Sony has announced its new range of Sony OLED and Mini LED TVs, with the latter boasting a 4K resolution. With this release, Sony is joining other companies like LG to market their own line of HDR content in order they can take on Samsung’s dominance.
Sony has announced a new line of 4K TVs that will be available in the coming months. The “Sony A90k” is a Mini LED and new OLED TV.
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For the first time at CES 2022, Sony is introducing Mini LED and Quantum Dot OLED TVs to its Bravia TV portfolio. It’s a big step forward for the firm to provide additional models and enter the Mini LED market, which is currently dominated by TCL and Samsung.
What’s the catch here? Sony, on the other hand, is banking heavily on the Bravia XR Processor, which seeks to provide stunning images without interfering with the content’s intended appearance.
The 2022 Bravia TVs will be available for purchase in the spring, but for now, we’re going through what’s new in the Mini LED and OLED variants. And to help us achieve that, we spoke with Tyler Ishida, president of Sony Electronics Inc.’s Consumer Business Group.
“You may improve the brightness and image quality of your screen by using extra LEDs. “That will be the difference between regular LED and Mini LED,” Ishida explains, detailing the advantages of Mini LED TVs. In some ways, it’s turning an LED into an OLED since the CPU can offer more complex instructions to achieve the highest image quality.
The consequence, as we’ve seen with previous Mini LED models, is a TV that can grow very brilliant and colourful. However, since there are more settings for which section of the TV goes incredibly bright from LEDs to form the picture, these TVs may also give superior contrast.
This is made possible by Sony’s Bravia XR Processor’s XR Backlight Master Drive, which effectively guides the LEDs and tries to prevent blooming, which is when a halo appears around an extremely bright region of the picture on a darker backdrop.
Finally, these new models are still Sony TVs at their core, in the sense that the Bravia XR Processor determines the focus point of any given picture in the same way that a human eye does. The Mini LEDs will be available with a variable refresh rate (up to 120Hz), which should please gamers and live sports fans by making the action seem as fluid as possible. The Google TV interface will be available on these TVs, which was first introduced on Sony TVs with the 2021 series. These will upscale material and provide many viewing modes regardless of visual quality. All of Sony’s 2022 TVs will come with Apple AirPlay 2 built-in.
Sony’s Mini LED will be available in 4K and 8K resolutions:
- 75-inch and 85-inch Z9K 8K Series
- 65-inch, 75-inch, and 85-inch X95K 4K Series
The Sony 2021 A90J OLED was the greatest TV we’ve ever tested, with the most dramatic and precise graphics and the brightest OLED screen we’ve ever seen. However, it isn’t inexpensive, which is why it is our premium option for a television. Sony now promises an even better OLED by incorporating Quantum Dots into the mix, resulting in a whole new screen that can grow considerably brighter and has a wider color gamut. When combined with Sony’s processing methods, the A95K might be the greatest TV on the market.
Essentially, this panel can still produce deep blacks with a high contrast level, but it now has Quantum Dot filter and layer capabilities for improved vibrancy and overall brightness. To generate the desired picture, light is fundamentally processed and dispersed across the Quantum Dot screen.
Sony claims that the complete spectrum of the desired hue will be seen even when the panel is fully engaged. When projecting a strong hue, OLED panels might skew white a little, so instead of a whitish orange, this panel could provide pure brilliant orange, for example.
All of this adds up to a panel that should outperform our current top selection, the Sony A90J. It will also support variable refresh rate, upscale video to 4K, be powered by Google TV, and have some really cool designs, much like the Mini LEDs. The A95K — Sony’s model designation for the QD-OLED (Quantum Dot OLED) — will be mounted flat on a surface, projecting from the front or rear with a metal slab flush.
Sony’s 2021 A90J isn’t going away; instead, it’s being renamed the A90K Master Series. The A90K has a catch in that it’s only available in 42-inch and 48-inch sizes, which might make it the ideal tiny OLED or, more likely, the ideal gaming display. It should also perform identically to the A90J, indicating that it is extremely excellent.
The A80K, Sony’s entry-level OLED, has the same screen and is available in 55-inch, 65-inch, and 77-inch sizes. The display and processor will be similar to the A90J, but without the Master Series fine-tuning. It’s a great example of more costly technology trickling down to more cheap versions.
“This year, we’ve decided to extend the outstanding characteristics of the A90J to the A80K to provide more audiences the experience of a Sony TV,” Ishida says. It’s a significant shift for a television network that typically caters to the upper echelon of the market. While Sony hasn’t revealed pricing for the A80K, we expect it to be competitive.
- 55-inch and 65-inch A95K 4K QD-OLED
- 42-inch and 48-inch A90K 4K OLED TVs
- 55-inch, 65-inch, and 77-inch A80K 4K OLED TVs
Sony’s premium TVs, such as OLEDs and Mini LEDs, include a new remote that is not only smaller but also has a built-in finder function, allowing you to ping the remote if you misplace it. It’s similar to how a Bluetooth item tracker, such as an AirTag, works, and Ishida admits that he’s “surprised we didn’t do this sooner,” since it’s a really valuable quality of life enhancement for the user.
Sony is clearly attempting to provide more options this year, particularly with the addition of Mini LED alongside OLED. Because OLED panels cannot become as bright as standard LED panels, they may provide a more immersive experience in a darkened environment. A Mini LED TV, on the other hand, would likely perform better in a room with brighter windows since it may become quite brilliant. Pricing will, of course, play a big role in defining who these TVs are for, and we’ll learn more about that later this year.
We also asked Ishida to summarize why someone should choose a Sony TV over the competition, whether it’s a Mini LED, OLED, or LED. The fundamental reason for this is the way modern televisions process images. “The Bravia XR Processor does make a difference,” says Ishida, “and that’s where we’re going to be working on consistently.” This, along with Sony’s historical expertise and capacity to collaborate with other divisions — such as Sony Pictures — aids the brand in creating an image that honors the creator’s goal and can fully immerse a viewer.
We’re excited to get our hands on Sony’s new range, particularly to compare the QD-OLEDs and Mini LEDs. For the new controls with this panel type, Sony’s X95K 4K Mini LED is a finalist in our TV category for Best of CES 2022. The A95K QD-OLED is also a candidate for novel panel technology, while the A80K is a finalist for trickling down the features of the top-rated A90J to a potentially more affordable price point. We’ll reveal the whole list of finalists later this week, ahead of our top selections in each area.
Stay tuned for hands-on and comprehensive evaluations of all of Sony’s Bravia TVs from the year 2022, as well as our opinions on the new Bravia Cam attachment for Sony’s TVs from the year 2022.
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