The Sony Bravia 8 II has earned its place as our new premium TV recommendation in our list of the best TVs, usurping its Sony A95L predecessor.
Despite being two years old, the A95L remains one of the very best TVs around. Developing a successor compelling enough to not only beat it, but soundly, must have been a serious challenge, but it's one that Sony has risen to.
Sony has equipped the Bravia 8 II with the latest QD-OLED panel and enhanced processing capabilities. The company claims this delivers 25 per cent more peak brightness than the A95L, and 50 per cent more than the standard Bravia 8 W-OLED model.
Not only that, but Sony has also engineered improvements to dark gradation performance, enabling the display to reveal shadow details that were previously lost.
The final results for these tweaks and improvements speak for themselves.
During our extensive testing process, the Bravia 8 II consistently outperformed both the A95L and the standard Bravia 8. Peak highlights displayed noticeably brighter intensity, with pin-prick stars glistening more piercingly against deep space backgrounds.
The enhanced dark gradation also revealed folds and wrinkles in clothing, subtle facial expressions, and fine textures that were lost on both comparison models.
The television's new AI scene recognition system also optimises picture quality, creating images with remarkable solidity and three-dimensional presence, where dramatic sunrise skies appear to stretch toward the horizon with greater depth and contrast.
Perhaps the best news, though, is that getting this exceptional performance from the Bravia 8 II requires minimal user tinkering.
There's no need to scroll through endless settings and tweak different parameters – simply select Dolby Vision Dark for Dolby Vision content or Professional mode for everything else, and enjoy the ride.
Elsewhere, while we’d always recommend adding one of the best soundbars to your TV set-up to complement the on-screen action, the Bravia 8 II’s built-in audio is still better than most.
It uses the same Acoustic Surface Audio+ configuration as the A95L, with two actuators vibrating the screen itself for sound reproduction, supported by two subwoofers for bass extension.
This creates spatial audio that ties directly to visual action while extending beyond the screen's boundaries. Our testing found excellent detail retrieval, convincing dynamic range, and natural tonal balance throughout, ranking it among the very best built-in TV sound systems available.
As for gaming, the Bravia 8 II's capabilities include 4K/120Hz, VRR, ALLM and a Dolby Vision Game mode – plus Perfect for PlayStation 5 functionality for automatic HDR optimisation.
One minor snag for hardcore gamers, though, is the fact that there are just two full-bandwidth HDMI 2.1 sockets, with one doubling as the eARC port.
That niggle aside, the Bravia 8 II deserves its new throne, thanks to a combination of enhanced brightness, superior shadow detail, and refined AI processing that delivers images with astonishing dynamism and realism.
For those seeking exceptional picture quality with minimal setup effort and outstanding built-in sound, the Bravia 8 II confidently justifies its position atop our premium TV recommendations.
MORE:
Read our full Sony Bravia 8 II review
Our pick of the best TVs you can buy
These are the best soundbars money can buy
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
