Sony Bravia 8: https://amzn.to/41oSnK1

Sony Bar 9: https://amzn.to/3CWLsNP

So this is the Sony Bravia 8 and this is actually Sony’s only OLED TV for 2024 cause right now Sony is going in hard on Mini LED’s and the Sony Bravia 9 gives you very dark blacks and amazing contrast even at peak brightness. However, the Bravia 9 is pretty expensive… So if you still want strong blacks, amazing color gradation and strong contrast at peak brightness, then the Sony Bravia 8 is a great option to consider.

Now when it comes to pricing, I have the 65 inch Bravia 8 which retails for $2,800. But you can also get it in 55 inches for $2,000 or you can get it in 77 inches for $3,900. But you can find these tv’s on sale now and save between $600 and $1,300 depending on the size. And for comparison sake, the Bravia 9 which is Sony’s flagship right now retails for $3,300 if you get it in 65 inches. Nonetheless, if you want to pick any of these products up, they’ll be linked down below.

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So first off, the Sony Bravia 8 is an OLED Tv, now the main selling point of an OLED TV versus an LED TV is that you are going to get much better contrast, specifically your blacks are going to look at lot darker, because each pixel on this TV can independently  turn on and off. Now in the past, one of the main draw backs of OLED tv’s is that perhaps they weren’t all that bright. So they wouldn’t be that great in a brighter living room, or you would have to use your tv while in a dark room. However, something that Sony’s new line of TV’s have really been improving on is their peak brightness. Which means a few things.

First off, since the Bravia 8 gets decently bright, unlike with OLED tv’s from the past, the Bravia 8 is going to perform well even when its in a brightly lite room. But also, even when the Bravia 8 is at peak brightness, thanks to how Sony processes the image, you are still going to see detail in the brighter areas of an image when compared to other TV’s out there. Cause with other TV’s out there, when you have a brightly lite day time sky, your sky is going to be more washed out, but with Sony’s panels, you’re going to see more of a steady gradation, and you’re still going to see defined objects even when you’re looking at a brighter scene.

However, even though the Bravia 8 gets very bright for an OLED tv and its going to have no problem looking good even in a brighter room, I do have to warn you, since the Bravia 8 has a glossy front panel, reflections can be very noticeable while in a bright room. Now you’re not going to see reflections if the whole image is bright, but you will see reflections in the darker portions of the image. Unlike with lets say the Sony X90L that I was using previously, where reflections weren’t an issue cause it has a mate panel.

But regardless, the main reason why I prefer to use Sony’s tv’s over other TV’s in my home theater set up is because of the image processing. With Sony’s TVs, they do a better job of giving you color gradients which as a result gives you a much more realistic image. Where as with other TV’s out there, their color gradients aren’t as pronounced or accurate as with Sony’s, so day time skies, night time sky, surfaces or textures may not look as real because they will be  one, two or three colors, instead of being a gradual gradient that you would see in the real world cause of different lighting angles.

But another big reason why I really like Sony’s TV over other TV’s other there is cause of the operating system. Now sony is using Google TV, and unfortunately, with a lot of these smart tv’s no matter what brand, they are giving out a lot of data about you. But what I have found about Sony and Google tv is that the operating system isn’t as plastered with Ads as with other operating systems out there, either from Samsung or LG… but also I have noticed that Google TV stays snappy even after a few years of use.

Cause with the Samsung and LG tv’s that I have in the house, those are using their own OS… and after a few months, you do notice that they start to slow down. Where as with the Sony X90L which I was using for over a year, it was still very responsive, and so is the Bravia 8. And the really good thing about the Bravia 8 is that it has 32 gigs of onboard storage. So you’re going to be able to down load multiple apps, and keep them updated, and still have you tv working fast. Where as with TV’s that I have had in the past, since they had very little onboard storage, eventually when these apps needed to be updated, I would have to go hunting for apps to delete to open up storage.

But also, another thing that I really like about the operating system of Sony’s TV is that you can very easily and very quickly go in and change your picture settings, you can change your sound settings and you can also very quickly change your sound out put… and you can do all of this in a very unobtrusive manner so you can still see what you’re watching. But obviously, when you do have to go in and get into the expert settings, then this screen does get covered up more.

But then theres the remote, now the Bravia 8 comes included with a double A battery powered remote. Unfortunately it is not rechargeable, solar powered or backlight like with some other remote other. But I really appreciate this remote, cause its very simple to use, but not overly simple like with Samsung’s remotes, but its a lot sleeker than LG’s remotes. And you also have your buttons so you can go directly to apps like Netflix, Disney Plus, YouTube, Amazon, or Sony Pictures Core.

Now what Sony pictures core is, its Sony’s own streaming platform where you can rent or buy Sony movies, and there are also some free movies available. Personally I enjoyed watching Ghost Rider one and two here. But more importantly, if you go into the menu setting and activate pure stream, if you’re watching a pure stream supported movie then its going to be like watching a movie in 4K coming off of a blue ray player. However, in order to get pure stream to work, then your tv needs to be able to get a stable download speed of 80 megabytes per second. Which means you’re either going to have to hardwire your tv into your network… or you’re going to need an upgraded Access point cause I doubt that your ISP’s access point is going to be able to keep up.

But overall, since the Bravia 8 is an OLED TV, you are going to get much better contrast and darker blacks. The Bravia 8 also gets very bright, so its going to look good even in a brighter environment, but more importantly even when there are bright elements on the TV, you’re still going to get very good detail in the brights, and what makes Sony’s TVs standout is that they are able to produce more life like gradients. And image aside, another reason why I really like Sony’s tv is cause the operating system is very snappy cause they are using Google TV and they have a lot of onboard storage, and AD’s aren’t intrusively placed in the menus like with Samsung and LG Tv’s.

And when it comes to gaming, some of the big features that the Bravia 8 has for gaming is that you can actually resize this image to what ever you want. Now this feature works with any gaming console out there, but for the best gaming experience you do want to use a PlayStation 5 here. And also, you can add a cross hair to the center of your screen if you want. But more importantly, you can toggle your variable refresh and motion blur settings here and you can also adjust your black equalizer here which is going to help brighten up any dark scenes that you might be in.

Now the Bravia 8 tops out at 4K 120 hertz, however, if you want to take advantage of 4K 120, then you do want to make sure that you plug in your PlayStation or blue ray player in either HDMI port 3 or 4. Cause with HDMI port 1 and 2 you 4K is going to be capped at 60 hertz, but you can still do 1080P at 120.

But finally theres the audio of this tv. Now since this is a more premium TV, your audio is going to be a little better. The Bravia 8 uses your screen as a speaker, plus we have dual tweeters that shoot out the sides and there’s a built in subwoofer for the bass. And at max volume, this tv gets more than loud enough to fill a mid sized room with sound, people’s voices are very pronounced, and the bass doesn’t distort like with other TV’s out there with downward firing speakers.

However, with any TV out there youre still going to be better off upgrading to a soundbar. No obviously you can use this TV with any soundbar out there, but if you use it with a Sony soundbar, like either a Bar 8, Bar 9, or theater quad, then you are going to get some benefits. The main benefit is, you’ll be able to use acoustic center sync where your TV’s built in speakers will work in conjunction with your soundbar and your going to get a stronger center channel, which is good for dialog. But also, you’ll be able to quickly adjust your sound settings directly from the TV itself. But so that you can get a sense of the sound performance of this tv we’re going to jump into a soundtest. We’re going to use the Bravia 8’s built in speakers and compare them to the Bar 9 and the bar 9 with acoustic center sync.

Sound Test

So like you may have just seen, the built in speakers on the Bravia 8 get loud, they put an emphasis on people’s voices and the sound doesn’t distort at higher volumes. But you will be better off going with soundbar. And if you get a sony soundbar then you’ll be able to take advantage of acoustic center sync and your tv’s built in speakers will work with your soundbar to give you a stronger center channel. My main critique here is, I think that it is unfortunate that if you want to have acoustic center sync, you’re going to have to have 2 cables connecting your soundbar to your tv.

But something that I really like about the Bravia 8 is that you can also connect a Bluetooth device to it. It can either be a pair of headphones or maybe even a speaker. But more importantly, latency is not an issue. So if you want to watch a movie with your headphones, you can do that. And to me this is a big deal cause I have had other tv’s and soundbars in the past that also allow you to do this, but their latency is much more noticeable. So it takes away from the viewing experience.

But with all of that being said, the Sony Bravia 8 is Sony’s main offering if you’re looking for an OLED tv. And since this is an OLED tv your going to get great contrast, and deep blacks. And even though this is an OLED, it gets plenty bright, but more importantly, its going to maintain detail even in brighter subjects. And what I really feel makes Sony’s OLED stand out from other OLEDs is that Sony does a better job of giving you better color gradients which gives you a more life like picture. However, if you do plan on using this tv in a bright room, its glossy front panel may cause reflections in darker parts of the image. But in general I do prefer to use Sony TV’s because since they are using google tv, their interface stays snappy, adds aren’t as intrusive, and this tv also has a decent amount of on board storage which is going to matter in the future when you have to update your apps or add more apps.