous version. It is easier to use and comes with a built-in microphone to give voice commands to the Google Assistant in Android TV.

To enable this voice functionality, you must connect the remote to the TV via Bluetooth, a connectivity option which has the added benefit of not requiring line of sight with the TV to control it. But strangely, I encountered unexpected shutdowns of the TV after enabling this Bluetooth feature. The Android interface would also become unresponsive. These issues went away once I disabled the Bluetooth connection and reverted to using the remote's infrared feature.

As expected of a top-tier Oled TV, the picture quality of the A9G is impeccable. The visuals from the 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray version of Blade Runner 2049 look stunning while the images in Blue Planet II are pristine and life-like.

In fact, I kept watching these two movies for longer than planned, simply to see if I could spot any flaws, but there were none.

Sports fans will be pleased to know that the screen keeps up well with the action with minimal blurring. The screen looks uniform without any unsightly patches, making it ideal for sports played on green fields like football.

Its screen brightness may not equal the searing intensity of LED TVs, but it is bright enough unless you are watching TV in a very bright room. In this case, you may be distracted by reflections as the A9G's anti-glare layer is not as as amazing as the one on Samsung's flagship TVs. The Sony, though, has far better viewing angles with only slight colour shifts when seen from the sides.

Sony continues to build on its Acoustic Surface technology, a fancy name for having two actuators behind the screen vibrating to produce sound. Unlike other speakers, one gets the impression that the sound comes directly from the screen. While this effect is quite effective and the speakers, aided by two subwoofers, can get very loud, there is some distortion at the higher volumes.

Overall, the Sony A9G is an excellent television that will delight movie lovers. The interface is snazzier and more responsive, though some software bugs remain. However, it is expensive, even for a premium Oled TV.