Sony Bravia 9 II (K65XR95M2) review

It’s finally here. After roughly 18 months of teases, demos and hands-on sessions, Sony’s flagship RGB Mini LED is in shops and in our test rooms.

The Bravia 9 II and Bravia 7 II are what Sony refers to as ‘True RGB’ TVs – an attempt by the brand to elevate its RGB Mini LED models above the flood of rivals they're facing, while suggesting that those competing implementations aren't quite as sophisticated.

Sony’s ambitions here are huge. The Bravia 9 II sits above the exceptional, Award-winning Bravia 8 II in the brand’s range, with an even higher price than the non-RGB Mini LED Bravia 9 it replaces. It’s also more expensive – at least in 65-inch guise – than the new flagship OLEDs recently launched by Sony’s rivals.

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In other words, while Sony might skirt around the term “OLED-killer” when describing the Bravia 9 II, the pricing makes that claim loud and clear.

Can a backlit TV – even a ‘True RGB’ one – really match or surpass the best OLED TVs ever made?

Price

The 65-inch version of the Bravia 9 II that we’re testing is priced at £3499 / $3600 / AU$5999.

That’s a full £500 / $300 more expensive than the 65-inch version of the Bravia 9 (which didn’t make it to Australia) was at launch.

It’s also £500 more expensive than the Bravia 8 II QD-OLED was when that launched last year, and more expensive than brand-new flagship OLEDs such as the LG G6 and Samsung S99H.

While much has been made of the potential of RGB Mini LED technology to offer larger TVs at lower prices than prohibitively expensive, hard-to-manufacture super-sized OLEDs, even the 85-inch Bravia 9 II is either quite similarly priced, or the same price, as the 83-inch versions of those Samsung and LG OLEDs.

The new technology has, though, enabled Sony to also offer the Bravia 9 II in an astonishingly huge 115 inches. Unsurprisingly, this gigantic TV has an equally gigantic price tag – £22,999 / $31,000 / AU$44,999.

Of course, launch prices are just a snapshot in time. The Bravia 9 II’s aforementioned rivals have already received their first discounts, and it probably won’t be full price itself for long. Still, the launch pricing tells us a lot about where Sony is pitching its True RGB flagship.

Design

Sony hasn't played it safe with the Bravia 9 II's design, which is unlike that of any other TV currently available.

Its defining feature is a new Mirage Stand, which at first sounds rather gimmicky but proves remarkably effective in practice. A subtly tinted transparent panel connects two slim metal uprights to a broad rectangular base, but from your normal viewing position, that panel is so inconspicuous that the TV almost appears to float just above your furniture.

Better still, while you can still see the surface beneath the TV and the wall behind it through the panel, the cables routed through the stand somehow disappear from view entirely. Clever stuff.

On the other hand, though, the Mirage Stand can be installed in just one position, which leaves space for a soundbar. There’s no option to lower the TV if you’re not using a soundbar.

The stand largely defines the Bravia 9 II's appearance, too. Unlike the understated elegance of the Bravia 8 II, Sony's flagship RGB Mini LED set makes much more of a statement. Combined with the chunky cabinet that's necessary to house its advanced backlight and speaker system, it has a substantial visual presence that won't appeal to everyone, but there's no doubting the quality of the execution.

Thick though the Bravia 9 II is, the rear panel is completely flat, making wall-mounting pleasingly neat, while the overall build quality is excellent. This is every bit the premium product you'd expect from a flagship Sony TV.

Another interesting design choice is the anti-reflective screen coating. It's among the most effective we've encountered, dramatically reducing reflections and making the Bravia 9 II particularly well suited to bright living rooms.

The trade-off is that the panel has a noticeably more matte finish than the Bravia 8 II, which itself has a matte coating. When switched off – or when displaying very dark scenes in a typically lit room – it doesn't look quite as deep black as its OLED sibling, instead taking on a slightly greyer appearance.

Whether that's a worthwhile compromise will depend largely on your viewing environment and which side you’ve picked in the matte vs glossy war, but our reviewers broadly feel that the LG G6’s anti-reflection coating – which reduces reflections a little less effectively than the Bravia 9 II but has a black-preserving, glossy finish – is the current leader in this area.

Sony has also introduced a new premium remote control. It's slightly larger and more ergonomically shaped than the one supplied with other Bravias of the last few years, and it features automatic backlighting. The layout remains intuitive, too, with the Sony Pictures Core shortcut moved above the navigation pad and the old Menu button replaced by a shortcut to Sony's new My Cinema interface.

Ultimately, the Bravia 9 II is a TV whose practicality is every bit as impressive as its styling is distinctive. The Mirage Stand won't be to everyone's taste, but it's one of the cleverest and most effective pieces of industrial design we've seen in quite some time.

Features

The Bravia 9 II's headline feature is, of course, its RGB Mini LED backlight.

Unlike conventional Mini LED TVs, which use a white backlight shining through a colour filter layer, the Bravia 9 II instead uses independently controlled red, green and blue Mini LEDs to generate colour directly.

Sony argues that this is only half of the story, though. Equally important is the sophisticated Backlight Master Drive system that controls those LEDs. After all, a Mini LED TV is only as good as its backlight processing – and history tells us that Sony knows a thing or two about that.

The 65-inch model we're testing here features 1530 local dimming zones, and Sony claims significant gains in both peak brightness and colour volume over the Bravia 9 that it replaces – and even more so over the Bravia 8 II QD-OLED.

In fact, Sony goes as far as claiming that True RGB is a “best of both worlds technology”, and that the Bravia 9 II is designed to match the “intent and peak brightness of the BVM-HX3110” mastering monitor.

This comparison with the mastering monitor is crucial to the Bravia 9 II’s very existence. According to Sony, its aim is to deliver a home viewing experience that matches what the content creators signed off in the studio. The brand feels that the brightness offered by Mini LED over OLED is vital to this, and that the RGB element is essential to deliver the colour range and accuracy that neither standard Mini LED nor OLED can match.

The Bravia 9 II also introduces Sony's new My Cinema interface, which is designed to simplify picture and sound settings without taking meaningful control away from enthusiasts.

Accessed via the dedicated three-dot button on the remote, My Cinema offers three viewing profiles: Director's Cut, Daytime and Dialogue. As their names suggest, these prioritise faithful reproduction, improved daytime visibility and clearer speech, respectively.

Perhaps the cleverest thing about My Cinema is that it deliberately limits some of the available picture adjustments. In Director's Cut mode, for example, non-Dolby Vision content (which is delivered in Dolby Vision Dark) is automatically presented in the Professional picture preset, preventing users from accidentally drifting away from Sony's intended reference settings.

We do, however, have one small criticism. While the Daytime profile defaults to the Standard Bright picture preset, it also allows you to switch to Standard, Professional or IMAX Enhanced. The Cinema preset isn't available within the Daytime profile at all, though, despite being the obvious choice for anyone wanting a slightly brighter but still authentic presentation. Hopefully, Sony will rectify this in a future software update.

Elsewhere, the Bravia 9 II offers the premium smart TV experience we've come to expect from Sony.

Google TV still isn’t quite as slick as LG’s webOS or Samsung’s Tizen, but it remains a very capable smart platform. Set-up via the Google Home app is refreshingly quick and straightforward, and the TV has Google Gemini built in, complete with far-field microphones for hands-free voice control.

App support is excellent, too. Of the 34 streaming and media apps on our usual checklist, only Apple Music and the Xbox and Amazon Luna game-streaming services are absent. Sony includes YouView, too, to overcome Google TV’s usual blind spot where UK catch-up apps are concerned, and there’s a PS Remote Play app so you can play PlayStation games via the TV even if your console is in another room.

Just as importantly, every app that should support HDR10, HLG, Dolby Vision and/or Dolby Atmos does so correctly, and Sony's Studio Calibrated modes continue to provide optimised picture settings for services such as Netflix, Prime Video and Sony Pictures Core. The TV is IMAX Enhanced-certified, too.

The Bravia 9 II’s audio hardware is unusually ambitious. Rather than hiding its speakers along the bottom edge as most TVs do, Sony arranges almost the entire speaker array in a horizontal line around the middle of the rear of the chassis, with only the Beam Tweeters positioned higher up. The idea is to anchor dialogue and effects closer to the centre of the screen, making the sound appear to come more naturally from the picture itself.

The Acoustic Multi-Audio+ system comprises eight speaker units in total, including two full-range drivers, twin subwoofers, two tweeters and a pair of Beam Tweeters, driven by a claimed 80W of power. Those Beam Tweeters are designed to create a greater sense of height and improve the placement of effects.

Pair the TV with one of Sony's latest Bravia sound systems and the integration becomes even slicker, with audio settings incorporated directly into the TV's interface and full control available through the Bravia Connect app.

Acoustic Centre Sync is also supported, allowing the TV's speakers to work alongside those of compatible Sony sound systems, though our experience with the feature has been mixed enough over the years that we'd recommend experimenting rather than simply assuming it's the best option for your particular set-up.

Picture

One of the highest compliments we can pay Sony's flagship RGB Mini LED is that, for the vast majority of the time, you simply stop thinking about how it's producing its picture and instead become immersed in what you're watching. For a backlit TV, that in itself is a deeply impressive trait.

But there’s also one particular way in which the Bravia 9 II surpasses every other TV we’ve tested: colour.

Quite simply, the Bravia 9 II produces the finest colours we've ever seen from any TV. Richly saturated scenes burst with vibrancy, but never at the expense of authenticity. Sony has combined extraordinary colour volume with its traditional restraint, so even the boldest hues remain beautifully balanced and believable. It's a wonderfully cinematic presentation that constantly impresses without ever shouting for attention.

That balance is particularly evident in Pan, where the dazzling fantasy palette of Neverland looks gloriously rich while still feeling entirely natural. Likewise, the vivid oranges and blues of Captain Marvel have exceptional intensity without ever becoming gaudy or oversaturated.

Bright colours retain their richness where many TVs begin to wash them out, too, and there’s impressive vibrancy right down into the deepest shadows. This top-to-bottom consistency is one of the Bravia 9 II’s greatest strengths.

Brightness, too, is undeniably exceptional.

During our early preview of the Bravia 9 II in Tokyo, Sony demonstrated the TV reaching around 4000 nits in its Professional picture preset, and in action, this is clearly one of the brightest TVs we've ever tested.

Crucially, unlike an OLED, Sony’s RGB Mini LED flagship’s immense brightness isn’t limited to small highlights. Where OLED technology inevitably has to reduce brightness during large, bright scenes, the Bravia 9 II can maintain its extraordinary light output across the entire screen if required.

The white room scenes in The Matrix provide a perfect demonstration. While the Bravia 8 II inevitably has to reduce its overall brightness as the dazzling white fills the screen, the Bravia 9 II simply keeps pouring out light. It's one of the clearest examples of RGB Mini LED's tangible advantage over OLED.

That brightness also gives the TV impressive versatility. Those seeking faithful movie reproduction will be best served by Professional mode, but Standard takes greater advantage of the Bravia 9 II's immense light output without straying too far into artificiality. Vivid, meanwhile, is best avoided altogether, pushing colours and brightness so far that the resulting picture bears little resemblance to the director's intent.

The additional brightness also makes the Bravia 9 II particularly appealing for bright-room viewing. Modern flagship OLEDs such as the Bravia 8 II are already bright enough for the vast majority of living rooms, but those with especially sunlit spaces will appreciate the RGB Mini LED's enormous brightness headroom and superb anti-reflective screen.

Colours and brightness aren’t the Bravia 9 II’s only qualities, though.

The Batman demonstrates just how accomplished Sony's local dimming system has become. Black levels are superbly deep for a backlit TV, blooming around white and coloured highlights is virtually non-existent and, perhaps most impressively of all, the backlight goes quietly about its work while almost never drawing attention to itself through obvious brightness shifts or flickering.

Civil War showcases Sony's typically exceptional processing, combining natural skin tones, outstanding detail and wonderfully controlled motion into a picture that's both cinematic and effortlessly watchable.

All of this adds up to what is, quite simply, the best picture we've ever seen from a backlit TV.

And yet...

Comparisons with Sony's own Bravia 8 II reveal that even this exceptional implementation of RGB Mini LED still can't quite match the fundamental strengths of OLED.

The Bravia 9 II's local dimming system is extraordinarily accomplished, yet it still can't quite replicate the pixel-level precision of OLED. The result is a picture that looks just a touch flatter than the Bravia 8 II's. Objects don't separate from their backgrounds with quite the same solidity, and scenes lack just a little of the three-dimensional depth and effortless dynamism that OLED consistently delivers.

Perhaps counterintuitively, OLED also retains an advantage with bright highlights against very dark or black backgrounds. Sony's Mini LED TV is understandably cautious in these situations, preserving its exemplary blooming control by stopping short of the intensity that the Bravia 8 II produces with bright white logos or isolated highlights.

Viewing angles remain another clear OLED advantage, too. The Bravia 9 II performs better off-axis than most backlit rivals, but colours and contrast still fade as you move away from the centre of the screen, and the otherwise well-hidden blooming is revealed.

There are, however, occasional moments that remind you the Bravia 9 II is still, ultimately, a backlit TV.

The opening text of Blade Runner 2049 remains its most obvious stumbling block. When the first word, “Replicants”, initially appears, it’s closer to grey than it is to the intended red, and as each new paragraph of white text fades in, the whole block briefly flashes a pale pink before settling down. Even then, the text never looks quite right: the white words near “Replicants” retain a faint pink cast, while the final red “Blade Runner” fades to grey as the rest of the words disappear, whereas it should remain a vivid red against the pitch-black background.

This is a highly unusual clip that challenges a TV in a way that 99 per cent of footage never will, but it proves that while the Bravia 9 II’s backlighting system is very impressive, it’s not infallible.

We also encountered one issue with the Bravia 9 II that warranted rather more investigation. During our testing, we consistently observed faint horizontal lines in a handful of Dolby Vision scenes, including parts of Sinners, across both UHD Blu-ray and streaming sources. The artefacts weren't visible when viewing the HDR10 versions of the same material, strongly suggesting an issue specific to the Bravia 9 II's Dolby Vision processing.

The lines are subtle enough that many viewers may never notice them, but once spotted, they can be difficult to ignore. Given their very specific behaviour, we'd hope this is the sort of issue Sony can resolve via a software update. It's important to stress, though, that this isn't the reason the Bravia 9 II misses out on five stars.

Gaming largely reinforces the conclusions we've already reached with movies. HDR titles such as Uncharted: The Lost Legacy look spectacular, with the Bravia 9 II delivering richer colours and greater brightness than the Bravia 8 II. Once again, though, the OLED's superior contrast gives the image greater solidity and depth, making buildings in the opening city sequence look more three-dimensional while revealing finer details, such as the freckles of the young shopkeeper, more readily.

The differences become more pronounced with SDR games. Call Of The Sea looks strikingly vibrant from the Bravia 9 II, but it's also a touch overbearing, with colours skewing richer and redder than we'd like and small white interaction prompts proving less distinct than they are on the Bravia 8 II. The OLED's more balanced presentation ultimately proves easier on the eye over longer sessions, despite looking a touch less immediately spectacular.

Motion, too, reveals one final weakness. There’s a slight smearing to fast-moving action and camera pans that's only occasionally visible with films but becomes much more noticeable in games, where higher frame rates and player-controlled movement make the effect more obvious, especially in comparison with the crisp responsiveness of OLED.

Ultimately, Sony has produced the finest backlit TV we've ever tested, and one that comes close to delivering OLED-like consistency while comfortably surpassing even the best OLEDs for brightness and colour volume. That said, a handful of flaws and relative deficiencies, while individually minor, collectively cost the Bravia 9 II its fifth star.

Sound

Sony has long been one of the few TV manufacturers to treat sound quality as more than an afterthought, and the Bravia 9 II continues that tradition with a presentation that's impressively large, spacious and immersive by TV standards.

The first thing that strikes you is the scale of the soundstage. Audio extends well beyond the physical boundaries of the TV, while Dolby Atmos soundtracks benefit from a genuine sense of height that's still rare from integrated speakers.

Watching Civil War, effects are placed with impressive precision around the TV, while the chaotic soundscape retains plenty of subtle detail rather than collapsing into a wall of noise.

It's an involving listen, too. The Bravia 9 II produces more weight than the Bravia 8 II, helping action scenes feel satisfyingly substantial.

That extra bass comes at a small cost, though. The deep synth notes at the start of chapter two of Blade Runner 2049 have plenty of depth, but they lack the tautness we'd ideally like. Rather than each note starting and stopping with real authority, the bass flaps somewhat, robbing those bassy effects of some of their intended impact.

The Bravia 9 II also falls just short of the Bravia 8 II when it comes to refinement. Dialogue remains consistently clear, but voices aren't projected with quite the same focus or solidity as they are by Sony's flagship OLED. There's also a slight hardness to the presentation that occasionally makes speech sound a touch brash, softening some of the subtle emotional nuances in performances.

That slight lack of finesse extends to high-frequency effects, too. The rain falling onto the balcony in Blade Runner 2049 has a faint metallic edge that makes it sound a little more like static than falling water. It's a subtle trait that you'll rarely notice unless comparing TVs directly, but it does slightly reduce the sense of realism.

Ultimately, the Bravia 9 II delivers some of the most spacious and immersive sound we've heard from a TV, and many buyers will be perfectly happy relying on its integrated speaker system. It doesn't quite match the refinement of the Bravia 8 II, though, and a TV of this calibre still deserves to be partnered with a dedicated sound system if your budget allows.

Verdict

With the Bravia 9 II, Sony has pushed backlit TV technology further than ever before.

Sony's first flagship RGB Mini LED TV delivers the finest colours we've ever seen from a television, breathtaking brightness, and local dimming that's so accomplished you'll frequently forget you're watching a backlit display at all. Add excellent processing, immersive sound and a polished user experience, and this is probably the best backlit TV we've ever tested.

It's not perfect, though.

A handful of relatively minor issues – from the rare backlight hiccups and a peculiar Dolby Vision bug to slightly soft bass and some motion smearing with games – are disappointing in a flagship TV. More fundamentally, despite coming closer than any previous LCD set we've tested, the Bravia 9 II still can't quite replicate the solidity, consistency and pixel-level precision that make the very best OLED TVs so special.

That doesn't make the Bravia 9 II the wrong TV. In fact, if you regularly watch in an exceptionally bright room or simply prefer not to buy an OLED, Sony's flagship True RGB model should sit right at the top of your shortlist. For most buyers, though, the Bravia 8 II remains the more complete television. It's not quite as bright, but it's more consistently convincing, costs less, and ultimately delivers the better picture overall.

SCORES

• Picture 4
• Sound 4
• Features 4

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