Thunderclap on the TV market, Sony turns to Mini-Led

Sony presented its technological roadmap in Tokyo, and we were also able to attend a demonstration of the brand’s know-how on its TVs during CES in Las Vegas. If the audio and calibration of its televisions were in the spotlight, it was especially the emphasis on Mini-Led which made a strong impression.

Sony threw a big wrench in the pond by revealing that its high-end models for 2024 would be equipped with Mini-Led panels, shaking up the QD-Oled and the Oled in the process. If some saw this as the manufacturer’s abandonment of Oled, Sony confirmed that its A95L would remain in the catalog; we should therefore continue to see Oled and Mini-Led coexist, for a certain time at least.

Perhaps a new QD-Oled model will emerge in addition to the arrival of high-end Mini-Leds, but nothing suggests this at the moment. Why such a 180° turn?

Oled vs Mini-Led, the recap

Oled is present on most high-end models from major TV manufacturers (LG, Samsung, Philips, Panasonic, etc.). It is supported by White Oled panels from LG Display and QD-Oled from Samsung. The advantages of this technology are numerous, including unrivaled contrasts since each pixel can be turned off or on individually, but also excellent viewing angles and almost zero ghosting (which can be important in gaming).

That said, everything is not perfect since the organic constituents of red, green and blue pixels degrade over time, and brightness and colors can suffer after a few years. Additionally, tiles are expensive, mainly because of a fairly substantial amount of waste during their production, and the price of large sizes (77, 85, 97 inches) quickly becomes exorbitant. In addition, their brightness is much more limited. The light peak certainly increases from year to year with the integration of new technologies (we think of the MLA coating which has significantly improved the Oled in 2023), but the result is incommensurable with the Mini-Led and the marathon may seem lost in advance.

To give you an idea, the best Oled and QD-OIed panels reach around 1500 cd/m² today on a window which represents 10% of the screen size – a figure which should increase a little further in 2024; However, many high-end Mini-Led panels exceed 2000 cd/m² and we measured 2400 cd/m² on the TCL 98X955, a record in our comparison. Some Sony monitors dedicated to image professionals which have just been unveiled, such as the BVM-HW3110, even reach 4000 cd/m² over a 10% window. An impressive result, which bodes well for future potential for consumer televisions.

In addition, Mini-Led is easier to produce, less expensive and therefore necessarily more interesting for consumers (the 98-inch TCL was sold for around €6,000 at release compared to €25,000 for the 97-inch LG G3) and its LEDs do not degrade over time. Brightness, cost, large screen size: so many elements which seem to have reinforced Sony in its choice of a transition to Mini-Led.

Mini-Led in the spotlight at Sony in 2024

Sony already offered a range of Mini-Led televisions, but as we said, the high-end was coupled with Oled technology only. For 2024, the manufacturer intends to improve its Mini-Led panels to correct their defects as much as possible and offer a truly high-end viewing experience.

The emphasis is obviously placed on local dimming, that is to say the ability of the television to turn off certain areas of LEDs to display more or less dark areas on the screen, a key element in the rivalry with Oled . Sony is banking in particular on its future processor, but also on a new in-house 22-bit controller which will make it possible to manage a large number of backlighting zones and vary the brightness over thousands of different levels. We were able to see a demonstration during CES, with televisions only exposing their backlight panels; the result was stunning, the shapes of objects being much sharper and more distinct than on the previous generation X95L.

Brightness up, consumption down

The idea is also to improve the maximum brightness with a peak announced 50% greater than on the latter model. Unfortunately, we did not have time to test it in 2023, but we can undoubtedly expect a light peak around 2500 cd/m², which would be one of the highest figures ever measured in our laboratory.

Small bonus, despite the increase in brightness, Sony has managed to reduce the overall consumption of its television, an interesting point that we will not fail to verify during our test.

Questions and a little patience

Sony will in any case have to face some challenges, because the Mini-Led is not perfect either. It will be necessary to work on the contrast in particular, to match the Oled, but also seek to reduce or even eliminate the blooming (the halo effect that we observe around luminous objects), or even striving to improve the viewing angles which mean that, for the moment, looking at the screen from the sides can taint the viewing experience .

We have no doubt that the brand’s new high-end TV will feature a set of technologies that have made previous models successful: a perfectly calibrated panel, a quality sound system and an efficient processor, among others. Sony generally renews its televisions at the beginning of spring, we look forward to seeing you in the coming months to find out more about the manufacturer’s new products.