The Sony BRAVIA 5 is the follow-up to the popular Sony X90L/X90CL that was released in 2023. It sits in the middle of Sony's 2025 LED TV lineup, positioned above the Sony BRAVIA 2 II and Sony BRAVIA 3, and below the Sony BRAVIA 7 and Sony BRAVIA 9 QLED models. Unlike its predecessor, which uses a standard LED panel with minimal dimming zones, the new model uses a Mini LED backlight and has up to six times the number of dimming zones, depending on the size. It uses Sony's XR processor that's found in most of their TVs and runs version 12 of the popular Google TV OS. It supports Dolby Vision, DTS audio passthrough, and you can use its built-in speakers as a center channel when paired with compatible Sony soundbars and receivers. For gamers, it has HDMI 2.1 bandwidth on two ports for up to 4k @ 120Hz with either G-SYNC or HDMI Forum VRR. We bought and tested the 65-inch model, and it's also available in 55, 75, 85, and 98-inch models.
Our Verdict
The Sony BRAVIA 5 is satisfactory for mixed usage. It looks decent in reference conditions, with fairly deep blacks and vibrant enough colors to enjoy, but its mediocre HDR brightness means HDR content lacks the impact it should have. It gets bright enough in SDR to fight glare from indirect lighting, but direct light sources are distracting. Although the TV supports most modern gaming features, its very slow pixel transitions mean motion is blurry, which holds back its gaming performance. Sadly, its narrow viewing angle means it's not great for wide seating arrangements.
Very good SDR brightness helps it overcome glare from indirect lighting.
Superb upscaling and very good low-quality content smoothing.
Colors are vibrant and lifelike.
Struggles with reflections from direct sources of light.
Very slow pixel transitions in Game Mode leads to blurry motion.
Mediocre HDR brightness means some HDR content lacks impact.
The Sony BRAVIA 5 is decent for a home theater. The TV's contrast is good enough that blacks look fairly deep during dark scenes, and the TV's local dimming keeps blooming to a minimum. However, its dimming algorithm struggles with more precise highlights, so blacks look grayish in scenes with small areas of brightness. Highlights and colors in HDR are accurate and stand out somewhat, but they do lack some impact due to the TV's mediocre HDR brightness. Fortunately, it has excellent image processing, so you get a clean image from heavily compressed streams, like YouTube. Like most TVs, there's visible stutter in shots where the camera is moving slowly, but not everyone will be bothered by it.
Superb upscaling and very good low-quality content smoothing.
Colors are vibrant and lifelike.
Fantastic PQ EOTF tracking means HDR content has mostly accurate brightness.
Very good SDR color accuracy before calibration.
Judder-free with most sources.
Mediocre HDR brightness means some HDR content lacks impact.
Unremarkable HDR color accuracy before calibration.
Sometimes falls back on its native contrast ratio, making the image look a bit washed out in dark scenes with complex highlights.
Noticeable stutter in slow panning shots.
The Sony BRAVIA 5 is good for a bright room. It has very good SDR brightness, which helps it fight glare from indirect lighting. On the other hand, direct reflections are very distracting, so it's best to avoid placing any light source opposite the screen. The TV's black levels and color saturation remain mostly unaffected by ambient lighting, so you get a pleasing image in a bright room.
Very good SDR brightness helps it overcome glare from indirect lighting.
Colors are vibrant and lifelike.
Blacks stay deep in a bright room.
Struggles with reflections from direct sources of light.
The Sony BRAVIA 5 is good for watching sports. Direct reflections from light sources opposite the TV screen are distracting, but the TV is bright enough to fight glare from overhead lights or other indirect light sources. Its excellent image processing means cable broadcasts and online streams look clean and sharp, and it displays vibrant enough colors to please you and your friends. There's some motion blur in fast-paced sports, but the edges of objects and players are clear since the TV barely suffers from transition artifacts. However, if you are watching the game with your friends, have them seated as centered to the screen as possible, since the TV's image quality degrades when viewed from the sides of the screen. Unfortunately, it has poor uniformity, so you do see the dirty screen effect during brighter sports, and the corners of the screen are noticeably darker than the center.
Very good SDR brightness helps it overcome glare from indirect lighting.
Superb upscaling and very good low-quality content smoothing.
Colors are vibrant and lifelike.
Barely any transition artifacts in fast-paced scenes and sports.
Struggles with reflections from direct sources of light.
Very noticeable dirty screen effect and the corners are dimmer than the center of the screen.
The Sony BRAVIA 5 is just alright for gaming. It has HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, 4k @ 120Hz, and VRR, so it's compatible with Sony's, Microsoft's, and Nintendo's latest consoles. It delivers gameplay with very little input lag, which is great for PVP titles. However, the TV has very slow pixel transitions, so fast motion is blurry and lacks clarity. You still get decent overall image quality, with deep enough blacks and vibrant enough colors to enjoy, but the TV's mediocre HDR brightness means the large catalog of HDR games available lacks some impact.
HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, up to 4k @ 120Hz, and VRR support.
Colors are vibrant and lifelike.
Low input lag for a responsiveness feel when gaming.
Very slow pixel transitions in Game Mode leads to blurry motion.
Only two HDMI 2.1 ports, one of which is also the eARC port.
Mediocre HDR brightness means some HDR content lacks impact.
Sometimes falls back on its native contrast ratio, making the image look a bit washed out in dark scenes with complex highlights.
The Sony BRAVIA 5 has adequate brightness overall. Its SDR brightness is very good, so the TV cuts through glare from indirect lighting. Sadly, its HDR brightness is mediocre, so even though there's not a huge difference in brightness between small highlights and entirely well-lit scenes, all HDR content lacks some of the impact it's intended to have.
Very good SDR brightness helps it overcome glare from indirect lighting.
Mediocre HDR brightness means some HDR content lacks impact.
The Sony BRAVIA 5 has adequate black levels. With local dimming enabled, the TV displays fairly deep blacks with minimal blooming. However, due to the way its dimming algorithm works, dark scenes with very small highlights are washed out. It also has disappointing black uniformity, so purely dark scenes are a bit cloudy.
Disappointing black uniformity leads to blooming and cloudiness in purely dark scenes.
The Sony BRAVIA 5 has good colors overall. Although this isn't the brightest TV, it still has good color volume in SDR and HDR, so colors are vibrant enough to please the viewer. It also has very good color accuracy in SDR out of the box, so you get a mostly accurate image. However, it has unremarkable HDR color accuracy; if you want an accurate image in HDR, you need to get it calibrated.
Colors are vibrant and lifelike.
Very good SDR color accuracy before calibration.
Unremarkable HDR color accuracy before calibration.
The Sony BRAVIA 5 has good motion handling when watching movies, shows, and sports. There are barely any artifacts around the edges of people and objects in fast-paced scenes and sports, so motion has good clarity. The TV removes judder from most sources, but there's still some subtle judder present when watching 25p content through the internal apps or an older streaming device that outputs a 60p signal. On the other hand, the TV is completely free from micro-judder regardless of the source. Stutter is quite visible on this TV during slow panning shots, but this won't bother everyone, and you can mitigate some stutter using the TV's motion interpolation.
Barely any transition artifacts in fast-paced scenes and sports.
Judder-free with most sources.
No micro-judder from any source.
Good lighting zone transitions.
Noticeable stutter in slow panning shots.
The Sony BRAVIA 5 has alright responsiveness in its dedicated gaming mode. It has modern features like HDMI 2.1 bandwidth on two ports, 4k @ 120Hz, and VRR, so you can take full advantage of the features on your current-gen console. It also has low input lag, so inputs feel responsive. Sadly, this TV's very slow pixel transitions are a major drawback for gamers, since fast motion is quite blurry at both 60Hz and 120Hz.
HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, up to 4k @ 120Hz, and VRR support.
Low input lag for a responsiveness feel when gaming.
Very slow pixel transitions in Game Mode leads to blurry motion.
Only two HDMI 2.1 ports, one of which is also the eARC port.
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 BRAVIA 5 has excellent image processing overall. It has superb upscaling capabilities for low-resolution content, and it does a great job cleaning up artifacts in heavily compressed content, like YouTube. Its gradient handling is very good overall, with only some visible banding in dark greens and blues. Finally, this TV respects the filmmaker's intent when it comes to HDR brightness due to its fantastic PQ EOTF tracking.
Superb upscaling and very good low-quality content smoothing.
Fantastic PQ EOTF tracking means HDR content has mostly accurate brightness.
Only minor banding in some color gradients.
Performance Usages
Changelog
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Updated Mar 17, 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 Feb 05, 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.
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Updated Nov 07, 2025:
We added a link to our article that compares the 65-inch model to the 98-inch model in the Differences Between Sizes and Variants section.
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Differences Between Sizes And Variants
We bought and tested the 65-inch Sony BRAVIA 5, but most of our results should also be valid for the 55, 75, and 85-inch models. The 98-inch model performs differently, with better contrast and overall brightness, so these results aren't valid for that size. However, we have a separate review of the 98-inch model, so check that out if you're interested in that specific size. If you're curious to see how the 65-inch size stacks up against the 98-inch, you can take a look at our article that compares those two sizes.
Costco sells a variant of this TV with a slightly different model code that comes with an extended warranty, a backlit remote, and some additional perks, but it performs the same. Sony TVs typically perform the same in North America as in other regions, so our results should be valid for all regions.
| Size | US Model | Warehouse Model |
|---|---|---|
| 55" | K-55XR50 | - |
| 65" | K-65XR50 | K65XR50CB.U2 |
| 75" | K-75XR50 | K75XR50CB.U2 |
| 85" | K-85XR50 | K85XR50CB.U2 |
| 98" | K-98XR50 | - |
Our unit was manufactured in February 2025, as seen in the photo of the label.
Popular TV Comparisons
The Sony BRAVIA 5 is a disappointing follow-up to the Sony X90L/X90CL. Despite using a Mini LED backlight with more dimming zones, the TV's contrast is only slightly better than its predecessor. It's also noticeably dimmer overall, and its out-of-the-box color accuracy isn't nearly as good. It's still packed with a ton of modern features for both cinephiles and gamers, but its overall picture quality will leave movie fans wanting more, and its very slow pixel transitions really hold back the TV's gaming performance. Sony's industry-leading image processing can only go so far as a selling point, and outside of that, the TV doesn't do anything better than other Mini LED TVs that are significantly cheaper. You're better off buying a TCL QM7K or Hisense U75QG, as both of those TVs offer superior picture quality for much less. You can even find OLEDs for around the same cost as a BRAVIA 5, so it's a really hard TV to recommend to anyone.
For more options, check out our recommendations for the best TVs for bright rooms, the best Mini LED TVs, and the best TVs for gaming.
The Sony BRAVIA 7 offers superior picture quality over the Sony BRAVIA 5. The BRAVIA 7 has superior contrast with less blooming, is a lot brighter in SDR and HDR, and has the advantage when it comes to color vibrancy and accuracy. These attributes mean the TV has noticeably better picture quality with all content.
The TCL QM7K is mostly better than the Sony BRAVIA 5. The TCL is brighter in SDR and has superior reflection handling, so it's the better option for a bright room. The TCL also displays brighter highlights in HDR content thanks to its higher HDR peak brightness. Blacks are also much deeper on the TCL thanks to its better contrast. For gamers, the TCL is the better option thanks to its quicker pixel transitions, which lead to clearer motion in fast-paced games. Furthermore, the TCL supports 4k @ 144Hz and 1080p @ 288Hz, making it more versatile for PC gamers. On the other hand, the Sony has better image processing, so it has better upscaling, superior low-quality content smoothing, and less banding in color gradients.
The Sony X90L/X90CL is better overall than the Sony BRAVIA 5. The X90L is brighter overall, providing a more impactful HDR experience and making it better suited for a well-lit room. Colors are also brighter and punchier on the X90L, and they're more accurate out of the box. On the other hand, the BRAVIA 5 has slightly better contrast, lower input lag, and less stutter, but all of these things are minor, and the X90L is the better option for almost anyone.
The TCL QM6K and Sony BRAVIA 5 are very similar overall, with only a few minor differences. The TCL has a more advanced local dimming feature, making it a slightly better choice for dark room viewing, as there's less haloing around bright parts of the scene. Colors are brighter and more vibrant on the Sony, though, and it has better processing, especially when watching low-resolution or low-quality streaming sources.
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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