After more than a year of teasing, Sony has finally announced its first ‘True RGB’ TVs, which use an RGB mini-LED backlight. They are called Sony Bravia 9 II and Sony Bravia 7 II, and I got to see the Bravia 9 II in action.
Sony first showed us its RGB technology back in March 2025, and then showed it to us again in September, and again a few months ago. It’s kind of a relief to finally see it in a product that people will be able to buy.
The Sony Bravia 9 II is the highest model and will be available in several larger sizes, while the Sony Bravia 7 II is notable for being the first RGB TV to come in a 50-inch size, which will make for interesting competition for the smaller options among the best OLED TVs – 55 inches was the smallest size RGB set we’ve seen so far.
They’re not cheap though – here’s the size and price breakdown of these TVs (Sony was only able to provide UK prices at the time of writing):
|
Size |
Sony Bravia 7 II |
Sony Bravia 9 II |
|---|---|---|
|
50 inches |
£1,899 / $1,599 (approx AU$3,560) |
REACH |
|
55 inches |
£1,999 / $2,099 (approx AU$3,751) |
REACH |
|
65 inches |
£2,299 / $2,599 (approx AU$4,314) |
£3,499 / $3,599 (approx AU$6,567) |
|
75 inches |
£2,999 / $3,099 (approx AU$5,628) |
£4,299 / $4,599 (approx AU$8,069) |
|
85 inches |
£3,999 / $3,999 (approx. AU$7,505) |
£5,499 / $6,599 (approx AU$10,320) |
|
98 inches |
£6,999 / $8,999 (approx AU$13,135) |
REACH |
|
115 inches |
REACH |
£22,999 / $30,999 (approx AU$43,165) |
RGB TVs use a backlit LCD panel, like other mini-LED TVs, but the backlight can change color to better match what the pixels in front are supposed to display. Each mini-LED in the backlight includes individual red, green and blue sub-pixels to create a range of hues.
This allows for a wider range of colors within pixels and requires less color filtering to do so, so the panels can have fewer layers, which helps with efficiency.
Sony has combined this with its X-Wide Angle Pro wide viewing angle, as well as a new anti-reflective system. Sony refused to give any information about the anti-reflective coating, but it appeared that there was a matte element involved, given the glare that the light created on the screen in my demo room.
The Bravia 9 II has a more powerful backlight system than the Bravia 7 II, but I didn’t see them compared in real-world scenes directly, and Sony doesn’t tend to discuss that kind of technical information too deeply.
What I did see was the Bravia 9 II compared to the Sony Bravia 8 II QD-OLED TV, the Sony Bravia 9 mini-LED (originally non-RGB flavor) and the Sony reference studio monitor used for pro film grading – although unfortunately I wasn’t able to take and share pictures of the comparison.
Ever since the Bravia 9 was first announced, which was shortly after Sony launched its current studio reference monitor that reaches 4,000 nits of brightness, Sony has been pushing the idea that they want their TVs to be able to perfectly replicate the HDR experience of the reference monitor.
Sony believes that more films will be mastered for 4,000 nits of brightness now that there is a suitable 4,000-nit screen (1,000 nits has been by far the most common mastering level), and so to properly replicate the full tonal range of these films, TVs should also be able to reach 4,000 nits of nits.
This hasn’t been possible in any of Sony’s previous TVs, and it’s pretty obvious when you turn tone mapping off that you lose a lot of detail in bright highlights compared to the studio monitor… but Sony’s demo showed that the Bravia 9 II lost a lot less detail in these areas in a direct comparison with all four screens.
It still wasn’t able to exactly recreate the reference screen, but it came the closest to recreating the pure reference image for HDR tones – and in color for some scenes, although this was much less clear-cut, with the Bravia 8 II delivering a strong display in this case and the Bravia 9 occasionally coming closer in certain scenes.
Sony declined to say what the TV’s actual brightness is expected to be, but luckily we’ve had access to a pre-production unit to measure this for ourselves.
The Bravia 9 II is capable of 3,990 nits in Professional Mode (which is the most accurate mode and is closest to the Filmmaker Mode we usually like to test in) in a 10% HDR window – so yes, it’s basically capable of the promised 4,000-nit paradise.
Even more impressive is its full-screen brightness in this mode, which we measured at 827 nits—that’s about double the full-screen brightness we got from the similarly priced LG G6 OLED TV.
For comparison, we measured the Sony Bravia 8 II OLED at 1,439 nits in a 10% HDR window and 183 nits full-screen brightness. We measured the Bravia 9 (original) at 1,871 nits in a 10% window and 495 nits in full screen.
We’ve also had the chance to measure the Sony Bravia 7 II’s brightness, and it delivered 2078 nits in professional mode in a 10% HDR window, so we can expect the HDR performance of the Bravia 9 II to have a distinctly strong effect – although the Bravia 7 II actually delivered over 900 nits of full-screen brightness in our measurements, so it’s actually its big cousin.
These measurements were taken on pre-production units as I mentioned, so we’ll make sure the final versions test the same – but these are impressive numbers.
The big question is whether the contrast and the dark tones will be as good. It looked strong in Sony’s brief demos, but it’s unlikely the company showed me anything to suggest color bleed from the RGB backlighting, so we’ll look forward to digging into that as well.
Other things to note about the Bravia 9 II include the use of Sony’s Acoustic Multi-Audio+ technology, which means powerful built-in speakers that now include upward-firing speakers for more height in Dolby Atmos or DTS:X soundtracks.
On the downside, however, the TV still comes with only two HDMI 2.1 ports (out of four ports in total). Sony is basically the only manufacturer launching new high-end TVs with just two HDMI 2.1 ports, and that’s frustratingly limiting if you’re also planning to hook up a soundbar.
I also want to highlight the fun new stand design of these TVs. The stand’s main panel is made of an easy-to-bend material that lets through the tone of what’s behind it, but not specific details.
Picture 1 of 2
I’m very impressed with my early looks at the Bravia 9 II and Bravia 8 II — they’re both very premium TVs, but the 9 II looks like it could compete hard with Samsung to offer the best TV for brighter rooms, with its massive brightness and anti-glare technology, but with Sony’s careful attention to accuracy.
And I’m really keen to get my hands on the little 50-inch Bravia 7 II, because it could offer the premium competition for the LG C6 in this size. Stay tuned for our full reviews later.
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