LG OLED G6 (G64LW, G66LS) vs SONY Bravia 9 II XR95M2

The LG G6 is currently one of the brightest OLEDs on the market. Its peak brightness reaches nearly 2500 nits, and what’s best – this has a direct impact on real film scenes. The television flawlessly extracts details in the bright areas of the image. And this is regardless of whether we are talking about very small points like stars in the sky or slightly larger elements on the screen. Naturally, with full-screen, uniformly white scenes, the brightness of the G6 decreases due to the panel protection system (ABL). However, in real, varied cinematic shots, this value still hovers around 2000 nits, which can be considered an outstanding result. The coverage of the colour palette also deserves praise. The new second-generation Tandem OLED panel only brought a cosmetic change but still an improvement. The coverage of the DCI-P3 palette reaches nearly 99.5%, whereas for the ultra-wide BT.2020, it is around 84%. These are very good results, although it’s worth remembering one thing: at extremely high brightness levels, the colour volume will be lower than in Samsung Display’s QD-OLED panels due to the use of a white sub-pixel (WOLED). However, in everyday content and most films, catching this difference will be very difficult.

The real showcase of the new backlight architecture and Sony’s processor is HDR material reproduction. At the official launch Sony engineers said (not officially 😉) that the brightness of the Bravia 9 II should be almost identical to their professional director’s monitor BVM-HX3110, which is priced at astronomical sums. Our lab tests confirmed those were not empty promises. During synthetic measurements on the L20 test pattern the TV effortlessly exceeded the 4000 nits peak brightness barrier. Most importantly, these spectacular results translate directly to real film scenes. In most of the demanding shots we tested the screen easily maintained brightness around 2500–3000 nits. Regardless of the scene’s character, whether the light was small and pinpoint or flooded almost across the entire screen, the HDR effect was incredibly intense.

Colours

Colours are another key pillar of RGB Mini LED technology (Sony’s True RGB implementation). Specifically for testing these kinds of displays we have permanently introduced a new research section to examine how TVs handle colours in real-world conditions. Traditional tests using synthetic patterns are no longer enough to determine actual colour-gamut coverage. From now on we also measure colour saturation directly in selected film scenes by overlaying measurement points on them. So how do the colours perform?

In synthetic tests the Bravia 9 II achieves excellent results. For the popular DCI-P3 space used for HDR content the colour gamut coverage reached almost 98%, while for the extremely wide and demanding BT.2020 space measurements indicated nearly 90%. However, in real, varied scenes those values fall by a few percentage points. This is a direct result of the nature of zoned RGB backlighting. When differently coloured elements or bright white highlights appear side by side, light from adjacent zones starts to bleed together, producing a slight whitish glow. That naturally affects colour saturation, reducing it slightly. It shows that despite Sony’s brilliant algorithm for controlling the RGB LEDs, the number of zones is still too small to eliminate this effect entirely.

Is that something to complain about? Of course not. The Bravia 9 II’s final colour coverage is ultimately the same as that of a very good QLED TV, and the most important point is this: the vast majority of HDR films and series are distributed in the DCI-P3 colour space. In that standard Sony easily maintains very high colour saturation, regardless of the scene.

We tested the LG G6 in the best factory mode in terms of colour fidelity, namely FILMMAKER MODE. In the case of our test unit, this mode was quite well tuned straight out of the box. In SDR content, the only issue we could point out was the white balance, which tended to drift towards warmer tones. Consequently, the image could occasionally appear slightly yellowed; however, overall, this was not an bothersome problem. The G6 performed a bit worse with HDR content. There, we noted too much blue component in the white balance, which caused the image to take on cooler hues, resulting in fairly noticeable errors. As can be seen in our ColorChecker chart, the colours indeed drifted towards these cooler registers. Nevertheless, considering the factory settings, the television displayed a perfectly decent level. We do know, however, that OLED screens – particularly those from LG – respond excellently to professional calibration, which is why we immediately went ahead with it.

Contrary to appearances and high expectations, the Bravia 9 II we tested showed some issues with its factory calibration straight out of the box. Looking at the white balance charts, it’s clear it wasn’t perfect. In SDR content the red component was noticeably lacking, so the image leaned toward cooler, bluish tones. In HDR, however, the white balance in that respect was considerably better. So where do the visible errors in image reproduction come from? They result from unexpected tuning of the gamma and the EOTF curve. In both cases the Bravia 9 II straight from the factory showed a marked deviation from reference standards. In SDR material the gamma was significantly too high — at extremes it hovered very close to 2.8 instead of the target 2.4. In practice this meant the image looked artificially darkened and seemed washed of colour, with details in darker areas (the shadows) disappearing entirely. The opposite happened with HDR material, where brightness reproduction is governed by the EOTF. That curve was pushed too high above the correct value, causing the image to be artificially brightened across most luminance ranges. As with every TV we test, we subjected this unit to professional calibration. You can see the results and how we managed to correct these factory errors below.

After professional calibration, we gained complete control over the panel, and we managed to align all parameters to nearly zero. We successfully calibrated the white balance perfectly, which eliminated the factory cool and warm tints from the screen. The effects are clear as day in the ColorChecker test – the average colour reproduction errors dropped below the critical value of 1-2. And what does that mean? PERFECT colours, without any distortion! However, as reviewers, we must point out here how the LG G6 arbitrarily manipulates brightness, for which the EOTF curve is responsible. When looking at the standard synthetic chart, it might seem that the line is quite straight. However, the situation changes when we turn on the measurement filter, which shows how the television interprets brightness in real, moving film scenes (EOTF in MOVIES). Then it becomes evident that some of the tiniest parts on the screen are slightly over-brightened by the algorithm. Of course, for the average viewer, such a deviation will be practically unnoticeable, but in the test of such an expensive screen, it is worth noting – especially since we are talking about a model that has huge aspirations to be named the best television of the year.

Fortunately, with professional calibration, most of the Bravia 9 II’s factory missteps can be effectively eliminated. We managed to precisely correct, above all, the white balance and the gamma curve and EOTF. After these procedures, in everyday use and during film viewings the television looks worlds better. The picture gained proper depth and modelling, the cool tint to whites disappeared, and shadow detail that previously vanished because of an overly high gamma finally became perfectly visible. Although we ultimately rate 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 were not for the complete lack of an advanced colour management system in the television’s menu.

While a basic white balance correction can be carried out here without difficulty, the settings lack options for adjusting specific colours. We tried to tackle this issue in every possible way, both with the traditional method from the remote and via dedicated calibration software for Bravia televisions. Unfortunately, that function has been completely locked. We suspect this may stem from the specifics of the new RGB architecture, which imposes its own limitations. It’s a great shame, because without it you cannot push colour reproduction to perfection. A skewed red still catches the eye. One can only hope that Sony will fix this shortcoming in time via an update.

Whatever one may say about the G6’s problems with near-black signal, it must be fairly acknowledged that it handles heavily compressed material and lower resolution content exceptionally well. All unwanted, unsightly tonal transitions are effectively reduced here by the "Smooth Gradation" feature. At the "Low" setting, the algorithm works flawlessly – effectively masking the artefacts resulting from strong compression without destroying the sharpness and details in the frame. Higher levels of this function do indeed smooth the image further, but they start to blur the real elements of object texture, which is why we recommend keeping this slider at a low setting. As for the upscaling to 4K, the processor does an excellent job – edge sharpness and detail reconstruction are at the highest level, and in this regard, the G6 does not fall behind the world leaders at all.

Digital processing and upscaling have long been Sony’s hallmark, and after testing the Bravia 9 II we can confidently say that nothing has changed in that respect. Sony remains at the forefront of the market. Their proprietary XR image processor, which in this model works alongside the main MediaTek Pentonic 1000 chip, deserves the highest praise. That combination delivers excellent results. The upscaling of lower-resolution material itself is extremely effective and precise. However, what most deserves applause in the XR processor’s operation is its tonal transition smoothing function. The system can reduce posterization in heavily compressed material to virtually zero. Crucially, the algorithm does this in a very intelligent way. It removes only the annoying digital “steps” in gradients without blurring fine texture details or creating an artificial, “plastic” look stripped of film grain. The picture remains sharp, natural and cinematic.

LG G6 is an OLED television, so in the category of motion fluidity, it traditionally deserves the highest marks. The television supports very high refresh rates reaching up to 165 Hz in 4K resolution, but most importantly – on the screen, you will not notice any signs of blurring. The response time of the panel is almost instantaneous, ensuring that dynamic images remain perfectly sharp.

In the Sony Bravia 9 II specification you won't find very high screen refresh rates above 120 Hz, which some more demanding PC gamers may regard as a drawback. However, in everyday use, whether during movie viewing, console gaming or watching sport, it's really hard to have any complaints about motion smoothness. The VA-type panel used here does show slight smearing, natural for this panel type, but the excellent Motionflow motion smoothing algorithms come to the rescue. In the system menu you'll find sliders for blur reduction and smoothing that let you precisely tailor the motion characteristics to your own preferences.

The LG G6 is a true monster for gamers and one of the best-equipped televisions on the market in this regard. The manufacturer has not skimped on features, equipping this model with as many as four full HDMI 2.1 ports with a maximum bandwidth of 48 Gbps. This means that no matter which port you plug in your PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, or powerful PC, you will get the absolute maximum performance from them.

The television supports a full set of gaming technologies: from VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) to AMD FreeSync Premium Pro, and even Nvidia G-Sync Compatible. On top of that, it offers remarkably low, nearly imperceptible input lag and an exceptionally well-functioning Game Optimizer panel, which allows you to monitor signal parameters in real time. Gaming on this screen, with the perfect black of OLED and impressive refresh rates, is pure pleasure.

Aside from a fairly serious design misstep in 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 models. The list of supported technologies is extensive. It includes automatic low-latency mode (ALLM), variable refresh rate (VRR), and a fully correct implementation of the HGIG standard and the Dolby Vision format tailored for gamers.