The Sony Bravia 8 II is the corporate’s prime OLED TV for 2025, and at $3,500 / £2,999 / AU$3,999, it’s priced on the stage you’d anticipate for a flagship Sony TV.
The Sony Bravia 9, the corporate’s flagship mini-LED mannequin, was among the best TVs I reviewed in 2024, so I used to be very curious to get my fingers on Sony’s new flagship OLED. A predominant purpose was that Sony had claimed the brand new mannequin can be 150% brighter than its Sony Bravia 8 predecessor, an development made potential by the corporate’s swap from a typical W-OLED panel, the sort utilized in final 12 months’s Bravia 8, to a QD-OLED panel for the Bravia 8 II.
Whereas our Sony Bravia 8 OLED evaluation was optimistic general, the TV’s peak brightness measured considerably under what we’d seen from the most effective OLED TVs of 2024, such because the Samsung S95D and LG G4. New flagship OLED TVs in 2025 are actually even brighter than final 12 months’s fashions, with the LG G5 measuring 2,268 nits peak brightness, a stage that surpasses most of the greatest mini-LED TVs, after I examined it.
Brightness issues
The LG G5 encompasses a new “four-stack” OLED show panel, which LG calls the Main RGB Tandem Construction. Not like earlier panels, which use two blue OLED layers plus a 3rd with purple, inexperienced, and yellow components, LG’s new design produces mild by way of particular person purple, inexperienced, and blue layers. This design ends in improved colour element and, notably, elevated peak and fullscreen brightness. (See chart under for a benchmark comparability between the Sony Bravia 8 II, LG G5, and competing OLED TVs.)
The G5’s distinctive brightness had an actual influence on its image high quality after I reviewed it. Films with HDR had a near-3D high quality because of the image’s highly effective distinction, which made vibrant highlights in photos gleam with a excessive stage of depth. Colours additionally appeared vibrant, which gave them a vivid high quality with out wanting unnatural or boosted.
One other essential issue with the G5 after I examined it was its capacity to retain sturdy distinction when viewing in vibrant room lighting circumstances, one thing helped by its anti-reflective display screen. This made it an incredible TV for viewing daytime sports activities, and films and darker TV exhibits additionally held up very nicely in vibrant lighting.
I’ve simply began testing the 65-inch mannequin of the Sony Bravia 8 II, so I’m solely capable of make preliminary judgments about its efficiency at this level. However as you may see within the brightness benchmark chart above, it falls wanting Sony’s claimed 150% peak brightness increase over final 12 months’s Bravia 8, which maxed out 817 nits peak and 182 nits fullscreen brightness.
That’s to not say the Bravia 8 II isn’t vibrant for an OLED TV. Its peak brightness (measured in Cinema mode, essentially the most correct obtainable image preset) is about the identical because the 65-inch Samsung S90F, that firm’s mid-range OLED TV for 2025, and one other TV that makes use of a QD-OLED show panel. Fullscreen brightness is notably decrease on the Bravia 8 II in comparison with the S90F, nonetheless.
As I mentioned above, I’m simply beginning my subjective testing of the Sony Bravia 8 II, so I’ve but to get a full sense of its capabilities. The Bravia 8 II’s decrease brightness in comparison with the LG G5 (and in addition a number of flagship mini-LED TVs I’ve not too long ago examined) means its image has much less of a vibrant pop when viewing in daylight circumstances, and its colour, whereas undoubtedly correct (see image accuracy chart), additionally seems a bit much less vibrant.
Is the worth proper?
At $3,500 / £2,999 / AU$3,999 for the 65-inch mannequin, the Sony Bravia 8 II is priced across the similar as new flagship OLED TVs such because the LG G5 and Samsung S95D. It has a premium design, together with an incredible set of audio options comparable to Acoustic Floor Audio+, which turns the TV’s OLED panel right into a speaker, and Acoustic Heart Sync, which lets it’s used as a middle channel when paired with suitable Sony speaker methods and soundbars.
It’s exhausting to disregard, although, that the brand new Samsung S90F, an OLED TV with comparable brightness plus a superior set of gaming options, prices $1,000 much less at $2,499 / £2,699 / AU$4,299 for the 65-inch mannequin. That’s fairly a bit of money that might in any other case be spent on 4K Blu-rays and different dwelling theater goodies.
Does the Sony Bravia 8 II justify its premium worth? We’ll quickly have our evaluation wrapped up, and at that time will present full ideas on its efficiency and worth.
Within the meantime, the premium OLED TV competitors is wanting fairly powerful for 2025, and Sony’s flagship mannequin has lots to show.
