OK, I am editing this (March 25th) to better summarize it now that I've tried most of what I wanted to try.

Design- The tv does not have monolithic glass like CNET listed it as having, unless I am totally crazy or misunderstanding the term. The screen is even difficult to figure out as far as matte or not... so I am assuming it's semi-gloss. The stand is much less wobbly compared with the 2011 Sony stands. The remote control is much smaller than last year's. The component and composite inputs are now normal old school ones rather than you needing an included converter cable.

Performance- The picture has a lot of pop and seems overall good. To me personally the black level looks to be good as well. However, I have no idea how that's even possible since it does not have local dimming and is edge lit. So we'll see what measurements someone such as CNET gets (they are supposedly reviewing this set soon). All these sites say this has "frame dimming". Well... Read more