At the recent MWAVE trade show, I witnessed an impressive array of cutting-edge televisions, including Sony's flagship BRAVIA 9 Mini-LED. This experience set the stage for my review of the BRAVIA 7 Mini-LED, a more affordable yet similarly capable model in Sony's 2024 lineup. The prospect of reviewing a TV that promised to deliver much of the BRAVIA 9's performance at a more accessible price point was genuinely exciting.
The Sony BRAVIA 7 Mini-LED TV represents a significant step forward in Sony's 2024 strategy, showcasing the brand's renewed emphasis on Mini-LED technology. This shift reflects the industry trend of pushing for ever-higher brightness levels, crucial for modern TV design. High brightness dramatically improves viewing experiences in well-lit environments and is essential for HDR content, enabling the TV to reproduce a wider range of luminance (the intensity of light emitted from the screen) and create more impactful specular highlights (bright reflections or glare in an image). This results in a more dynamic and lifelike image, especially in HDR scenes with bright elements like sunlight glinting off water or explosions in action movies.
Setting up the Sony BRAVIA 7 is user-friendly, thanks to the intuitive Google TV interface. The setup wizard guides you through personalizing audio and video preferences, making the process accessible even for those less tech-savvy. The TV automatically detects connected devices and optimizes settings accordingly.
A standout feature is the adjustable feet, which can be configured in multiple positions. For the 65-inch model, the footprint in the narrow, low position measures 18.8" x 13.6" x 1.7", while the wide position extends to 47.8 inches. The high position provides 3.8 inches of clearance for soundbar placement. This flexibility is a significant advantage for those with specific space constraints or aesthetic preferences.
For wall-mounting enthusiasts, the TV is compatible with a VESA 300x300 mount, ensuring easy installation in various setups.
The BRAVIA 7 boasts a sleek, premium design with thin bezels and a brushed metallic finish on the bottom bezel. Available in sizes from 55 to 85 inches, it caters to a wide range of room sizes and viewing preferences. The build quality is excellent, with a mix of solid plastic panels and premium materials like metal feet and borders.
The back of the TV features Sony's characteristic checkerboard pattern, though it lacks built-in cable management solutions. With a maximum thickness of 2.17 inches (5.5 cm), it maintains a relatively slim profile despite housing a powerful Mini LED backlight system.
The included remote is ergonomic, features built-in microphones for voice control. A single button on the TV's back left side allows for basic control, and there's a switch to disable the TV's built-in microphone for privacy concerns.
As a Mini LED TV, the BRAVIA 7 delivers impressive picture quality with deep blacks and bright highlights. It supports various HDR formats, including Dolby Vision, HDR10, and HLG. The TV's high brightness capabilities, peaking at nearly 2,000 nits for HDR content, make it suitable for both dark room viewing and brighter environments.
The contrast ratio is exceptional, measuring over 100,000:1 with local dimming enabled. This significantly enhances the TV's ability to produce deep blacks and bright highlights simultaneously. The BRAVIA 7 features 480 local dimming zones in the 65-inch model, providing good control over backlight blooming, though some haloing effects may be visible in certain scenes.
Color performance is also impressive, with the TV covering about 95% of the DCI-P3 color space, ensuring vibrant and accurate colors in HDR content. The quantum dot technology employed in the panel contributes to this wide color gamut, allowing for more saturated and lifelike colors across the spectrum.
Running on Google TV 12, the BRAVIA 7 offers a user-friendly smart interface with access to numerous streaming apps. The interface is smooth and responsive, with seamless app performance. It includes built-in Chromecast and AirPlay 2 support for easy content sharing from mobile devices.
A standout feature is the inclusion of ATSC 3.0 (NEXTGEN TV) tuners, which sets the BRAVIA 7 apart from many competitors. ATSC 3.0 is the next generation of over-the-air broadcast technology, enabling 4K HDR content transmission with improved audio and interactive features. Sony's decision to include this future-proofs the TV, ensuring owners will be ready for upcoming advancements in broadcast technology.
SONY PICTURES CORE streaming service is integrated, offering high-quality movie streaming for Sony TV owners. The TV also features an Eco Dashboard for monitoring energy consumption, aligning with Sony's commitment to sustainability.
The Sony BRAVIA 7 is equipped with impressive gaming features. Its HDMI 2.1 capabilities enable 4K resolution at 120Hz, crucial for smooth motion in fast-paced games. The TV supports Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) and Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM), enhancing the gaming experience by reducing screen tearing and input lag.
Our measurements confirm the TV's responsiveness, with an input lag of just 17.7 ms at 1080p @ 60Hz, and an even more impressive 9.8 ms at 1080p @ 120Hz. These low input lag times ensure that even the most demanding gamers will find the response satisfactory.
For PlayStation 5 owners, the BRAVIA 7 offers exclusive features like Auto HDR Tone Mapping and Auto Genre Picture Mode, optimizing picture settings automatically for different types of games. The TV's game bar allows quick access to gaming-related settings and information, including a unique split-screen mode for viewing YouTube walkthroughs alongside gameplay.
In real-world gaming tests, the BRAVIA 7 excelled. Games like "Doom Eternal" at 4K 120Hz showcased incredibly smooth motion and precise control. The TV's HDR performance added immersion to games like "Forza Horizon 5," with vibrant landscapes and stunning lighting effects. Even in darker games like "Resident Evil Village," the local dimming feature performed admirably, preserving the game's atmospheric intent without compromising visibility.
The Sony BRAVIA 7 delivers excellent picture quality, with its Mini LED backlight providing impressive contrast and local dimming capabilities. In terms of brightness, the TV excels, reaching peak levels of around 2,000 nits in a 10% window for HDR content. This high brightness capability allows for stunning specular highlights in HDR scenes, bringing out details in bright areas that lesser TVs might struggle to display.
Contrast performance is equally impressive, with a native contrast ratio of about 5,800:1, which increases to over 100,000:1 with local dimming enabled. This results in deep, inky blacks that provide a great foundation for HDR content, allowing bright highlights to truly pop against dark backgrounds.
Color performance is another strong suit of the BRAVIA 7. The TV covers approximately 95% of the DCI-P3 color space, ensuring vibrant and accurate colors in HDR content. The quantum dot technology employed in the panel contributes to this wide color gamut, allowing for more saturated and lifelike colors across the spectrum. In SDR content, the TV maintains excellent color accuracy, with a Delta E of less than 2 out of the box, which is considered imperceptible to the human eye.
Motion handling on the BRAVIA 7 is very good, with a quick response time of 11.9ms, resulting in minimal motion blur in fast-moving scenes. The TV also offers optional black frame insertion to further improve motion clarity, though this can reduce overall brightness.
Upscaling of lower resolution content is handled expertly, thanks to Sony's renowned image processing capabilities. The TV does an excellent job of preserving fine details while smoothing out compression artifacts, resulting in clean, sharp images even from lower quality sources.
However, the TV does have some limitations. Viewing angles are poor compared to some competitors, with significant color and contrast degradation when viewed off-center. The reflective screen can also be problematic in bright rooms, potentially impacting daytime viewing. These factors should be considered when deciding on placement within your viewing environment.
The Sony BRAVIA 7's audio performance is surprisingly robust for a flat-panel TV, thanks to its dual woofers and side-mounted tweeters. While testing the TV with various movie scenes, I was particularly impressed during my viewing of "The Matrix." In the iconic lobby shootout scene, the TV's speakers delivered a surprisingly wide soundstage, with bullet ricochets panning convincingly across the room. The dialogue remained clear and centered, even amidst the chaos of gunfire and shattering concrete. Bass response, while not earth-shaking, was respectable for built-in TV speakers, adding a satisfying weight to explosions and the deep, ominous tones of the film's score.
However, in the more subtle scenes, like the quiet conversations in the Nebuchadnezzar, I noticed some limitations in the midrange detail. While the TV's audio is impressive for its class, audiophiles and home theater enthusiasts will still want to pair it with a dedicated sound system or soundbar to fully capture the nuances of complex soundtracks. Nevertheless, for casual viewing and those who prefer a clean setup without external speakers, the BRAVIA 7's audio capabilities are more than adequate and quite enjoyable.
In the competitive 4K TV market, the BRAVIA 7 faces stiff competition from various brands and models, including its more premium sibling, the BRAVIA 9. Having seen the BRAVIA 9 in person at the MWAVE trade show, I can attest to its superior performance in several key areas. The BRAVIA 9 outshines the 7 with better SDR brightness and significantly improved reflection handling, making it more suitable for brightly lit rooms. Its enhanced HDR brightness allows highlights to pop more dramatically, creating a more immersive viewing experience. The BRAVIA 9's local dimming feature is also more refined, resulting in deeper blacks and reduced blooming around bright objects.
While both models struggle with viewing angles compared to OLED competitors, the BRAVIA 9's implementation of Sony's X-Wide Angle technology gives it a slight edge, maintaining better image quality when viewed from the sides. This makes it a more versatile option for wider seating arrangements. The Bravia 9 also boasts a faster response time, reducing motion blur in fast-paced scenes. However, it's important to note that these improvements come at a significant price premium over the BRAVIA 7.
When comparing the BRAVIA 7 to other brands, it holds its own against similarly priced models like the Samsung QN90D and LG QNED 90 series. These competitors offer comparable Mini LED technology with similar brightness levels, though they may have slightly better viewing angles. TCL's QM8 Series Mini LED TVs provide strong competition at a lower price point, albeit with potentially less refined image processing. In the OLED realm, LG's C4 and Sony's own BRAVIA 8 offer perfect blacks and wide viewing angles but can't match the BRAVIA 7's peak brightness. Ultimately, the choice between these options depends on individual preferences, viewing environments, and budget considerations, with the BRAVIA 7 representing a strong mid-range option that balances performance and value.
The Sony BRAVIA 7 Mini-LED TV earns our Highly Recommended award for its impressive performance, feature set, and value proposition. While the viewing angle problem is worth noting, the TV's excellent processing, upscaling capabilities, and exceptional brightness levels more than compensate for this limitation in most viewing scenarios.
This TV represents a solid choice in the upper mid-range market, especially for those who appreciate Sony's renowned picture processing and are looking for a high-performance set without stepping into the super premium price bracket. Its versatile design, impressive built-in audio, and comprehensive gaming features add to its appeal, making it a well-rounded package for a wide range of users.
The BRAVIA 7 showcases Sony's commitment to pushing Mini-LED technology forward, offering a compelling alternative to OLED for those seeking high brightness and HDR performance. While it may require some consideration in terms of room placement due to its reflective screen and viewing angle limitations, the overall package delivers exceptional value and performance that will satisfy most users' needs.
For those who prioritize brightness, color accuracy, and gaming performance, the BRAVIA 7 is an excellent choice. It strikes a balance between the high-end features of more expensive models and the affordability of budget options, making it a strong contender in the 2024 TV market. Whether you're a movie enthusiast, a gamer, or someone who simply wants a versatile TV for everyday use, the Sony BRAVIA 7 delivers a premium experience without breaking the bank.
