LG OLED G5 vs Sony Bravia 8 MK2

LG G5 with the new Tandem OLED panel brings the biggest change specifically in terms of the brightness of the television. And it’s quite impressive. This is truly an astronomically bright OLED. In every tested scene – whether it’s point lights or full-screen whites from the movie The Meg – the brightness on the G5 exceeded 2000 nits. Just a year ago, such values on an OLED were simply unimaginable. And here we are – the G5 comes close, and at times even surpasses the best Mini-LEDs on the market. A new feature of the Tandem OLED panel is the expanded color gamut coverage – and here the LG G5 performs almost perfectly. DCI-P3 achieves a full 100%, while BT.2020 maintains around 83%. These are some of the highest values currently available on the market – it’s hard to find any other television that comes close to such results, unless we are talking about the best displays with QD-OLED panels. The G5 has nearly reference-quality HDR – both in terms of brightness and color saturation. This is an OLED that can truly shine – and not just figuratively.

Thanks to its new QD-OLED panel, the Sony Bravia 8 II can reach an astronomically high brightness of around 2000 nits, which translates into near-reference quality for movies and series mastered in HDR. In test material like Life of Pi or Sicario 2 the effect is simply stunning, with details in bright areas remaining perfectly visible and nighttime scenes impressing with depth and contrast. It is not perfect, though. Compared with its toughest rivals, the Bravia 8 II shows a noticeable drop in brightness on full-screen, very bright frames. If you compare peak spot luminance with 100% white luminance in HDR mode, the Bravia 8 II can appear two to three times dimmer than the LG G5 or Samsung S95F models. In the scene from The Meg this was especially apparent, as the screen became noticeably dimmer than competing TVs. Despite this shortcoming, the Bravia 8 II’s results still place it among the market leaders. Its absolutely top-tier color gamut coverage deserves praise, with DCI-P3 at nearly 100% and BT.2020 close to 90%. These figures let HDR content reach its full potential and deliver cinema-like experiences at home.

Our test unit LG G5 struggled with some issues in the factory Filmmaker mode. And while the image might have seemed fine to most people, we knew that this TV was capable of much more. This mode had a clear excess blue tint in the white balance, resulting in a strong cooling of the image – particularly in HDR modes, where there was also a lack of red. The picture seemed cold, and its sharpness was artificially boosted and unnatural. Another significant issue was the brightness characteristic. In SDR content, the situation wasn't the worst, aside from a slight dimming of the entire image. However, it performed much worse in HDR materials – due to improper brightness management, the smallest details could completely disappear from the image, and larger, bright elements appeared overexposed and lacking gradation. Luckily, the G5 supports calibration using 3D LUT (a tool for professionals to calibrate colors), so we decided to take advantage of its professional background and see what it was really capable of. Because while it wasn't terrible even before calibration, the potential of this TV definitely deserved more.

Out of the box the Bravia 8 II performs really well. In its best IMAX® Enhanced mode the TV renders colors pleasantly and naturally, though "good" here doesn't mean "best in class." The white balance definitely needs adjustment, as skin tones tend to shift slightly toward pinkish/cooler hues in both SDR and HDR content. We also noticed that the EOTF curve has a tendency to brighten the darkest parts of the picture. This likely comes from the manufacturer's desire to reveal as much detail as possible even in deep shadows. Is that a good approach? It's hard to say for sure, but one thing is clear: it's not an ideal solution.

After completing the calibration process using professional tools, we can confidently state that the LG G5 offers nearly reference-quality image. Most of the errors related to white balance and the ColorChecker test are below the value of 2, which is a phenomenal result, practically imperceptible to the human eye. And while one could still criticize that in HDR films the television tends to slightly dim the smallest elements of the image, in practice, this does not negatively affect the overall impression. Hats off to LG, because once again they provide the user with enormous possibilities for adjusting their display – and this, combined with very good parameters of the panel itself, results in an image that is truly hard to surpass.

After calibration we mainly managed to eliminate the excessive cooling of the image caused by too strong a boost in blue. Reds became deeper and skin tones took on a natural, healthy look. Actors who had previously seemed "cold" now appear on screen much livelier and more convincing. One thing hasn't changed, however: analysis of the EOTF curve still shows the Bravia 8 II tends to brighten the darkest parts of the image. It's hard to say whether that's an intentional choice by the manufacturer or a result of the panel design and software. In practice this means scenes that filmmakers intended to remain in deep shadow can reveal more detail than intended. Despite that, the picture after calibration is clearly better — warm, natural colors and realistic skin tones simply make watching on the Bravia 8 II more pleasant to the eye.

Upscaling and digital image processing in the LG G5 perform very well. The television handles lower quality content exceptionally, especially when the "Smooth Gradation" feature is set to a low level. In this mode, it effectively removes unwanted artifacts and issues with visible tonal transitions. It may also slightly smooth out some desired details, such as the subtle texture of clothing or skin, but importantly – it does not remove film grain, so it’s hard to say there’s a serious compromise here. It’s one of those options that’s definitely worth enabling.

The G5 also does well with upscaling, which is improving the quality of older materials. The test image with the model looked really solid – slight edging was visible, but that’s an effect that can’t be completely avoided. Additionally, there were no issues with overscan, which – contrary to appearances – is not obvious, even in 2025.

Upscaling and digital image processing are a real showcase for the Bravia 8 II. Sony has long been regarded as a master in this field, and this only reinforces that reputation. The company's proprietary XR processor can extract almost the maximum from lower-resolution sources, whether broadcast TV or an old DVD, the picture looks sharper, with more detail and better depth. Sure, if you feed it exceptionally poor-quality material (like our archival photo of the model), you won't get miracles, but for everyday viewing there's little to complain about.

The smooth gradation feature also performs very well. On the "Medium" setting it effectively smooths tonal transitions, eliminating banding in color and gray gradients while preserving film grain and fine image detail. It's precisely that balance between subtlety and effectiveness that keeps Sony TVs among the best on the market in this category.

The motion fluidity on the LG G5 is simply phenomenal. The TV is equipped with a 165 Hz refresh rate panel, and this combined with the instantaneous response time of the OLED matrix delivers incredible results. The picture doesn’t stutter or smear like on classic LCD TVs. Like most LG models, the G5 features a motion smoother, which can be useful when watching movies – of course, we're talking about the TruMotion mode. With the “De-Blur” and “De-Judder” sliders, we can adjust the smoothness of older material according to our preferences, whether we want to preserve the characteristic film stutter or move towards a more fluid, television-like effect.

When it comes to motion handling, the Bravia 8 II is basically a done deal. The OLED panel with a 120 Hz refresh rate naturally delivers a very clean, sharp picture in fast-moving scenes, so there's little to complain about. What deserves special praise, though, is one of the best motion smoothing systems on the market. It lets you precisely tailor motion in films to your preferences, from subtle smoothing to an almost "theatrical" look, without the risk of artificial judder, image tearing, or annoying artifacts. It's one of those features you'll appreciate both when watching movies and during sports.

Features for gamers? Perfect. That should be enough for you to know what level we are dealing with here. G5 is a television designed with gamers in mind, so we find literally everything one can expect from a gaming screen. There is Game Bar, support for high resolutions with high refresh rates – that is, 4K at 120 Hz, and even more, because the panel has a refresh rate of 165 Hz (which PC gamers will benefit from). The television supports variable refresh rates (VRR), automatic low latency mode (ALLM), and correctly supports HDR in games thanks to HGiG. All of this adds up to one of the best sets of gaming features available on the market. Well done, LG.

Sony really learned from previous years, and with the Bravia 8 II it has put together a package of gamer-focused features that’s hard to call anything but "almost perfect." It includes everything you expect at this level: VRR, ALLM, Dolby Vision Gaming mode, HGiG, and even a handy Game Bar that lets you quickly check parameters and change settings without leaving the game. Also a plus is how smoothly and seamlessly these features work, with no delays and no odd stuttering. You just launch a game and everything looks as it should. Unfortunately, it’s not without a few caveats. The manufacturer still gives us only two full-bandwidth HDMI ports, so if you have a console, a PC, and another device like a soundbar connected via eARC, you’ll be swapping cables. It’s also surprising there’s no support for 1440p at 120 Hz, which is particularly important for Xbox players. Overall, though, this is one of those TVs you can comfortably place at the center of a gaming-focused living room and enjoy gameplay without major compromises.