Philips OLED950 vs SONY BRAVIA 3 II (XR35M2)

The OLED950 is a phenomenal television for consuming content in HDR format, primarily thanks to the innovative Tandem OLED panel. With this technology, the screen can generate astronomical brightness levels, reaching over 2000 nits in film scenes (on test patterns). This is an exceptional result that places the OLED950 among the world’s top displays available on the market. However, it is important to note a specific characteristic of this solution – at moments when full-screen bursts of light appear on the screen, brightness can drop by as much as half. It is worth emphasising, though, that values above 1000 nits on a full screen are still an outstanding result. This allows for the HDR image to be displayed exactly as filmmakers would wish, maintaining the dynamics and impact of bright scenes.

The use of the Tandem OLED panel has also brought tangible benefits in terms of colour reproduction, improving elements that traditional WOLED panels struggled with compared to their QD-OLED competition. For the OLED950, the colour gamut coverage is broader than in classic WOLED panels, reaching nearly 100% of the DCI-P3 colour space and a solid 82% of the demanding BT.2020 palette. Although these results still do not match the high standards of QD-OLED panels, the difference diminishes during real-world use. We cannot deny that in the vast majority of films, colours look simply fantastic on this model – they are saturated, vibrant, and full of depth.

Bravia 3 II is certainly not a TV that tries to impress with brightness. In our measurements it reached about 450 nits, so it falls well short of the brightest models on the market. That does not mean HDR is just a paper feature. Compared with ordinary SDR material, the brightest elements of the image can already come through noticeably, and reflections, highlights and stronger exposures have a bit more energy and stand out better from the rest of the scene. This is most obvious in simpler shots where the screen displays many bright elements. Then the Bravia 3 II can give a hint of a higher dynamic-range picture. The problem only begins with more demanding content, where much greater brightness headroom is required. There the TV quickly shows its limitations and instead of powerful, striking HDR we get only a competently rendered picture.

Colours

Bravia 3 II uses a QLED-type panel, although technically it does not use a classic quantum dot layer. Instead Sony has used a solution based on PFS phosphor, which performs a very similar role: it allows more saturated reds and greens and thus enables a much wider colour gamut. In measurements DCI-P3 coverage was around 94%, and the very wide BT.2020 around 74.4%. These are good results for this class of hardware, which mean the Bravia 3 II has no problem reproducing sufficiently saturated colours in HDR content. Colours do not look washed out, and more intense hues can look genuinely attractive.

We tested the OLED950 model in Film mode. Although it is theoretically the best and most faithful preset on this television, in practice it proved not to be free from flaws. Interestingly, in the unit we tested, the biggest challenge was not the white balance itself – although it did show a slight tendency to give the image a pinkish hue. The main issue lay in the way the television managed brightness, both in everyday SDR content and in demanding HDR scenes. The analysis of the gamma graph and the EOTF curve leads to one key conclusion: the television excessively exposes brightness in the lower registers. This results in the image appearing less contrasty than the panel technology allows. Details in dark areas that should remain perfectly black (characteristic of "OLED black") are simply unnecessarily highlighted and brightened. Fortunately, these errors can be corrected using the appropriate tools, which is why – as always – we proceeded with professional calibration.

In Professional mode the Bravia 3 II already delivers a fairly good level of colour reproduction straight out of the box. In SDR the most noticeable issue is a slightly low gamma, which makes the midtones a little brighter. White balance isn't perfect either; as brightness increases the blue and red components become slightly lacking, so whites can at times take on a marginally warmer, faintly greenish tint. These are not faults that immediately catch the eye when watching a film. Average error values hover around 3, so the factory setting can be regarded as quite good. The situation is similar in HDR. Here too there is a slight lack of the blue component, so the image is marginally warmer than the reference, but the difference is not large enough to significantly interfere with normal viewing.

As can be seen, the OLED950, after a professional calibration process, transforms into an absolutely phenomenal display that, without a shadow of a doubt, can be placed alongside the best televisions currently available in the world. This equipment only needed a professional touch to show its full potential and eliminate factory shortcomings. The minimal errors in reproduction in the Color Checker tests and the fidelity of the colour palette speak for themselves. We are dealing with an almost perfect device here. A true window to the world, offering image quality of the highest order.

After calibration, there is particularly a lot to be gained from SDR content. The white balance was set almost perfectly, the gamma practically matches the reference value, and the average colour errors fell from around 3 to about 1. That is already a level at which differences from the reference image are, in practice, very difficult to detect. The Bravia 3 II therefore shows that, despite its position in Sony’s lineup, it has quite a lot of potential for precise picture calibration. Improvements are also visible in HDR, although here it is no longer possible to avoid all the limitations of the TV itself. After evening out the colours, it is easier to notice that the EOTF curve in film content runs slightly below the reference value in places, so the Bravia 3 II gently darkens part of the image. This is not an ideal solution from a reference point of view, but in this particular TV it also has its benefits. With no local dimming and average black levels, this behaviour slightly reduces the visibility of the backlight in darker scenes and helps maintain a stronger impression of contrast. So you could say Sony partly masks the limitations of the panel this way, instead of trying at all costs to stick to the reference luminance.

Upscaling

In terms of the image upscaling, the proprietary P5 processor performs just as well as in most models from this manufacturer. Low-resolution content takes on a very soft and plastic character. This kind of presentation will certainly appeal to many people. However, if you prefer sharper contours, you can lightly enhance them with the appropriate slider in the television's menu. It's really hard to find fault in this aspect. The image simply looks very good and additionally there is no issue with the phenomenon of overscan.

Smoothing and Distortion Reduction

The function for smoothing tonal transitions performs somewhat worse. In the settings, we find an option called "Distortion Reduction." This allows for three levels of adjustment of the processor's interference. Unfortunately, the Minimum setting works poorly and the smoothing effects are negligible. The Medium level gives a decent result, but it also starts to smooth out actors' skin details. On the other hand, the Maximum setting works too aggressively. It definitely removes too much detail from the faces and background elements, and can even take away the film grain. To achieve the optimal effect, it's worth experimenting with these settings at home and adjusting them to your preference. It may seem that the Medium option is the best compromise here.

The Bravia 3 II is Sony's first TV to use the new MediaTek Pentonic 800 chipset, and there are a few changes in image processing. Starting with the basics. The upscaling itself is adequate. The TV can sensibly pull up lower-resolution material and does not have a strong tendency to over-emphasise jagged edges or other source imperfections. With regular broadcast TV or weaker streaming material the picture therefore remains quite pleasing. We have more reservations about the digital image processing. In this model Sony has replaced the well-known "Smooth Gradation" function with a new setting called "Digital Noise Reduction". Its role is essentially very similar: it is supposed to smooth unpleasant tonal transitions and artefacts resulting from heavy signal compression. Unfortunately, this function performs noticeably worse than before. At the "High" setting (the only one that had any visible effect) the TV can smooth away too many elements of the image at once, causing film grain to disappear and the texture of objects or even skin to start looking unnatural. Worse still, the effect is not particularly stable. When a scene contains more motion, the function's effect clearly weakens and at times it looks as if the TV stops intervening in the picture altogether. For everyday viewing we therefore would not recommend using it at a high level. It can help on a static shot, but the price is often an excessive loss of detail.

The motion reproduction in the OLED950 model is virtually perfect. This is typical for screens of this type (OLED 120Hz+), as the panel shows no blurring at all. This allows us to enjoy perfect sharpness in practically any conditions. Much of this is thanks not only to the specifics of organic technology. Equally important work is done by the smoothing systems implemented by the manufacturer.

Motion handling is definitely one of the Bravia 3 II's strongest points. The TV uses a 120Hz VA panel, a solution that, by nature, despite the high refresh rate, does not always cope well with motion blur. Here, however, Sony has managed to keep that problem very well under control. Fast-moving objects remain crisp, and the characteristic trails and blurring are reduced to a very low level, if not to zero. It is one of the least motion-blur-prone LCD TVs we have tested. Interestingly, in this respect the Bravia 3 II can even outperform the much more expensive True RGB flagship series, the Bravia 9 II.

The OLED950 is nearly the perfect television for gamers. This is not only due to the unique atmosphere created by the Ambilight system during gameplay. The most important aspect here is the robust hardware support. You will find literally everything you should expect from a modern gaming display. The manufacturer has implemented two HDMI 2.1 ports with full bandwidth of 48 Gb/s. This gives us access to gaming in 4K resolution at 120 frames per second. Of course, support for VRR technology and the automatic ALLM game mode is also included. The device handles any HDR signal without difficulty, whether we are using Dolby Vision or the HGiG standard.

Access to all settings is available from one place thanks to the special Game Bar overlay. Although this interface may not be the most visually appealing on the market, it fully accomplishes its purpose. It displays all the important signal parameters and offers useful extras. Gamers can take advantage of the minimap zoom feature or add a permanent crosshair on the screen, which can be seen as a small aid in online competition. The contrast range adjustment also proves to be useful, as it allows you to brighten shadows and gain better visibility of enemies hidden in dark corners of the map.

Sony Bravia 3 II is a very good TV for gamers, although not everything has been implemented exactly as we would like. The biggest change concerns the connectors. For the first time in a Sony TV we get as many as four full HDMI 2.1 ports with 48 Gb/s bandwidth, thanks to the new MediaTek Pentonic 800 chipset. That removes one of the issues that has plagued this manufacturer’s TVs for years. We can connect several devices at once and on each input use the device’s full capabilities, for example VRR or ALLM. There is also a simple Game Bar that lets you view key signal parameters and change a few useful settings, such as black level, when you want to improve visibility in darker parts of a game. However, there are two limitations worth knowing. The first is the lack of support for 1440p at 120 Hz. That will not be a problem for everyone, but people using that resolution on a console or PC, for example to get higher frame rates in certain games, will have to choose 1080p. We have more reservations about HGiG support. Sony does not allow you to disable the TV’s tone mapping on the Bravia 3 II, so the screen is always processing HDR content even when you would prefer to leave that task to the console. This is most obvious during HDR setup — the checkerboard pattern does not disappear at the point that corresponds to the TV’s actual capabilities. That does not mean HDR in games will look bad. You just need to approach the setup a little differently and, instead of relying on the pattern, manually set the peak brightness to around 450 nits. The issue can be worked around, but you should know about it before you start setting up the console.