Sony has changed almost everything about its home entertainment lineup and in more
ways than one I'm about to show you Sony's craziest LED TV ever and that
ain't even the half of it stick around because you are not going to want to miss
this welcome back everyone I'm Caleb Denison and sitting on news is just part of my job but
I'm not exaggerating when I say that keeping all this info that I'm about to share with you
a secret has been a special kind of challenging that's because I think it is so interesting and
exciting you'll see what I mean in a moment let's get into it right now for context and for those
of you watching who are unaware I was part of a small group that traveled to Sony headquarters
in Tokyo in November 2023 and it was there that I saw and heard most of what I'm about to tell you
more recently I was part of a much larger group that visited the Sony Pictures lot in Culver City
California where I learned even more and that was no typical press trip but I'll talk about
that in another video later this week right now though I'm going to lay out the nuts and bolts
of some sweeping changes Sony has made to its TV and audio lineup and show you for the first time
possibly the most impressive mini LED TV I've ever seen so the first bomb drop here is that Sony has
completely transformed the naming convention for its TVs forget X90 this and A80 that all that is
gone here is Sony's 2024 TV lineup starting at the top we've got the Bravia 9 next after that
is the Bravia 8 stepping down from there we get to the Bravia 7 and then the next and final step is
the Bravia 3 now let's start from the bottom and work our way up the Bravia 3 is what I guess you
could call Sony's entry level TV although Sony's entry level is going to perform more like other
brands medium to medium high models it's a direct LED TV which means it does not have local dimming
it comes in sizes ranging from 43 in up to 85 in it has Sony's 4K HDR X1 processor and 4K X
Reality Pro upscaling which is a step down from the higher models but still among the best TV
processors on the market it has a 60 HZ panel but still supports some gaming features like Auto low
latency mode it supports Dolby Vision Dolby Atmos DTSX and DTS surround as well as HDR10 and HLG it
does not have an ATSC 3.0 tuner and it runs on the Google TV platform as all of Sony's TVs do
this will be Sony's most affordable TV and yes I think I will be reviewing it this year now while
I'm reluctant to compare it to a model from previous years I guess you could liken it to
an X80 series TV The Next Step Up is the Bravia 7 I suppose you could consider this a replacement
for the X90L series last year but it's quite a bit more advanced best just to think of it as
Sony's second best LED TV now that's because the Bravia 7 is a mini LED TV this year with
full array local dimming XR backlight Master drive it's armed with Sony's revered XR processor which
comes along with XR clear image upscaling that everyone raved about last year it's got a 120 HZ
panel acoustic multi-audio with voice Zoom 3 more on that amazing feature in the next video when we
talk about audio stuff it does have an ATSC 3.0 tuner and a four-way stand that allows for two
different heights and two different widths and it comes in sizes ranging from 55 to 85 in new for
this year is a Prime video calibrated mode as well as Netflix adaptive calibrated mode and it adds
IMAX enhanced among a myriad of other features that I'll talk about in a future deep dive video
because some of those features are amazing and should not be glossed over we just don't have
time to do that right here next is the Bravia 8 and this might mess with your head a little bit
the Bravia 8 is an OLED TV I'm going to give some of you enthusiasts out there watching a
little time to absorb that okay yes so the Bravia 8 is essentially replacing the A80L from last year
which is to say that it is a new new OLED TV for Sony and it uses a WRGB OLED panel not a QD
OLED panel it's got all the same features as the Bravia 7 with the notable exception that it has
acoustic surface audio which as a reminder means that the screen itself makes sound and we really
dig that around here screen sizes for the Bravia 8 include 55 65 and 77 in variants now try not
to get too hung up that as far as model names go the bra 8 and OLED TVs have been folded in among
LED TVs with no apparent distinction to Consumers those of you who care please plan to join me in a
future video in which we will commiserate over that and debate the merits of Sony's decision
to do so for now though we must not be distracted because it is time to talk about Sony's flagship
TV for 2024 guaranteed to be one of the most exciting TVs of the year the Bravia 9 the Bravia
9 employs the new mini LED backlight technology that I showed you at the beginning of this year
now for anyone who missed that video or just needs the simplified version Sony's new mini LED
backlight panels feature legitimately Innovative super tiny backlight control chips that allow more
mini LEDs to be packed into a tighter space much higher brightness while also using far
less power and they have more granular dimming control which frankly is in my opinion their most
impressive attribute the result is a mini LED TV that can push above 4,000 nits of brightness
in Peak highlight areas which I will argue is both impressive and important however what I'm
most excited about is the potential for this TV to minimize blooming and halo effect while also
offering extremely good low light performance and Shadow detail in short if what I saw during
demonstrations translates into real life performance the way I hope and expect it
will the Bravia 9 will be the most technically accurate and Visually impressive LED TV ever
made it can do things that the famous z9d simply could not do and while this is not the deep dive
video I feel like I need to explain why I think that's the case we like to get excited about high
brightness TVs because brightness is an important component of contrast and also it's just straight
up dazzling but in 2024 there will be a ton of bright TVs on the market some of which lay claim
to getting much brighter than the Bravia 9 here now the real measure of how good this year's mini
LED TVs will be is going to be how well they pull off low luminance images while also mitigating
the blooming or halo effect that TV nerds like me love to hate that is the real challenge and
it is those measures that will get a mini LED TV looking closer to OLED in terms of contrast and
overall picture performance while also being able to display bright highlight detail in a
way that OLED TVs simply cannot the reason that I think the Bravia 9 can pull this off starts
with Sony's excellent processing but it is the granular dimming control that is going to bring
it home and to illustrate how it is different than other brands mini LED systems I actually
want to head into the kitchen here and pull up my Vivant smart home app no this is not an ad for
Vivant I swear I just think this is going to make the most meaningful illustration but before we
do move over there let me explain how other mini LED TVs work so for years when we've talked about
local dimming I think folks have thought of the LED dimming action on a TV to be kind of like a
dimmer switch for your lights at home you have off you have full blast on and then you have lots of
subtle levels in between but in reality most LED dimming is an on or off proposition if you want
an area to be dark you turn off the backlights behind that area if you want it to be bright you
turn on the backlights in that area and then all the subtlety of brightness levels in between is
actually handled by the LCD cells being either open or closed or somewhere in between now to
offer finer control than just having huge blocks of dimmable lights more dimming zones were added
so you could have something super bright sitting next to something super dark now this helps but
it's also really hard to do quickly which is why often TVs with a bunch of dimming zones appear to
brighten and darken kind of sluggishly what we've really needed for mini LED TVs to get better is
a backlight dimming system that actually did work like the dimmable LED lights that we have at home
see here on my Vivant app I can dim or brighten each light on the kitchen track independently
those are the zones for our little analogy but I can also dim them at a granular level 20% 30% 40% and
so on all the way up to full power it's that kind of granular dimming control that Sony has at work
in its new backlight system and you can see its benefits here in this demo where they have their
new flagship backlight system right against their own Flagship backlight system from last year you
can see very clearly here that there is much finer control than Sony's own best TV last year and
that's what I think is going to set the Bravia 9 apart from the rest of the pack this year it's got
all the features up to 4,000 nits Peak Performance and it comes in 65, 75 and 85 in sizes so now you
finally know what I've been knowing for a minute now no more rumors or speculation that's the deal
Oh and before I go just a reminder that all the rumors that you may have have heard about the
A95L QD OLED that it was going away or that Sony was quitting OLED all of them are false the A95L
will continue to be Sony's Flagship OLED through at least most of 2024 whether we see an update
to that model this year is well that is up in the air thanks as always for watching everyone I know
I don't even have to ask you for the comments but I'm going to do it anyway what do you think
of Sony's new lineup and more specifically the new model names do you like the simplicity think
it's more confusing let me know down below hit the like button if you would please and subscribe so
you don't miss the next two videos wherein I'll talk about Sony's new audio lineup including the
successor to the super popular HT-A9 and later a deeper dive into what Sony is offering this
year I'll see you on the next one and until then here's two other videos I think you might like