SONY Bravia 9 II XR95M2 vs Samsung S90H (WOLED)

The real showcase for the new backlight architecture and Sony’s processor is HDR reproduction. At the official launch the Sony engineers said (not officially 😉) that the Bravia 9 II’s brightness should be almost identical to their professional director’s monitor BVM-HX3110, priced at astronomical sums. Our lab tests confirmed they weren’t empty promises. In synthetic measurements on the L20 test pattern the TV easily exceeded 4000 nits of peak brightness. More importantly, these impressive results translate directly to real film scenes. In most of the demanding shots we tested the screen consistently held brightness around 2500 to 3000 nits. Whether the light was small and pinpoint or flooded almost the entire screen, the HDR effect was incredibly intense.

Colours

Colour is another key pillar of RGB Mini LED technology (Sony’s True RGB implementation). For testing this type of panel we’ve permanently added a new research section to check how TVs handle colour in real-world conditions. Traditional synthetic-chart tests are no longer enough to determine real gamut coverage. From now on we also measure colour saturation directly in selected film scenes by overlaying measurement points. So how do the colours perform?

In synthetic tests the Bravia 9 II posts excellent results. For the popular DCI-P3 space used for HDR, colour-gamut coverage was almost 98%, while for the extremely wide and demanding BT.2020 space our measurements showed nearly 90%. However, in real-world, varied scenes those values drop by a few percentage points. This is directly due to the nature of zoned RGB backlighting. When differently coloured elements or bright white points appear next to each other, light from adjacent zones begins to mix slightly, producing a whitish backlight. This, of course, affects colour saturation, slightly reducing it. It shows that despite Sony’s brilliant algorithm controlling the RGB diodes, that number of zones is too small to eliminate the effect completely.

Is this a reason to complain? Of course not. The Bravia 9 II’s final colour coverage is the same as that of a very good QLED TV, and it’s important to remember: the vast majority of films and TV shows distributed in HDR use the DCI-P3 gamut. In that standard Sony easily maintains very high colour saturation, regardless of the scene.

The Samsung S90H in the WOLED variant is still an exceptionally bright TV for its price bracket, although it is slightly dimmer compared with the QD-OLED version. That difference is not as pronounced as in last year’s F series, where gaps sometimes reached 500 nits. Here the parameters of both panels are very similar, with differences in peak brightness of only about 100–150 nits. In small-window measurements the S90H with the WOLED panel easily reaches close to 1,500 nits. That headroom lets it phenomenally convey the dynamics of HDR effects — blooms, light reflections and explosions have the right punch, exactly as intended by the studio creators. As with most OLED displays, when a very bright scene fills the entire screen, panel protection systems kick in and brightness naturally falls to around 700 nits. It’s worth stressing that this is still an excellent result on the market, often noticeably better than many Mini LED screens in the same segment.

Colour gamut coverage

The biggest difference between the two S90H variants lies in colour reproduction and saturation. This stems directly from the different construction of the WOLED panel, which uses an additional white subpixel. As a result, very high-brightness colours don’t achieve quite the same saturation, and the wide-colour volume is slightly more limited than with QD-OLED. That said, in everyday use these differences will be hard for most viewers to notice. Our measured DCI-P3 coverage on the WOLED panel reaches almost 99%, meaning that for the vast majority of real film scenes both variants will present an almost identical image. The real gap only appears in rarer, especially demanding productions that use the ultra-wide BT.2020 gamut. Because of the WOLED panel’s construction, coverage of that standard is roughly 15% lower compared with the S90HAT with a QD-OLED panel, so the brightest, heavily lit HDR colours may appear a touch less vivid.

Contrary to expectations and high hopes, the Bravia 9 II we tested straight out of the box showed some issues with its factory calibration. Looking at the white balance charts, you can see it isn’t perfect. In SDR content it mainly lacked the red component, so the picture leaned toward cooler, bluish tones. By contrast, white balance in HDR looked much better in that respect. So where do the visible errors in image reproduction come from? They stem from an unexpected tuning of the gamma and the EOTF curve. In both cases the Bravia 9 II straight from the factory showed a clear deviation from reference standards.

In SDR content the gamma was significantly too high, at times running very close to 2.8 instead of the reference 2.4. In practice this meant the image was artificially dark and appeared washed out of colour, with details in dark areas (the shadows) completely lost. The opposite was true in HDR material, where brightness reproduction is handled by the EOTF curve. That curve was pushed too high above the correct value, which resulted in the picture being artificially brightened across most luminance ranges. As with every TV we test, we also subjected this unit to professional calibration. You can see the results and how we managed to correct those factory errors below.

In Filmmaker mode, which we strongly recommend switching on straight out of the box, the S90H offers very good factory colour tuning. Colours are natural and faithful to the creators' intent, without the annoying oversaturation seen in more aggressive profiles. However, as is often the case without full calibration, there is unit-to-unit variation. In our test the white balance was a little deficient in the blue component, so the image leaned slightly towards warmer, yellowish tones. This was most noticeable in bright scenes, such as the snowy sequences from Star Wars. Additionally, the gamma curve was slightly low at around 2.2, which caused a small lift in shadow detail. In HDR mode the tuning was a bit better, showing only a slight undersaturation in the red region.

Fortunately, with professional calibration, most of the factory shortcomings of the Bravia 9 II can be effectively eliminated. We managed to precisely correct primarily the white balance and the gamma and EOTF curves. After those adjustments, in everyday use and during movie sessions the TV looks vastly better. The image gained proper dimensionality, the cool tint to the whites disappeared, and shadow details that had previously been lost due to excessively high gamma finally became clearly visible. Although we ultimately assess colour accuracy as very good, as specialists we must point out one fairly serious design flaw in this model. The Bravia 9 II could look even better if it weren't for the complete lack of an advanced colour management system in the TV's menu.

While a basic white balance correction can be carried out here without issue, the settings lack options for adjusting specific colours. We tried to tackle this from every angle, both using the traditional method from the remote and with dedicated calibration software for Bravia TVs. Unfortunately, that function has been entirely locked. We suspect this may stem from the specifics of the new RGB architecture, which imposes these limitations. It's a real shame, because without it you can't fine-tune colour reproduction to perfection. The inaccurate red, for example, still stands out. Let's hope Sony will fix this shortcoming over time via an update.

After full calibration, you can safely say the S90H in the WOLED version looks almost perfect. In SDR mode colour errors fall to ultra-low levels and Delta E values very rarely exceed 2. That's a phenomenal result, so if perfectly faithful colour reproduction matters to you, it's definitely worth getting it calibrated. The calibrated HDR mode also performs very well, where the white balance was stabilised and previous deviations eliminated. After professional tuning it's really hard to fault anything, because the TV delivers an image with almost exemplary naturalness and three-dimensionality. The slightly lower score in this category compared with the QD-OLED variant is solely due to the saturation limitation in extremely bright scenes, while the tuning potential and colour fidelity are at the highest level.

Digital processing and upscaling have long been Sony's forte, and after testing the Bravia 9 II we can confidently say that nothing has changed in this area. Sony remain at the top of the market. Their proprietary XR image processor, which in this model works together with the main MediaTek Pentonic 1000 chip, deserves the highest praise. That combination delivers excellent results. Upscaling lower-resolution content is extremely effective and precise.

However, what earns the most praise in the XR processor's performance is its tonal transition smoothing function. The system can reduce posterisation in heavily compressed material to practically zero. Crucially, the algorithm does this in a very intelligent way. It removes only the irritating digital 'steps' in gradients (banding), but does not blur fine texture detail or create an artificial, 'plastic' look lacking film grain. The image remains sharp, natural and cinematic.

When it comes to banding reduction itself, Samsung has kept the same solutions known from last year’s models. The dedicated gradient-smoothing function works quite well and can effectively mask unwanted tonal transitions, which can be useful on a WOLED panel that’s somewhat more prone to banding. However, it’s important to remember it acts aggressively. This mechanism, aside from the artefacts themselves, can remove fine film grain and subtly soften detail. Ultimately it’s a trade-off, but if you want perfectly faithful image reproduction, it’s safer to leave this option off.

There’s also no breakthrough in scaling. The S90H uses the same NQ4 Gen3 processor as its predecessor, so upscaling quality was almost identical. The chip sharpens lower-resolution material very well, pulling a satisfying level of detail out of it. However, Samsung still hasn’t solved the old overscan problem. For some older recordings or archival footage the edges of the image can be slightly cropped. It’s a minor drawback, but it’s a shame the manufacturer still hasn’t fixed it.

In the specifications for the Sony Bravia 9 II you won't find dizzyingly high screen refresh rates above 120 Hz, which some more demanding PC gamers might see as a drawback. However, in everyday use — whether during film sessions, playing console games or watching sport — it's really hard to criticise the motion smoothness. The VA panel used here does exhibit some slight, natural smearing typical of this panel type, but the excellent Motionflow smoothing algorithms come to the rescue. The system menu includes sliders for blur reduction and smoothing that let you precisely tune the motion characteristics to your own preferences.

When it comes to motion handling the S90H is simply excellent. This year's panel offers its refresh rate boosted to 165 Hz, although in practice the benefit will mainly be for gamers connecting a powerful PC. For movies, TV series or sports broadcasts such a high refresh rate makes no difference and the picture looks exactly the same as at the standard 120 Hz. Regardless of the source, the OLED panel's lightning-fast response time does the job. Motion is clean, and the ghosting or smearing seen on LCDs simply doesn't occur here.

Aside from the fairly serious design oversight of limiting the platform to just two full HDMI 2.1 ports, the Bravia 9 II offers almost all the key gaming features available on the market. Sony has already accustomed us to such a rich feature set in its previous designs. The list of supported technologies here is extensive. It includes automatic low-latency mode (ALLM), variable refresh rate (VRR), as well as a fully compliant implementation of the HGIG standard and Dolby Vision tailored specifically for gamers.

Gamers should feel right at home with the S90H, because Samsung has left few reasons to complain in this area. The TV has four HDMI 2.1 ports, each supporting VRR, ALLM and high refresh rates. There's also the Game Bar, a handy menu that lets you quickly check key parameters and change settings without leaving the game. Importantly, Samsung has also improved HGiG. In last year's models it could cause issues when used with a console, but on the S90H it now works as it should. What really stands out against the competition is Game Motion Plus. It's a specialised motion-smoothing mode for games that works best with titles running at 30 or 60 frames per second. Motion becomes noticeably smoother and latency remains at a reasonable level. In our measurements it was under 50 ms, so gaming is still comfortable. That's important, because on many TVs enabling a similar smoothing feature causes such a big increase in input lag that controls become noticeably sluggish. Samsung has managed to find a good compromise here. There's still no Dolby Vision Gaming, but in practice Game Motion Plus may prove to be the more useful feature.