Sony BRAVIA 9 II  TV Review

The Sony BRAVIA 9 II is an incredibly bright TV in HDR. Small highlight details get extremely bright and stand out the way the content creator intended, and unlike the TCL X11L, it can actually hold them at that level over time. It also gets brighter than the TCL X11L and the Sony BRAVIA 7 II when more of the screen gets bright at once, like in bright outdoor shots.

These results are after a full calibration with Auto local dimming set to 'Medium.' Setting it to 'High' doesn't actually increase the brightness of most content, but results in a more aggressive RGB backlight performance. Sony recommends 'Medium' as the default, most accurate setting.

• Peak 2% Window: 3,765 cd/m²
• Peak 10% Window: 4,720 cd/m²
• Peak 25% Window: 2,865 cd/m²
• Peak 50% Window: 1,641 cd/m²
• Peak 100% Window: 981 cd/m²

We took additional measurements with variations on the most accurate mode.

The HDR peak brightness in Game Mode is fantastic. There's barely any noticeable difference in brightness between this mode and the calibrated 'Professional' mode. Note that the Backlight lighting mode can't be changed in this mode; it's locked to the RGB mode.

These results are after a full calibration with Auto local dimming set to 'Medium.' Setting it to 'High' doesn't increase the brightness of most content, but results in a more aggressive RGB backlight performance. Sony recommends 'Medium' as the default, most accurate setting.

• Peak 2% Window: 3,785 cd/m²
• Peak 10% Window: 4,723 cd/m²
• Peak 25% Window: 2,865 cd/m²
• Peak 50% Window: 1,644 cd/m²
• Peak 100% Window: 987 cd/m²

We took additional measurements with variations on the most accurate mode.

The Sony BRAVIA 9 II is exceptionally bright in SDR. It can easily overcome glare during the day in bright content. While there's a considerable decrease in peak brightness when more of the screen is bright at once, most people won't need to set the TV that bright, so it's not very noticeable. It has no trouble maintaining high brightness levels for extended periods of time.

These results are after a full calibration with Auto local dimming set to 'Medium.' Setting it to 'High' increases the brightness of large elements on the screen, but reduces the peak luminance of very small highlight details, and it results in a more aggressive RGB backlight performance. Sony recommends 'Medium' as the default, most accurate setting.

• Peak 2% Window: 3,732 cd/m²
• Peak 10% Window: 4,711 cd/m²
• Peak 25% Window: 2,862 cd/m²
• Peak 50% Window: 1,641 cd/m²
• Peak 100% Window: 984 cd/m²
• Real Scene: 1,311 cd/m²

The Sony BRAVIA 9 II has amazing contrast. The native contrast of the panel is a bit low, likely due to changes that Sony has made to the optical stack, which reduces how deep blacks get in more complicated content. The local dimming feature does a fantastic job most of the time, though, and blacks are deep even when close to bright highlights.

The lighting zone precision on this TV is excellent. With the most accurate and recommended Auto Local Dimming setting of 'Medium,' there's some noticeable haloing, especially around subtitles and small, moving objects.

The zone precision looks slightly worse than the original Sony BRAVIA 9, but there are a few different things that contribute to that. The viewing angle on the new model is worse, which makes haloing more noticeable when viewed from the side. The original model was also tested with Auto Local Dimming on 'High' instead of 'Medium' on this TV. That setting significantly reduces haloing on the Mark 1, but introduces a more aggressive crosstalk on this model, so it's not the recommended setting.

The zone transitions on this TV are good. It keeps up well with fast-moving objects, and there's relatively little flicker as they move between zones. With Auto Local Dimming set to 'Medium,' which is the recommended setting, the TV leaves more zones on than necessary. This reduces flicker and makes the zone transitions less harsh, but also causes more haloing.

There's only a minor difference in dark details when you switch to Game Mode. There's slightly more haloing around bright highlights on a dark background, but it's a very minor difference. The settings available in this mode are a bit different, though, as you can't change the backlight to white only.

The black uniformity on this TV is excellent. With local dimming disabled, the entire screen is cloudy, and the TV's relatively high native contrast is more noticeable. There's also a bright patch along the left side of the screen. Enabling local dimming eliminates most of this, though, and the TV looks fantastic.

The Sony BRAVIA 9 II has amazing color volume in SDR. Colors are incredibly bright and vibrant, with full coverage of the DCI-P3 color space and great coverage of the wider BT.2020 color space. These results are in the most accurate post-calibration mode, with the backlight set to 'RGB' and local dimming enabled. The exact combination of local dimming settings used has a significant impact on how colors are displayed.

With Auto Local Dimming set to 'Medium,' which is the recommended setting, the TV often falls back to using all three LEDs as a white backlight. This behavior is different from other RGB Mini LED TVs, like the Samsung R95H or Hisense UR9SG, which stay in the RGB mode. In the 'Professional' Picture Mode, you can also force the backlight to white only by changing the Backlight Lighting Mode setting, which changes the results a bit:

• CIELAB DCI-P3 Coverage: 92.48%
• CIELAB BT.2020 Coverage: 73.59%

Like all RGB Mini LED TVs, the RGB backlighting can cause noticeable color crosstalk in real content. With most real content, the actual color volume displayed on the screen will fall somewhere between the white backlight values above and the RGB values in the posted results.

The HDR color volume on this TV is superb. Colors are bright and vibrant, and it's not limited by its peak brightness or contrast. While it can't fill out the 10,000 nit color volume, there's almost nothing out there that even uses that, so it's not an issue with real content.

This was measured with the backlight set to its RGB mode, which appears to behave differently depending on the exact colors displayed. This causes the individual color luminance measurements to be not perfectly additive, meaning the luminance of pure red, green, and blue added together is less than the luminance of pure white. Unlike other non-additive panel technologies like WOLED panels, this doesn't cause colors to appear washed out on this model.

The Sony BRAVIA 9 II has very good accuracy out of the box. The white balance is good, with no issues in shades of gray, but reds are a bit underrepresented in most shades. It has great color mapping, but again reds are a bit off, and the TV has a slightly cool color temperature. The TV's gamma tracking is nearly perfect, so nearly everything is displayed at the correct brightness level.

Note that, unlike our usual process, the pre-calibration results on this TV are with Auto Local Dimming set to 'Medium' instead of disabling it. This is because disabling it forces the backlight to white instead, and it's less accurate in that configuration.

This TV has fantastic accuracy after calibration. It lacks a color management system, though, so it's not possible to fully correct all issues, and reds are still a bit off. Most people won't notice this with real content, though.

See our full calibration settings.

The HDR color accuracy is great before calibration. The overall white balance and color accuracy are great, with just a few noticeable issues in brighter shades of gray. The color mapping is excellent, but the average color temperature is slightly cool.

This TV has fantastic accuracy after calibration. Colors didn't change much as it lacks a color management system (CMS), but the white balance improved a bit, and the color temperature is perfect.

The Sony BRAVIA 9 II has nearly perfect PQ EOTF tracking. Shadows and midtones are barely dimmer than they should, but it's not noticeable. There's a smooth roll-off at the TV's peak brightness, which helps preserve gradation in extremely bright scenes.

Unlike most TVs, there's no difference in EOTF tracking with content mastered at different brightness levels. It's bright enough to display content mastered at 600 and 1,000 nits nearly perfectly, though, so this doesn't matter much.

This TV does a great job of smoothing out low-quality streaming content. It noticeably reduces issues like macro-blocking and posterization, and there's no significant loss of fine details.

The Sony BRAVIA 9 II does a fantastic job upscaling lower-resolution channels and older movies on DVD. There's no obvious over-sharpening or other artifacts, and text is well-defined and easy to read.

The HDR gradient handling on the Sony BRAVIA 9 II is superb. There's only very minor banding in some shades, but it's really difficult to spot, and most people won't notice it at all.

The Sony BRAVIA 9 II has great input lag, but only if you're in Game Mode. Unlike most other brands, it doesn't offer a low-latency motion interpolation mode, so the input lag with interpolation enabled is too high to be playable. This can also make menus feel sluggish when navigating an external media player.

This TV has fantastic format support, but it's limited to a 120Hz refresh rate, which is disappointing to PC gamers. Chroma 4:4:4 and RGB signals are displayed properly with 1080p and 4k signals, which is essential for clear text when using it as a PC monitor. HDMI ports 1 and 2 are limited to HDMI 2.0 bandwidth and don't support 4k @ 120Hz inputs.

The TV supports variable refresh rate technology to reduce screen tearing. HDMI Forum VRR and G-SYNC compatibility work over the entire refresh rate range, but it doesn't support FreeSync.

The CAD at the maximum 4k refresh rate of 120Hz is okay. It's better than the Sony BRAVIA 7 II and TCL X11L, so motion is clearer and easier to make out when gaming. It overshoots the target when coming out of black, though, which causes a white trail behind dark shadow details.

The maximum refresh rate supported by this TV is 120Hz, so these results are identical to the Max Refresh Rate test.

Unfortunately, the CAD is significantly higher when you drop down to 60Hz, and motion is incredibly blurry. It doesn't overshoot nearly as much in shadow details, though, so there's less inverse ghosting.

Except for 1440p, which isn't supported, the TV is fully compatible with everything the PS5 and PS5 Pro offer, like 4k @ 120Hz, as well as HDMI Forum VRR. It also supports Auto Low Latency Mode, so you don't have to manually switch to Game Mode to get the lowest input lag. It even automatically calibrates the PS5's HDR output to match the TV's capabilities.

With the exception of 1440p, the TV is fully compatible with everything the Xbox Series X|S offers, including 4k @ 120Hz, HDMI Forum VRR, and Dolby Vision gaming. It also supports Auto Low Latency Mode, so you don't have to manually switch to Game Mode to get the lowest input lag.

Despite the TV's good cinematic response time, the amount of stutter on this TV is relatively low. You'll still see some stuttering around very slow, wide-panning shots, but it's not nearly as bad as most other high-end TVs.

Adding low levels of interpolation does a very good job of reducing stutter. The frame hold time is considerably lower, and it's very consistent, so the frame pacing is even and smooth.

The Sony BRAVIA 9 II removes judder from most content. The frame pacing isn't quite perfect with most European content shot at 25 fps, but it's not too bad.

There's no micro judder on this TV.

The response time when watching content on this TV is good. Fast action in sports can be a bit blurry, but it's not too bad most of the time.

Most transitions are fairly even, but there are some very minor intermediate colors in some transitions. Most people won't notice it with real content, though.

The Sony BRAVIA 9 II uses pulse width modulation (PWM) to adjust the backlight intensity. It flickers at 720Hz in all picture modes, even with Auto Local Dimming disabled or with the backlight set to white.

The Sony BRAVIA 9 II has an optional backlight strobing feature, which is commonly called black frame insertion. It flickers at either 60Hz or 120Hz to match the frame rate of the content you're watching, which is great. Unfortunately, the pulse timing is a bit off, causing two secondary images. They're faint and difficult to spot with most real content, though.

The Sony BRAVIA 9 II has stellar direct reflection handling. Sony's new Black Screen Pro coating, which is their first matte coating on a TV, effectively eliminates all direct reflections from the screen. Lights and windows directly opposite the TV aren't noticeable at all. This significantly improves dark scene visibility when watching TV during the day.

There's a slight increase in black levels in a bright room, but it's minor and not very noticeable. Unlike QD-OLED panels like the Samsung S95H, blacks don't have a purple tint to them, either.

The total amount of reflected light is great. Indirect reflections aren't very noticeable, and there's no distracting rainbow smear.

Ambient light has absolutely no noticeable impact on perceived color saturation on this TV.

The Sony BRAVIA 9 II has a mediocre viewing angle. While it maintains its picture quality to a moderate angle fairly well, colors wash out and fade at a wide angle. Black levels rise quickly as you move to the sides, so issues like haloing in dark scenes are more noticeable.

This TV has decent gray uniformity. The center of the screen is actually very clean, making it a great choice for watching sports. The sides are noticeably darker, though, which is noticeable with most real content. It's much better in near-black scenes.

The Sony BRAVIA 9 II uses a new RGB Mini LED panel, which is mainly designed to increase color volume. Instead of a traditional blue backlight with quantum dot color converters, it uses separate red, green, and blue LEDs to produce light.

There are high peaks on reds, blues, and greens, and there's excellent separation between them, giving the TV great color purity. It uses an RGB subpixel arrangement, which helps with text clarity when used with a PC.

The Sony BRAVIA 9 II supports HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, but only on two of the inputs. One of the high-bandwidth ports is also the eARC port, so you can connect the TV to a receiver with high-bandwidth passthrough if you need more high-bandwidth inputs.

This TV supports eARC, which allows you to pass high-quality, uncompressed audio to a compatible receiver through an HDMI cable. It supports all major audio formats, so you don't have to worry about compatibility with external sources.

There's a minor shimmering effect in dark scenes when watching Dolby Vision content. It's not very noticeable from a comfortable viewing distance.

The Sony BRAVIA 9 II has a very premium design. The bezels are fairly thin, with a floating frame style with a slight gap between the main panel and the outer edge of the TV. The whole thing is a bit thicker than most TVs, but it's not bad. The pedestal stand is incredibly unique, with a lens panel that hides cables routed through the back.

The center-mounted pedestal stand has a unique design, with a semi-opaque lens panel that helps hide cables that are routed through the back. The downside to this approach is that it offers no flexibility, and you'll need to wall-mount the TV if the stand doesn't fit your setup.

Footprint of the 65-inch stand: 13.5" x 13.4" x 3.7".

The back of the TV has a nice, clean look. It has a simple brushed texture pattern instead of the checkerboard pattern found on previous high-end Sony TVs. There are cable clips on the back of the TV to help with cable management.

The Sony BRAVIA 9 II has fantastic build quality. There's some slight flex to the back plastic, but it's not an issue, and the TV feels solid and well-built. The matte coating can be a bit difficult to clean properly.

The Sony BRAVIA 9 II ships with version 14 of the very popular Google TV smart interface, and includes the Gemini AI assistant.

Running AIDA64 on the TV shows that it's powered by the Pentonic 1000 chipset. Sony's website advertises that the TV has 32GB of internal storage, but the AIDA64 software only detects 16.

Unfortunately, like most TVs, the interface contains ads. You can opt out of personalized ads, but this doesn't change the number of ads you'll see; they just won't be personalized to match your search and viewing history.

During the initial setup of the TV, you can opt out of signing in to Google and use the TV as a basic TV instead. This disables most smart features and removes ads.

The remote is backlit and can be recharged via USB-C.

• Remote control
• 2x AAA batteries
• User guides
• Cable ties
• Optical adapter

This TV was initially tested with firmware version 114.602.080.1NAA.

The Sony BRAVIA 9 II has a decent frequency response. It has a well-balanced sound profile at low and moderate listening levels, and dialogue is very clear and easy to understand. Lower-mids are a bit raised, though, which can make voices sound slightly boxy or thick. It gets very loud, but dialogue isn't quite as clear, and loud speech may sound compressed at times.