Sony is no stranger to making TVs that mimic the theater experience (see: the A90J, long our luxury pick for best TV). Maybe that’s why the company hasn’t overhauled its 2023 TV lineup, instead tweaking overall picture quality with smart improvements, while adding some long-overdue upgrades for gamers.
We recently had the opportunity to see Sony’s 2023 Bravia XR lineup first-hand — including the new X95L, X93L, X90L, A95L QD-OLED, and A80L OLED — and not only can we preview how the company’s latest models compare to last year’s models Ho improves but also sees them go head-to-head with top competitors from LG and Samsung. While this might not be everyone’s upgrade year, we’re impressed with what we’ve seen.
Wondering if you should bring the 2023 Bravia to your living room when it launches this spring? Here are our early impressions.
Impressive upgrades for Mini LED and OLED
One of the first devices we saw was the X95L Mini LED, which played “The Devil Wears Prada” alongside similar models from LG and Samsung, and a Sony reference monitor that played the film in its purest, cinema-quality form Even though we’re watching a movie from 2006, the X95L does an excellent job of upscaling it to 4K, thanks to the built-in upgraded Cognitive Processor XR, making it look crisp and modern. Compared to LG and Samsung TVs, Sony’s Mini LED does a better job of preserving certain details, especially (oddly) when looking at Anne Hathaway’s hair, whose color seems to be more subtle on the reference display. More accurate than its more saturated competitors.
We also got a look at Sony’s updated A95L QD-OLED and A95L OLED, which is based on much of the same technology we loved on the excellent A90J (OLED TVs generally have deeper blacks and better contrast than standard LED TVs). The TV’s advanced new processor delivers better brightness and contrast, something we noticed clearly when looking at the old and new OLED models side-by-side. The bloom phenomenon (when bright images spill over onto dark backgrounds, creating an unpleasant cloudy effect) is noticeably reduced on the new model, resulting in more intense blacks, which should make your favorite weekly TV show more immersive.
While I’ve been impressed with the various Bravia TVs themselves, I’m most excited about this long-awaited new feature: a proper game mode. Competing TVs from LG and Samsung have had this feature for years, able to automatically detect your console or PC and provide quick one-click access to settings to easily optimize the look and feel of your games. Now, Sony has finally joined the fun and unveiled some new tricks of its own.
The Bravia Gaming menu is slick, simple, and similar to what I’ve seen on recent LG and Samsung TVs, offering settings like variable refresh rate to keep modern console and PC gaming at its smoothest, and a black equalizer for brightening up too dark scenes. Scene and on-screen crosshairs for more precise aiming in shooters. Sony has gone a step further with its customizable screen size settings, which let you shrink games down to a smaller window that doesn’t take up the entire TV. That’s great for competitive gamers — after all, it’s a lot easier to keep tabs during intense Fortnite or Overwatch matches if the action is all within your line of sight rather than scattered across a giant 65-inch canvas. Similar to Samsung’s TVs, Sony’s new A95L model has a multi-view mode that lets you play content from multiple sources in a single window. This can be handy, say, to play a game on one half of the screen while watching a YouTube walkthrough on the other half.
Sony’s new gaming menu borrows many of the great software features we love on its Inzone gaming monitors, and should provide a better plug-and-play experience for those using the Bravia to play games on the PS5, Xbox Series X, or gaming PC.
New sustainability options and improved intelligence
Another big new feature coming to Sony’s new TVs is the Eco Dashboard, which provides a convenient one-stop location for activating various energy-saving settings that help save the environment (not to mention your electricity bill). This menu lets you toggle features like battery-saving mode and auto-shutdown settings, and a lovely illustrated tree grows larger when you activate the greener mode. It’s all part of Sony’s plan to be fully carbon neutral by 2040, and while every big brand seems to be touting the sustainability buzzword these days, these settings also seem like handy, practical features to help ensure your The TV is only on – and blasting to full brightness – when you really need it.
Of course, all the new features are joined by Sony’s usual smarts, which also happen to be part of the handy Google TV software that powers every TV. You can use Google Assistant to control your TV hands-free and connect to most smart home devices—even if they’re from Apple or Amazon. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Sony movies look best on this Sony TV, and the Bravia Core app offers a library of movies with optimized versions of hits like Spider-Man: Nowhere to Return and Mystery. sea area”. Even better, the Bravia Core is getting Dolby Atmos support for launch. Finally, every model we’ve seen comes with Acoustic Center Sync technology, which lets your Sony soundbar (yes, only Sony soundbars have this feature) work in tandem with your TV speakers for a surround-sound-like effect — which turned out to be impressive when we saw James Bond take down a bunch of bad guys in No Time to Die.
Sony’s 2023 Bravia TVs look as impressive as ever, with excellent picture quality and some new, smart quality-of-life improvements that should make them a welcome addition to any room. For those who want a TV that fits their PS5 or Xbox Series X, game menus have been added long overdue, and the Eco Dashboard seems like a push for sustainability while helping customers avoid unnecessary power usage.
While these latest sets seem to offer only marginal updates for those who already own a Bravia, they should be on your radar if you’re in the market for a new high-end 4K smart TV. Pricing and availability for Sony’s 2023 TVs will be announced this spring — and we’ll be testing the new models in full as soon as we get our hands on them, so stay tuned for more info.