Sony A80J OLED TV Review

The Sony A80J is part of Sony's premium BRAVIA 4k OLED lineup, sitting below the Sony A90J OLED. It mostly competes with other OLED TVs, like the LG C1 OLED, the Vizio OLED 2020, and the LG A1 OLED.

The design is similar to the Sony A90J OLED, except for the back panel, which features a grid-like pattern. It's a sleek TV that should stand out in any living room.

The stand has three different setup positions. The standard position lets the TV sit closer to the table. Then there's a narrow position for smaller tables, and finally, a soundbar position that raises the TV to give you space for a soundbar in front.

Footprint of the 55 inch stand:

• Standard position: 41" (W) x 13" (D)
• Soundbar position: 41" (W) x 13" (D) x 2.71" (H)
• Narrow position: 27.3" (W) x 13" (D)

The panel and feet are made of metal, while the rest of the back is textured plastic with diagonal grooves in a grid pattern. It looks good, but aside from the cable tie included in the box, which we didn't use, there's no cable management. Unlike the Sony A8H OLED, the power cable is detachable.

The actual border is the same thickness as the border on the Sony A90J OLED, but it looks bigger on the Sony A80J because it has thicker physical bezels.

The Sony A80J is thin and should look great mounted on a wall, although not all of the inputs are side-facing and may be harder to reach when wall-mounted.

When it comes to build quality, the Sony A80J feels superb. The materials feel premium and it's very sturdy with no wobble. There's a bit of flex to the plastic back, mostly on the sides, but overall it feels very solidly put together.

Thanks to its self-lit pixels, the Sony A80J has a near-infinite contrast ratio with perfect black levels. It's ideal for watching movies.

SDR brightness is on par with other OLEDs, and it even measured a little higher in real scenes than the Sony A90J OLED; however, brightness can vary a bit between test runs, and the difference between the two is small. Overall, it performs well in moderate lighting conditions but may have trouble overcoming glare in sunny or bright rooms.

We measured SDR brightness after calibration, using the ‘Custom’ Picture Mode, the ‘Expert 1’ Color Temperature, Peak Luminance set to ‘High’, and Brightness at max.

We also tested the brightness with Peak Luminance turned off and measured the following:

• Peak 2% Window: 126 cd/m²
• Peak 10% Window: 132 cd/m²
• Peak 25% Window: 132 cd/m²
• Peak 50% Window: 132 cd/m²
• Peak 100% Window: 131 cd/m²
• Sustained 2% Window: 124 cd/m²
• Sustained 10% Window: 129 cd/m²
• Sustained 25% Window: 129 cd/m²
• Sustained 50% Window: 129 cd/m²
• Sustained 100% Window: 129 cd/m²

As you can see, it's a lot dimmer, so we recommend leaving Peak Luminance enabled.

To get the brightest possible image at the expense of accuracy, set the Picture Mode to ‘Vivid’, then set Advanced Contrast Enhancer to 'High', Peak Luminance to ‘High’, Brightness and Contrast at max, Color Temperature to 'Cool', and Live Color to 'High'. We were able to hit 726 nits in the 2% window using these settings.

As with other OLEDs, the Sony A80J has self-lit pixels, so it doesn't require a backlight, meaning there's no local dimming feature, but it can produce perfect blacks without visible blooming. The videos above are provided for reference only.

The videos above are provided for reference only.

The Sony A80J has okay HDR brightness, but it's still good for an OLED. The EOTF follows the target well until it rolls off at higher brightness levels. As with SDR, there's a lot of variation in brightness across different scenes, in part due to the aggressive ABL. Scenes with small highlights get very bright, but dim more and more with larger areas of brightness. HDR content should still pop, but it may not be able to bring out the brightest highlights.

We measured HDR brightness before calibration in the 'Custom' Picture Mode, with Brightness set to max, Contrast at '90' (by default), Color Temperature set to 'Expert 1', and HDR Tone Mapping set to 'Gradation Preferred'.

We also took measurements using the Brightness Preferred setting and got the following:

• Peak 2% Window: 874 cd/m²
• Peak 10% Window: 733 cd/m²
• Peak 25% Window: 494 cd/m²
• Peak 50% Window: 295 cd/m²
• Peak 100% Window: 157 cd/m²
• Sustained 2% Window: 757 cd/m²
• Sustained 10% Window: 672 cd/m²
• Sustained 25% Window: 479 cd/m²
• Sustained 50% Window: 293 cd/m²
• Sustained 100% Window: 153 cd/m²

It results in a brighter EOTF, but doesn't significantly improve the luminosity.

Finally, we ran the test with Peak Luminance turned off and measured the following:

• Peak 2% Window: 144 cd/m²
• Peak 10% Window: 147 cd/m²
• Peak 25% Window: 146 cd/m²
• Peak 50% Window: 146 cd/m²
• Peak 100% Window: 145 cd/m²
• Sustained 2% Window: 143 cd/m²
• Sustained 10% Window: 146 cd/m²
• Sustained 25% Window: 145 cd/m²
• Sustained 50% Window: 144 cd/m²
• Sustained 100% Window: 144 cd/m²

Just like in SDR, turning Peak Luminance off dims the image significantly, so we recommend keeping it on.

The brightest image we achieved was 962 nits in the 2% window, using 'Vivid' mode, with Brightness and Contrast at max, Advanced Contrast Enhancer set to 'High',Peak Luminance at ‘High’, Color Temperature set to 'Cool', and Live Color set to 'High'.

In 'Game' mode, HDR brightness is about the same as outside of 'Game' mode. For the most part, the difference is hardly noticeable, although real scenes appear slightly dimmer.

We measured this using the same settings, only in the 'Game' Picture Mode.

The Sony A80J has excellent gray uniformity, although this can vary between units. The screen looks very uniform with practically no dirty screen effect, and we didn't notice any banding or issues in near-dark scenes, which can sometimes occur on OLEDs with more extensive use over time.

Like all OLEDs, the Sony A80J can completely turn off individual pixels to achieve perfect black uniformity, with no visible blooming around bright objects.

The Sony A80J has great viewing angles, but they're not quite as good as the LG A1 OLED. The image stays accurate from the sides, which is great for accommodating more people or wide seating arrangements.

The Sony A80J has a slightly matte finish, unlike the Sony A90J OLED and other OLEDs we've tested. The reflections are duller but more widely diffused than on a typical glossy screen. The reflection handling is still superb overall, so glare shouldn't be an issue, but placing it directly opposite a window or light source may still be distracting. Note that we've seen reports that the 77 inch version has a glossy finish and may perform a bit differently.

The Sony A80J has excellent out-of-the-box color accuracy. While this can vary from unit to unit, Sony TVs are generally known to have good out-of-the-box accuracy. The colors are very good, as is white balance, with very few noticeable inaccuracies. Gamma also follows the target quite well, with only some brighter scenes appearing either darker or brighter than they should. The color temperature is on the colder side, so the image has a blue-ish tint.

After calibration, the accuracy is fantastic. Gamma is nearly perfect, and the color temperature is almost right on target. There are almost no remaining inaccuracies with colors or white balance, at least none that would be noticeable without the help of a colorimeter.

You can see our recommended settings here.

The Sony A80J has no issues upscaling 480p content like DVDs.

It upscales 720p content, like cable TV, well.

1080p content, like Blu-ray movies, looks good with no upscaling artifacts.

The Sony A80J displays native 4k content perfectly.

The Sony A80J doesn't support 8k.

The Sony A80J has a WRGB sub-pixel layout, like other OLED TVs. All four are never on at the same time, but you can see some of the blue sub-pixels lit up in this photo.

The Sony A80J has an excellent color gamut, considered wide for HDR content by our testing criteria. It has full coverage of the DCI P3 color space used in most HDR content and decent coverage of the wider Rec. 2020.

Color volume is decent. It has a bit of trouble with colors at higher luminance levels due to its limited brightness, but it can display dark saturated colors well.

Gradients look fantastic on the Sony A80J, with very little visible banding aside from a bit in the grays and greens. If you notice banding, enabling Smooth Gradation can help even out gradients, although you may lose some fine detail.

There's a slight amount of temporary image retention but only immediately after displaying a high contrast image for ten minutes, and it fades quickly. Note that this test is only indicative of short-term image retention and not the permanent burn-in that may occur with longer exposure to static images. This can also vary between individual units.

Like all OLED TVs, the Sony A80J is susceptible to permanent burn-in, which can happen with constant exposure to static elements like a channel logo or desktop interface. However, we don't expect it to be an issue for most people who watch varied content, and there are built-in features to minimize the risk, including Pixel Shift and Panel Refresh. You can read more about those here.

The Sony A80J has a nearly instantaneous response time, like other OLED TVs. Motion looks exceptionally clear, for the most part. You may still notice some blur as a result of persistence and the way our eyes track movement. We also noticed that the A80J overshoots and then dips back more quickly in darker transitions than the Sony A90J OLED; however, this shouldn't be noticeable.

Because of its OLED panel, the Sony A80J doesn't have a backlight, but it can still emulate the Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) of LED TVs by turning its pixels on and off. For that reason, it isn't completely flicker-free; the slight dip in brightness that you see in the chart every 8ms is due to the TV's 120Hz refresh rate, which shouldn't be noticeable.

The Sony A80J has an optional Black Frame Insertion (BFI) feature, which helps reduce motion blur by inserting black frames into content at regular intervals. It can flicker at both 60Hz for 60fps content and 120Hz for 120fps content. For a BFI frequency of 120Hz, set Motionflow to 'Custom' and set Clearness to '1' or '2'. For 60Hz, set Clearness to '3' (max). Note that our BFI score is based on the range at which it flickers and not its actual performance.

The Sony A80J can interpolate lower frame rate content up to 120fps to make motion look smoother, otherwise known as the 'Soap Opera Effect'. It performs fine during slower scenes, but it introduces some artifacts in busier scenes, although there isn't too much haloing. To use it, set Cinemotion to 'High' and slide Smoothness to max.

Due to the TV's fast response time, low frame rate content can appear to stutter since each frame is held on longer. Motion interpolation can help if stutter bothers you.

The Sony A80J can remove judder from any source. You don't need to enable any additional settings for native 24p content. For 24p content via 60p, 60i, or native apps, set Cinemotion to 'High' and Motionflow to 'Custom' but leave the sliders at 0.

The Sony A80J doesn't currently support VRR, although it's supposed to receive VRR support via a future firmware update.

The Sony A80J has very little input lag, although it's not the lowest on the market. It should still be fine for most gamers, though. For low latency gaming, set the Picture Mode to 'Game'. For 4:4:4, you can use either 'Game' or 'Graphics', but we recommend 'Game' mode for the lowest latency.

The Sony A80J supports most resolutions, including proper 4k @ 120Hz. However, we couldn't get 1440p to work properly. First off, it can't display 1440p @ 120Hz, just like the Sony A90J OLED. Then, when forcing 1440p @ 60Hz, it downscaled from 4k with a black border that couldn't be removed or adjusted because the screen settings were grayed out. We retried it a few days later and were able to force a 1440p signal, although it only allowed for RGB output. Despite that, it still displayed proper chroma 4:4:4. For 4:4:4 subsampling to work properly, the TV must be in either 'Game' or 'Graphics' mode, with 'Enhanced Format' turned on in the HDMI Signal Format menu. 'Enhanced Format' is also required for full bandwidth signals.

The Sony A80J supports most resolutions on the Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X. Unfortunately, it can't do 4k @ 120Hz on the Xbox while 'Enhanced Format (Dolby Vision)' is enabled, so if you want to play in 4k @ 120Hz with HDR, you have to set it to the regular 'Enhanced Format' and won't be able to use Dolby Vision. It also doesn't have proper ALLM, but it will automatically switch into 'Game' mode with compatible Sony devices if you enable Auto Picture Mode. This feature doesn't work with the Xbox.

The Sony A80J has two HDMI 2.1 ports, but HDMI port 3 is also the ARC port, so if you have both an Xbox Series X and a PS5, you may have to give up one of the HDMI 2.1 ports for audio passthrough.

To enable eARC, set Speakers to 'Audio System', turn on eARC Mode, and then set Digital Audio Out to 'Auto 1' and Passthrough to 'Auto'.

The Sony A80J has good built-in speakers, noticeably better than the Sony A90J OLED, especially with respect to bass, which sounds significantly punchier. Overall, the sound profile is well balanced, so dialogue should sound clear. The TV's built-in speakers can also reportedly be used as a center channel speaker in a surround sound setup, but this isn't something we test for.

There's a lot of distortion at the TV's max volume, but it's much better at moderate volume levels. However, distortion depends on the content and not everyone can hear it.

Like the Sony A90J OLED and other 2021 Sony TVs, the A80J runs on Google TV, which replaces Android TV. It's a little more streamlined than Android, and it runs very smoothly. We didn't experience any bugs while using it, either.

Google TV includes ads on the home page and app store. While you can opt-out of ad personalization, you can't opt-out of getting ads or suggested content.

The app store has a wide range of apps available to download.

The Sony A80J comes with a similar remote to the Sony A90J OLED, but it doesn't have the same motion-activated backlighting and comes in a black finish. It has app shortcut keys and can be used as a universal remote, although this feature depends on the device and region. We got it to work with the PS5, but not our Blu-ray player, for instance. It works with the Android TV Remote app, and its voice command feature can be used to change inputs and volume, adjust certain settings, and search within apps.

There's a single button on the back left side of the TV, which can be used to change channels and inputs, adjust volume, and power the TV On/Off.

• User manual
• Remote control
• 2x AAA batteries
• Cable tie