The Sony A95L OLED is Sony's flagship 4k QD-OLED TV in 2023, replacing the Sony A95K OLED. It's powered by Sony's Cognitive Processor XR image processor and is the only Sony TV in 2023 to use MediaTek's latest Pentonic 1000 HDMI chipset. It uses the popular Google TV smart interface, which is easy to use, has a huge selection of streaming apps, and has an internal microphone for hands-free voice control. It also supports Sony's S-Center speaker input, which can turn the TV into a center speaker channel for a connected soundbar or home theater receiver, and an ATSC 3.0 tuner for up to 4k over-the-air broadcast support. We bought and tested the 65-inch model, but it's available in 55- and 77-inch sizes, so there's something for most viewing environments.
Our Verdict
The Sony A95L is excellent for mixed usage. It's an excellent gaming TV thanks to its responsiveness and modern gaming features. You also get perfect blacks, punchy colors, incredible accuracy, and impressive HDR brightness, so it looks amazing whether you're gaming or using it in a dedicated home theater. It looks good in a bright room too, since it has decent SDR brightness and fights glare from both direct and indirect light sources. However, its black levels do rise when exposed to ambient lighting, so you do lose some of the visual impact an OLED has in a dark room. Finally, the TV has an incredibly wide viewing angle, which makes it great for watching content with a large group of friends or family.
Perfect blacks with no blooming around bright highlights.
Incredibly wide viewing angle for a consistent image from the sides.
Colors are vibrant, lifelike, bright, and accurate.
Does a great job lessening the intensity of direct reflections.
Black levels are drastically raised in rooms with the lights on.
The Sony A95L is amazing for a home theater. Since it's an OLED, it displays perfect blacks with no blooming. You also get impressively bright highlights in HDR content, and its QD-OLED technology means it displays a huge range of vibrant and lifelike colors with almost no banding, so HDR content looks stellar. Colors and the brightness of HDR content are incredibly accurate, so this is a TV that stays true to the filmmaker's intent without needing calibration. You also get Sony's top-tier upscaling and low-quality content smoothing, so you get a solid-looking image when watching low-bitrate streams or DVDs. Unfortunately, due to the TV's nearly instantaneous response time, there's noticeable stutter in movies and TV shows.
Perfect blacks with no blooming around bright highlights.
Colors are vibrant, lifelike, bright, and accurate.
Does an outstanding job upscaling and a great job cleaning up low-quality content.
Impressive HDR peak brightness means highlights really pop.
Very noticeable stutter due to the TV's fast response time.
The Sony A95L is good for a bright room overall. It has great direct reflection handling, which really helps to reduce the intensity of any lights you have placed opposite the screen. It also has the SDR brightness needed to handle glare in most bright rooms. Ambient lighting doesn't have a big impact on the perceived saturation of colors, so you can enjoy a vibrant-looking image regardless of your lighting conditions. Unfortunately, ambient lighting causes its black levels to raise significantly, and the TV has a slight purple tint to it when in a bright room. This makes the image look a bit washed out, so you lose the impact this OLED has when viewed in a darker room.
Colors stay vibrant in a room with ambient lighting.
Does a great job lessening the intensity of direct reflections.
Black levels are drastically raised in rooms with the lights on.
The Sony A95L is great for watching sports. It does a great job of reducing the intensity of direct reflections and has the SDR brightness needed to handle glare in a well-lit room. It has outstanding upscaling capabilities and does an impressive job removing artifacts from heavily compressed streams and broadcasts, so you get a clean-looking image that doesn't look too soft when the game you're watching isn't presented in an ideal way. This TV really excels with colors, so colors in sports are accurate and really stand out. You also aren't distracted by the dirty screen effect thanks to its very good uniformity, and its incredibly wide viewing angle means it delivers a consistent image if you're stuck watching from the sides of the screen, making it great for large group gatherings. Finally, motion is incredibly clear thanks to the TV's nearly instantaneous response time.
Incredibly wide viewing angle for a consistent image from the sides.
Colors are vibrant, lifelike, bright, and accurate.
Does an outstanding job upscaling and a great job cleaning up low-quality content.
Does a great job lessening the intensity of direct reflections.
No transition artifacts.
The Sony A95L is excellent for playing video games. It has nearly instantaneous pixel transitions, so motion is clear even in the fastest of games. Its input lag is a bit higher than models from competing brands, so although it's low enough for a responsive feel, you might want to look elsewhere if you mostly play PVP games. However, it has HDMI 2.1 bandwidth for up to 4k @ 120Hz with VRR, so you can fully take advantage of your PS5 or Series X. Blacks are inky, highlights in HDR games are impressively bright, and you get incredibly vibrant colors, which leads to a punchy and impactful image when gaming in HDR.
Nearly instantaneous pixel transitions for no noticeable blur behind fast motion.
Colors are vibrant, lifelike, bright, and accurate.
Impressive HDR peak brightness means highlights really pop.
Higher input lag than competing models from other brands.
The Sony A95L has very good overall brightness. Its HDR brightness is impressive, so you get bright and impactful highlights in HDR content. It's not as bright in SDR, but it's still decent enough to overcome glare in a room with ambient lighting.
Impressive HDR peak brightness means highlights really pop.
The Sony A95L is an OLED, so it has outstanding black levels. Blacks are deep and inky when viewed in a dark room, with no blooming around bright highlights.
Perfect blacks with no blooming around bright highlights.
The Sony A95L has superb colors. It displays the exceptionally saturated and bright colors QD-OLEDs are known for, so you get a very vibrant viewing experience in SDR and HDR. Furthermore, colors are very accurate without requiring calibration, so this is a TV that stays true to the content creator's intent out of the box.
Colors are vibrant, lifelike, bright, and accurate.
The Sony A95L OLED has very good motion handling when watching all types of content. There's some subtle judder with 25p content being sent via a 60p signal, which leads to hiccups in motion when watching some European content on older streaming devices. However, the TV is completely judder-free with all other signals and from the internal apps. There's visible micro-judder when watching movies and shows from a 60p signal, so scenes with a lot of movement on the screen look a bit choppy if you're streaming from an older device. The TV is free from transition artifacts, so colors are consistent, and there's no ghosting in fast-paced scenes and sports, leading to very clear motion. Like any OLED, there's stutter that's very noticeable during shots with slower camera movements.
No transition artifacts.
Removes judder from most content.
No micro-judder except when using an older streaming device.
Perfect lighting zone transitions.
Very noticeable stutter due to the TV's fast response time.
The Sony A95L has excellent responsiveness while in Game Mode. Pixels transition from one RGB value to another almost instantly, providing very sharp motion. You also get VRR for nearly tear-free gaming. It has low input lag, so it provides a responsive feel while gaming, but it's higher than competing models from other brands, so you might want to look elsewhere if you want the lowest input lag possible.
Nearly instantaneous pixel transitions for no noticeable blur behind fast motion.
Higher input lag than competing models from other brands.
Note: We're in the process of improving our tests related to image processing, but this score should give you a general idea of how a TV performs overall with its image processing capabilities.
The Sony A95L has amazing processing overall. The brightness of HDR content is very accurate, thanks to its fantastic PQ EOTF tracking, and there's almost no banding in color gradients. You also get outstanding upscaling capabilities, and the TV does a great job cleaning up artifacts and low-quality content.
Does an outstanding job upscaling and a great job cleaning up low-quality content.
Fantastic HDR brightness accuracy.
Almost no banding at all in color gradients.
Performance Usages
Changelog
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Updated Mar 13, 2026:
We added text to our new Cinematic Motion Handling performance usage and our new Transition Artifacts and Stutter Reduction Via Interpolation test sections after converting the review to TV 2.2.
- Updated Mar 10, 2026: This review has been updated to TV 2.2. We've added new sections for Transition Artifacts and Stutter Reduction Via Interpolation, and updated the way we test Stutter. Additionally, we removed the 'Broken' disclaimer from our Motion Handling usage.
- Updated Jan 20, 2026: We added text to the new Micro-Judder section and refreshed the text in the updated Judder and Response Time Stutter sections after converting the review to TV 2.1.
- Updated May 08, 2025: Converted to Test Bench 2.0.1. We did this to fix an issue with our scoring in the Supported Resolutions section, since TVs with a refresh rate higher than 144Hz were being penalized for not supporting 144Hz.
Check Price
Differences Between Sizes And Variants
We bought and tested the 65-inch Sony A95L, and these results also apply to the 55-inch and 77-inch models. There are no other variants of this TV, and it's the same in all regions.
| Size | Model | Available Stand Positions |
|---|---|---|
| 55" | XR-55A95L | Standard, Soundbar |
| 65" | XR-65A95L | Standard, Soundbar |
| 77" | XR-77A95L | Standard, Soundbar, Narrow |
Our unit was manufactured in September 2023.
Popular TV Comparisons
The Sony A95L is one of the absolute best TVs that money can buy, and it offers a perfect combination of impressive picture quality and a wide range of features for everything from streaming shows to playing games. If you're strictly after the very best gaming TV, you can get slightly better performance from competing models like the Samsung S95D OLED and the LG G4 OLED. On the other hand, if you're after the very best TV for a home theater, the A95L is unmatched due to its superb accuracy, top-tier image processing, and exceptional overall image quality. Unfortunately, it's also significantly more expensive than similar models, and that extra cost isn't worth it for most people.
See our recommendations for the best 4k TVs, the best TVs for movies, and the best OLED TVs.
The Sony A95L OLED and the Sony BRAVIA 8 II OLED are very similar overall, but the A95L is a bit better. The A95L is brighter in SDR, has better accuracy in SDR, and has less banding in color gradients. On the other hand, the BRAVIA 8 II has a slight edge with HDR brightness and color volume. With most content, you won't notice a difference between them, so go with whatever model is more affordable.
The LG G5 OLED and the Sony A95L OLED trade blows, but the LG is the better TV overall. The Sony has the advantage when it comes to colors, so it delivers more vivid colors in some content. However, the LG is certainly no slouch when it comes to color performance. On the other hand, the LG is brighter in HDR, so highlights and purely bright scenes are punchier in HDR. The LG also offers lower input lag, supports 165Hz, and supports FreeSync VRR, making it the more complete package for gamers. Finally, the LG is brighter in SDR and has better overall reflection handling, making it more suitable for bright rooms.
The Sony A95L OLED leans on processing finesse: Dolby Vision tone-mapping is spot-on, upscaling is precise, and low-bitrate streams upscale cleanly. The Samsung S95F OLED counters with sheer performance: it's brighter in HDR highlights, handles reflections better, and all four HDMI 2.1 ports accept 4k @ 165Hz with noticeably lower input lag than the Sony TV's 120Hz cap on its two HDMI 2.1 ports. Color volume is similar—both use QD-OLED—but the Samsung TV's extra luminance makes specular highlights pop more, especially in Game Mode. The Sony supports Dolby Vision while the Samsung has HDR10+, yet only Sony passes advanced DTS audio. Competitive gamers and dark-room HDR fans will appreciate Samsung's speed and brightness; film buffs who rely on Dolby Vision—or who want Sony's image processing—may find the Sony A95L worth the premium.
The Sony A95L OLED is better than the Sony BRAVIA 8 OLED. The A95L uses a QD-OLED panel, displaying more vibrant, lifelike, and brighter colors in HDR with less banding. It's also brighter in HDR and has better PQ EOTF tracking, so highlights pop out more on it, and it displays an image that is closer to the content creator's intent. The A95L is brighter in SDR, too, so it overcomes a bit more glare in a bright room. The A95L also has much better pre-calibration accuracy; it's so impressive that even the most astute observers won't feel the need to get it calibrated.
We buy and test dozens of TVs yearly, taking an objective, data-driven approach to deliver results you can trust. Our testing process is complex, with hundreds of individual tests that take over a week to complete. Most of our tests use specially designed test patterns that mimic real content, but we also use the same sources you have at home to ensure our results match the real-world experience. We use two main tools for our testing: a Colorimetry Research CR-100 colorimeter and a CR-250 spectroradiometer.
Test Results
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