It’s Sony’s turn to unveil its catalog of televisions for 2023. Invited to a press presentation ahead of the official announcements, we were able to approach the new ranges of the Japanese manufacturer.
Four new models join the Bravia range
XR; among them, the A80L and A95L represent the manufacturer’s OLED offering and
will now be declined with two additional diagonals. No
successor to the A90J series, but an offer that will undoubtedly be better distributed
in terms of pricing with, on the one hand, the A80L range which uses
White OLED panels from LG Display and on the other the A95L with the alternative
QD-OLED from Samsung Display.
Bravia XR A95L: up to 77 inches for Sony’s QD-OLED TV
No real surprise with Sony’s high-end OLED formula. The manufacturer continues to develop its QD-OLED televisions and positions its A95L as its premium OLED television. Naturally, Sony joins Samsung in offering a new diagonal of 77 inches on this range, a format which is therefore added to the 55 and 65 inch models, also renewed on this series.
In addition to this new diagonal, Sony has announced attractive improvements on the A95L. The Japanese firm is of course taking advantage of the advances made by Samsung Display with this second generation of QD-OLED panels; without revealing a figure, Sony evokes a gain of up to 200% on the light peak as well as an even wider colorimetric coverage. These results would have been made possible thanks to the optimizations made to the Cognitive Processor XR with XR OLED Contrast Pro and XR Triluminos Max technologies. As a reminder, we measured a light peak of just over 900 nits last year during our test of the Bravia XR A95K, as well as one of the best colorimetric coverage we had noted until then; we are therefore looking forward to checking this A95L under the same conditions!
Like last year, Sony provides its Bravia Cam on its premium models. We therefore find it with the A95L, but also on the 2022 Mini-LED 8K television (the Z9K) which does not seem to have been renewed this year. In terms of design, the A95L has the right to an aluminum foot that allows three positions (only on the 77-inch model) as was already the case with the A90J. Good news, because Sony’s first QD-OLED came with a heavy and particularly bulky base, but the 55 and 65-inch models only have a two-position adjustable foot.
A more understandable offer on OLED
The A80L series therefore succeeds and replaces the A75K, A80K and A90K ranges released last year. Sony seems to want to better divide its OLED offer with on the one hand the A95L which represents the best of OLED and the A80L, a high-end reference and ideal for cinema while being more affordable. A new diagonal is also appearing on this series, the A80L will indeed be available in four formats of 55, 65, 77 and now also in 83 inches. Exit the A90 series therefore, but also the reduced diagonals that went with it, namely that of 42 and 48 inches. We will have to continue to move towards last year’s models to take advantage of it.
Among the novelties, Sony announces a gain of up to 110% compared to the model of the previous year (the A80K) with the technologies specific to Bravia XR televisions and the processor which accompany them. The latter would also provide an overall improvement in the image, both in terms of contrast and brightness and in terms of image processing such as upscaling with XR 4K Upscaling and XR Clear Image technologies. Finally, we will find the three-position foot (for all diagonals) which was already in place last year and which we were able to take advantage of during our test of the Bravia XR A83K.
Bravia XR range: what’s new?
The two series of OLED televisions, as well as the X95L and X90L which we will discuss in a future article, are coming with their share of new features. Sony mentions in particular the improvements of its Cognitive Processor XR whose role is to reproduce the way in which we watch and listen to content in order to offer “an incredibly realistic experience”.
Apart from the optimizations we have already mentioned, the manufacturer introduces a new function with XR Clear Image. This technology is supposed to provide additional control to reduce noise and motion blur; in other words, it will ideally accompany the scaling engine.
Every Bravia XR model will feature Acoustic Center Sync. This function synchronizes the TV audio system with the center channel of a Sony soundbar in order to reinforce this channel for clearer dialogue and, overall, a more immersive sound. Four soundbars are compatible (the HT-A9, HT-A7000, HT-A5000 and HT-A3000). OLED TVs still take advantage of Acoustic Surface Audio+, which consists of actuators that vibrate the entire screen to produce sound.
Finally, there are arguments that were already the strength of Sony televisions the previous year. One thinks in particular of Bravia Core, Sony’s SVoD service which stands out by offering content of high visual quality thanks to Pure Stream and IMAX Enhanced. Bravia XR TVs are of course stamped “Perfect for PS5” with Auto HDR Tone Mapping and Auto Genre Picture Mode features, a new game menu makes its appearance to fine-tune game settings, while the A95L benefits from a Multi-View function designed for gamers who need to display content next to their game.
Finally, note that Google TV is still part of the entire Bravia XR range. For its part, the Bravia Cam, which allows you to make video calls and optimize the image and sound according to the room and the viewing distance, is only delivered with the A95L, but remains compatible with the whole range. Sony has also worked on an Eco Dashboard that keeps all user settings in a single interface and makes it easy to adjust settings related to power saving.
Source: press release – press conference
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