OPINION: The best thing about reveals of new TVs is that after months of guessing and speculation, we finally know what those TVs can do – and also what they can’t.
Knowing what they can do helps us measure them against their rivals – if you’re buying a new TV in 2025 you’ll want to know how it shapes up against its competitors: what it does, what it’s good at, what features it has, etc.
And for gaming I can’t help but feel there are better choices than a Sony TV.
Sony lags behind its TV rivals
That’s a weird thing to write considering Sony just so happens to make the massively successful PS5 and PS5 Pro. I wouldn’t want to say that Sony has become complacent because I don’t think it has, but as far as gaming is concerned, its approach leaves me scratching my head.
For one, not much has changed in the last few years in terms of gaming features on Sony TVs. It took Sony longer than most to implement ALLM on their TVs, VRR support was added later with 4K/120Hz refresh rates, followed by a Dolby Vision Game mode and SBTM (Source Based Tone Mapping) on its 2024 TVs.
Weirdly, the PS5 doesn’t support Dolby Vision Game mode, but the Xbox Series X does – if that’s not an own goal then it feels as if a defender on Sony’s team has just played a lazy back pass to the opposition’s attacker.
But where other TV brands have embraced all the current gaming scene has to offer, from 165Hz refresh rates to native AMD and Nvidia support, Sony has remained rather static, as if it doesn’t want to shy away from its home cinema perch.
New features have come along, but they’ve more or less been PS5-focused. PS5 Remote Play, for instance, is a pretty cool feature, allowing you to stream and control your PS5 from another location (you don’t even have to be on the same network).
Sony has aped others in bringing in a Game Menu to fine-tune settings and watch YouTube videos as you game, but other brands have been doing this for years. The ‘Perfect for PS5’ branding isn’t much different from what other TVs can do; they’ve just given those features fancier names.
I’d like for Sony to be the innovator in this area of the market. Instead, the approach has almost been “wait and see”, and its focus on all things PS5 has meant it’s neglected a chunk of the market in potential PC gamers.
Its PS5 focus is actually a missed opportunity
What I’ve repeatedly said about Sony’s TV line-up is that there is a lack of small OLED options, which I think is a mistake. LG, Panasonic, Philips, and Samsung have dived into this area with abandon, while Sony hasn’t updated its small-sized OLEDs in years.
The A90K series was geared towards home cinema and not gaming, which again is a missed opportunity. There have only been two small-sized OLED TVs from Sony in five years, while LG has trotted out OLED after OLED, year after year, aimed at this market.
There’s a risk that Sony gets outmatched in an arena where really it should be one of the top dogs. Even TVs from Hisense and TCL have more advanced gaming features – that’s not meant as a knock on those brands, but an idea of just how competitive the market has become and where Sony is in terms of its offering.
Sony really should have a presence in the TV gaming market but it feels as if it has held back for reasons I can’t quite fathom. Today’s TVs are aimed at everyone, stuffing in as many features as possible to appeal; while Sony’s TVs are aimed at some, and that approach is hindering rather than helping.
Let’s not forget that Sony makes some of the best TVs, but it could be even better if it fully embraced all that the gaming market has to offer.
