Samsung DU8002 (IPS) vs SONY BRAVIA 3 II (XR35M2)

The HDR effect on the DU8002 television leaves much to be desired. A brightness level of 300 nits cannot provide a true high dynamic range experience, which makes the viewed content resemble more of a standard SDR than impressive HDR. Scenes that should dazzle with brilliance and detail appear muted and lacking in depth. Nevertheless, the television deserves praise for its high coverage of the DCI-P3 colour gamut at 92%. This means that colours are vivid and saturated, which may satisfy viewers who prefer rich tones, even if the HDR effect does not fully meet expectations.

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.

The DU8002 offers a Filmmaker mode, which is intended to provide an authentic image reproduction in line with the creators' vision. Unfortunately, despite the promising name, the results are far from ideal. The white balance in this mode shows significant drops in blue, leading to a noticeable yellowing of the image, as seen in our comparison photo. Colour Checker tests confirm these errors. As for brightness, the gamma characteristic is too low compared to the reference line of 2.4, resulting in excessive screen brightness. A similar issue occurs with 4K content – the EOTF responsible for brightness in 4K material shows significant increases above the reference line, leading to excessively bright small light elements. As a result, the Filmmaker mode in the DU8002 does not meet expectations and instead of offering high quality, presents an image full of tonal and colour inaccuracies.

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.

Samsung is one of those companies that offers advanced tools for improving picture quality in its televisions, including a 20-point white balance adjustment. Even in the budget model DU8002, with the right adjustments, surprisingly good results can be achieved. The white balance, especially for HD content, is really good – tests on the Colour Checker palette confirm accuracy levels of 2–1.5, which speaks to this television's considerable capabilities in colour reproduction. In 4K content, although not as perfect as in lower quality materials, the overall picture looks significantly better.

The gamma brightness has also been heavily adjusted, meaning the picture is not overly bright and looks more natural. What about the EOTF curve? At first glance, it seems fine, but upon closer inspection, especially in film tests, it is clear that the television, due to its low contrast matrix, struggles. The EOTF also drops below the reference line. Nevertheless, the DU8002 is an example of a budget model where calibration is worth investing in. Although construction flaws, such as the type of backlighting, cannot be completely eliminated, colour accuracy is surprisingly good, especially given its price.

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.

Smoothing tonal transitions on the DU8002 television leaves a mixed impression. Although the menu features an option for smoothing tonal transitions, in practice it yields no results and may even generate unwanted side effects.

Nevertheless, the television performs excellently with upscaling, or digital image processing. The test pattern with the model looked really good – the image is not excessively jagged, and the overall presentation is decent and pleasant to the eye. This is definitely good news for those planning to watch traditional television on this model.

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 DU8002 with a 60 Hz panel is a television that performs better for watching films than for intense gaming. The motion smoothing feature acts as a fluidizer, smoothing out movement and giving scenes a more fluid appearance, which is helpful for movie screenings. In the context of gaming, this model is more suited for casual entertainment.

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.

DU8002 is a television that is primarily suitable for casual gamers. The 60 Hz panel does not provide the highest motion smoothness, so in dynamic games, there may be a lack of that extra fluidity in the picture. On the plus side, it features ALLM and HGiG functions, which automatically adjust the picture settings for HDR gaming, enhancing the gaming experience. Unfortunately, the television is equipped only with HDMI 2.0 ports, so we will have to forget about more advanced features like VRR or support for 4K at 120 Hz. With this equipment, we will have to settle for less if we expect a full set of gaming features.

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.