Sony Bravia 8 (XR80) vs Haier K85F

Sony Bravia 8 performs reasonably well in terms of HDR brightness. A maximum brightness level of 880 nits is satisfactory and allows for enjoyable light effects in most scenes. In the tested segments of the films Life of Pi and Sicario 2, the television looks really good, offering vibrant and detailed images that fully convey the atmosphere of these productions.

However, a greater challenge is presented by a scene from the film The Meg, where the screen is entirely very bright. In such situations, the limitations of OLED technology are evident, as the television loses brightness, dropping to about 450 nits. This decline is less satisfactory, especially when the entire scene requires intense lighting. Despite these limitations, Sony Bravia 8 remains a competitive model, offering excellent coverage of the DCI-P3 colour gamut and a BT.2020 standard coverage of 74%. As a result, colours are rich and details are precise, which significantly enhances the quality of HDR content consumption and makes viewing a pleasant experience.

Let’s now turn to one of the hottest topics in the world of televisions, namely the quality of HDR effect. In the case of the Haier K85F model, we must unfortunately make it clear: if you are looking for equipment to watch content in a wide dynamic range, you should avoid this model at all costs. The main problem is its very low peak brightness, which during our tests barely reached 250 nits. To give you a better idea of what that means – such a value is fine for watching standard SDR content, but it is absolutely insufficient to showcase any real benefits of HDR. The image simply lacks the "power" to generate bright, striking highlights. All our measurements and tests on specialist patterns only confirmed this. As if that weren't enough, the television also struggles with colour reproduction. In this budget build, we won't find any technologies to expand the colour palette, such as quantum dot layers (marketed as "QLED"). As a result, the coverage of the DCI-P3 colour space, which is crucial for HDR materials, is only around 80%. In practice, this means that the image will not only be dark but also devoid of the vibrant, saturated colours that the director wanted to show us.

The best factory mode available on the Sony Bravia 8 television is IMAX Enhanced, which provides the most cinematic experience, although it is not perfectly set up. The television tries to faithfully reproduce cinematic settings, but certain shortcomings are noticeable. Starting with the white balance, both for SDR and 4K materials, a pronounced blue tint can be observed. This causes the image to appear too cold, stripping it of its naturalness. Tests using Colour Checker show that colours shift towards cooler tones, which may affect the accuracy of colour reproduction and make the image less realistic.

As for brightness and contrast characteristics, the gamma shows a significant drop at the end of the chart. This means that dark details may be too dark and bright elements too bright, resulting in a loss of subtlety and becoming less visible. As seen in the sky - in the comparative photo. In turn, the EOTF curve is well above the reference value, causing bright elements of the image to be too intense. As a result, users may perceive the image as unnatural, and bright areas may lose details, negatively impacting the overall viewing quality.

Well, how does the television perform with colours straight out of the box, without any interference from our side? The Haier K85F offers a full range of picture modes, such as Dynamic and Eco, but for anyone who wants to watch films according to the creators' intentions, only one really matters: Film mode. That is where we focused our tests, and unfortunately, its name has little to do with reality. The picture in the factory settings is very far from what we could call cinematic fidelity and requires numerous adjustments. Let's start with the white balance, which has a noticeable deficiency of red. In practice, this means that the entire image has a cool, bluish tint. The situation is even worse regarding brightness management, namely the gamma curve (for SDR) and EOTF (for HDR). Their graph resembles a real rollercoaster, which has a disastrous impact on the viewing experience. This results in unnatural dimming of SDR content, causing details in shadows to be lost, and in the case of HDR – excessive brightness, which further exacerbates the issue of clipping. Such a combination, namely too cool white combined with chaotic brightness and excessive blue saturation, results in significant errors in colour reproduction. Our measurements on the specialist ColorChecker chart revealed errors (Delta E) regularly reaching and exceeding values of 8-9. Put simply, errors above the threshold of 3 are already easily noticeable to the naked eye, so such a result means that the colours on the screen are simply heavily distorted.

The calibration process of the Sony Bravia 8 television has brought significant improvements in image quality. The white balance has been noticeably enhanced, for both SDR and 4K HDR content, with minimal errors in the middle of the graph. Gamma has proven to be one of the biggest beneficiaries of calibration – it has been completely rid of previous dips, which has significantly impacted brightness stability and better detail reproduction in the darker parts of the image. The EOTF curve has also been levelled, making bright elements of the image appear more natural, and the overall tonal dynamics are now more balanced.

However, the most attention should be paid to colour reproduction, where, despite calibration, certain issues still persist. Sony has omitted the use of a CMS system in this model, which allows for very precise control over colours. As a result, the Colour Checker test for 4K materials still shows significant errors in colour samples. Despite these difficulties, we recommend performing calibration, as the effects are noticeable and significantly enhance image quality, particularly in terms of brightness and contrast.

Well, is there anything that can be done about this picture? Can professional calibration save the situation? The answer is both yes and no. It must be clearly stated that there are certain limitations we cannot overcome. The constraints of the design itself, meaning simply a poor panel and its narrow colour coverage, make it impossible to expect a reasonable HDR effect – we won't mislead you on that. The biggest beneficiary of our adjustments is undoubtedly the SDR mode, and it is indeed for watching such content, after calibration, that this television starts to make sense. We managed to somewhat tame the white balance. Although the television only offers basic 2-point adjustment (rather than precise 20-point), so it's not perfect, we successfully eliminated that unpleasant, cold "chill" in the picture. Above all, however, we noted a significant improvement in brightness management. The gamma curve, which previously resembled a rollercoaster, looks like an almost perfectly straight line after calibration. This is a sign that the television can finally display images without artificially dimming or brightening them. The conclusion is simple: even with such a cheap television, professional adjustment of the settings can achieve a lot and extract the maximum potential from it.

The fluidity of tonal transitions in low-quality materials on the Bravia 8 is poor. Unfortunately, the soft gradation feature (which was available in previous models) is missing, which is a significant downside. The digital noise reduction feature can considerably improve tonal transitions; however, it also tends to remove some details, such as clouds in scenes from the film The Martian, which may not be to everyone's liking. As for digital processing, the Sony XR80 performs quite well. The model in test scenes was displayed without noticeable errors, and the branches in the background are not overly jagged. This shows that the Bravia 8 is capable of effectively processing complex low-resolution image details.

Let's move on to digital processing and image scaling, specifically how the Haier K85F handles lower resolution signals, such as those from standard television. Right from the start, we encounter an extremely annoying and completely incomprehensible issue – overscan that is enabled by default. This means that the television artificially enlarges the image, cropping its edges, and this happens on every source, even 1080p. To see the full frame, you have to dig through the screen settings each time and manually switch the format to "expand to 16:9". It's a detail, but it's devilishly frustrating. The very act of scaling content to 4K resolution can be summed up in one word: acceptable. And that's about it. The image processor does not strip details from the picture, nor does it generate jagged edges or other artifacts. It simply does its job, without any fireworks. It's alright, but nothing more. However, the biggest and most noticeable shortcoming in the digital processing section is the absence of a smooth tonal transition feature. This is an algorithm that could significantly reduce the annoying banding effect we mentioned earlier. Unfortunately, the manufacturer did not provide such a solution, condemning us to watch the imperfections of the panel and low-quality materials in full view.

Sony Bravia 8 offers a maximum refresh rate of 120 Hz, which forms the basis for smooth viewing of dynamic content such as sports and games. This ensures that movements are sharp and fluid. For more demanding users, the Sony XR80 television is equipped with an advanced motion smoothing system, which is divided into three segments: Smoothness (Film), Smoothness (Camera), and Clarity. The first two are responsible for regulating the degree of blur and smoothness of the image. The third option, concerning clarity, will be described in more detail below. Each of the parameters can be adjusted to personal preferences, allowing users to find the optimal setting tailored to their individual needs.

The matrix in the K85F model operates at a native refresh rate of 60 Hz, which right from the start sets certain expectations regarding image fluidity. However, we must admit that we were very positively surprised when we found two separate sliders for motion control in the settings menu: one labelled as "Motion Blur Reduction" and the other "De-Judder". Such generosity in this price segment is an absolute rarity, as typically manufacturers offer at most one shared option. Unfortunately, our enthusiasm waned as quickly as it appeared. It soon became clear why Haier was so "generous" – the slider responsible for motion blur reduction is simply a dummy. Its adjustment brings absolutely no visible effect on the screen, so only one of the two options works.

Sony Bravia 8 has significantly improved its compatibility with consoles compared to earlier models. The television supports variable refresh rate (VRR), which eliminates screen tearing, and it synchronises with graphics cards to ensure smooth image display. The automatic low latency mode (ALLM) reduces input lag, which is crucial in fast-paced games. Dolby Vision with low latency additionally provides impressive HDR effects that look stunning during gameplay.

The Sony XR80 television also features a Game Bar, allowing quick access to settings and monitoring parameters while gaming. An interesting option is the ability to enable a virtual crosshair on the screen, which can provide a slight edge in shooting games.

A downside is the lack of support for 1440p@120hz resolution, which could facilitate gaming for users with less powerful graphics cards. Additionally, the Sony XR80 only has two HDMI 2.1 ports, one of which is typically used to connect an audio system via eARC, limiting the number of available inputs for connecting next-generation consoles.

Let's move on to features for gamers, although we must emphasise at the outset that this is more of a proposal for the "casual" ones. The manufacturer boasts in the specifications about the presence of HDMI 2.1 ports, which looks impressive on paper, but in reality, it is largely a marketing ploy. What good is a modern port if the heart of the television is a panel with a refresh rate of 60 Hz? It physically cannot display a signal at 120 frames per second, even at lower resolutions, which deprives the HDMI 2.1 port of its most significant advantage. It's a shame. (That’s why we mark it as HDMI 2.0 in our tests). Another curious peculiarity is the television's reaction to attempts to calibrate HDR from the console level. Changes to brightness settings cause very unnatural image behaviour, which might suggest an incorrect implementation of the HGiG standard. To be honest, however, one shouldn't worry too much about this, because as we've mentioned numerous times, we simply do not recommend using any HDR content on this screen. However, to avoid being too negative, the Haier K85F also has two significant and unexpected advantages. The first is the presence of ALLM, or Auto Low Latency Mode, which switches the television to low latency mode as soon as it detects a connected console. The second, even bigger surprise, is support for VRR, or Variable Refresh Rate. While it works within a very modest range of 48-60 Hz, its mere presence is commendable. As a result, the image in games can experience less "tearing," which significantly improves the gaming experience.