Xiaomi S Pro 2026 vs Sony BRAVIA 2 II (S25M2)

When it comes to HDR quality, the Xiaomi S Pro 2026 is undoubtedly a very bright television. On our synthetic measurement patterns, we were able to generate peak brightness of around 1400 nits. This result is not only very good but truly spectacular, considering the price of this model. However, as we always emphasise, for our editorial team, measurements and the experiences from the content viewed on a daily basis - from films and series - are more important. So let's analyse how the Xiaomi performs with film material. The result is, unfortunately, quite mixed. When very bright scenes appear on screen, the S Pro 2026 really shows its full potential and can achieve a real 800-1000 nits in bright elements. Moreover, even smaller objects can "burn" the eyes - in scenes from the film Sicario 2, small metal elements of the helicopter were truly vivid. The problem is that - and here the story comes full circle back to our contrast assessment - in such scenes we cannot count on absolutely cinematic black. In our opinion, this compromise is too great; high visibility of details in bright areas should not come at the cost of such a significant boost to black levels. And although the HDR effect itself can make a stunning impression here, it is essential to remember that when very challenging, mixed scenes appear on screen, we might feel a slight disappointment. Exactly the one we mentioned in the previous paragraph regarding issues with dimming in HDR mode. As a consolation, it is worth adding that the S Pro 2026 has been equipped with an additional PFS filter (similar in function to a QLED layer), which effectively broadens the colour gamut coverage. As a result, measurements showed DCI-P3 coverage reaching up to 94%. This gives us confidence that in most colourful scenes, the image will appear rich and appropriately saturated.

The Sony Bravia 2 II is not a very bright TV and unfortunately that is immediately apparent in HDR. In our measurements brightness stayed around 300 to 330 nits, which is clearly too low for the brightest parts of the image to look truly impressive. In practice, HDR here does not differ that much from standard SDR. Bright highlights, the sun or lamps are of course visible, but they lack the intensity you would expect from HDR material. The Bravia 2 II therefore performs much better with standard SDR content, and in that use its limited brightness will be least noticeable.

Colour gamut coverage

The Sony Bravia 2 II is also not impressive in terms of colour. The TV does not use any additional gamut‑expanding filter, such as the quantum dots found in QLED TVs or a PFS phosphor layer. In our measurements coverage of the DCI‑P3 gamut was about 78%, and the very wide BT.2020 roughly 57%. That's definitely too little to talk about truly saturated colours in HDR material. More intense reds, greens or turquoises will simply be less striking than on TVs with an expanded colour gamut. The Bravia 2 II therefore performs much better in the Rec.709 standard, the gamut used for films, series and television in SDR.

Of course, all our measurements were carried out in "Film" mode, which is typically the best and most accurate choice we get straight out of the box. It needs to be said plainly: although it is the best mode, it is still very far from ideal. Firstly, the television has a clear tendency to impart a cool, bluish tint to the image – this is due to a poorly set white balance. Additionally, there is the issue of how the S Pro 2026 manages its brightness straight out of the box, which results in an overly vivid image. These two flaws contribute to truly significant colourimetric errors (Delta E). In HDR content, they were able to exceed our anticipated error scale of "10" by twofold (meaning values close to 20). As a reminder – the threshold for perceivable error by the human eye is a Delta E value of around 3. Results at the level of 20 indicate that the image significantly deviates from what the director intended.

The out-of-the-box colour reproduction in Cinema mode was actually quite good, at least for ordinary SDR material. The Bravia 2 II had a slight tendency to boost reds, so some colours shifted to slightly warmer, at times faintly pinkish, tones. However, this wasn’t a major fault and during normal viewing the picture still looked fairly natural. There was a bit more happening with image brightness. Looking at the gamma curve, you can see Sony doesn’t stick perfectly to the reference value. The darkest areas are slightly lifted, while as brightness increases the gamma gradually rises and a larger part of the picture becomes darker than it should. That said, it’s not such a large difference as to be very distracting in everyday viewing. Overall, SDR straight out of the box performs quite respectably.

The situation is considerably worse in HDR. We’ve already mentioned the limited colour gamut, but in addition the Bravia 2 II noticeably manipulates image brightness here. The EOTF curve sits below the reference value for a large part of its range, which means the TV renders most mid and brighter parts of a scene darker than the source material intends. Only towards the very end of the range does the curve flatten out, as the panel reaches the limits of its capabilities. Combined with a peak brightness of around 300 nits, this results in HDR that not only lacks much brightness, but can also simply look too dark.

So how does the S Pro 2026 perform after our calibration procedure? We have to admit that after calibration, the television becomes a really very pleasant device for watching everyday content. As you can see in the graphs, in HD (SDR) materials, both white balance and gamma values have been brought to nearly perfection. Most importantly, colourimetric errors have become practically unnoticeable to the human eye. In this scenario, the S Pro 2026 is simply an excellent television that, after professional calibration, can provide a lot of enjoyment from watching. However, it is worth clearly noting – our efforts have not helped much in 4K HDR mode. Despite the calibration, the television still interprets the image quite strongly "in its own way," which is clearly visible in the measurement of the EOTF curve (brightness tracking). It’s a bit of a shame, as it shows that the problem lies not in the panel itself, but in the software. Underdeveloped image management algorithms in HDR content can, unfortunately, rule out this television for many more discerning users.

Calibration did a lot for the Bravia 2 II, particularly with SDR content. Above all, we managed to even out the white balance and tidy up the gamma, which now follows the reference value much more closely. As a result, the image no longer has the previous pink cast, and the brightness across different areas is much better organised. You can also see this in the colour errors, which after calibration fell to a very low level (with slight issues in the most saturated reds). We also partially managed to rein in the Bravia 2 II in HDR, especially in the way the television handles image brightness. However, there is one thing no calibration can fix: the capabilities of the panel itself. A narrow colour gamut means the television is physically unable to reproduce the most saturated colours present in HDR material. On top of that, the low contrast of the IPS panel means darker scenes are veiled by a grey haze, which robs colours of some of their depth. So we can improve how the Bravia 2 II makes use of its capabilities, but unfortunately we cannot overcome the panel's inherent limitations.

Let's start with the issue we raised in the previous paragraph: can the television actually fix the problem of dreadful tonal transitions in dark scenes? Theoretically, yes – in the menu, we find a feature with the promising name "Colour Contour Removal." Well, "theoretically." Unfortunately, in practice, this setting – regardless of which of the three power levels is chosen – yielded absolutely no real results. So we are dealing with a feature that, in practice, only exists in the menu. Moving on to the quality of upscaling (scaling the image from a lower resolution to 4K), unfortunately, we have more bad news for you. The S Pro 2026 performs very poorly at this task. Interestingly, the phenomenon of "overscan" (slight cropping of the image) is not a major issue here. The fact is that the television simply displays a very raw, unprocessed image. Its attempt to upscale the signal to a higher resolution looks simply lacklustre and lacks any form of "intelligent" improvement. There is no denying it – the entire digital image processing is the real Achilles' heel of this model.

The upscaling on the Bravii 2 II is quite good and, in that respect, the TV matches the standard Sony has set. Lower-resolution content is sensibly upscaled to 4K, and the image is slightly smoothed in the process without excessive edge sharpening. The situation is worse when it comes to improving footage with visible compression artefacts. This is handled by the "Digital Noise Reduction" function, which at the "High" setting can indeed smooth out some unpleasant tonal banding. The problem is that it does this rather aggressively and, along with the imperfections, it also removes a lot of fine detail, including natural film grain. What is more, when there is more motion on screen its effectiveness drops sharply and any improvement is then minimal. For everyday use we therefore tended not to use this function.

On paper, the S Pro 2026 specification looks impressive. The television is equipped with a native 144 Hz panel, with the ability to display images at up to 288 Hz in a dedicated gaming mode. These are amazing results, but what interested us most, in the context of everyday use, was how the television handles motion blur and how the image looks at 120 Hz. After all, this is the frequency used by consoles like the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, and it is desired by sports fans. Generally, the panel "holds up". The matrix is sufficiently fast to meet these challenges, and objects displayed at native 120Hz fluidity are shown correctly. As for the software, the television is equipped with motion smoothing technology; however, with a key caveat – it works only for input signals up to 60 Hz. This means it is primarily suitable for traditional television, films, and series. Thanks to this, we can adjust the fluidity of the image to our own preferences – from a very smooth, "theatrical" approach to setting the slider to "zero" and maintaining a fully cinematic character.

Bravia 2 II uses a 60 Hz panel and, given its capabilities, handles motion quite well. However, bear in mind that it is a basic panel and its limitations are already clearly visible, especially during sports. The TV cannot interpolate 50/60 fps material to a higher refresh rate, so it cannot further improve the sharpness of fast-moving objects. For films and series, however, it offers a conventional motion smoothing feature that can reduce the characteristic judder of material shot at 24 fps.

For gamers, the Xiaomi S Pro 2026 is almost an ideal proposition on paper. It is equipped with two HDMI 2.1 ports, which allow us to unlock (although these options are somewhat hidden in the menu) the full package of features: ALLM, VRR and, crucially, the ability to work in 4K at 144 Hz. This last feature should particularly please the owners of powerful PCs. The television also has something resembling a gamer panel – and although it's hard to call it a fully-fledged "Gamebar", it serves its purpose by displaying key information. It’s just a shame that in its default form, it obscures a relatively large portion of the screen.

The biggest issue we have with this model, however, concerns how the S Pro 2026 handles games in HDR mode. To put it bluntly: it doesn’t handle it well at all. Due to the television having a poorly implemented HGiG feature (the HDR tone mapping standard for games), it is very easy to "overexpose" the image during initial HDR calibration on the console. If someone is unaware of this software flaw and follows the on-screen instructions, they will simply set the image incorrectly, resulting in burnt-out details in the bright areas. Another major problem is the Dolby Vision mode for games. While it does work, it generates such a high input lag that it becomes noticeable in dynamic titles. (You can check all our lag measurements in the paragraph below). In summary: Generally speaking, this is a really very good screen for gamers, but with one small caveat. We would rather avoid using HDR mode on it – unless we decide to manually set the brightness bar on the console "by eye", completely ignoring the instructions from the console’s pictogram.

The Bravia 2 II is not a television that lends itself well to gaming, and the list of features shows that quite quickly. You essentially only get the automatic low-latency mode ALLM and a simple Game Bar that lets you view basic signal information and change a few settings. But that is where the list of strengths ends. The TV does not support VRR or 120 Hz (not even at lower resolutions), and on top of that it has problems with a proper implementation of the HDR HGIG format. It is suitable for occasional console gaming, and thanks to low input lag controls remain responsive, but if someone is looking for a TV primarily for games, the Bravia 2 II will simply be a rather limited choice.