Sony Bravia 7 Mini-LED TV Review | Amazing Picture! But …
If you had asked me a couple of months ago, I probably would have told you I'd be starting this video off with some kind of observation about how the Sony Bravia 7 TV's biggest problem might be it's getting overshadowed by the very fancy Bravia 9. But, well, that's no good because the Bravia 7 has been the subject of many comments on this channel, usually along the lines of, "Where the heck is the Bravia 7 review?" Well, friends, here it is. And honestly, this is going to be kind of a weird one. Welcome back, everyone. I'm Caleb Dennison, and okay, so it's a popular TV. I get it. A Sony
Mini LED TV that, while still fairly expensive, costs far less than the flagship Bravia 9. And, well, it's a Sony TV, so we can all fairly expect it's going to be pretty awesome. And in many ways, it legitimately is very awesome, but it's also kind of a curious TV. I don't know if
I've ever reviewed a TV that aced so many exams and yet still had to fight for my recommendation. Now, I'll tell you right now that the Bravia 7 is, in most ways, a big upgrade over last year's Sony X90L. And while it isn't quite as aggressive a performer as Sony's step-up Bravia 9 is, it is indeed an awesome TV. I can't wait to tell you how, and yet, the number of people I'm going to end up recommending the Bravia 7 to is, well, relatively small. How do we square that up? Well, by reviewing this TV, that's how.
So let's get into it, and by the end, you should know whether or not you should buy the Bravia 7. Sony starts out with a big win, in my book anyway. This TV is so easy to set up. Not only can the feet be placed at multiple widths and at multiple heights, but when it comes to putting the feet into the TV, they just slot right in. You don't have to screw them in. You do have to adjust some screws in the feet if you want enough height to accommodate, uh,
like a soundbar, but most folks are going to be able to get this TV out of the box, pop the feet into the bottom of the TV, and plug it in with minimal hassle and in record time. And the Bravia 7 looks and feels great too. It's got class written all over it. Dig below the surface, and what you have here is a TV that is super easy to use day-to-day. Sony has created a customized UI that sits over Google TV that, at least for now, is my favorite among TV manufacturers. Though to be fair,
I haven't gotten to the new Panasonics that just landed in the US, so TBD on whether Sony holds on to that honor. But whether it's my favorite or not, it's easily better than the competition. Of course, you only spend so much time rooting around in the settings, which Sony tries to minimize by automating a lot of things. And the good news here is that the Bravia 7 has run Google TV darn near flawlessly for me thus far. It looks like there was a little bit of a problem getting custom picture settings to stick when the TV was in its basic mode, but that was fixed with a recent software update I'll talk more about in a moment. The remote is now made with Sony’s Sorplas recycled plastics material, which Sony uses in a bunch of its products now to help lower its carbon footprint. That's a yay from me and from the planet. Now, most TV enthusiasts already know this, but Sony doesn't make their own SoC (system on chip), though they do program that chip with their secret sauce. But that SoC is part of a whole board that
includes the inputs and outputs, and that means that you only get two HDMI 2.1 inputs, and one of those is the eARC port, which, for a lot of folks, will be taken up by a soundbar or AV receiver. Or Sony would very much like you to occupy that port with an HDMI cable leading to its Bravia Theater Quad system, a move that I wholeheartedly endorse, by the way, as we have done here. Now, this issue of only two HDMI 2.1 ports is not going to be a problem for most folks. But for anyone with both the latest Xbox and the latest PlayStation, or one of those consoles and a gaming PC they want to hook up, that means only one of those devices can connect to the TV for full-on 4K 120Hz gaming. Please, though, folks,
stop yelling at Sony about this. Yell at MediaTek to make a next-gen SoC with four HDMI 2.1 inputs and a chip that is more or less the same as the Pentonic 1000, so Sony doesn't have to rewrite all its code again, and we don't have to suffer the growing pains with Sony again just to have four HDMI 2.1 inputs. Please and thank you for directing your ire at the proper party. Now, let's talk about sound quality. It gets a thumbs up from me. Not too enthusiastic, like some of Hisense’s TVs have been getting from me, but one well-earned thumbs up for crystal-clear sound with good balance and reasonably high fidelity. It's a little light on bass and presence, but these days, if voices sound intelligible, you're getting a nod of approval from me. Like the X90L TV, the sound is not good enough for me to want to set up Sony's Acoustic Center Sync with the Bravia Theater Quad here. The Theater Quad system’s phantom center is very convincing already, and the
Bravia 7 TV speakers aren't going to do anything but be a distraction, I think, so skip it. Now, I'm about to get into picture quality, but before I do, I need to talk about an interesting experience I had when getting this TV ready for evaluation. On Sony TVs, I instantly switch the picture mode to Professional and make adjustments as needed from there. This means the TV is going to be dialed in for its most accurate picture, not necessarily its most bright, but that's easy to adjust to taste. Now, I'm used to seeing a dimmer picture in SDR when choosing
the Professional mode, but in the case of this TV, even in its out-of-the-box Standard picture mode, Cinema mode, and Professional mode, the SDR picture seemed really dim. So if you get this TV, you need to expect to make these adjustments to taste. And I have to go yet a step further on this whole unexpectedly dim tip by pointing out that the Bravia 7 counts among its features a Prime Video Calibrated mode as well as a Netflix Calibrated mode. I've explained what these are in a different video, and while I think it's cool that these picture modes are available, I am not in support of them being turned on by default. See here,
I've just opened the Amazon Prime Video app, and it is super dim even though I've already adjusted the TV to be brighter across the board. And when I pull up the picture settings, here's Prime Video Calibrated mode turned on. Now, it's easy enough to turn off, but I have to wonder how many folks will be unaware of this and just think that Prime Video content is super dim.
Now, to be fair, Sony is not to blame for this. This is Amazon Prime Video's choice. The good news is that Netflix Calibrated mode is not turned on by default, though you do get a prompt to turn it on if you want to. Anyway, here's what I suggest you do to get this TV up to the brightness that you may want. Unless
you're just watching it in a pitch-black room, I think most of you are going to be happiest with the Local Dimming setting at High and the Peak Brightness setting at High as well. You can then evaluate whether you want to further boost the brightness level using the Brightness adjustment. So I really want you to hear me on this: this TV may seem dim out of the box if you choose the Professional mode, especially, but it has all the brightness you need and then some, so don't worry, you just need to do a little work for it. It's no big deal.
Also, I got a software update while I was reviewing this TV, one which I think also went out to the Bravia 9, and the description here promises to fix, among the other things that you see listed, an issue where the screen brightness may increase when subtitles are shown, an issue I believe I spoke to when reviewing the Bravia 9, if memory serves. Zeke, let's see if memory serves. This is the end credits of Obi-Wan Kenobi on Disney Plus. Now, as you can see, we've got a starry space scene here, and onto it splashes these bright credits. When the bright credit comes up, you'll notice that not just the bright credit comes up; all of the stars get brighter too. Yeah, y'all been served. So make sure to check for an update when you set up this TV. It should be applied automatically during initial setup,
but as I like to say from time to time: trust but verify. With that stuff covered, let's now proceed to a segment I like to call "Numbers for NIT Nerds." This is where we get into some of the TV's measurements, and if that sounds a little nerdy for you, no problem. You can skip ahead using the timecode links in the description, and I promise you I'll cover all the meaningful stuff in the picture quality section coming up right after this. For you NIT nerds, though (merch in the description), here's what we're looking at. I'm going to breeze through most of this because if you are a nit nerd, then you already know that this TV is going to ace almost every measurement here, right? And it does. But as usual, we'll start with brightness, which is where most of the interesting results came in. Anyway, I can't actually recall what this TV's default SDR
brightness setting was in the professional mode. It may have been 20, but by the time I got started on it, it was up to 30. Regardless, I have the numbers for the brightness set at 20, 30, and 50, with all other settings at default, which means that local dimming was at medium and peak brightness was off. SDR peak brightness at brightness setting 20 was 2065 nits; at 30,
it got to 375 nits and maxed out at 50. The Bravia 7 measured 522 nits, which is fairly bright but far lower than I was expecting. So then I turned the peak brightness setting onto high and local dimming to high, and I found myself in the 18800 nit territory, which is absolutely insane. What I like here is that Sony gives you a broad range of control to dial the TV in just how you need it to be. White balance measurements came in excellent—little hot on the red, but that is easily fixed with a couple of clicks in the two-point white balance menu. But stock
professional mode came in with a max Delta E of about two. Respect. 20p point gray scale, similar story. Excellent performance in the pro mode. Only the brightest whites were above a Delta E of two, and only by a touch. More respect. All colors in the color
gamut test were under a Delta E of two, and the very challenging color checker test—well, the Bravia 7 aced it with a max Delta E of 3.8 and an average of 1.8. Guys, that is awesome for a stock picture mode. Color saturation and luminance tests in SDR also aced. Moving on to HDR, and I know I probably spoiled the peak brightness news earlier. In a 10% window, it was around 1,900 nits. The TV tested the 2,000-nit territory at one point, but bumping
the window size up or down brought the peak brightness number down too, often closer to 1,600 nits for me, 1300 with its default settings, and full-screen brightness can be as high as 700 nits. Now, a real-life HDR test shows peak HDR highlights are probably hanging out closer to the 1100-nit territory, which is enough to accurately reproduce most of the HDR content that you can lay your eyes on. The Bravia 7 follows the EOTF curve like a true champion, about as perfect as it gets. Now, you can choose picture modes that over-brighten HDR if you want. More on how I think that's a good idea for most people later, but in the professional mode, this is what you want to see. So, mad respect.
What else? Oh, HDR color checker—super impressive. It is so rare to see a TV get all of these right. Sony, you folks continue to be the standard-setter for color accuracy, and I, for one, am here for it. DCI-P3 color gamut coverage came in at 97%,
a passing grade but expected. And BT 2020 coverage came in at a delightful 80%, which is great for a mini-LED TV, though I do have to remind everyone that the Hisense UX hit 83%. One other nit nerd-specific thing: I checked the Bravia 7 for near-black chrominance overshoot since that seems to be a known issue on some other Sony TVs that use the Pentonic 1000, like the A95L and the Bravia 9. And, I mean, there may be a little of that going on here, but I'm really struggling to see it. Might do a short test with the A95L sitting under the Bravia 7, both playing the same scene, and see what happens, so keep your eye out for that. Okay, so if you're just rejoining us after skipping the nit nerd section, here's what you need to know about the Bravia 7 picture quality. I'm going to start with all the good stuff and
end with two problematic things, then we'll wrap it up by talking about who this TV is good for. Okay, the Bravia 7's brightness capabilities are stunning. Now, by the numbers, it doesn't measure as the brightest TV—that honor goes to the Hisense U8 and, just behind that, the TCL QM8. But in real life, the perceived brightness of this TV is right on par with those other light cannons. It's truly incredible when the TV is set up to do it. The backlight control on this TV is very good. I sometimes wish it was a little more speedy so what little
halo is visible disappears faster as objects move around the screen, but that's when I'm looking for that kind of error. When I relax and just enjoy content, get caught up in the story, I notice none of that—and neither will most of you. Again, the Bravia 9 is technically a better TV, but the Bravia 7, with fewer zones, beats most of its mini-LED competition for real-life viewing. What little halo or blooming there is, is barely visible from dead-on center. Off-axis, though, that's another story, but I'm going to get to that. For now, black levels and contrast are superb. The one caveat
is slight noise in super-dark blacks. They aren't crushed, but you get a little bit of noise and banding in really challenging dark scenes. It's okay; you can totally handle it. As for color—SDR and HDR—A+++. Valedictorian, magna cum laude. Sony wins at color, period.
As for motion handling, Sony remains the king. LG is not far behind, and Panasonic, I suspect, will give Sony a run for its money. But, like the next section I'm going to talk about, Sony's processing helps ensure it's the best at motion and upscaling. Sony's upscaling and low-bitrate content cleanup is as good as it gets. Again, LG is close, but you aren't going to do any better than Sony, and specifically the Bravia 7. Here's some content that I recorded on Sling TV,
and it looks great from a normal seating distance. If you get close, you can see how dirty the signal is, but from normal viewing distances, it looks pretty stinking good. Upscaling 720p is hard, and even the great Sony can only do so much with that. But again, nobody does it better than Sony. As for gaming, if you're a fan of this channel, you know I'm a very casual gamer. I don't care about 144Hz; I care about getting VRR just because I want that feature.
But most of the games I play don't offer it. I'm playing 4K 60 most of the time, and that suits me just fine. If you want a deeper gaming analysis, you can go to one of many other reviewers who will have better info on the gaming section. For most of you watching this video,
though, this TV's game mode is great, and I think you're going to love it. Now, my friends, we get to the bad news. The off-angle performance on the Bravia 7 is not good, and while I've been willing to forgive much less expensive TVs this transgression because they are so much less expensive, this rather expensive Sony Bravia 7 does not get that pass. Look, Samsung's out here with some awesome off-angle viewing tech. Sony, you can do it too, so please do. Now, for anyone out there who wants to criticize Sony for not using an ADS Pro panel, understand that, as far as I'm aware, BOE, the top provider of ADS Pro panels—like the ones that you see in some Hisense 75-inch models—is only available in 75- and, I think, 85-inch sizes. So, ADS Pro,
and its naturally superior off-angle viewing while still maintaining good contrast and color, is not an option for the 65-inch size. And it could be that Sony is not a fan of that panel for other quality reasons, which is why we may not see it used in the 75- and 85-inch versions of this TV. But an off-angle improvement filter is something I would like to see on a TV like the Bravia 7. For now, if you have a big enough screen size of the Bravia 7 TV, it may not be a problem. But if you're going to try and serve a rather big room with a sectional
couch using a 65-inch TV, the folks on the side seats are getting a washed-out picture. Actually, you don't have to be that far off to the side for the picture to suffer pretty significantly, and that's why I'm so disappointed. Also, the anti-glare, anti-reflection treatment on this TV has me bewildered because I can see that there is something in use here, but it doesn't seem like it's doing much. Never mind direct light sources behind you,
like actual light bulbs—anything that is illuminated behind you is going to show up on the screen, and you can see it when you're watching content that has medium to dark scenes. This TV can get bright enough to battle back ambient light, but I can't stand behind it as a daytime living room TV when it is a dark mirror, basically. And I'm pretty bummed out about that. One other annoyance I’ll call it. I know the professional mode is meant to act like the filmmaker mode, that it’s meant to be viewed in pretty much a pitch-black room, and it’s meant to express the creator’s intent, but I mean, I just feel like sometimes this TV is too dim. Dolby Vision Dark is especially trying, especially on Netflix. It seems like the average picture level is just too low. My experience does not square up with the
measurements I got on this TV, but I know what my eyes are seeing, and it is too dim too often. I rarely settle on Dolby Vision Bright because it lifts the brightness across the board, but on this TV, I pretty much have to choose Dolby Vision Bright because Dolby Vision Dark too often is just unwatchable for me. Maybe the creator’s intent on a bunch of these Netflix shows is just to drive me crazy. I don’t know if that’s the case—mission accomplished. The off-angle performance and the poor reflection handling are two big hits for a TV at this price, and it’s super frustrating given that nearly every other performance point on this TV is just state-of-the-art awesome, like bar-setting quality. This TV is otherwise so, so, so good and just really enjoyable. You don’t have to be an enthusiast or purist to see how
awesome the picture is—all in a really attractive package with an easy-to-use experience built right in. But at the end of the day, I feel like this TV belongs in dedicated entertainment spaces where light control is pretty much built in, and other accommodations can be made for the pretty reflective screen. Sadly, that makes for a pretty niche group of folks for whom this TV would be my top recommendation. The average American living room is just not the right spot for this TV,
I think. I don’t know. What do you think? Do you disagree? Let me know in the comments if you own this TV and feel differently about that. And keep in mind, too, that I used normal house lights here, not just our ridiculously bright studio lights. But if you’re looking for a killer TV for your entertainment room, home theater, game room, that sort of thing, the Bravia 7 is, like I said, superb.
I know at least one X90L owner who’s going to see this review and not enjoy that I’ve said that, but it’s true. The Bravia 7 is a big step up for Sony, and I’m glad they made it—well, I’m glad with like 90% of it. Now you know if this TV is right for you. Thanks so much for watching, everyone. Like I said, please leave your comments about your experience and your questions in the comment section below. Please give this video a like if you think somebody else would find it helpful or enjoy it. Subscribe if you want to see more. I’ll see you on the next one, and until then, here are two other videos I think you might like.
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2024-10-19 16:14
