Sony Bravia 9 TV Review: Can LED Screens Get Much Better?

The Bravia 9 also offers new “Calibration” modes for Amazon Prime and Netflix. The Amazon version makes some interesting changes for different programming, though the Netflix version seemed to mostly just mirror the dimmer Dolby Vision Dark picture mode in the HDR content I watched.

Mostly Solid Digs

The TV is pretty well stocked on the feature front, starting with audio that rises above the crowd. This is one of the few TVs where I don’t mind cutting my audio system (with the A95L being another prime example). Sound is generally full and clear without getting super tinny. There’s some noticeable soundstage movement, and even effects like explosions come out all right.

I thought Sony’s new Voice Zoom 3 dialog booster was mostly marketing hype, but it works pretty well. At one point, I passively heard the entire story of a Sylvester Stallone anecdote in Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 which I’d missed in about 7,000 previous viewings, including with soundbars and speakers. Dialog remained mostly clear and out front over several days, even when things got chaotic.

As expected, you’ll get the latest gaming features, including support for ALLM (Auto Low Latency Mode) and VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) at up to 120 Hz via HDMI 2.1. There’s a dedicated gaming mode for quick adjustments and PS5 optimization features like Auto HDR Tone Mapping and Auto Genre Picture Mode. I’m no competitive gamer, and some have noted that the TV’s input response is relatively high for its price, but I adored playing my favorite RPGs. The shading, the colors, and the overall brightness brought the best out of games like God of War Ragnarok.

It’s frustrating that Sony continues to offer HDMI 2.1 support across only two of the TV’s four inputs, unlike most TVs at this level (and below)—especially since one of those is for eARC where you’ll likely connect a soundbar or receiver. The TV’s great sound means some may not add an audio device, but the potential need to swap cables for multiple consoles is silly at this price.

The Bravia 9 also omits one of the two main dynamic HDR formats, HDR10+, offering only Dolby Vision. If you can only pick one, I’d take the more common DV every time but it’d be nice to get both as you’ll find in midrange models from TCL and Hisense. That’s surprisingly common right now; LG and Panasonic TVs don’t support HDR10+, while Samsung won’t pay for Dolby Vision.

Sony is more inclusive on the audio side, offering both DTS:X and Dolby Atmos support. Other notable Bravia 9 features include AirPlay 2 and Chromecast streaming, and Google Voice search via the remote’s built-in microphone.

Sensibly Surreal

The Bravia 9 is an unadulterated brightness powerhouse. Yet, with Sony’s measured hand at the wheel, it doles out its power judiciously, providing subtlety where warranted and dazzlement when the moment strikes. Utilizing a new proprietary system that dims its backlighting with impressive accuracy, this TV is less a blunt force weapon as a mini LED laser beam, striking with white-hot precision. The result is fabulous contrast mixed with next-gen brightness for serious thrills.

Training the Bravia 9’s fire on one of my go-to test films, Moana, felt like proof of concept for a backlighting system some have clocked at nearly 3,000 nits peak brightness (or around double many OLED TVs). I’ve noted before how realistic the film’s Polynesian sun and surf can look with the best TVs, but here things pushed into the surreal. The sun blazed to near eye-squinting levels which, when mixed with the TV’s quantum dot colors and the stark clarity of Sony’s processing, gave me an almost hallucinatory sensation that I was actually at the beach with Moana and Maui. Other scenes like the glittering golden crab or the molten lava monster rose to exhilarating new heights as the light seemed to nearly bore through the panel.