Sony Bravia 7 (XR70) vs LG OLED C6 (WOLED)

Since we know that the television handles contrast well, let's check how it performs in terms of HDR effects. The luminance graph shows the very high capabilities of this model – 1500 nits is a truly impressive result. The HDR effects are particularly striking in scenes where most of the screen is covered in light, such as in scenes 1, 3, and 5 of the test. Minor shortcomings, typical of this technology, are still visible with very small light effects, as in the scene from the film "Sicario 2," where brightness drops to 500 nits. Although these are not stunning results, they can be considered decent. Additionally, it is worth praising the television for its high coverage of a wide colour gamut – DCI-P3 at 96%, which allows for vibrant, saturated colours.

The HDR performance of the LG C6 is really very good. LG Display's new WOLED panel has primarily brought a considerable increase in brightness. In our unit we measured around 1,500 nits and, importantly, the TV can deliver similar values in many typical film scenes. That gives the HDR the necessary impact. Bright highlights, lamps and sunlight can be really intense, and most HDR films simply look very impressive. Of course it's still an OLED, so brightness falls in scenes with a lot of white. This is well illustrated by the fifth scene in the film The Meg, where the C6 reached around 600 to 700 nits. That's still a very good result, but it also shows that the new panel hasn't shed all the limitations typical of OLEDs.

Colours

When it comes to colours, there is also little to complain about. The C6 covers about 99% of the DCI-P3 gamut and roughly 75% of BT.2020. In practice the colours are very saturated and, importantly, stable across different scenes. This is worth emphasising, because not every TV behaves the same in this respect. In some RGB Mini LED models colour saturation can depend more strongly on image brightness. A wider colour palette is nowadays offered mainly by QD-OLED TVs and new SQD models with a new generation of quantum dots. However, the C6 still performs very strongly here and is able to produce suitably saturated colours in most film scenes.

The IMAX Enhanced mode on the Sony BRAVIA 7 television is undoubtedly the best mode available on this model, although it is not without its flaws, as its name might suggest. The biggest issue is the white balance – both in HD and 4K HDR content, there is a clear dominance of red, which causes the image to take on pink hues. This is particularly noticeable on the tested snow pattern, where the pinkish tint becomes very apparent. Errors in the Colour Checker test also confirm these deviations – although they are not catastrophic, there is a tendency to drift towards warmer colours. As for brightness performance, the gamma remains at a decent level with a slight peak but without major issues. However, the biggest challenge comes from 4K materials. It is clear that the EOTF curve is significantly above the reference graph, which causes the image to become overly brightened.

Right out of the box the LG C6 is pretty well set up, especially if you choose Filmmaker mode. In SDR material the white balance is decent, although as brightness increases it starts to lack a bit of red. The picture becomes a little cooler as a result, but it’s not such a big difference that it stands out during normal viewing. More happens in the brightness response itself. Gamma is a bit low and instead of holding at 2.4 it sits closer to 2.1–2.2 over much of the range. In practice the C6 slightly brightens midtones. Shadows are therefore more readable, but the image loses some depth compared with how it should look in a dark room. In HDR the situation is a bit more interesting. The start of the grayscale looks very good, but from about 20–30% brightness the white balance starts to drift more and more. As brightness rises there’s more red and a noticeable lack of blue. In the brightest highlights the difference is already significant and also affects reproduction of some colors. The EOTF curve itself is handled fairly well over most of the range. The C6 only has a tendency to slightly brighten the image, which we also saw during our film comparisons. The largest deviation appears around the brightest highlights, where the TV begins to adapt the signal to the panel’s capabilities. So the out-of-the-box Filmmaker mode in HDR isn’t perfect, but overall it performs well. The biggest room for improvement is the white balance, especially at high brightness.

Sony BRAVIA XR70 offers a wide range of tools that allow for adjusting the picture to individual preferences, enabling us to make significant adjustments to the settings. The white balance has been free from the problem of red colour dominance – snow no longer takes on pink shades, which was previously noticeable. Although one can detect slight deviations in the final part of the white balance graph, concerning a drop in blue colour, they are acceptable and difficult to notice in everyday use. The Colour Checker test confirms that errors in colour reproduction are no longer as pronounced and rarely exceed a value of 2, which is a very good result. As for brightness, gamma, while not requiring much improvement, was slightly adjusted. The most significant change was noted in the EOTF curve – the television no longer has issues with excessively brightening the entire image in 4K material. However, upon closer analysis and the inclusion of EOTF characteristics in film material, some limitations of the television become apparent due to the previously discussed dimming algorithm. Some small elements may be slightly more brightened, but these errors are so minor that most users will not notice them. Overall, the calibration results are very, very positive.

LG TVs have been very receptive to calibration for years and the C6 is no exception. After adjustment the white balance was set almost perfectly, and most colour errors dropped to values below 3, often even around 2. In practice this means very accurate colour reproduction, both in SDR and HDR. An interesting quirk only appeared with the luminance response in HDR. On a standard EOTF chart everything looks almost ideal and at first glance it would be hard to criticise. Only when we measured the TV's behaviour with filters based on actual film scenes did it become clear that the C6 has a slight tendency to artificially boost image brightness.

This is not a huge difference and many people may even view it positively, because HDR consequently looks a little more striking. From the perspective of fidelity to the source material this is not ideal, however, as some scenes are simply a touch brighter than the filmmaker intended. Interestingly, this is rather unusual for LG. In previous generations the brand's TVs typically stuck very closely to the reference picture characteristic after calibration. With the C6 we are still very close to the standard, but this subtle brightness boost is indeed noticeable in films and TV series.

Since we know that the television performs very well with high-quality materials, it is worth checking how it fares with lower-quality content. Here, the television shows its potential, and the applied graphics processor works really brilliantly. On the test screen with the light bulb, there are no issues with colour transitions, and the smooth gradation feature works very well – we recommend setting it to "Medium".

As for digital processing, or so-called upscaling, the television sharpens the image quite noticeably, which leads to slight aliasing, for example, on the branches in the background, but it does not remove desirable details. Nevertheless, the overall appearance is really appealing and may be to the taste of most users. However, if we prefer a softer, more plastic image, this effect can be reduced in the settings by adjusting the sharpening level according to personal preferences.

Here the LG C6 has taken a real step forward. The TV uses the same processor found in the flagship G6, and in terms of image processing the two models are very similar. That's a considerable plus, because in this area LG's processor this year performs excellently. The "Smooth Gradation" function in particular works very well. With heavily compressed material it can effectively hide ugly banding and artefacts that often appear, for example, in lower-quality streaming. It's best to leave it set to "Low". That way the improvement is clear and the TV does not yet start blurring fine details. Higher settings smooth the image more aggressively but can already remove some of the natural texture of objects on the screen. Upscaling itself also performs very well. Lower-resolution content is sharpened correctly, edges look clean, and the processor quite effectively reconstructs fine details. In this respect the C6 is already very close to LG's best TVs and the differences compared with the G6 are small.

The Sony BRAVIA 7 television with a 120 Hz display will satisfy most users in terms of motion smoothness. Additionally, Sony offers the Motion Flow feature, which allows for the selection of three different picture settings, tailoring them to individual preferences: Smoothness – Film: This setting enhances motion smoothness, giving the image a more cinematic or theatrical quality. Smoothness – Camera: This setting provides even greater smoothness, useful when watching dynamic scenes such as sports broadcasts. Clarity: This setting focuses on minimising noise and motion artifacts, resulting in a more stable and clear image.

LG C6 received a panel with a maximum refresh rate of 165 Hz, which is great news above all for gamers using a powerful PC. In films, sport or on consoles we will of course make use of up to 120 Hz, but even then it is hard to fault the motion clarity. As befits an OLED, the panel's response time is almost instantaneous. Moving objects therefore do not leave the characteristic smearing or trails that we can still see on LCD televisions. This is especially noticeable in sport and fast-paced games, where the picture remains very clean even during dynamic movement.

For films and television LG has also prepared the TruMotion motion smoothing system. In the user settings you will find two separate sliders. De-Judder primarily addresses low frame-rate content, that is mainly films and TV series at 24 fps. You can use it to slightly reduce the characteristic judder or set a higher value if you want a very smooth image. De-Blur is useful for higher frame-rate material, chiefly sports broadcasts and 50/60 fps television.

Sony Bravia 7 has significantly improved its capabilities for working with consoles compared to earlier models. The television supports variable refresh rate (VRR), which eliminates the tearing effect, and is compatible with graphics cards, ensuring smooth display. The auto low latency mode (ALLM) effectively reduces input lag, which is crucial in dynamic games. Dolby Vision with low latency additionally provides impressive HDR effects that look great during gameplay.

Sony Bravia 7 also offers a Game Bar feature, which allows quick access to settings and monitoring parameters while gaming. An interesting option is the ability to enable a virtual on-screen crosshair, which can provide a slight advantage in shooter games. Nevertheless, compared to the Bravia 9 model, the HGIG feature in the Bravia 7 does not perform as well, which may be noticeable for more demanding gamers – especially as the HGIG mode is becoming increasingly popular among players as the preferred method for reproducing HDR effects.

A drawback is the lack of support for 1440p@120 Hz resolution, which could make gaming easier for users with less powerful graphics cards. Furthermore, the Sony Bravia 7 is equipped with two HDMI 2.1 ports, one of which is often used to connect an audio system via eARC, limiting the available connections for new generation consoles.

LG has long focused heavily on gamers, and the C6 really lacks nothing important. The TV supports 4K at 120 Hz from consoles, and when connected to a PC it can run at up to 165 Hz. There is also VRR from 40 to 165 Hz, ALLM and a properly working HGiG. A big plus is support for Dolby Vision in games, so the Xbox Series X can use that format without giving up Game Mode. It's rounded off by a Game Bar, from which you can quickly check key signal parameters and change settings without leaving the game. In terms of features, the C6 is therefore one of those TVs that is really hard to fault. Whether you're gaming on a PlayStation, an Xbox or a PC, practically everything you could expect from a modern gaming TV is available here.