TCL A400 PRO vs SONY Bravia 9 II XR95M2

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.