Sony Bravia 8 II

Introduction

The Bravia 8 II is Sony’s current headline TV – and it’s very good.

Tthe Bravia 8 II represents Sony’s TV division pulling out all the stops in its attempt to get closer to the intent of filmmakers with its performance. The Bravia 8 II reflects everything that Sony excels at, and it also comes with a few familiar niggles.

Nonetheless, if you’re a home cinema purist, the Bravia 8 II is possibly the best TV on the market.

Design

• New stand
• Wide footprint
• Minimalist looks

At first blush, the Bravia 8 II isn’t much different from the A95L. It still hews to Sony’s minimalist design approach, where the bezels barely intrude on the screen itself. It looks monolithic in a room.

Like with the A95L, the rear panel is uniformly slim, which will suit those looking to wall-mount. Setting up the TV took me just over 90 seconds, which is quick compared to a 65-inch LG G5 or Samsung S95F.

Rather than an integrated stand, the Bravia 8 II relies on feet, both of which are farmed out to the sides.

This was the same on the A95L and A95K, and, for me, it’s frustrating that Sony has stuck with this approach. Placing them at the very end of the TV’s width means it’s too wide for the stand I have, which means having to use two stands to accommodate the Bravia 8 II.

This is the same for both 55- and 65-inch models – there is no 77-inch Bravia 8 II – but Sony has carried the 77-inch A95L. Funnily enough, that size does allow for feet to be placed in the centre of the screen. Oh, Sony.

The feet height is adjustable, with a choice of sitting them flush against the floor or lifting the TV to in case you want to sling a soundbar beneath.

Another area of contention is the anti-reflection screen Sony uses. This is not the same as the Samsung S95F’s anti-glare screen, and like with the A95L and A95K, it can leave black levels looking thin in a bright room. The screen does mollify reflections to an extent, but black levels – especially at an angle – look distractingly off.

I’m all for combating reflections, but this comes at the slight cost of picture quality when the TV is in a bright room.

User Experience

• Google TV interface
• BRAVIA Connect app

Sony has dished out Google TV across its models, and if you’ve ever used a Google TV device, the set-up is the same here; divvied up into several sections: For You, Movies, Shows, Apps and Library.

Google TV is one of the nicer and simpler user interfaces, as well as fairly responsive. You’d be hard-pressed to find apps that are missing, with Google putting the total apps (and games) in the region of 10,000, with UK catch-up and on-demand apps such as iPlayer and Channel 4 present, and global apps such as Disney+, Netflix and Crunchyroll a click away.

Curation and personalisation aren’t the best, I feel. Having used Google TV for a number of years and given it access to apps such as Apple TV and Prime Video; it does recognise what I’ve watched but most of what it suggests are non-specific, ordered by genre and what’s trending, and rarely feels personal.

There’s a compact ‘smart’ remote packaged with a conventional remote that comes with more buttons and both are fine to use. Sony is also pushing its BRAVIA Connect app as a means of controlling the TV. Again, like the remotes, it’s fine to use but doesn’t bring much extra to the experience of controlling the TV aside from cutting down on the number of presses and clicks.

Features

• Dolby and DTS audio
• Sony Pictures Core
• Adaptive picture modes

Little has changed on the feature front – the Bravia 8 II’s experience is about “bringing cinema home” and as such, the majority of its features cover that base.

For HDR, the Bravia 8 II supports HDR10, HLG, and Dolby Vision. The Bravia 8 II doesn’t support Filmmaker Mode (Sony, surprisingly, has given it a wide berth), but Sony has its own Professional picture mode as an alternative, along with IMAX Enhanced mode.

Netflix Adaptive Calibrated Mode (which automatically adjusts brightness and picture), Prime Video Calibrated Mode, and Sony Pictures Core (formerly BRAVIA Core), which brings studio-quality mastered titles via a streaming portal.

On the audio front, there’s Dolby Atmos and DTS:X, helpful if you’ve got legacy DTS discs, as the Bravia 8 II can play DTS audio through its Acoustic Surface Audio+ system (which vibrates the screen to create a sound) or pass it off to another sound system. Plus, you can get ‘proper’ IMAX Enhanced sound with DTS:X onboard from the likes of Disney+.

Connectivity is four HDMI inputs, two of which support HDMI 2.1. There’s an RF terrestrial cable for aerial broadcasts, two IF satellite inputs, a digital audio output, two USB inputs, and Ethernet.

Wirelessly, there’s Bluetooth 5.3 and Wi-Fi, though which you can get Google Cast and AirPlay 2 (for Apple devices) to fling audio at the TV.

The Bravia 8 II also supports the BRAVIA Cam, though it doesn’t appear to come with the TV as standard. The headline feature remains the Ambient Optimization Pro feature that can tell where you’re sitting in a room and optimise the picture as well as angle the output of sound.

Gaming

• Dolby Vision Gaming
• HDMI VRR
• PlayStation-specific features

It might frustrate, but the Bravia 8 II’s gaming specs aren’t as lavish as the likes of the LG G5, Panasonic Z95B or Samsung S95F. It’s a strange move considering that Sony is the maker of the PlayStation 5.

Nevertheless, I measured input lag at 16.4ms, which is respectable but both Samsung, LG and the Panasonic Z95B are better out of the box. In fact, the Sony A95L was a bit quicker at 16.2ms.

There’s Dolby Vision Gaming, a feature the PS5 doesn’t support, but the Xbox Series consoles do (again, another odd decision). 4K/120Hz is the highest frame rate the Bravia 8 II can achieve, less than the 4K/165Hz that the Hisense U8Q can achieve.

The Bravia 8 II is a console for console gamers, not PC fans, made even clearer with Sony’s Perfect for PlayStation 5 features that includes the (handy) Auto HDR Tone Mapping that automatically calibrates the TV’s HDR performance.

Auto Genre Picture Mode is essentially ALLM, automatically putting the TV into its game mode when it recognises a gaming signal. HDMI VRR is ticked off, though there’s no official AMD FreeSync or Nvidia G-Sync support for PC gamers.

The PS Remote Play feature allows for remote gameplay with the PS5 or PS4), and you don’t even have to be on the same Wi-Fi network for this to work, though, as far as I’m aware, there’s still no 4K support and additional lag is likely over a network.

Picture Quality

• Nuanced, colourful performance
• Slick motion processing
• Improved dark detail

The Sony is not as bright as some of its rivals, but it uses just enough brightness and relies on the prowess of its picture processing to bridge the gap between it and its rivals.

Its Professional Picture mode measures at 1996 and 1703 nits of a 5% and 10% HDR window. That’s a step up on the A95L (1573 and 1669 nits respectively). The Samsung S95F registers 2220 nits in its Filmmaker Mode while the Panasonic Z95B and LG G5 hit in the region of 2500 nits.

That said, with an LG G5 sat next to the Sony Bravia 8 II; the Sony is perceptually brighter of the two, especially with Dolby Vision content. In a scene from The Matrix Resurrections where Neo climbs out of a machine pod, the colour volume on the Bravia 8 II hits with a richer and brighter red that makes the LG look dull by comparison.

QD-OLED panels inclination for stronger white tones than Tandem RGB OLED also feeds into the scene where Neo wakes up in a simulation – the purity and brightness of the Bravia 8 II makes the LG G5 less ‘authentic’.

The LG G5’s processing does bring more depth to images, but highlights (the brightest part of the image) shine better on the Sony, while colours are presented with a wider range of tones.

A scene in Resurrections where a SWAT team raid a rooftop, and the Bravia 8 II more deftly depicts it as happening during dawn sunlight with the lightness and tone of its colours; while the LG makes it look like it’s closer to dusk with its deeper, darker colours. The TV also renders the SWAT team’s overalls correctly as green, while the LG goes for blacker tones.

The same is true with a watch of Sinners, the IMAX photography looks stellar on the Bravia 8 II, its performance, especially with gradations of colour, is more varied, wider in range, and more nuanced. There are colours seen on the Sony that aren’t on the LG at all.

Dark detail is excellent – an area where I felt the A95L was slightly weak in but the Bravia 8 II gets right, revealing more detail in the shadows without diminishing black levels. The only problem is the anti-reflective layer makes black levels look grey in a bright room, but turn the lights off and the level of precision in the Bravia 8 II’s picture tops the LG.

Black levels in Alien: Romulus are inkier and feature more depth on the LG than they do on the Sony, but dark detail is better out of the box with the Sony, and the Bravia 8 II’s defter sense of colours and tone does give the film a slightly more cinematic look than the LG conjures up.

For a 65-inch TV the Bravia 8 II looks so defined and detailed – greens, reds, oranges in Babylon look vibrant; colours aren’t ever washed out or wan looking, skintones are conveyed with warmth but not over the top; both the TV’s subtlety and punch with colour tones is a level of precision I haven’t seen from other flagship TVs. It’s a top tier HDR performance.

Motion processing remains solid with the Auto setting offering a smooth enough ride aside from some judder and noise that presents itself. The Custom setting retains the traditional 24fps stutter with film while maintaining a smooth performance that doesn’t jar in terms noise and judder. LG has caught up in some respects, but there’s still something about how natural and seamless about Sony’s Motionflow processing.

Upscaling

• Colourful
• Not as detailed as rivals

I haven’t been as impressed with Sony’s upscaling. Both LG and Samsung scrub up HD resolution and lower with greater levels of clarity, sharpness, and detail.

And with a Blu-ray of Dune, that remains the case. The LG offers more brightness in its SDR modes while the Bravia 8 II keeps it low key. The Sony is probably the more accurate, but it also offers fewer fireworks.

The LG G5 also draws out more detail and definition for a sharper image. This isn’t helped by the anti-reflection screen that, with SDR images and in a bright room, creates a softer look.

In short, with HD content, Sony’s black levels can look a little soft (in a bright room), which can affect contrast; but dark detail remains excellent, and colour accuracy impresses.

An ageing DVD of Revenge of the Sith and it’s a much closer battle but the black depth of the LG gives the film a sharper, more defined and slightly clearer look whereas the Sony comes across as the most vibrant, colour-wise.

Some judder does rear its head in the flowing opening shot of the film on the Sony – but the LG teases out more detail from low resolution content, with more noise present on the Bravia 8 II. You’d have to be staring to notice the difference but it is there.

Sound Quality

• Punchy bass
• Energetic, dynamic sound

TV sound has always been an area of weakness for flatscreen TVs, but Sony has done more than most to elevate the performance of built-in speakers, and the Bravia 8 II is almost so good that you might not need an external speaker.

With F1: The Movie, Sony brings out more detail from the film’s sound design, and positions those sounds on the screen better than the LG G5. Everything sounds more natural through the speakers, whether it’s dialogue or the roar of engines in the Daytona race.

Low frequencies are given more heft and depth, the Bravia 8 II is louder and more dynamic, and while there’s a slight warmth to the Sony’s sound that means it’s not as clear or as sharp as others, especially with treble frequencies, there’s an intensity to the action in F1: The Movie that gives it a sense of scale other premium TVs don’t often match.

Distortion isn’t an issue unless the volume is pushed beyond 75 or so when watching Civil War. There’s a nice punch and snap to gunshots throughout the film, the weight and energy of the Sony’s sound system makes the film’s set pieces more exciting.

The only sound system I’ve heard recently that’s bettered the Bravia 8 II is that of the Panasonic Z90B, which is high praise.

Should you buy it?