We've bought and tested more than 70 Sony TVs. The best Sony TVs are generally a safe bet when looking for the best TV for your needs. They tend to have great picture quality, a few extra features, and good color accuracy. Their high-end and mid-range models compete well with other brands, although at a price premium. Sadly, they don't offer many budget-friendly options.
Updates
- 12/01/2023 Sony A80J OLED updated
- 11/29/2023 Sony A95K OLED updated
- 11/24/2023 Sony A75L OLED reviewed
- 11/08/2023 Sony A95L OLED reviewed
- 10/18/2023 Sony A90J OLED updated
Best Sony Smart TVs
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Best Sony TV
Mixed Usage9.2TV Shows8.9Sports9.1Video Games9.3HDR Movies9.3HDR Gaming9.1PC Monitor9.4The best Sony TV we've tested is the Sony A95L OLED. This impressive TV delivers incredible picture quality in any viewing environment thanks to its QD-OLED panel technology. Dark scenes look incredible, with perfect contrast and no distracting blooming around bright highlights in dark scenes. Colors are vibrant and lifelike, and the TV can display an incredibly wide range of colors. Thanks to Sony's excellent processing capabilities, the TV delivers an image that closely matches the content creator's intent, with nearly perfect PQ-EOTF tracking and fantastic gradient processing. This is a fantastic choice for cinephiles who care about image fidelity.
It also has impressive gaming features, including HDMI 2.1 bandwidth for 4k @ 120Hz gaming. It's part of Sony's 'Perfect for PS5' lineup, which offers a few unique features that help ensure you get the best experience possible when gaming on PS5, like Auto HDR Tone Mapping and Auto Genre Picture Mode. It supports a wide range of formats, including Dolby Vision HDR, and it supports eARC audio passthrough and all common audio formats, so you can spend more time enjoying your favorite movies and less time playing with settings and worrying about format support. It's expensive but remains one of the best TVs on the market.
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Best Upper Mid-Range Sony TV
Mixed Usage8.5TV Shows8.2Sports8.3Video Games8.8HDR Movies8.5HDR Gaming8.8PC Monitor8.6The best upper mid-range Sony TV we've tested is the Sony X93L/X93CL. Unlike the Sony A95L OLED, which uses a QD-OLED panel to deliver perfect blacks, this TV uses a Mini LED full array backlight to reduce the backlight intensity on a zone-by-zone basis. It results in much brighter highlights than the QD-OLED, but there's more blooming around bright objects and subtitles. This means the TV is better suited for a bright room, and the higher-end Sony QD-OLED is better for a dark room.
Like all Sony TVs, the X93L runs the Google TV smart interface, which is fast and easy to use. It has a great selection of streaming apps, and the built-in Google Play Store makes it easy to find others. It also has a few great gaming features, similar to the A95L, and it's also part of Sony's 'Perfect for PS5' lineup, with support for 4k @ 120Hz gaming and advanced features like Auto HDR Tone Mapping and Auto Genre Picture Mode. It also supports the same advanced video and audio formats as its more expensive sibling, so it's an amazing choice for a home theater TV. The higher-end Sony X95L is slightly better overall, but unfortunately, it's only available in an 85-inch model size in North America, although other regions have smaller sizes. The X95L is the best LED TV we've ever reviewed, but it's not worth the price premium over the X93L for most people.
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Best Mid-Range Sony TV
Mixed Usage8.1TV Shows7.7Sports7.7Video Games8.4HDR Movies8.4HDR Gaming8.4PC Monitor8.4If you want something cheaper but don't want to sacrifice picture quality much, the best Sony TV we've tested in the mid-range category is the Sony X90L/X90CL. It's a great TV overall with great picture quality. It has an excellent contrast ratio and decent black uniformity, but unlike the Sony X93L/X93CL, it doesn't have a Mini LED backlight, so there's a bit more blooming around bright objects with local dimming.
It has worse reflection handling and a slightly narrower viewing angle than the X93L, so it's not as well-suited for a wide seating arrangement. It has excellent peak brightness, so despite its worse reflection handling, it's still a great choice for a bright living room. It has the same great gaming features and advanced video and audio format support as the more expensive Sony TVs, and it runs the same great Google TV interface with a great selection of streaming apps. Its predecessor, the Sony X90K, is sold for a similar price but is a worse TV overall, so go for the newer model.
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Best Budget Sony TV
Mixed Usage6.6TV Shows7.3Sports7.5Video Games6.4HDR Movies5.8HDR Gaming6.8PC Monitor7.7While Sony doesn't offer truly budget TVs like other brands, and you can find cheaper TVs elsewhere, they have some affordable models, like the Sony X80K. It's the entry-level TV in their 2022 lineup, so you can save some money if you're willing to give up on the gaming and other higher-end features of more expensive panels, like local dimming. However, its picture quality isn't nearly as good as the Sony X90L/X90CL, especially in dark rooms, as it has a different panel type with a lower native contrast ratio that results in blacks that look gray. Instead, it has a wide viewing angle, making the image remain accurate from the sides, which is ideal for wide seating arrangements.
Since this TV doesn't look good in dark rooms, it's best to use it in a well-lit environment because it has decent peak brightness and reflection handling, meaning it performs well with a few lights around. Like most Sony displays, the out-of-the-box accuracy is excellent, and it comes with the same great Google TV interface, making it easy to stream your favorite content, and you won't have to use an external streaming device. If you want a better Sony TV than the X80K but aren't willing to step up to the mid-range, look up the Sony X85K. It's a bit more expensive, but it has better image quality and more gaming features at the cost of a narrower viewing angle and slightly worse reflection handling than the X80K.
Compared To Other Brands
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Versatile lineup.
Sony is one of a few companies that make both OLED and LED options. It means you can choose either panel if you want to buy a Sony TV, and both their OLEDs and LED TVs provide good picture quality. -
Great upscaling and motion handling.
Sony TVs, even the cheaper models, do better than the competition at upscaling lower-resolution content, and they offer great motion handling. -
Great color accuracy.
Sony TVs are known for their excellent out-of-the-box accuracy, especially the high-end models. You likely won't need to calibrate your Sony TV to enjoy the best viewing experience.
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High price.
Sony TVs are often priced above the competition in their category, meaning you can find better value elsewhere.
Sony vs Samsung
Samsung TVs have comparable picture quality to Sony TVs, and in general, they're pretty competitive. A big difference is that Samsung has better gaming performance, but if you don't need that, either brand is a good choice.
Sony vs LG
Sony and LG each make OLED and LED TVs. LG is the dominant OLED brand for OLEDs because they have better gaming performance and cost less. However, Sony's LED models are far better than LG's because they get brighter, have better uniformity, and usually have better contrast.
As a rule of thumb, it's pretty hard to go wrong when buying a Sony TV, especially if you don't need it for competitive gaming. Their more entry-level offerings aren't great, but any high-end LED and OLED models are a safe bet. Their Google TV smart platform offers many apps to download with an easy-to-use interface. You might pay a slight premium over competing models, but you'll usually have a good TV.
2024 TV Lineup
So, what can you expect from Sony in 2024? Like previous years, it's not all new models; there are a few carryovers. Sony is changing their naming scheme and focusing more on the BRAVIA brand. For Sony's TV lineup, the biggest improvements are in their mid- and high-end TVs with Mini LED backlighting. Both the new flagship BRAVIA 9 and the BRAVIA 7 feature significantly improved backlight control, with the BRAVIA 9 integrating the backlight control technology used on Sony's BVM-HX3110 reference monitor. There's also a new OLED, the Sony BRAVIA 8, which is very similar to the LG C3 OLED. Finally, there's a new entry-level Sony TV known as the Sony BRAVIA 3. This entry-level 4k TV lacks a local dimming feature and is limited to a 60Hz refresh rate, but it's built with a similar design language as the higher-end models and has similar Sony picture processing to the higher-end models, so you'll still enjoy fantastic picture quality that's designed to deliver the creator's intent. You can read more about Sony's 2024 Lineup on the 2024 TV lineup page or in our article covering Sony's announcement event here.
Model names
In 2024, Sony revamped their naming scheme, placing a greater emphasis on the BRAVIA sub-brand and simplifying the naming to a numerical order. The higher the number, the higher the place in Sony's lineup. They've also condensed the lineup to include the OLED and LED models in the same lineup, which can be a bit confusing. The old-style model numbers still exist, and for the 2024 lineup, Sony is using the letter 'R' to identify each new model. 2023 and earlier models use a slightly different model naming scheme.
All Sony product numbers, regardless of year, use a fairly simple structure that makes it easy to identify where they sit in Sony's lineup. The product number includes a letter identifying the lineup, a second letter identifying the year, and two digits identifying the place in the lineup. Here are a few examples:
- XR90 - high-end TV released in 2024, as denoted by the 'R' year code and the '90' product number.
- XR30 - entry-level TV released in 2024, as denoted by the 'R' year code and the '30' product number.
For older models, Sony mixed things up a bit. The first letter could be either an 'X' for LED models or an 'A' for OLEDs. They also flipped the order around, placing the product number after the lineup letter, followed by the year. Here are a few more examples:
- X95L - high-end LED TV released in 2023, as denoted by the 'L' year code, 'X' lineup code, and '95' product number.
- A80K - mid-range OLED TV released in 2022, as denoted by the 'K' year code, 'A' lineup code, and '80' product number.
Recent Updates
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Mar 18, 2024: We confirmed our current picks' availability and accuracy and condensed the article for clarity.
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Jan 18, 2024: Added information about Sony's 2024 TV lineup.
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Dec 19, 2023: The new Sony A95L OLED replaced its predecessor, the Sony A95K OLED, as the 'Best Sony TV'.
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Oct 23, 2023: Added mention of the recently reviewed Sony X95L under the 'Best Upper Mid-Range Sony TV' pick and reviewed the article to ensure it's still accurate.
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Aug 24, 2023: Replaced the Sony X95K with the Sony X93L/X93CL as the 'Best Upper Mid-Range Sony TV', replaced the Sony X90K with the Sony X90L/X90CL as the 'Best Mid-Range Sony TV', and refreshed the text for accuracy and consistency.
Conclusion
While they tend not to be the cheapest, Sony produces great TVs. They'll generally be versatile, helping to make them suitable for most people. The smart features can take some time to learn for some people, but the overall package offered by their TVs is still better than average. At this point, it's safe to say that their overall reputation holds, and people who will find themselves disappointed by purchasing one of their TVs are rare.