Sony Bravia 9 Review

Backlight Master Drive is the reason this exists. Sony drives the Mini LED array with 22-bit precision and its own current-shifting scheme, so instead of the usual halo the Bravia 9 produces edges tight enough that zone-counting test patterns become hard to resolve at all. Roughly 1,500 zones at 65 inches is not the highest count in the category, but no competitor uses its zones this well, and combined with about 2,500 nits of peak output the result is an LCD that survives comparison with OLED in a lit room and loses only on absolute black in a dark one.

XR processing carries the same advantage it always has on upscaling and tone mapping, and the beam tweeters place dialogue at the screen rather than beneath it. Sony's chronic failures persist. Two HDMI 2.1 ports on a $2,999 television in 2024 is indefensible, one of them doubles as eARC, and the panel stays at 120Hz while cheaper sets moved to 144. Off-angle is better than most VA panels and still not good. Superb engineering sold at a price that assumes you will forgive the port count.