I take a look at TVs, and Sony’s unique Bravia 8 II OLED supplies an unbeatable aggregate of image and sound quality

If you aquire by hyperlinks on our articles, Future and its syndication companions may perchance well well moreover compose a commission.

Sony Bravia 8 II: Two-minute review

The Sony Bravia 8 II is the company’s flagship OLED TV for 2025. Whereas its Sony Bravia 8 predecessor aged a mid-vary W-OLED present panel, the Bravia 8 II makes spend of a QD-OLED panel, the identical form assure in the Samsung S95F.

In conjunction with QD-OLED to the Sony Bravia 8 II mix has resulted in a TV with a particularly brighter image than the Bravia 8. It moreover improved color gamut protection, with colours taking a look consistently prosperous, yet fine on the Bravia 8 II. The TV’s effective anti-reflective conceal lets it carry over those image quality advantages for intellectual-room viewing, although the Bravia 8 II’s detailed, refined image is most efficient appreciated in the occasion you shadowy the lights.

On quite loads of the most efficient TVs, the Bravia 8 II’s slim develop may perchance well well moreover present potentially anemic audio –you wish put apart first price-sized speakers somewhere to rep factual sound, and slim TV frames don’t accommodate that. But Sony supplies an ingenious workaround with its Acoustic Floor Audio+ characteristic, which positions actuators gradual the TV’s QD-OLED panel that flip the total conceal into a speaker. This implies that, the Bravia 8 II supplies moderately fleshy and sturdy sound for a TV, and its Acoustic Center Sync characteristic moreover lets you make spend of it as a devoted heart channel with a like minded Sony soundbar or speaker system.

Google TV is aged as the Bravia 8 II’s tidy TV platform, and it’s a straightforward-to-navigate system. A constructed-in mic lets you defend a watch on the TV using Google Teach Deliver, and likewise it is doubtless you’ll perhaps well perchance moreover defend a watch on it using a mic button on the faraway or with Alexa speakers in the occasion you’re portion of the Alexa ecosystem.

PlayStation 5 users unsurprisingly revel 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 changed into on. The TV moreover helps 4K 120Hz enter, however with solely two HDMI 2.1 ports, avid gamers taking a look to moreover join both an Xbox Sequence X console plus one in every of the most efficient soundbars will doubtless be disenchanted.

The Bravia 8 II is positively one in every of the most efficient OLED TVs to be launched in 2025, however it has stiff competitors from flagship OLEDs similar to the Samsung S95F and LG G5, both of which will doubtless be brighter and extra characteristic-packed. All three objects are at assure priced at some point of the identical, making the Bravia 8 II a shrimp of a now not easy fee call, however its charms are many, and its gigantic total image and sound quality let it successfully compete with other flagship TVs.

Sony Bravia 8 II review: Tag and free up date

• 55-roam: $2,999 / £2,499 / AU$3,999

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

Not like its Bravia 8 OLED TV predecessor, which became on hand in 55-, 65-, and 77-roam conceal sizes, the Bravia 8 II is specific to 55- and 65-roam objects (although the older Sony A95L TV is being stored round in a 77-roam mannequin solely, in the occasion you wish a increased possibility).

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

The Bravia 8 II’s reduced phrase extra closely aligns it with other flagship OLED TVs similar to the Samsung S95F ($3,399 / £3,399 / AU$5,295 at begin) and LG G5 ($3,399 / £3,299 / AU$5,299 at begin). Both those objects procure moreover seen early discounts in the US, with the S95F losing 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 present panel with sturdy anti-reflection layer

• Acoustic Floor Audio+ sound

• Ultimate for PlayStation 5 gaming tech, however restricted other ingredients

The Sony Bravia 8 II ingredients a QD-OLED present panel – an make stronger over the frequent W-OLED panel aged by its Bravia 8 predecessor. It moreover makes spend of Sony’s XR Processor, which supplies AI-primarily primarily based scene recognition to make stronger photos, alongside with a bunch of image processing ingredients that come below the XR umbrella, similar to Distinction Booster, Certain Image, and OLED Circulation. The Dolby Imaginative and prescient, HDR10, and HLG excessive dynamic vary codecs are supported, however now not HDR10+.

A vivid conceal with an anti-reflective coating helps to minimize conceal glare from indoor light sources on the Bravia 8 II. There’s no Filmmaker Mode, however a vary of custom presets, including IMAX Enhanced, Netflix Adaptive Calibrated Mode, and Top Video Calibrated Mode, are on hand to optimize photos for motion photos, TV shows, and sports actions.

Sony TVs commonly mistaken among the most efficient TVs for sound, and the Bravia 8 II supplies a vary of ingredients that support distinguish it from other TVs by manner of audio efficiency. The major one is Acoustic Floor Audio+, which positions actuators gradual the TV that flip the total conceal region into a speaker.

There’s moreover Acoustic Center Sync, a characteristic that accepts an audio enter from a like minded Sony soundbar or speakers so the TV’s constructed-in audio system may perchance well well moreover moreover be aged as a heart-channel speaker.

Sony’s 3D Surround Upscaling does exactly what its establish implies by boosting two-channel and 5.1-channel soundtracks to an immersive audio presentation, while Teach Zoom 3 makes spend of AI to search out voices in soundtracks and supplies them an additional quantity enhance. Both the Dolby Atmos and DTS:X immersive audio codecs are supported by the Bravia 8 II.

Sony TVs spend the Google TV tidy TV platform, and the Bravia 8 II has a constructed-in mic that lets you make spend of Google Assistant for narrate instructions. A mic button on the TV’s faraway defend a watch on can moreover be aged for narrate instructions, which has the relieve of now not having to race away the TV’s microphone without shatter on (there’s a mic on-off switch on the TV’s enter panel).

You may perchance well well wirelessly poke teach to the Bravia 8 II using Google Solid and AirPlay. And in the occasion you’re portion of the Alexa universe, with Alexa speakers in your region, it is doubtless you’ll perhaps well perchance moreover defend a watch on the TV using Alexa narrate instructions.

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

Not like the most efficient gaming TVs, which assuredly provide four HDMI 2.1 inputs, the Bravia 8 II’s HDMI 2.1 enter rely is specific to 2 ports out of its four HDMI ports in total.

Sony Bravia 8 II review: Image quality

• Simply brightness for an OLED TV

• Inky, detailed shadows and shadowy tones

After we tested the Sony Bravia 8 in 2024, it yielded solely average HDR brightness stages, topping out at 817 nits high and 182 nits fullscreen brightness in the Traditional image mode.

The unique mannequin’s QD-OLED panel pushes high HDR brightness stages significantly increased, with the Bravia 8 II measuring 1,439 and 1,067 nits in Cinema and Traditional modes, respectively. Fullscreen brightness, on the assorted hand, is solely a shrimp bit increased, with the Bravia 8 II measuring 183 nits in Cinema mode and 250 nits in Traditional mode.

The Bravia 8 II’s brightness results, while an spectacular leap over last 365 days’s mannequin, soundless descend short in comparison to other 2025 flagship OLED TVs we’ve tested, similar to the LG G5 and Samsung S95F, both of which reach successfully into the 2,000 nits of high brightness vary, and over 350 nits of fullscreen brightness.

That’s now to now not claim that the Bravia 8 II isn’t sufficiently intellectual; its image factual doesn’t arise equally successfully in intellectual room lighting fixtures prerequisites as those two TVs.

I measured the Bravia 8 II’s protection of the UHDA-P3 and BT.2020 color areas in Cinema mode at Ninety 9.9% and 87.5%, respectively. These are both wonderful results and are similar to what we measured on the Samsung S95F.

Color point accuracy in the identical mode averaged a 2.6 Delta-E fee (which is the margin of error between the take a look at pattern source and what’s shown on-conceal, with a outcome decrease than 3.0 being undetectable by the human glimpse). In difference, Cinema mode grayscale accuracy became 5.4 – a less spectacular outcome.

Viewed in dimmed lighting fixtures prerequisites, a 4K Dolby Imaginative and prescient poke of the movie Civil War regarded impressively punchy, with the intellectual highlights from spotlights and bonfires in a nighttime encampment scene contrasting successfully with the shadowy evening sky. Shadow ingredient became moreover sturdy, and the quite loads of adjustments in the TV’s image Brightness submenu will doubtless be aged to comely-tune shadowy stages to disclose out out of the ordinary extra ingredient.

I had the identical affect after I watched one other movie, Alien: Romulus, in 4K Dolby Imaginative and prescient. Blacks in the ship’s shadowy chambers regarded inky and deep, and the colored lights of the defend a watch on panels popped with a excessive level of brightness.

These and other reference motion photos I watched with my room’s overhead lights changed into on misplaced some of their difference punch, however shadowy stages remained largely constant. The TV’s anti-reflection conceal moreover did a factual job of taking out glare, although lamps positioned at some point of from the TV were reflected in a mirror-love manner.

The Bravia 8 II does an wonderful job upscaling older motion photos and TV shows. Streaming an episode of the detective show Columbo from the Eighties, the image regarded impressively sturdy and tidy, and I may perchance well well even compose out textures in the mullet haircuts of guests in a marriage ceremony scene.

Colours in both older and extra recent motion photos regarded consistently pure, and the Sony became able to reveal fine pores and skin tones while moreover vividly rendering brightly colored objects, similar to a magenta flower bush and a yellow youngsters’s toy, in a scene from Civil War.

Circulation handling is highly factual on the Bravia 8 II. Staring at a reference scene from the movie No Time to Die, the put James Bond walks at some point of a hillside cemetery, there became solely a itsy-bitsy level of judder and blur visible, and it will doubtless be without issues lessened by environment the TV’s Motionflow Smoothness settings to Film (2) and Digicam (2).

• Image quality score: 5 / 5

Sony Bravia 8 II review: Sound quality

• Acoustic Floor Audio+ turns the conceal into a speaker

• Dolby Atmos and DTS:X give a steal to

• Acoustic Center Sync lets you join TV with external speakers
  

Acoustic Floor Audio+ on the Bravia 8 II makes spend of actuators positioned gradual the TV’s conceal that regulate into the total conceal into a speaker. This develop supplies a sense of dialogue emanating at as soon as from the characters on-conceal, and it moreover lets sound results phrase accurately with the motion.

Both the Dolby Atmos and DTS:X sound codecs are supported by the Bravia 8 II, alongside with IMAX Enhanced. The latter manner it is doubtless you’ll perhaps well perchance poke the library of motion photos with DTS:X soundtracks contained in both the Sony Photography Core and Disney+ apps, and ride them with IMAX Enhanced put up-processing, which is supposed to carry the identical extended dynamic vary you hear in IMAX cinemas.

Dialogue in motion photos love Civil War sounded determined and successfully-defined on the Bravia 8 II, and the Teach Zoom 3 characteristic helped to raise voices in combat scenes with a total bunch background noise. The TV’s Acoustic Center Sync characteristic, meanwhile, let me spend it as a heart channel speaker by connecting a cable from the TV to Sony’s Bravia Theater Quad wireless speakers, while the Bravia Join app made it easy to calibrate the heart channel level for a soft blend with the remaining of the system.

After I had that location up, the TV worked very successfully as a heart channel speaker, with voices sounding pure and fleshy-bodied. Listened to on its private without the Bravia Theater Quad setup, the TV’s constructed-in speakers delivered reasonably fleshy sound with motion photos, with a factual sense of ambience, however bass became restricted – something to be expected from a TV with this kind of slim profile.

• Sound quality score: 4.5 / 5

Sony Bravia 8 II review: Scheme

• Two-manner aluminum give a steal to toes

• Corpulent-sized, backlit faraway defend a watch on
  

Sony’s Slim One Slate develop for the Bravia 8 II supplies the TV a bezel-free ‘all-image’ see, and its textured abet panel makes issues see factual even from the abet and aspects. Sturdy aluminum give a steal to toes at the TV’s outer edges may perchance well well moreover moreover be location for both a flush installation with the conceal positioned at as soon as on a stand or an elevated one, with three inches of region cleared for a soundbar.

Connections will doubtless be found in an aspect-mounted panel and consist of four HDMI ports with two HDMI 2.1 inputs providing 4K 120Hz give a steal to, a mini-jack speaker enter for the Acoustic Center Sync characteristic, USB-A and Ethernet ports, and an antenna enter for the TV’s ATSC 3.0 broadcast tuner (US-solely). Sony supplies you detachable panels to conceal the enter and energy wire sections put up-installation, that can minimize cable clutter and defend the TV’s 360-level factual looks to be to be like.

Sony’s medium-sized faraway defend a watch on sits with ease in the hand and suggestions a fleshy enough array of defend a watch on buttons that you just won’t have to talk over with the TV’s onscreen menus to stop something as straight forward as switch inputs. Instruct rep entry to buttons are offered for key apps love Netflix and Top Video, and moreover for extra vague ones similar to the Crunchyroll Anime provider.

Oddly, the Bravia 8 II’s faraway isn’t the identical Eco Far away version equipped with last 365 days’s Bravia 8 and Sony Bravia 9 TVs, one which makes spend of a USB-C port for charging. It is made of seventy 9.7% recycled plastic, alternatively.

Sony Bravia 8 II review: Dapper TV and menus

Image 1 of three

Image 2 of three

Image 3 of three

• Are living program grid integrates FAST and broadcast channels

• Rapid Settings menu supplies easy rep entry to to adjustments

Sony TVs spend the Google TV tidy TV platform, one with a homescreen dominated by a big rotating banner up high with adverts for shows. A few of those adverts, alongside with the row of ‘High picks for you’ teach suggestions at as soon as beneath, are per your viewing and web taking a look order, which is something you give Google rep entry to to in the occasion you register with a Google tale.

Google TV supplies a total array of streaming apps, and these are arrayed in a row at the bottom of the homescreen in an assure that would moreover moreover be personalized. Tabs at the high of the homescreen can enable you to rep entry to Are living TV and Sony screens, among other alternatives, with the Sony conceal providing rep entry to to Sony Photography Core movie streaming choices besides academic videos on easy the manner to operate the TV.

The Are living TV conceal is rate commenting upon because it successfully integrates Google Freeplay free advert-supported TV (FAST) channels with broadcast TV ones pulled in by the TV’s ATSC 3.0 tuner. Both FAST and broadcast channels may perchance well well moreover moreover be browsed in a time-primarily primarily based program grid, with program data offered for every channel.

As with other Google TVs, having access to image, sound, and system settings on the Bravia 8 II entails urgent the tools icon on the faraway, or the identical thing on the high just correct nook of the Google TV homescreen. Sony supplies an intensive vary of adjustments for dialing in the Bravia 8 II’s image, even supposing getting to those entails wading deep by menus.

A extra instant-witted possibility for making adjustments is to press the wrench icon button on the faraway, which calls up the TV’s Rapid Settings menu at the bottom of the conceal. From here it is doubtless you’ll perhaps well perchance scroll by alternatives love image settings, image modes, brightness, and diversified audio adjustments, and likewise it is doubtless you’ll perhaps well perchance moreover edit the menu to add or steal away alternatives.

• Dapper TV & menus score: 4 / 5

Sony Bravia 8 II review: Gaming

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

• Ultimate for PlayStation 5 ingredients

• Comparatively excessive 16.3ms enter trail

The Bravia 8 II supplies an very just correct series of gaming ingredients, essentially the most essential being ‘Ultimate for PlayStation 5’ ingredients, which consist of an Auto HDR Tone Mapping mode when enter from a PS5 gaming console is detected to match the dynamic vary of the generated photos to exactly what the conceal is able to unveiling.

An Auto Genre Image Mode characteristic will moreover mechanically flip on the TV’s Game image mode for the PS5, and Sony’s Game Menu 2 lets you compose onscreen gaming-connected image and other adjustments.

Other gaming ingredients supported by the Bravia 8 II consist of Dolby Imaginative and prescient gaming, variable refresh price, and auto low-latency mode. Two of the TV’s four HDMI 2.1 inputs give a steal to 4K 120 Hz enter for gaming consoles, although in the mean time it’s turning into extra frequent to mediate about three or extra HDMI 2.1 inputs on TVs.

The spend of a Leo Bodnar 4K meter, I measured enter trail in Game Mode on the Bravia 8 II at 16.3ms, a particularly increased level than on other TVs we’ve just lately tested, some of which measure beneath 10ms on the identical take a look at.

Sony Bravia 8 II review: Tag

• Priced roughly the identical as high OLED competitors

• Decrease total brightness than high OLED competitors

• Less intensive gaming ingredients than competitors
  

At its $2.999 reduced phrase in the US, the Bravia 8 II at assure fees decrease than the 2025 flagship OLED TVs from LG and Samsung. But does that compose it a huge OLED TV fee?

The Bravia 8 II has nice total image quality, with excessive brightness for an OLED TV. Its image lacks the mini-LED-rivalling brightness stages of the Samsung S95F and LG G5, alternatively, and it looks to be to be like most efficient in dimmed lighting fixtures prerequisites, the put the TV’s unparalleled difference, prosperous color, and comely ingredient may perchance well well moreover moreover be fully appreciated.

Sony’s high OLED moreover has spectacular sound quality for this kind of slim and chic TV, and it supplies quite loads of ingredients that enable it without issues combine with like minded Sony soundbars and wireless speakers for even higher sound efficiency.

The Bravia 8 II’s Gaming ingredients, while factual, aren’t as intensive as what you’ll safe on high TVs from Samsung and LG, although there are particular advantages for PlayStation 5 console owners.

Regarded at in phrases of fee, the Bravia 8 II is namely a most efficient wager for movie fans who don’t mind dimming the lights a shrimp, although its image is moreover intellectual enough to prolong in successfully-lit rooms. It doesn’t exactly beat this 365 days’s flagship OLED TV competitors, however with phrase reductions having already kicked in, at least it’s competitively priced.

Would possibly perchance perchance well perchance moreover soundless I aquire the Sony Bravia 8 II?

Aquire it if…

You may perchance well well like a huge TV for motion photos
The Bravia 8 II has gigantic total image quality, and its image processing makes all the issues, even aged TV shows and YouTube videos see factual, however it essentially shines with 4K motion photos on streaming and Blu-ray disc.

You desire to make spend of it with a Sony soundbar or wireless speakers
The Bravia 8 II has audio ingredients that enable it be aged as a heart speaker in a Sony encompass sound system with like minded Sony soundbars and wireless speakers.

You primarily peep in intellectual rooms
While the Bravia 8 II has excessive brightness for an OLED TV, it doesn’t hit the identical mini-LED brightness stages as its flagship competitors, a high quality that makes those TVs a factual possibility for intellectual room viewing.

Don’t aquire it if…

You may perchance well well like the finest TV for gaming
The Bravia 8 II has a sturdy location of gaming ingredients, however there are solely two HDMI 2.1 ports, and it lacks the identical cloud-primarily primarily based gaming alternatives chanced on on LG and Samsung TVs.

You primarily peep in a intellectual room
While the Bravia 8 II has excessive brightness for an OLED TV, it doesn’t hit the identical mini-LED brightness stages as its flagship competitors that makes them a factual possibility for intellectual room viewing.Deem Deal

You desire to avoid losing money
The Bravia 8 II is a top price OLED TV that sells for a top price phrase. More affordable mini-LED TV alternatives are extensively on hand that provide very factual image quality at a out of the ordinary decrease phrase.

Sony Bravia 8 II: Moreover procure in mind…

LG G5
The LG G5’s innovative ‘four-stack’ OLED panel delivers unparalleled brightness stages for an OLED TV. It moreover has a superior location of gaming ingredients in comparison to the Bravia 8 II, alongside with a extra developed tidy TV platform.

Here’s our LG G5 review

Samsung S95F
Samsung’s flagship OLED TV is one other OLED that delivers mini-LED-rivalling brightness stages, and its Glare Free 2.0 conceal successfully eliminates reflections when viewing in intellectual rooms. Esteem the LG G5, it moreover has a superior location of gaming ingredients and a extra developed tidy TV platform.

Here’s our Samsung S95F review

Sony Bravia 8
The Bravia 8 remains to be on hand, and it supplies quite loads of the identical audio and gaming ingredients as the Bravia 8 II. Its image has particularly decrease high brightness than the Bravia 8 II, however in the occasion you’re okay with dimming the lights, you’ll rep a huge OLED image at a out of the ordinary reduced phrase.

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 were made using Calman color calibration instrument

• A fleshy calibration became made sooner than proceeding with subjective assessments

After I take a look at TVs, I first spend a few days or even weeks using them for casual viewing to assess the out-of-box image presets and rep familiar with the tidy TV menu and image adjustments.

I subsequent opt out essentially the most fine preset (assuredly Filmmaker Mode, Film or Cinema) and measure grayscale and color accuracy using Portrait Displays’ Calman color calibration instrument. The resulting measurements provide Delta-E values (the margin of error between the take a look at pattern source and what’s shown on-conceal) for every class, and enable for an evaluate of the TV’s total accuracy.

Alongside with those assessments, I compose measurements of high light output (recorded in nits) for both identical old excessive-definition and 4K excessive dynamic vary using 10% and 100% white window patterns. Coverage of DCI-P3 and BT.2020 color region is moreover measured, with the outcomes providing a sense of how faithfully the TV can render the extended color vary in ultra excessive-definition sources – it is doubtless you’ll perhaps well perchance be taught extra about this course of in our data to how we take a look at TVs at TechRadar.

For the Sony Bravia 8 II, I aged the Calman ISF workflow, alongside with the TV’s developed image menu settings, to calibrate the image for most efficient accuracy. I moreover watched a vary of reference scenes on 4K Blu-ray discs to assess the TV’s efficiency, alongside with 4K HDR shows streamed from Max, Netflix, and other products and providers.

• First reviewed: June 2025

• Read TechRadar’s opinions verbalize