Panasonic W95B vs Sony BRAVIA 2 II (S25M2)

The Panasonic W95B is truly a bright screen, capable of achieving a peak luminance of around 1400 nits. In brighter, well-lit film scenes, this value translates to spectacular HDR effects that can make a big impression. However, knowing our test setup, you can probably see that in very demanding shots – such as the moon in the distance or the lights of a helicopter in the scene from Sicario 2 – the television does not impress. In such situations, brightness drops to around 200 nits, which makes the HDR effect much less noticeable. This happens because Panasonic prioritises maintaining deep blacks, not illuminating the background – for many users, this shouldn't be a cause for concern. However, it is important to remember that in these moments the image begins to resemble SDR content. The coverage of the colour palette also deserves praise, as it reaches about 93% of the DCI-P3 space thanks to the use of a PFS filter (also known from QLED technology). As a result, most films look very good in terms of saturation and colours, preserving the cinematic character of the image.

The Sony Bravia 2 II is not a very bright TV and unfortunately that is immediately apparent in HDR. In our measurements brightness stayed around 300 to 330 nits, which is clearly too low for the brightest parts of the image to look truly impressive. In practice, HDR here does not differ that much from standard SDR. Bright highlights, the sun or lamps are of course visible, but they lack the intensity you would expect from HDR material. The Bravia 2 II therefore performs much better with standard SDR content, and in that use its limited brightness will be least noticeable.

Colour gamut coverage

The Sony Bravia 2 II is also not impressive in terms of colour. The TV does not use any additional gamut‑expanding filter, such as the quantum dots found in QLED TVs or a PFS phosphor layer. In our measurements coverage of the DCI‑P3 gamut was about 78%, and the very wide BT.2020 roughly 57%. That's definitely too little to talk about truly saturated colours in HDR material. More intense reds, greens or turquoises will simply be less striking than on TVs with an expanded colour gamut. The Bravia 2 II therefore performs much better in the Rec.709 standard, the gamut used for films, series and television in SDR.

In Filmmaker mode, the Panasonic W95B offers an image with quite accurate colour reproduction, although it is not without minor imperfections. The white balance slightly veers towards red, which may cause a subtle warming of the image, and the gamma curve is slightly elevated, making the screen appear a bit brighter. It is good that the manufacturer included this mode – even in factory configuration, it provides a reasonably natural appearance for films. However, knowing how susceptible Panasonic televisions are to calibration, we decided to see how much the image could be improved after professional tuning.

The out-of-the-box colour reproduction in Cinema mode was actually quite good, at least for ordinary SDR material. The Bravia 2 II had a slight tendency to boost reds, so some colours shifted to slightly warmer, at times faintly pinkish, tones. However, this wasn’t a major fault and during normal viewing the picture still looked fairly natural. There was a bit more happening with image brightness. Looking at the gamma curve, you can see Sony doesn’t stick perfectly to the reference value. The darkest areas are slightly lifted, while as brightness increases the gamma gradually rises and a larger part of the picture becomes darker than it should. That said, it’s not such a large difference as to be very distracting in everyday viewing. Overall, SDR straight out of the box performs quite respectably.

The situation is considerably worse in HDR. We’ve already mentioned the limited colour gamut, but in addition the Bravia 2 II noticeably manipulates image brightness here. The EOTF curve sits below the reference value for a large part of its range, which means the TV renders most mid and brighter parts of a scene darker than the source material intends. Only towards the very end of the range does the curve flatten out, as the panel reaches the limits of its capabilities. Combined with a peak brightness of around 300 nits, this results in HDR that not only lacks much brightness, but can also simply look too dark.

After professional calibration, the Panasonic W95B shows what it is truly capable of. Colour errors have mostly dropped below values of 2–3, making them practically invisible to the human eye. It was also possible to correct the excess red in the white balance, which has resulted in the image no longer having a slight pink tint, and details in dark areas are no longer lost due to excessive dimming in the gamma. In HDR content, the improvement is also noticeable – colour saturation is now more stable and does not shift so markedly towards blue as it did before. This is truly an excellent television for watching films and series in the highest possible quality. While we know that Mini LED screens are not always perfect for this, the W95B is a perfect example that with proper fine-tuning, an effect close to OLEDs can be achieved.

Calibration did a lot for the Bravia 2 II, particularly with SDR content. Above all, we managed to even out the white balance and tidy up the gamma, which now follows the reference value much more closely. As a result, the image no longer has the previous pink cast, and the brightness across different areas is much better organised. You can also see this in the colour errors, which after calibration fell to a very low level (with slight issues in the most saturated reds). We also partially managed to rein in the Bravia 2 II in HDR, especially in the way the television handles image brightness. However, there is one thing no calibration can fix: the capabilities of the panel itself. A narrow colour gamut means the television is physically unable to reproduce the most saturated colours present in HDR material. On top of that, the low contrast of the IPS panel means darker scenes are veiled by a grey haze, which robs colours of some of their depth. So we can improve how the Bravia 2 II makes use of its capabilities, but unfortunately we cannot overcome the panel's inherent limitations.

In terms of image processing, the Panasonic W95B performs excellently. The proprietary processor responsible for digital image processing effectively upscales lower resolution content to 4K, preserving a great deal of detail and a natural appearance of contours. The final effect is impressive – the upscaling here is at a truly high level, and Full HD content can look surprisingly good. The way the television smooths tonal transitions in low-quality materials is also noteworthy. The algorithm does not operate as aggressively as in some competing models, but as a result, it does not cause a loss of detail or blur film grain.

The upscaling on the Bravii 2 II is quite good and, in that respect, the TV matches the standard Sony has set. Lower-resolution content is sensibly upscaled to 4K, and the image is slightly smoothed in the process without excessive edge sharpening. The situation is worse when it comes to improving footage with visible compression artefacts. This is handled by the "Digital Noise Reduction" function, which at the "High" setting can indeed smooth out some unpleasant tonal banding. The problem is that it does this rather aggressively and, along with the imperfections, it also removes a lot of fine detail, including natural film grain. What is more, when there is more motion on screen its effectiveness drops sharply and any improvement is then minimal. For everyday use we therefore tended not to use this function.

The 144 Hz panel used in the Panasonic W95B offers excellent fluidity, although in practice, due to the appearance of television content or the limitations of new generation consoles, it is worth observing its performance at a refresh rate of 120 Hz. In this mode, the television performs superbly – despite being a VA panel, which is not known for the fastest pixel response times, motion blur here is minimal and difficult to detect with the naked eye.

Bravia 2 II uses a 60 Hz panel and, given its capabilities, handles motion quite well. However, bear in mind that it is a basic panel and its limitations are already clearly visible, especially during sports. The TV cannot interpolate 50/60 fps material to a higher refresh rate, so it cannot further improve the sharpness of fast-moving objects. For films and series, however, it offers a conventional motion smoothing feature that can reduce the characteristic judder of material shot at 24 fps.

Aside from the previously mentioned drawback related to the VRR mode, in which local dimming does not work, the Panasonic W95B is a true gaming monster. The television offers practically everything that gamers can expect – perhaps except for four HDMI 2.1 ports, as there are only two available. Onboard, we find an auto low latency mode (ALLM), properly implemented HDR modes for gamers, including HGiG, as well as support for Dolby Vision in games. It is all complemented by an interestingly designed Game Bar, presented in the form of circles. While it may not be the most visually attractive, it serves its purpose – allowing quick access to key game parameters and adjusting settings without entering the system menu.

The Bravia 2 II is not a television that lends itself well to gaming, and the list of features shows that quite quickly. You essentially only get the automatic low-latency mode ALLM and a simple Game Bar that lets you view basic signal information and change a few settings. But that is where the list of strengths ends. The TV does not support VRR or 120 Hz (not even at lower resolutions), and on top of that it has problems with a proper implementation of the HDR HGIG format. It is suitable for occasional console gaming, and thanks to low input lag controls remain responsive, but if someone is looking for a TV primarily for games, the Bravia 2 II will simply be a rather limited choice.