Sony TVs have always been a favorite at Audio Advice for many reasons. Their unwavering commitment to living on the bleeding edge of all things video allows them to continue developing TVs with incredible processing power, which results in excellent picture quality that is true to the original creator's intent.

In fact, Sony is the only company that produces the equipment used in every chain of content creation. From the high-end cinema cameras on which your favorite movies are shot to the professional monitors and post-processing facilities used to edit the movies to commercial movie theater projectors, Sony has its hands in the entire process from start to finish. Their vast array of knowledge in the content industry gives their engineers a leg up in designing TVs that help us get closer to that “theater” experience we all aim for.

Whether you have a dedicated home theater room, media room, or living room, our home theater experts always design systems that try to emulate that movie theater feel. That's why when we heard Sony’s new slogan for their 2024 TVs, “Cinema is coming home,” it really resonated with us, and we were excited to learn all about the new models.

2024 TV Lineup Name Changes

In hopes of streamlining its TV model names, Sony has simplified its offerings to the four brand new BRAVIA models and three models that are carried over from last year. If you want to learn more about the carryover models, which are the A90K OLED and X90L Full Array LED, you can read the section on them in our article from the 2023 Sony TV lineup. If you want to learn more about the other carryover model, the A95L QD-OLED, we did a full, in-depth review as well.

For this article, we will focus on Sony’s brightest Mini LED TV ever, the new BRAVIA 9 Mini LED TV, along with the BRAVIA 8 OLED TV and BRAVIA 7 Mini LED TV. We will note that Sony has also released a more affordable option, the BRAVIA 3 LED TV which doesn’t have the upgraded features as the rest of the lineup but is still a very capable TV. For this article we will bypass entry-level Bravia 3 units and get into the new tech shared by all the 9,8 and 7 models and then get into each series to help you make an informed decision on which series might be best for your situation.

Sony Picture Technology

Bravia Cognitive Processor XR

The XR processor looks at every frame of the image and breaks it down into thousands of elements, which it processes simultaneously. Sony set out to make their processor look at the image much like the human brain would process real life. Everywhere you look, there are certain parts in your field of vision that you focus on more. The XR processor uses AI to make the picture look more like what you would see in real life.

The video technology used in the new Sony sets has many aspects. Separate processing is going on for each of the critical components of the image: color, contrast, motion, and clarity. To produce a lifelike image, all of these aspects need to be perfectly executed. The XR processor acts as the director to decide how much of each component to apply to each of the thousands of elements inside every single frame of the image.

Although we hope most of you would plan to add a full surround system or great soundbar to a TV of this level, the XR Cognitive Intelligent Processor also improves the audio if you are using the TV for your movie sound. Let’s now take a look at each component the XR Processor controls.

XR Backlight Master Drive

First, it’s important to understand what a Mini LED is and why this technology found in the BRAVIA 9 and BRAVIA 7 is so powerful. Mini LED TVs use an array of LEDs grouped into controlled zones to produce the light for your TV. But unlike a standard LED TV, Mini LEDs are 5x smaller, allowing you to have more LEDs on the panel, resulting in better contrast, higher peak brightness, and more dimming control in the dark parts of an image with less blooming.

Sony’s new XR Backlight Master Drive analyzes each frame of the content and uses a Sony-developed local dimming algorithm to control thousands of tiny, ultra-dense Mini LEDs with precision and independence. This delivers a beautiful, bright image with a wide dynamic range and virtually eliminates haloing or blooming around intensely bright objects on your screen. This also lets you get those deep, inky blacks on a large 75” or 85” screen, which is very impressive!

XR Motion Clarity & XR Clear Image Technology

In our opinion, Sony has always been the best at reducing noise and motion blur. The XR Motion Clarity tech inside the Mini LED BRAVIA models analyzes movement across several frames and synchronizes the backlight with the movement on the screen to create a clear, bright image. The BRAVIA 8 OLED model uses XR OLED Motion, which detects and analyzes the visual elements on successive frames and creates and inserts extra frames between the originals for a smoother overall scene.

XR Clear Image utilizes a custom database to intelligently convert your content to near 4K and minimize any noise in the image through zone division and dynamic frame analysis.

XR Triluminos Pro

Sony has been famous for its Triluminos video processing for years. This process maps colors from a wider palette to reproduce finer gradients of shades and hues. The latest Triluminos Pro takes this color palette and widens the color space even more through 3D color algorithm processing.

X-Anti Reflection & X-Wide Angle

The flagship BRAVIA 9 Mini LED also comes equipped with X-Anti Reflection and X-Wide Angle technology to reduce reflections and glares on your screen and keep the picture consistent no matter where you are sitting in the room. This allows you to entertain everyone in the room with a beautiful picture even if you are off-axis from the TV.

Sony Sound Technology

While we highly recommend upgrading your TV sound to a full surround sound system or a soundbar, Sony has made some great improvements to the sound quality of their TVs. They’ve also introduced two new soundbars and a surround sound theater system, which we also have reviews on and are worth checking out. With a TV of this caliber, we think upgrading your sound is just as important. However, we will briefly review their new TV sound technology.

Voice Zoom 3

Sony’s new Voice Zoom 3 utilizes AI to detect and recognize human voices across all types of content. It can amplify the voice or reduce background noise to create clear-sounding dialogue. The really cool part is that when you pair it with a soundbar or Sony’s Theater Quad system, this mode will also work with those.

3D Surround Upscaling

This 3D Surround Upscaling attempts to fill your room with sound from around and above you using just the TV speakers. It also supports Dolby Atmos and DTS:X. While this is a neat feature, it will not compare to adding dedicated speakers to your system for a truly immersive experience.

360 Spatial Sound Mapping & Acoustic Center Sync

When paired with a Sony soundbar, the 360-degree Spatial Sound Mapping technology creates phantom speakers beyond the physical speakers to immerse you in a “bubble” of surround sound. In addition, you can use the Acoustic Center Sync feature to utilize your TV as the center channel when paired with a Sony soundbar or surround sound system.

Sony TV Design

Sony designed these new BRAVIA models to not only have a gorgeous image but also have a beautiful shell that looks good in any home. Their One Slate concept fusses the screen and bezel into a single slate, which minimizes distractions and improves the overall experience. We’ve all seen TVs with massive black bezels that protrude from the TV, making it look like an ugly piece of technology in your room. These BRAVIA TVs have a near-invisible bezel along with rear covers that completely hide all the wires and ports for a seamless and elegant look.

In addition, the 7, 8, and 9 models feature a multi-purpose stand that we have been huge fans of at Audio Advice since it was introduced. This stand allows you four different positions, so you can adjust the height to have your TV flush to your credenza or raised to the perfect height for a Sony soundbar to fit perfectly below it without covering any part of your screen. You can also mount the stands on the outside edge of the TV or towards the center of the TV if you prefer that look better.

Sony Smart TV

All of the new Sony models are still equipped with Google TV as their smart TV platform. We’ve recently reviewed the best home theater source component options and have given you some good choices if you prefer to use something other than the native streaming platform on your TV. However, the Google TV system on Sony TVs has always been lightning-fast and is an easy way to eliminate extra cords since you don’t need another streaming box.

As you might expect, these all support AirPlay 2, Alexa, Apple Home, and Google Home, and all have a voice remote.

Sony Pictures Core

Utilizing the Google TV platform on Sony TVs includes a few great features. You get access to Sony Pictures Core, formerly known as Bravia Core. This platform was jointly developed with Sony TV engineers and Sony Pictures specialists to bring studio-quality picture mastering directly to your TV. Typical streaming services allow you to stream content at around 15-25 Mbps, whereas Sony’s Pure Stream works in conjunction with Sony Pictures Core to allow you to stream content up to 80 Mbps. This gives you more detail in your image and improves audio quality, too, making it very close to what you would get from a Blu-Ray disc.

You also get early access to certain Sony Pictures releases and behind-the-scenes clips, exclusive bonus content, the world's largest IMAX Enhanced library, and a Sony Pictures Core Calibrated Mode that automatically optimizes the picture settings when watching IMAX Enhanced content.

Netflix Adaptive Calibrated Mode & Prime Video Calibrated Mode

When you watch Netflix natively on these new Sony TVs, you will have access to a feature called Netflix Adaptive Calibrated Mode. We were extremely impressed when Sony first worked with Netflix to release this feature in 2018, and for the new 2024 models, it’s gotten even better. This mode automatically adjusts the brightness of your TV to match the ambient room conditions and configures the TV image to be calibrated as close as possible to the monitors that are used in post-production movie studios.

In addition, Sony has worked with Amazon to improve the quality of the image when watching Prime Video content. This works in the same way as the Netflix mode by adjusting the image to look more faithful to the director's intent.

Sony BRAVIA Cam

The Bravia Cam is a small webcam-like camera that sits flush on the top of these Sony TVs. For all models except the BRAVIA 3, It adjusts for ambient light hitting the screen and includes a sensor for white balance. It can also recognize how far viewers are from the TV to adjust sound and picture settings so they are just right from any seating position.

The Bravia Cam is also a high-quality webcam for all models that makes video chatting and conference calls more convenient on your big screen. If you work from home, you could have a video chat in the comfort of your living room on the couch or in any room where your TV is.

Sony BRAVIA Connect

Sony has developed a really neat app that you can use from your smartphone to control any of these new BRAVIA models and any of the new BRAVIA Theater options. It makes setting up and changing settings extremely easy without having to use a remote.

Sony Gaming

Sony has once again outdone itself with the gaming technology and features included in these new BRAVIA models. The BRAVIA 7, 8, and 9 have two HDMI 2.1 ports that support up to a 48Gbps peak bit rate and 120 fps on 4K content. When you use this along with the Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM) and Variable Refresh Rate (VRR), you will have a pretty solid gaming setup if you’re into first-person competitive gaming.

In addition, if you have a PS5, you can utilize Auto HDR Tone Mapping to optimize HDR settings during your PS5's initial setup, allowing you to see the finest details in your game's dark shadows or bright highlights. You also get support for Dolby Vision Plus, which increases color accuracy and gives you lifelike contrast in games. Plus, you can actually change the size of the image to the game on a smaller screen, which is beneficial for fast first-person games. You can also add crosshairs on your screen, adjust the blacks in a game with the black equalizer, and use multiview to watch YouTube videos and tutorials side by side with your game on the TV.

With the Sony Game Menu, all of your game settings and assist functions are put in one easy-to-reach menu for quick changes so that gaming continues uninterrupted. This makes it easy to turn on FPS or RTS Game modes and adjust picture settings right in this Game Menu. Also, when you boot up to play a game, the TV recognizes it and automatically switches to Game Mode and back to Standard Mode when you are done. Little features like this make using Sony TVs just so enjoyable.

The effect is very noticeable in rooms with all the lights dimmed. When trying to watch your movie in a completely dark room, you may have noticed the effect around very brightly lit objects that are isolated against dark backgrounds — such as a street light, stars dotting the night sky, or even subtitles.

While Sony has achieved incredible contrast ratios with conventional full-array local LED dimming, Mini LED technology takes everything Sony knows about high-performance image processing and squeezes every last drop of performance from the panel tech to give you the best of both worlds — so you get the inky black levels like an OLED and the brightest colors possible like a traditional LED panel.

By adding more dimming zones to the BRAVIA 9 and pairing it with the XR Backlight Master Drive tech, the BRAVIA 9 can control dimming zones directly next to each other with extreme precision. Where most LED TVs essentially have an “off,” “on,” and a few brightness levels in between, the BRAVIA 9 is able to adjust down to a more granular level. This isn’t an easy task to do for any TV. However, as we’ve mentioned so many times before, Sony’s engineers have created the best processor for these TVs, and the BRAVIA 9 can adjust its backlight with extreme precision and speed!

The BRAVIA 9 also includes frame and beam tweeters in addition to the front-facing TV speakers inside. The beam tweeters are located on the top rear of the TV and reflect the audio backward off the wall and the ceiling to create height sound effects, while the frame tweeters vibrate the frame to add more width to the overall presentation of sound.

To top it all off, the BRAVIA 9 includes Sony’s High Peak Luminance, XR Contrast Booster (30), and newly added Source-based Tone Mapping (SBTM) for gaming.

It’s clear that Sony has leaned into the Mini LED technology, and we think it was the right move. The BRAVIA 9 will be an outstanding choice for someone who wants a bright, detailed image with a ton of contrast. When you pair it up with all the tech they’ve packed inside, you will not go wrong with Sony’s flagship BRAVIA 9.

Typically, OLED TVs have been recommended for rooms where you have total light control and can make the room very dark to have the best experience due to their lack of brightness. In 2023, Sony developed new tech that paired the high luminance OLED panel and temperature sensor with Sony’s special XR Contrast Booster technology to really boost the color and contrast even in rooms with a lot of ambient light, so you get really deep, inky blacks with the brightness of an LED panel. This has changed the way we think of what the best environment for an OLED TV is. With the BRAVIA 8, if you have a room with decent light control, you will still get the deepest blacks and a picture that video enthusiasts truly appreciate. Sony’s engineers have continued to innovate and pair the best algorithms and technology with these OLED panels to give this TV an incredibly bright and beautiful OLED image.

These also support HDR10, which is essential for streaming 4K and 4K Blu-ray content. This ensures that you get the brightest colors that look like they really pop off the screen. Brightness and color levels also adjust scene-by-scene in response to the video signal with Dolby Vision.

In addition to more brightness, they’ve also improved the TV’s aesthetic. The entire case is 31% thinner, and the bezel around the image is up to 29% slimmer. Overall, it’s an extremely thin and beautiful TV to have on display in your room.

Another notable difference between the BRAVIA 9 and the BRAVIA 8 OLED TV is that the latter features Acoustic Surface technology, where the sound itself comes from behind the panel, instead of the new beam tweeters featured in the other BRAVIA 7 and 9 models.

While this display won’t be as bright as the BRAVIA 9, you will get a TV with 8 million self-lit pixels with amazing brightness and contrast, along with extremely deep blacks since this is an OLED panel. If you’re a video enthusiast who wants those pure, inky blacks and you have decent light control in your room, the BRAVIA 8 might be the best option for you.

We think the BRAVIA 7 is perfect for someone who wants a large, bright screen at an affordable price. A 65” BRAVIA 8 is actually the same price as the 75” BRAVIA 7. Yes, you will lose a bit of that low-end contrast, but it is a great way to get into a large TV with very minimal performance loss.

Overall Recommendation

We hope this overview has given you a better idea of what these new Sony BRAVIA TVs have to offer. At Audio Advice, we’ve been fans of Sony for decades. They have by far and away the best customer support in the industry. There is just no comparison to the other big brands when it comes to their customer service.

You can’t really go wrong with any of these new models, as they all have an incredible picture for their price. However, if you need more help selecting the best model for you, please reach out to our team of experts for further guidance to ensure you make the right choice.

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