TCL C9K vs SONY Bravia 9 II XR95M2

As we mentioned regarding black levels and contrast – the C9K can make a huge impression in synthetic tests. Our measurements showed that on a screen 10% filled with white, the television can achieve... 4000 nits of brightness! It sounds out of this world, but – and here's where the pattern unfortunately repeats – the numbers say one thing, and the practical experience says another. In real movie scenes, the situation looks different. In the best-case scenario, when light effects occupy a large part of the image and the local dimming algorithm doesn't have to ponder too much about what to do with thousands of zones, the effect is really quite good. At that point, the C9K can hit around 1500 nits, which delivers a pleasant, intense burst and can indeed leave a positive impression.

The problem arises with smaller elements – such as stars in the sky, the moon, or individual reflections. That's when the proverbial cat comes out of the bag: the algorithms are not yet refined, and brightness drops to as low as 400–500 nits. That's a huge difference from the potential 4000 nits we saw in lab tests. Why does this happen? Most likely, the television is trying to protect the black levels in this way and minimize the halo effect around bright objects. Unfortunately, this comes at the expense of detail – some details simply vanish, and the scene loses its nature.

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.

For colour tests, we once again reached for the Filmmaker mode – a new feature in TCL televisions for 2025. While the direction is a step in the right way, the execution leaves a lot to be desired. The white balance in SDR content turned out to be too warm – there was an excess of red. On the other hand, in HDR, it swung in the opposite direction: the image became excessively blue. The Colour Checker test revealed quite a few colour inaccuracies that were noticeable to the naked eye. An even bigger problem turned out to be what we mentioned above – brightness management. Regardless of whether we were watching SDR or HDR content, the image tended to wash out the entire scene, giving it an unnatural, almost grotesque character. Therefore, it’s hard to call this a "director's mode" – because no director has ever seen such an image.

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.

After calibration, we finally managed to tame the white balance – and it immediately translated into a more natural image. Colours finally started to look as they should, and the overall presentation was incomparably better than on the factory settings. In other words – it’s worth taking a moment to improve this, as the gain is really significant. The gamma responsible for brightness management also managed to be brought into order in SDR content, and the effect was more than satisfactory. Unfortunately, when we turned on HDR materials, the situation quickly became complicated. No matter how we set the local dimming, the television had a tendency to do what it liked with the image – either it overexposed everything or darkened the darkest parts too much. Just like we saw in the scene from the movie Billy Lynn. Colour-wise, the improvement after calibration makes a great impression, but brightness management in HDR remains the Achilles' heel of the C9K and presents a certain technological limitation.

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 on the TCL C9K is rather average. The smooth tone transition feature seems to be present, but activating it practically changes nothing – colour bands are still visible, and it can unintentionally highlight elements we’d rather keep hidden, such as object textures. Fortunately, it doesn’t remove film grain, but that’s poor consolation given that the effects are still meagre. It’s therefore hard to recommend using this option.

On the other hand, image scaling presents itself much better. Lower quality materials look quite decent – characters and backgrounds are rendered clearly, although of course, with sources like 576p, the laws of physics cannot be fooled. Occasionally, there’s characteristic edge distortion of objects, but that’s the fault of the source itself, not the algorithm. A plus for not having issues with overscan – the image isn't artificially cropped or enlarged.

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.

Similar to the C8K, the C9K is also a really fast TV – both figuratively and literally. It features a 4K panel with a refresh rate of 144 Hz, and at lower resolutions, the panel can even ramp up to 288 Hz. Such speed translates into practice – while watching sports or playing games, the image looks very smooth and clear. Additionally, in movies, we get an extra motion smoother called Motion Clarity, which allows you to adjust the smoothness to your own preferences – from cinematic "judder" to almost theatrical smoothness.

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.

From a gaming perspective, the TCL C9K is a complete tool. It features two (out of four) full bandwidth 48 Gbps HDMI 2.1 ports, so all the key technologies work: VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) and ALLM (Auto Low Latency Mode). Additionally, the manufacturer has included a really intuitive Game Bar that allows you to quickly check the most important parameters and adjust settings without fumbling through menus. Also, TCL's policy is a plus – the TV isn’t afraid of any HDR formats, even in game mode. Whether it's HGiG or Dolby Vision for the Xbox Series S/X console – everything works as it should, giving the player plenty of freedom.

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.