I compared the Sony Bravia 8 II to competing OLED TVs, and it settled my buying decision

ZDNET’s key takeaways

• Sony’s flagship TV delivers incredible image and audio high quality.
• There’s loads of flexibility with fine-tuning picture and audio settings.
• The display screen does not get as brilliant as competing fashions, making the TV much less very best in brightly-lit areas.

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Sony is without doubt one of the high names in OLED TVs, and for good purpose. Their flagship fashions constantly ship high-quality image and audio in addition to premium options. I acquired to take a look at the Bravia 8 II at our testing lab in Louisville, pitting it head-to-head in opposition to fashions from Samsung, LG, and even TCL to see the way it stacks up.

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The very first thing I observed in regards to the Bravia 8 II is that the display screen may be very darkish proper out of the field, particularly when set beside the Samsung S95F and LG G5 OLED.

Each image mode, even Vivid, was very dim and shadowy, which made viewing in brighter environments a bit troublesome. Sony appears to have designed this specific OLED with darkened dwelling theaters and residing rooms in thoughts, however, thankfully, you may tweak the brightness settings in the principle menu and both apply them to a single image mode or throughout all TV settings. That is one of many Bravia 8 II’s greatest strengths.

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You can even fine-tune issues like shade temperature, sharpness, and distinction to get a customized image setting that works greatest along with your area. Whereas adjusting settings for the testing lab, I actually appreciated how simple it was to navigate Sony’s TV menus and the way rapidly I might make adjustments on-the-fly. 

This significantly got here in useful once I was switching between motion pictures and video games; with only a few menu choices, I might simply tweak settings to get probably the most out of my motion pictures and video games. 

With the assistance of each Dolby Atmos and Sony’s Acoustic Floor Audio+ expertise, the Bravia 8 II provides you wealthy audio that does, certainly, comply with on-screen motion and helps separate left and proper channels for streaming music to provide you a extra immersive expertise. You can even arrange customized equalizer profiles for all the things from streaming music to watching the native information. 

Establishing the Bravia 8 II was fast and easy. You want solely a Google account to entry streaming apps and the house display screen. The TV itself has fairly a skinny construct — not fairly as skinny because the Samsung S95D OLED — however you may nonetheless desire a second particular person that can assist you transfer the display screen round to stop cracking or different harm. 

Additionally: I tested the Samsung S95F OLED for a week, and it spoiled the way I watch TV

Throughout our Calman shade accuracy exams, the Bravia 8 II had a slight blue shift throughout all image modes, however it wasn’t sufficient to have an effect on shade accuracy or image high quality. It is most noticeable when watching black-and-white movies like Casablanca, as all the things will really feel prefer it has a cool blue filter utilized. You possibly can counteract this with the built-in blue-light filter mode, which provides a heat filter that I truly desire because it makes colours really feel extra vibrant, particularly in older media.

The devoted sport mode has three image settings: commonplace, FPS, and RTS, every of which options totally different enter latency, refresh price, shade, and sound settings to fit your favourite titles. The variations between the three settings aren’t sufficient to be noticeable to the common console gamer, however streamers and match gamers can admire with the ability to tweak settings for recording content material or training for an occasion.

The Bravia 8 II boasts unique VRR assist for the PlayStation 5, in addition to low-latency response occasions. I attempted out a wide range of titles like Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater 1+2, Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight, and Ghost of Tsushima. Whereas every sport appeared superb on the OLED display screen, with brilliant colours and sharp distinction, I could not actually really feel a distinction in body price or latency when in comparison with the TCL QM8K I additionally had arrange as a comparability (and helps AMD FreeSync Premium Professional). 

Motion felt simply as clean on each TVs, and response occasions have been about the identical, however the Bravia 8 II was one of the best of the week when it comes to image and audio.

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For those who’re making the swap to Google TV, utilizing the platform is about as simple because it will get. If you have already got a Google account, like Gmail, you should utilize it to signal into your TV’s working system, which makes it simple to maintain monitor of usernames and passwords. It additionally helps monitor your favourite apps and media throughout gadgets, so you can begin watching a film in a single room and choose it again up on one other Google TV later. 

Switching from streaming to gaming on the PS5 was additionally extremely easy, with the TV capable of routinely detect when the console was related and powered on. And in contrast to my Hisense U8N, which routinely switches inputs as soon as the console is powered on, the Bravia 8 II launches a small preview tile on the house display screen. 

That is good for when pets and youngsters by accident flip in your console in the course of a film or in case you’re simply not fairly prepared to modify inputs.

ZDNET’s shopping for recommendation

The Sony Bravia 8 II is a high-end OLED TV, with a premium price ticket to match. Nevertheless, in case you’re keen to spend the additional cash to get premium options like Acoustic Floor Audio+ expertise, you may be getting a TV that not solely appears to be like and sounds nice, however will final at the very least a number of years to assist hold your own home theater on the chopping fringe of leisure. For these causes, the Sony Bravia 8 II is acknowledged by ZDNET’s Editors’ Choice.

Whereas the PS5-exclusive VRR and low-latency options are appreciated, the Bravia 8 II is geared extra in direction of film buffs than players — most of whom will undoubtedly benefit from the studio-calibrated image, IMAX Enhanced mode, Dolby Imaginative and prescient HDR, and Dolby Atmos digital encompass sound.