Sony Bravia 8 MK2 vs TCL A400 PRO

Thanks to its new QD-OLED panel, the Sony Bravia 8 II can reach an astronomically high peak brightness of around 2000 nits, which translates to near-reference quality for films and series mastered in HDR. In test material such as Life of Pi or Sicario 2 the effect is simply stunning – detail in bright areas remains perfectly visible, and night scenes impress with depth and contrast. It's not perfect, though. Compared with its fiercest rivals the Bravia 8 II shows a noticeable drop in brightness on full-screen, very bright frames. If you compare peak point luminance with the 100% white level in HDR, the Bravia 8 II can be two to three times dimmer than the LG G5 or Samsung S95F. This was particularly clear in a scene from The Meg – the screen became noticeably darker than the competitors' TVs. Despite this drawback the Bravia 8 II still ranks among the market leaders. Credit is due for the absolutely top-tier coverage of colour gamuts – DCI-P3 at almost 100% and BT.2020 close to 90%. Those are the specs that let HDR content reach its full potential and deliver a cinema-like experience at home.

The TCL A400 Pro is a moderately bright TV. Its peak brightness reaches around 600 nits. That level already allows for a real HDR effect and in many films it does deliver a noticeably more appealing picture than in SDR. However, it’s not a level that dazzles by brightness alone. The A400 Pro is not one of those TVs that bombard the viewer with a powerful flash in every dramatic scene. The biggest limitation is visible with small bright elements on a dark background. Because of fairly aggressive zone control, the TV can significantly reduce their brightness, in extreme cases down to around 100 nits. That means small lights, sparks, stars or single highlights can be much less visible than they should be. It should be added, though, that this isn’t done without reason. The A400 Pro does this to keep black levels as deep as possible and to limit the halo effect around bright objects. It’s a deliberate compromise: the TV more often opts for deeper blacks rather than maximising point highlights. On the one hand this is understandable, especially given a limited number of dimming zones, but on the other you should be aware that the HDR effect won’t always be as strong as the peak brightness alone might suggest.

On the plus side, the colours are a strength. The PFS LED filter used here, marketed by the manufacturer as QLED, delivers suitably saturated colours. Our measurements showed about 94% coverage of the DCI-P3 gamut and around 74% of BT.2020, which is a solid result for this class.

Straight out of the box, the Bravia 8 II performs very well. In its best IMAX® Enhanced mode the TV renders colours pleasantly and naturally, though "good" here doesn't mean "best in class". The white balance definitely needs adjustment — skin tones tend to lean slightly pinkish to cool, in both SDR and HDR material. We also noticed that the EOTF curve shows a tendency to brighten the darkest parts of the image. This likely stems from the manufacturer's desire to reveal as much detail as possible, even in deep shadow. Is that a good approach? It's hard to say definitively, but one thing's certain: it's not an ideal solution.

As usual, we carried out colour measurements in the best‑tuned picture mode, Filmmaker Mode, the one intended to be closest to the creators’ intentions. The A400 Pro, of course, also offers other picture modes, but in practice they show much larger colour errors and interfere more with the image character. So we won’t cover them in detail in this part of the review. How does the factory colour reproduction fare? In short: really very well. In fact, looking at our measurements, it’s excellent. Both the white balance and the luminance response were set surprisingly precisely. The errors were so small that during the measurements we genuinely rubbed our eyes in surprise. Such good factory settings don’t happen often, even in televisions running Filmmaker Mode. All the more reason to praise TCL, because the A400 Pro straight out of the box can produce an image very close to how the source material should look. The results were so good you could easily think someone had already given this unit extra attention and tried to calibrate it. Our one bit of nitpicking comes down to a single issue. In SDR material the image was slightly brighter than the reference for a dark room, because the factory gamma was set closer to 2.3 than 2.4. It’s not a large error and most viewers probably won’t even notice it. We should note, however, that we are talking about our specific test unit. There can always be some variation in factory colour between individual units, production batches or screen sizes. We do not assume every A400 Pro will look identical straight out of the box.

After calibration we were mainly able to eliminate the excessive coolness of the picture caused by an overly strong boost to the blue channel. Reds became deeper and skin tones took on a natural, healthy look. Actors who previously seemed 'cold' now appear much livelier and more convincing on screen. One thing hasn't changed: analysis of the EOTF curve still shows the Bravia 8 II tends to brighten the darkest parts of the image. It's hard to tell whether this is an intentional choice by the manufacturer or an effect of the panel design and software. In practice this means scenes that creators intended to remain in deep shadow can reveal more detail than intended. Despite this, the picture after calibration is clearly better, with warm, natural colours and realistic skin tones making viewing on the Bravia 8 II simply more pleasant to the eye.

Despite the outstanding factory tuning, we couldn't resist checking how the TCL A400 Pro would respond to professional calibration. With such a strong starting point, we were especially curious whether we could squeeze even more from this TV. And here we have to boast: we managed to bring our sample to absurdly low colour errors. Results below 1 are something you don't see every day, even on very good TVs. Such outcomes are more often associated with professional reference monitors than with a lifestyle TV for the living room. In terms of white balance and colour reproduction, the A400 Pro after calibration simply excelled. The only thing we can pick on after closer analysis concerns the brightness response. The TV can vary the luminance level depending on the content being displayed, and quite often the picture is a little darker than it should be according to the reference. This most likely stems from the way the Mini-LED backlight and the local dimming algorithms work in this model. That said, it doesn't ruin the overall impression, because in terms of colour precision the A400 Pro after calibration reached a level that was genuinely hard to expect.

Upscaling and digital image processing are a real showcase for the Bravii 8 II. Sony has long been seen as a master in this area and this only confirms its reputation. The proprietary XR processor can extract almost the maximum from lower-resolution sources – whether it's broadcast TV or an old DVD movie, the picture looks crisper, with more detail and better depth. Of course, if you feed it exceptionally poor-quality material (like our archival shot of the Model), don't expect miracles, but in everyday viewing there's little to complain about.

The smooth gradation function also performs very well. On the "Medium" setting it effectively smooths tonal transitions, removing banding in colour and grey gradients, while not destroying film grain or fine image detail. It's this balance between subtlety and effectiveness that keeps Sony TVs among the best on the market in this category.

Digital image processing is unfortunately one of the weaker points of the TCL A400 Pro. That does not mean the TV performs badly, but it’s hard to call it anything clearly above standard. The upscaling itself is acceptable: edges are fairly well smoothed, the picture does not look overly sharp or “pixelated”, and lower-quality material can be watched without major discomfort. At the same time the overall image has a slightly soft character and you don’t see the kind of precision that the best image processors in more expensive TVs can offer.

Handling of tonal transitions caused by heavy compression is much worse. TCL equipped the A400 Pro with a “Gradual Smoothing” feature that in theory should reduce visible colour banding and artefacts in lower-quality material. In practice, however, its effectiveness is very limited. It does not improve tonal transitions in any noticeable way, and at higher settings it can further smooth image detail, giving it an artificial, slightly blurred character. For that reason we think it’s best to leave this feature off. The A400 Pro copes decently with basic image scaling, but if you often watch heavily compressed material with visible posterisation, this model will not be one of the best choices.

Motion handling is essentially sorted on the Bravia 8 II. The OLED panel with a 120 Hz refresh rate naturally delivers a very clean, sharp picture in fast-moving scenes, so there's little to complain about. What really deserves praise, though, are its motion smoothing systems, among the best on the market. They let you precisely tailor film motion to your preferences, from subtle smoothing to an almost "soap-opera" effect, without the risk of artificial stutter, frame tearing or annoying artefacts. It's one of those features you'll appreciate both during film sessions and when watching sport.

The TCL A400 Pro is equipped with a 144 Hz panel, but in practice we're most interested in how it performs at 120 Hz. That's the refresh rate most consoles, as well as many sports broadcasts and high-motion sources, are limited to today. In that range the TV performs quite well. Motion clarity is really good, especially after properly configuring the motion smoothing. The 'Motion Clarity' function improves smoothness. Its settings include two sliders that let you tailor the motion smoothing to your preferences, separately for low-frame-rate and high-frame-rate content. This allows you to achieve either a more cinematic look or a noticeably smoother image. If you don't want to fiddle with manual configuration, you can use built-in presets such as Low, Medium, High, Cinema or Nature.

Sony has really done its homework and with the Bravia 8 II put together a package of features for gamers that’s hard to call anything other than 'almost perfect'. It has everything you expect in gear of this class – VRR, ALLM, a Dolby Vision Gaming mode, HGiG, and even a handy Game Bar that lets you quickly check parameters and change settings without leaving the game. It’s also a plus how smoothly and hassle-free these features run, with no latency and no odd stutters. You just fire up a game and everything looks as it should. Unfortunately, there are a few caveats. The maker still gives us only two full-bandwidth HDMI ports, so if you have a console, a PC and another device, for example a soundbar on eARC, you end up having to swap cables. It’s also surprising there’s no support for 1440p at 120 Hz, which is particularly important for Xbox gamers. Overall though, it’s one of those TVs you can confidently put at the centre of your gaming living room and enjoy gameplay without major compromises.

In terms of gaming features the TCL A400 Pro performs brilliantly. The TV has practically everything you’d expect from a gaming TV today: support for 4K at high refresh rates, VRR, ALLM, correct implementation of HDR formats in games, including Dolby Vision, and HGiG. That means it works well with both next‑gen consoles and PCs. Another plus is the inclusion of a Game Bar, a dedicated panel with the most important settings for gamers. From it you can quickly check basic information about the signal, refresh rate or active features, and customise the appearance and behaviour of some settings to your preferences. It’s a solution that may not change picture quality by itself, but it greatly improves the convenience of using the TV while gaming. The only thing to criticise is the number of full HDMI 2.1 ports. The A400 Pro has only two such ports out of four, and one of them also serves as eARC. In practice this means that if you want to connect two next‑gen consoles and a soundbar you may run into some limitations. In that scenario you’ll need to either swap devices or use extra equipment, such as an AV receiver or a soundbar with HDMI inputs. Even so, it’s hard not to rate the A400 Pro very highly as a gaming TV. The gaming feature set here is genuinely powerful.