I’ve seen Sony’s first “True RGB” TV in action compared to a studio monitor and Sony’s best OLED TV – and based on early measurements, Sony could finally bring “benchmark” HDR performance to your home.

After more than a year of teasing, Sony has finally announced its first “True RGB” televisions, which use mini-RGB LED backlighting. They’re called the 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 in March 2025, then showed it to us again in September, and the 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 top-of-the-line model and will be available in several larger sizes, while the Sony Bravia 7 II is notable for being the first RGB TV to be available in a 50-inch size, making it some interesting competition for smaller options among the best OLED TVs – 55-inch was the smallest RGB set size we’ve seen so far.

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However, they don’t come cheap – here’s the size and price breakdown of these TVs (Sony was only able to provide UK prices at the time of writing):

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Sony True RGB sizes and prices
Size	Sony Bravia 7II	Sony Bravia 9II
50 inches	£1,899 / $1,599 (around AU$3,560)	N / A
55 inches	£1,999 / $2,099 (around AU$3,751)	N / A
65 inches	£2,299 / $2,599 (around AU$4,314)	£3,499 / $3,599 (around AU$6,567)
75 inches	£2,999 / $3,099 (around AU$5,628)	£4,299 / $4,599 (around AU$8,069)
85 inches	£3,999 / $3,999 (around AU$7,505)	£5,499 / $6,599 (around AU$10,320)
98 inches	£6,999 / $8,999 (around AU$13,135)	N / A
115 inches	N / A	£22,999 / $30,999 (around AU$43,165)

RGB TVs use an LCD panel with lights behind it, 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 the range of hues.

This allows for a wider color gamut within pixels and requires less color filtering, so panels can have fewer layers, helping with efficiency.

Sony Bravia 9 II TV backlight is shown, with pixels removed

Here’s the backlight of the original Bravia 9 (left), the backlight of the Bravia 9 II (right), and what the final image would look like (Image credit: Future)

Sony has combined this with its wide viewing angle X-Wide Angle Pro, as well as a new anti-glare system. Sony refused to give any info on the anti-reflective layer, but it seemed to me that a matte element was involved, given the glare 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 haven’t seen them directly compared in real scenes, and Sony doesn’t tend to discuss this kind of technical information too in-depth.

What I saw was the Bravia 9 II compared to the Sony Bravia 8 II QD-OLED TV, the Sony Bravia 9 mini-LED (non-RGB original flavor), and Sony’s reference studio monitor used for professional film grading – although unfortunately I wasn’t able to take and share photos of the comparison.

Since the Bravia 9 was first announced, shortly after Sony rolled out its current studio reference monitor that hits 4,000 nits of brightness, Sony has been pushing the idea that it wants its TVs to be able to perfectly replicate the HDR experience of the reference monitor.

Sony estimates that more films will be mastered at 4,000 nits brightness now that there is a suitable 4,000 nits monitor (1,000 nits is by far the most common mastering level), and so to properly reproduce the full tonal range of these films, TVs should also be capable of reaching 4,000 nits of peak brightness.

This hasn’t been possible on any of Sony’s previous TVs, and it’s obvious that when you turn off tone mapping you lose a lot of detail in the 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 direct comparison with the four screens.

It still wasn’t able to recreate the reference monitor exactly, but it was by far the closest to recreating the pure reference image for HDR tones – and in color for some scenes, although it was much less clear, with the Bravia 8 II doing a good job in this case, and the Bravia 9 sometimes looking closer in some scenes.

Sony declined to say what the TV’s actual brightness should be, but luckily we had access to a pre-production unit so we could measure it ourselves.

Sony Bravia 9 II TV displays purple and red colored streaks

The Sony Bravia 9 II is a bit of a brightness beast (Image credit: Future)

The Bravia 9 II is capable of 3,990 nits in Professional mode (which is the sharpest mode and closest to the Cinematographer mode we usually like to test in) in a 10% HDR window – so yes, it’s basically capable of that promised 4,000 nits heaven.

Even more impressive is its full-screen brightness in this mode, which we measured at 827 nits – 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 of full-screen brightness. We measured the Bravia 9 (original) at 1,871 nits in a 10% window and 495 nits at full screen.

We also had the opportunity to measure the brightness of the Sony Bravia 7 II, which delivered 2078 nits in professional mode in a 10% HDR window, so we can expect the Bravia 9 II’s HDR performance to have a clearly strong impact – although the Bravia 7 II actually delivered over 900 nits of full-screen brightness in our measurements, so it actually beats its big brother there.

The Sony Bravia 7 II TV showing a colorful red swirl of light

The Bravia 7 II looks super rich despite its more limited performance (Image credit: Future)

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 dark tone performance will be as good. It looked strong in Sony’s brief demos, but it’s unlikely the company showed me anything that might indicate RGB backlight fading, so we’re eager to delve deeper into that as well.

Other things to note about the Bravia 9 II include its use of Sony’s Acoustic Multi-Audio+ technology, which means powerful built-in speakers that now include upward-firing drivers for added height in Dolby Atmos or DTS:X soundtracks.

On the other hand, the TV is still only equipped with two HDMI 2.1 ports (out of four ports in total). Sony is basically the only manufacturer releasing new high-end TVs with just two HDMI 2.1 ports, and that’s frustrating if you also plan to connect a soundbar.

I also want to point out the fun new stand design on these TVs. The main panel of the stand is made from a material that bends light and allows the tone of what’s behind it to pass through, but not the specific details.

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I’m very impressed with my first looks at the Bravia 9 II and Bravia 8 II – they’re both very high-end TVs, but the 9 II looks like it could rival Samsung in offering the best TV for brighter rooms with its huge brightness and anti-glare technology, but with Sony’s meticulous attention to precision.

And I’m really looking forward to getting my hands on the little 50-inch Bravia 7 II, because it could deliver THE premium competition to the LG C6 at this size. Stay tuned for our full reviews later.

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