Sony Bravia 8 (XR80) vs TCL C9K

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.

As we mentioned with black and contrast – the C9K makes a huge impression in synthetic tests. Our measurements showed that on a screen 10% filled with white, the television is capable of squeezing out... 4000 nits of brightness! It sounds cosmic, but – and here unfortunately the pattern repeats – the numbers say one thing, and practice another. In real film scenes, the situation looks different. In the best case, when the light effects occupy a large part of the image and the local dimming algorithm doesn't have to think too hard about what to do with thousands of zones – the result is really quite good. At that point, the C9K can reach about 1500 nits, which provides a pleasant, intense flash and can indeed make a positive impression.

The problem begins with smaller elements – such as stars in the sky, the moon, or individual reflections. That's when the proverbial cat comes out of the bag: the algorithms are not yet refined, and brightness drops even to 400–500 nits. This is a huge difference compared to the potential of 4000 nits that we saw in laboratory tests. Why does this happen? Most likely, the television tries to protect the black and minimise the halo effect around bright objects. Unfortunately, this comes at the cost of details – some of the intricate details simply disappear, and the scene loses its nature.

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.

For colour tests, we once again reached for the Filmmaker mode – a new feature in TCL televisions for 2025. And although the direction itself is a step in the right direction, the execution leaves much to be desired. The white balance in SDR content turned out to be too warm – there was an excess of red. Conversely, in HDR, it swung in the opposite direction: the image became excessively blue. The Colour Checker test revealed quite a few colour inaccuracies that were noticeable to the naked eye. An even bigger problem turned out to be what we mentioned above – managing brightness. Regardless of whether we were watching SDR or HDR content, the image had a tendency to blow out the entire scene, giving it an unnatural, almost grotesque character. Therefore, it is hard to call this a 'director’s mode' – because the director surely has never seen such an image.

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.

After calibration, we finally managed to tame the white balance – and it immediately translated into a more natural image. Colours finally started to look as they should, and the overall presentation was incomparably better than with the factory settings. In other words – it’s worth taking a moment to improve this, as the gain is really significant. The gamma responsible for managing brightness was also brought under control in SDR content, and the effect was more than satisfactory. Unfortunately, when we switched on the HDR material, the situation quickly became complicated. No matter how we set the local dimming, the television had a tendency to do what it pleased with the image – either overexposing the whole picture or dimming the darkest parts too much. Just like we saw in the scene from the film Billy Lynn. Colour-wise, the improvement after calibration makes a great impression, but managing brightness in HDR remains the Achilles' heel of the C9K and constitutes a technological limitation.

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.

The digital image processing in TCL C9K is rather mediocre. The tone transition smoothing feature is supposedly present, but activating it hardly makes any difference – colour banding is still visible, and it can inadvertently highlight elements we would prefer to hide, such as textures of objects. Fortunately, it does not remove film grain, but that's scant consolation considering the effects are still poor. Thus, it's hard to recommend using this option.

On the other hand, image scaling performs significantly better. Lower quality materials look quite decent – characters and backgrounds are represented clearly, although of course, with sources like 576p, the limitations of the physics cannot be disguised. Sometimes, there's characteristic aliasing of objects, but that's due to the source itself, not the algorithm. A plus for the fact that there are no overscan issues – the image is neither artificially cropped nor enlarged.

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.

Similar to the C8K, the C9K is also a really fast television – both figuratively and literally. On board, we have a 4K panel with a refresh rate of 144 Hz, and at lower resolutions, the panel can even ramp up to 288 Hz. Such speed translates into practice – while watching sports or playing games, the picture looks very smooth and clear. Additionally, in films, we get an extra motion smoothing feature called Motion Clarity, which allows you to adjust the smoothness to your own preferences – from the cinematic "stuttering" of frames to nearly theatrical smoothness.

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.

For gaming, the TCL C9K is a complete tool. Here we have two (out of four) HDMI 2.1 ports with full bandwidth of 48 Gbps, so all the key technologies work: VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) and ALLM (Auto Low Latency Mode). Additionally, the manufacturer has included a really intuitive Game Bar, which allows you to quickly check the most important parameters and adjust settings without rummaging through the menu. Also worth noting is TCL's policy – the television does not shy away from any HDR formats, even in game mode. Whether it's HGiG or Dolby Vision for the Xbox Series S/X console – everything works as it should, giving the player a wide range of freedom.