I test TVs, and Sony’s novel Bravia 8 II OLED gives an unbeatable combination of listing and sound quality

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Sony Bravia 8 II: Two-minute review

The Sony Bravia 8 II is the firm’s flagship OLED TV for 2025. Whereas its Sony Bravia 8 predecessor primitive a mid-differ W-OLED mark panel, the Bravia 8 II uses a QD-OLED panel, the identical form bid in the Samsung S95F.

Including QD-OLED to the Sony Bravia 8 II mix has resulted in a TV with a significantly brighter listing than the Bravia 8. It also improved colour gamut coverage, with colours trying continuously rich, yet trusty on the Bravia 8 II. The TV’s efficient anti-reflective cowl lets it elevate over those listing quality advantages for gleaming-room viewing, despite the reality that the Bravia 8 II’s detailed, refined listing is healthier liked if you dim the lights.

On most of the finest TVs, the Bravia 8 II’s slim manufacture might maybe maybe mark doubtlessly anemic audio –you are going to must position first rate-sized audio system someplace to salvage soft sound, and slim TV frames don’t accommodate that. But Sony gives an ingenious workaround with its Acoustic Surface Audio+ purpose, which positions actuators in the support of the TV’s QD-OLED panel that turn your total cowl into a speaker. Which skill that, the Bravia 8 II gives reasonably rotund and tough sound for a TV, and its Acoustic Heart Sync purpose also allows you to make advise of it as a dedicated heart channel with a smartly suited Sony soundbar or speaker machine.

Google TV is primitive because the Bravia 8 II’s natty TV platform, and it’s an effortless-to-navigate machine. A constructed-in mic allows you to govern the TV the advise of Google Drawl Vow, and you would control it the advise of a mic button on the distant or with Alexa audio system if you’re share of the Alexa ecosystem.

PlayStation 5 users unsurprisingly bask in gaming advantages on the Bravia 8 II, which mechanically switches to a preset Game mode and engages auto HDR tone mapping when a linked PS5 console is grew to turn into on. The TV also supports 4K 120Hz input, but with finest two HDMI 2.1 ports, gamers trying to also join every an Xbox Series X console plus one in all the finest soundbars will likely be dissatisfied.

The Bravia 8 II is unquestionably one in all the finest OLED TVs to be released in 2025, on the opposite hand it has stiff opponents from flagship OLEDs such because the Samsung S95F and LG G5, every of which would perhaps maybe maybe be brighter and more purpose-packed. All three sets are for the time being priced around the identical, making the Bravia 8 II rather of a no longer easy label call, but its charms are many, and its sizable total listing and sound quality let it successfully compete with assorted flagship TVs.

Sony Bravia 8 II review: Designate and liberate date

• 55-accelerate: $2,999 / £2,499 / AU$3,999

• 65-accelerate: $3,499 / £2,999 / AU$4,999
  

Unlike its Bravia 8 OLED TV predecessor, which became on hand in 55-, 65-, and 77-accelerate cowl sizes, the Bravia 8 II is particular to 55- and 65-accelerate items (despite the reality that the older Sony A95L TV is being kept around in a 77-accelerate mannequin finest, in the occasion you devour to have a better option).

Since its April unveiling, costs for every sizes have dropped in the US and Australia, with the 55-accelerate now priced at $3,299 / AU$2,999 and the 65-accelerate at $2,999 / AU$3,999.

The Bravia 8 II’s reduced label more closely aligns it with assorted flagship OLED TVs such because the Samsung S95F ($3,399 / £3,399 / AU$5,295 at birth) and LG G5 ($3,399 / £3,299 / AU$5,299 at birth). Each those items have also considered early reductions in the US, with the S95F dropping as low as $3,099 and the G5 to $3,199.

Sony Bravia 8 II review: Specs

Sony Bravia 8 II review: Benchmark results

Sony Bravia 8 II review: Aspects

• QD-OLED mark panel with solid anti-reflection layer

• Acoustic Surface Audio+ sound

• Ideal for PlayStation 5 gaming tech, but restricted assorted choices

The Sony Bravia 8 II contains a QD-OLED mark panel – an upgrade over the fashioned W-OLED panel primitive by its Bravia 8 predecessor. It also uses Sony’s XR Processor, which supplies AI-primarily based mostly scene recognition to beef up photographs, along with a bunch of listing processing choices that come below the XR umbrella, equivalent to Inequity Booster, Obvious Image, and OLED Slip. The Dolby Imaginative and prescient, HDR10, and HLG excessive dynamic differ formats are supported, but no longer HDR10+.

A intellectual cowl with an anti-reflective coating helps to lower cowl glare from indoor light sources on the Bravia 8 II. There’s no Filmmaker Mode, but a differ of custom presets, at the side of IMAX Enhanced, Netflix Adaptive Calibrated Mode, and High Video Calibrated Mode, are on hand to optimize photographs for movies, TV reveals, and sports.

Sony TVs steadily inferior amongst the finest TVs for sound, and the Bravia 8 II gives a differ of choices that support distinguish it from assorted TVs by plan of audio performance. The principle one is Acoustic Surface Audio+, which positions actuators in the support of the TV that turn your total cowl web page into a speaker.

There’s also Acoustic Heart Sync, a purpose that accepts an audio input from a smartly suited Sony soundbar or audio system so the TV’s constructed-in audio machine will likely be primitive as a heart-channel speaker.

Sony’s 3D Encompass Upscaling does exactly what its name implies by boosting two-channel and 5.1-channel soundtracks to an immersive audio presentation, while Drawl Zoom 3 uses AI to verify voices in soundtracks and gives them an additional volume enhance. Each the Dolby Atmos and DTS:X immersive audio formats are supported by the Bravia 8 II.

Sony TVs advise the Google TV natty TV platform, and the Bravia 8 II has a constructed-in mic that allows you to make advise of Google Assistant for say commands. A mic button on the TV’s distant control is also primitive for say commands, which has the profit of no longer having to go the TV’s microphone without end on (there’s a mic on-off switch on the TV’s input panel).

You might maybe maybe be ready to wirelessly lope jabber material to the Bravia 8 II the advise of Google Solid and AirPlay. And if you’re share of the Alexa universe, with Alexa audio system for your non-public dwelling, that it is possible you’ll control the TV the advise of Alexa say commands.

The Bravia 8 II’s gaming choices consist of give a enhance to for 4K at 120Hz, variable refresh rate, auto low-latency mode, and Dolby Imaginative and prescient gaming. It also has a novel Gaming Menu 2 for making gaming-connected adjustments, and is “Ideal for PlayStation 5,” with an auto HDR tone mapping and auto genre mode choices kicking in when a PS5 console is linked.

Unlike the finest gaming TVs, which on the total present four HDMI 2.1 inputs, the Bravia 8 II’s HDMI 2.1 input count is particular to two ports out of its four HDMI ports in total.

Sony Bravia 8 II review: Image quality

• Appropriate brightness for an OLED TV

• Inky, detailed shadows and dusky tones

When we tested the Sony Bravia 8 in 2024, it yielded finest sensible HDR brightness levels, topping out at 817 nits high and 182 nits fullscreen brightness in the Standard listing mode.

The novel mannequin’s QD-OLED panel pushes high HDR brightness levels substantially better, with the Bravia 8 II measuring 1,439 and 1,067 nits in Cinema and Standard modes, respectively. Fullscreen brightness, on the assorted hand, is healthier rather better, with the Bravia 8 II measuring 183 nits in Cinema mode and 250 nits in Standard mode.

The Bravia 8 II’s brightness results, while a ambitious jump over final three hundred and sixty five days’s mannequin, tranquil tumble short in contrast to assorted 2025 flagship OLED TVs we’ve tested, such because the LG G5 and Samsung S95F, every of which attain smartly into the 2,000 nits of high brightness differ, and over 350 nits of fullscreen brightness.

That’s to no longer converse that the Bravia 8 II isn’t sufficiently gleaming; its listing apt doesn’t stand up equally smartly in gleaming room lighting fixtures conditions as those two TVs.

I measured the Bravia 8 II’s coverage of the UHDA-P3 and BT.2020 colour spaces in Cinema mode at ninety 9.9% and 87.5%, respectively. These are every perfect results and are reminiscent of what we measured on the Samsung S95F.

Color level accuracy in the identical mode averaged a 2.6 Delta-E label (which is the margin of error between the test sample offer and what’s shown on-cowl, with a end result lower than 3.0 being undetectable by the human take into story). In distinction, Cinema mode grayscale accuracy became 5.4 – a less impressive end result.

Seen in dimmed lighting fixtures conditions, a 4K Dolby Imaginative and prescient lope of the film Civil Struggle looked impressively punchy, with the impolite highlights from spotlights and bonfires in a slow evening encampment scene contrasting smartly with the dusky evening sky. Shadow facet became also solid, and the more than one adjustments in the TV’s listing Brightness submenu will likely be primitive to comely-tune dusky levels to bring out some distance more facet.

I had the identical affect after I watched one more film, Alien: Romulus, in 4K Dolby Imaginative and prescient. Blacks in the ship’s dusky chambers looked inky and deep, and the colored lights of the control panels popped with a excessive degree of brightness.

These and numerous reference movies I watched with my room’s overhead lights grew to turn into on lost some of their distinction punch, but dusky levels remained mostly constant. The TV’s anti-reflection cowl also did a soft job of hanging off glare, despite the reality that lamps positioned all over from the TV had been mirrored in a mirror-devour plan.

The Bravia 8 II does job upscaling older movies and TV reveals. Streaming an episode of the detective mark Columbo from the Eighties, the listing looked impressively solid and trim, and I might maybe maybe even originate out textures in the mullet haircuts of guests in a wedding scene.

Colors in every older and more latest movies looked continuously natural, and the Sony became ready to mark trusty pores and skin tones while also vividly rendering brightly colored objects, equivalent to a magenta flower bush and a yellow teens’s toy, in a scene from Civil Struggle.

Slip facing is terribly soft on the Bravia 8 II. Looking at a reference scene from the film No Time to Die, the place James Bond walks all over a hillside cemetery, there became finest a little degree of judder and blur visible, and it’ll be without issues lessened by surroundings the TV’s Motionflow Smoothness settings to Film (2) and Camera (2).

• Image quality rep: 5 / 5

Sony Bravia 8 II review: Sound quality

• Acoustic Surface Audio+ turns the cowl into a speaker

• Dolby Atmos and DTS:X give a enhance to

• Acoustic Heart Sync allows you to join TV with external audio system
  

Acoustic Surface Audio+ on the Bravia 8 II uses actuators positioned in the support of the TV’s cowl that transform your total cowl into a speaker. This manufacture gives a sense of discussion emanating directly from the characters on-cowl, and it also lets sound results observe accurately with the action.

Each the Dolby Atmos and DTS:X sound formats are supported by the Bravia 8 II, along with IMAX Enhanced. The latter plan you would lope the library of movies with DTS:X soundtracks contained in every the Sony Photos Core and Disney+ apps, and abilities them with IMAX Enhanced post-processing, which is supposed to bring the identical extended dynamic differ you hear in IMAX cinemas.

Dialogue in movies devour Civil Struggle sounded obvious and smartly-outlined on the Bravia 8 II, and the Drawl Zoom 3 purpose helped to elevate voices in fight scenes with hundreds background noise. The TV’s Acoustic Heart Sync purpose, in the period in-between, let me advise it as a heart channel speaker by connecting a cable from the TV to Sony’s Bravia Theater Quad wireless audio system, while the Bravia Connect app made it easy to calibrate the heart channel degree for a tender blend with the remainder of the machine.

As soon as I had that space up, the TV worked very successfully as a heart channel speaker, with voices sounding natural and total-bodied. Listened to by itself without the Bravia Theater Quad setup, the TV’s constructed-in audio system delivered reasonably rotund sound with movies, with a soft sense of ambience, but bass became restricted – one thing to be anticipated from a TV with this form of slim profile.

• Sound quality rep: 4.5 / 5

Sony Bravia 8 II review: Receive

• Two-plan aluminum give a enhance to toes

• Full-sized, backlit distant control
  

Sony’s Slim One Slate manufacture for the Bravia 8 II gives the TV a bezel-free ‘all-listing’ take into story, and its textured support panel makes issues take into story soft even from the support and sides. Sturdy aluminum give a enhance to toes on the TV’s outer edges will likely be space for either a flush installation with the cowl positioned directly on a stand or an elevated one, with three inches of dwelling cleared for a soundbar.

Connections are located in an aspect-mounted panel and consist of four HDMI ports with two HDMI 2.1 inputs providing 4K 120Hz give a enhance to, a mini-jack speaker input for the Acoustic Heart Sync purpose, USB-A and Ethernet ports, and an antenna input for the TV’s ATSC 3.0 broadcast tuner (US-finest). Sony gives you detachable panels to veil the input and energy twine sections post-installation, which will lower cable litter and preserve the TV’s 360-degree soft appears.

Sony’s medium-sized distant control sits very without pain in the hand and involves a rotund sufficient array of control buttons that you just obtained’t must talk to the TV’s onscreen menus to attain one thing as easy as switch inputs. Vow salvage admission to buttons are supplied for key apps devour Netflix and High Video, and likewise for more vague ones such because the Crunchyroll Anime service.

Oddly, the Bravia 8 II’s distant isn’t the identical Eco Far-off model supplied with final three hundred and sixty five days’s Bravia 8 and Sony Bravia 9 TVs, one which uses a USB-C port for charging. It is miles fabricated from 79.7% recycled plastic, on the opposite hand.

Sony Bravia 8 II review: Clear TV and menus

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• Live program grid integrates FAST and broadcast channels

• Speedy Settings menu gives hasty salvage admission to to adjustments

Sony TVs advise the Google TV natty TV platform, one with a homescreen dominated by a colossal rotating banner up high with commercials for reveals. Some of those commercials, along with the row of ‘Top picks for you’ jabber material suggestions directly below, are in step along with your viewing and web trying advise, which is one thing you give Google salvage admission to to if you register with a Google story.

Google TV gives a total array of streaming apps, and these are arrayed in a row on the bottom of the homescreen in an hiss that will likely be customized. Tabs on the head of the homescreen imply you would salvage admission to Live TV and Sony screens, amongst assorted alternate choices, with the Sony cowl providing salvage admission to to Sony Photos Core film streaming decisions as smartly as tutorial videos on how to operate the TV.

The Live TV cowl is price commenting upon on story of it smartly integrates Google Freeplay free advert-supported TV (FAST) channels with broadcast TV ones pulled in by the TV’s ATSC 3.0 tuner. Each FAST and broadcast channels will likely be browsed in a time-primarily based mostly program grid, with program info supplied for every channel.

As with assorted Google TVs, having access to listing, sound, and machine settings on the Bravia 8 II entails urgent the gear icon on the distant, or the identical thing on the head appropriate corner of the Google TV homescreen. Sony gives an in depth differ of adjustments for dialing in the Bravia 8 II’s listing, even supposing attending to these entails wading deep through menus.

A less complicated option for making adjustments is to press the wrench icon button on the distant, which calls up the TV’s Speedy Settings menu on the bottom of the cowl. From here you would scroll through alternate choices devour listing settings, listing modes, brightness, and numerous audio adjustments, and you would edit the menu so to add or grab away alternate choices.

• Clear TV & menus rep: 4 / 5

Sony Bravia 8 II review: Gaming

• Two HDMI 2.1 ports with 4K 120Hz give a enhance to

• Ideal for PlayStation 5 choices

• Comparatively excessive 16.3ms input lag

The Bravia 8 II gives a soft preference of gaming choices, primarily the most principal being ‘Ideal for PlayStation 5’ choices, which consist of an Auto HDR Tone Mapping mode when input from a PS5 gaming console is detected to match the dynamic differ of the generated photographs to precisely what the cowl is in a position to revealing.

An Auto Genre Image Mode purpose might maybe also mechanically switch on the TV’s Game listing mode for the PS5, and Sony’s Game Menu 2 allows you to originate onscreen gaming-connected listing and numerous adjustments.

Other gaming choices supported by the Bravia 8 II consist of Dolby Imaginative and prescient gaming, variable refresh rate, and auto low-latency mode. Two of the TV’s four HDMI 2.1 inputs give a enhance to 4K 120 Hz input for gaming consoles, despite the reality that in on the present time and age it’s changing into more long-established to peek three or more HDMI 2.1 inputs on TVs.

The utilization of a Leo Bodnar 4K meter, I measured input lag in Game Mode on the Bravia 8 II at 16.3ms, a significantly better degree than on assorted TVs we’ve currently tested, some of which measure below 10ms on the identical test.

Sony Bravia 8 II review: Price

• Priced roughly the identical as high OLED opponents

• Decrease total brightness than high OLED opponents

• Less in depth gaming choices than opponents
  

At its $2.999 reduced label in the US, the Bravia 8 II for the time being costs lower than the 2025 flagship OLED TVs from LG and Samsung. But does that originate it a sizable OLED TV label?

The Bravia 8 II has fabulous total listing quality, with excessive brightness for an OLED TV. Its listing lacks the mini-LED-rivalling brightness levels of the Samsung S95F and LG G5, on the opposite hand, and it appears finest in dimmed lighting fixtures conditions, the place the TV’s distinctive distinction, rich colour, and comely facet will likely be entirely liked.

Sony’s high OLED also has impressive sound quality for this form of slim and classy TV, and it gives several choices that enable it without issues mix with smartly suited Sony soundbars and wireless audio system for even better sound performance.

The Bravia 8 II’s Gaming choices, while soft, aren’t as in depth as what you’ll receive on high TVs from Samsung and LG, despite the reality that there are command advantages for PlayStation 5 console house owners.

Checked out in phrases of label, the Bravia 8 II is particularly a finest guess for film followers who don’t mind dimming the lights rather, despite the reality that its listing is also gleaming sufficient to preserve up in smartly-lit rooms. It doesn’t exactly beat this three hundred and sixty five days’s flagship OLED TV opponents, but with label reductions having already kicked in, on the least it’s competitively priced.

Would possibly perhaps well also tranquil I purchase the Sony Bravia 8 II?

Aquire it if…

You desire a sizable TV for movies
The Bravia 8 II has sizable total listing quality, and its listing processing makes everything, even aged TV reveals and YouTube videos take into story soft, on the opposite hand it in actuality shines with 4K movies on streaming and Blu-ray disc.

You are trying to make advise of it with a Sony soundbar or wireless audio system
The Bravia 8 II has audio choices that enable it be primitive as a heart speaker in a Sony surround sound machine with smartly suited Sony soundbars and wireless audio system.

You primarily take into story in gleaming rooms
While the Bravia 8 II has excessive brightness for an OLED TV, it doesn’t hit the identical mini-LED brightness levels as its flagship opponents, a quality that makes those TVs a soft option for gleaming room viewing.

Don’t purchase it if…

You desire the very best TV for gaming
The Bravia 8 II has a solid space of gaming choices, but there are finest two HDMI 2.1 ports, and it lacks the identical cloud-primarily based mostly gaming alternate choices chanced on on LG and Samsung TVs.

You primarily take into story in a gleaming room
While the Bravia 8 II has excessive brightness for an OLED TV, it doesn’t hit the identical mini-LED brightness levels as its flagship opponents that makes them a soft option for gleaming room viewing.Stare Deal

You are trying to avoid losing money
The Bravia 8 II is a premium OLED TV that sells for a premium label. More cost-effective mini-LED TV alternate choices are widely on hand that provide very soft listing quality at a noteworthy lower label.

Sony Bravia 8 II: Additionally place in mind…

LG G5
The LG G5’s revolutionary ‘four-stack’ OLED panel delivers distinctive brightness levels for an OLED TV. It also has a superior space of gaming choices in contrast to the Bravia 8 II, along with a more superior natty TV platform.

Here’s our LG G5 review

Samsung S95F
Samsung’s flagship OLED TV is one more OLED that delivers mini-LED-rivalling brightness levels, and its Glare Free 2.0 cowl successfully eliminates reflections when viewing in gleaming rooms. Esteem the LG G5, it also has a superior space of gaming choices and a more superior natty TV platform.

Here’s our Samsung S95F review

Sony Bravia 8
The Bravia 8 is tranquil on hand, and it gives most of the identical audio and gaming choices because the Bravia 8 II. Its listing has significantly lower high brightness than the Bravia 8 II, but at the same time as you’re okay with dimming the lights, you’ll salvage a sizable OLED listing at a noteworthy reduced label.

Here’s our Sony Bravia 8 review

How I tested the Sony Bravia 8 II

• I spent about 15 viewing hours in total, measuring and evaluating

• Measurements had been made the advise of Calman colour calibration machine

• A rotund calibration became made ahead of continuing with subjective tests

When I test TVs, I first advise a pair of days and even weeks the advise of them for casual viewing to evaluate the out-of-box listing presets and salvage conversant in the natty TV menu and listing adjustments.

I next select primarily the most trusty preset (steadily Filmmaker Mode, Film or Cinema) and measure grayscale and colour accuracy the advise of Portrait Shows’ Calman colour calibration machine. The ensuing measurements present Delta-E values (the margin of error between the test sample offer and what’s shown on-cowl) for every class, and enable for an review of the TV’s total accuracy.

Along side those tests, I originate measurements of high light output (recorded in nits) for every fashioned excessive-definition and 4K excessive dynamic differ the advise of 10% and 100% white window patterns. Coverage of DCI-P3 and BT.2020 colour house is also measured, with the outcomes providing a sense of how faithfully the TV can render the extended colour differ in extremely excessive-definition sources – you would read more about this course of in our info to how we test TVs at TechRadar.

For the Sony Bravia 8 II, I primitive the Calman ISF workflow, along with the TV’s superior listing menu settings, to calibrate the image for many efficient accuracy. I also watched a differ of reference scenes on 4K Blu-ray discs to evaluate the TV’s performance, along with 4K HDR reveals streamed from Max, Netflix, and numerous services and products.

• First reviewed: June 2025

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