Philips OLED910 vs Sony BRAVIA 7 II

OLED910 is simply an absurdly bright television for an OLED. All thanks to the new panel from LG Display, the Tandem RGB OLED, which Philips has dubbed its "META OLED." It is this panel that allows for over 2000 nits of brightness in films, which was previously completely unattainable in OLEDs. The way the television handles full-screen scenes drenched in bright light is also commendable. Usually, in OLEDs, brightness drops significantly, but here it remains at an excellent level - around 1400 nits. These are almost reference values, and combined with the great color gamut reproduction at 99% DCI P3 and 82% BT.2020, it gives us an HDR effect that can confidently be called one of the best in the world.

The Sony Bravia 7 II handles HDR very well and, above all, is simply a bright TV. In the proper "Professional" viewing mode we measured about 2000 nits of peak brightness, so the panel's capabilities are really substantial. Of course, with Mini-LEDs the result on a test pattern is only part of the story, because a lot depends on how the TV controls the backlight in real scenes. And here Sony's algorithms perform really well. Depending on the scene, the brightness we measured in movies ranged from around 1100 up to 1700 nits. That's already a level at which HDR has the proper punch and bright effects can really impress. It's not perfect in every situation, though. With small bright elements on a very dark background the Bravia 7 II clearly prioritizes maintaining good black levels, which can cause their brightness to drop to around 500 nits. It still looks good, but you can see the TV doesn't always operate without compromises.

Colors

The second thing that has a huge impact on the HDR effect is, of course, color. And this is where True RGB technology was supposed to bring one of the biggest changes. Looking at the panel's raw capabilities, the Bravia 7 II performs very well. We measured about 98% DCI‑P3 coverage and 88% BT.2020, so the potential to display highly saturated colors is really large. However, in RGB TVs the situation is a bit more complex. When we performed the same measurements with a movie background applied, the gamut coverage dropped to about 92% DCI‑P3 and 78% BT.2020. Those are still good figures, especially for an RGB Mini-LED TV, but they clearly show that the final result largely depends on how the algorithms control the three backlight colors. In most scenes the Bravia 7 II handles this well and colors retain high saturation. The biggest differences are seen in shades of blue, where samples start to deviate more noticeably from the reference values and coverage is weaker than for the other primary colors. So True RGB does offer real additional possibilities here, but like with brightness, much depends on what is actually happening on the screen.

Update 01/2026

After a series of calibrations of the OLED910 model with our customers, we noticed that the measurement results differ from those we obtained during the initial tests. The factory tuning of the movie mode turns out to be significantly better than our first tests indicated. The white balance is set very precisely, with only a minimal red dominance. The factory color reproduction holds close to reference standards – the average Delta E errors hover around 3-4, which is an excellent result for factory settings. However, there is some concern about how the TV manages brightness. Analysis of the Gamma (SDR) and EOTF (HDR) graphs shows a tendency to excessively "pull" details from shadows. In practice, this means that the image can appear overly bright, resulting in a loss of black depth in favor of the visibility of details that should remain hidden. Of course, this effect can be effectively corrected during professional calibration.

Unfortunately, when it comes to color reproduction straight out of the box, in Filmmaker mode, the OLED910 performs really poorly. The TV overexposes the color blue, and at times it looks almost like a store mode. It gives the impression that the manufacturer has not quite tuned the device correctly. The effect is that the colors look unnatural, and the overall impression is somewhat reminiscent of an exaggerated display from a market showcase. HDR content presents itself much better, where aside from a slight loss of details in blacks, it's hard to find anything to complain about. The problem is that for everyday viewing, SDR materials are actually of the greatest importance – and on the OLED910, they simply look bad and fall significantly short of what we would expect from a TV of this class.

To evaluate the out-of-the-box colors we chose Professional mode, because it performs best among the available settings. It's not perfect, though. In SDR the white balance leans slightly toward magenta, so some scenes look a bit warmer and less neutral than they should. A bigger issue is the gamma, which sits closer to 2.5 than 2.4. That makes the image a bit too dark in places, especially in the midtones. In HDR the situation is better. As brightness increases there is a bit too much red, but it's not a fault that stands out during viewing. Overall, Professional mode is a good starting point, although you can get a little more out of it with calibration.

Fortunately, it quickly turned out that it was not the panel that was responsible for the issues, but rather the way Philips had calibrated the OLED910 from the factory. After calibration, the television displayed its full potential, and only then could we see what the new panels produced by LG Display were truly capable of. We primarily corrected the white balance and brightness characteristics, which allowed us to tame the excessive blue and give the image a natural look. The final effect can be described as excellent. Errors on the Color Checker palette rarely exceeded a value of 3, which in practice means an image close to perfection and colors presented in accordance with the creators' intentions. In SDR content, the effect was remarkable, and in HDR, the improvement was even more noticeable – gradients became cleaner, and colors fuller and more believable. After calibration, the OLED910 transformed from a disappointing television into equipment that can easily be called reference-level in terms of color reproduction.

After calibration the Bravia 7 II can look significantly better. First of all, we managed to set the white balance very well, both in SDR and HDR. Gamma can also be improved, and after correction it runs very close to the reference value. For most users, those changes will have the biggest impact on the picture. There is, however, a limitation when it comes to colors. On the Bravia 7 II Sony does not provide access to a classic CMS that would let us adjust individual hues separately. A lot is therefore left in the hands of the algorithms controlling the True RGB backlight. If the TV reproduces a specific color inaccurately, we are not always able to do anything about it. In our measurements this is most evident with some reds and blues, where errors can still be quite large. That does not, however, diminish the value of calibration. Correctly setting the white point and gamma strongly affects the overall image, so even without the ability to precisely tweak every color the difference compared with the factory settings is noticeable.

The previously visible color artifacts can largely be eliminated thanks to a feature called "distortion reduction." Similar to the OLED820, it's best to set it to a medium level, as it then produces quite decent results – smoothing out unwanted tonal transitions while not taking away too many details from the image. Although there may be times when the effect is a bit too aggressive, it can generally be considered a useful feature for everyday viewing.

As for image scaling, the OLED910 performs really well. The test material with the model had a characteristic soft look typical of Philips – at times even too soft – but the sharpness slider can be adjusted at any moment to tailor the image to personal preferences. It's also worth noting that the TV has no issues with overscan, which still occurs in some competing models. It's a small detail, but it's pleasing because it means that all content, even the oldest, is displayed as it should be.

Upscaling and digital processing are among the Bravia 7 II's strongest assets and one of Sony's biggest advantages over the competition. Sony has handled digital image processing well for years, and it shows here too. Above all, the "Smooth Gradation" function works very well; it can smooth weak tonal transitions in lower-quality content. It's safest to set it to Low, but we'd comfortably recommend Medium as well. The effect is stronger then, and the TV still handles details very delicately. Some fine detail may be slightly smoothed, but Sony does it much more subtly than many other brands. The upscaling itself also performs very well. Lower-resolution sources are well upscaled to 4K; the picture looks clean and retains a lot of detail. Of course the TV won't magically turn native HD material into true 4K, but the Bravia 7 II does a very good job with what can be extracted from such a source.

The OLED910 is a television with a refresh rate of 144 Hz. It's a bit disappointing that Philips didn't choose 165 Hz, because we know that the panel used in it is capable of that. On the other hand, such a bonus would mainly benefit PC gamers, as in everyday use, the most important refresh rate is 120 Hz, which is fully sufficient. Combined with the advantages of an OLED panel – lightning-fast pixel response time and no motion blur, the image is impeccably sharp and fast, even in dynamic action scenes. Kudos also goes to Philips' traditional motion smoother called "Motion Style." We can easily adjust it to our preferences: the "Smoothness" slider is for movies and allows you to choose between a more "frame-like," cinematic character and a smooth, theatrical image. Meanwhile, the "Blur Reduction" slider is for sports; it is worth setting it to the maximum value here to ensure that the image is clear and distinct during very fast shots.

The Bravia 7 II uses a 120 Hz panel, so in terms of motion smoothness it delivers everything you’d expect from a TV in this class. With sports or games at 120 fps the picture is appropriately smooth, and for movies Sony provides an advanced motion smoothing feature. You can adjust the level of interpolation separately and decide whether you want to keep a more cinematic motion or achieve noticeably smoother motion. The issue of motion blur is a bit worse. The VA panel used isn’t among the fastest, and you can notice a slight trail behind moving objects, especially on darker backgrounds. It’s not at a level that will be highly distracting during normal viewing, but last year’s Bravia 7 performed better in this respect and had a noticeably faster panel.

The OLED910 is excellent for gaming. It supports 144 Hz, so if someone has a powerful PC, they can easily take advantage of that potential. On consoles, 120 Hz is the most important, and everything works perfectly here. There is VRR, an automatic game mode, and even Dolby Vision in games along with an HGiG mode, so we actually get a full package of gaming features. Philips also added a Game Bar, which is a quick menu that shows basic information and allows you to enable a few useful things. It may not look as modern as the competition, but it works and serves its purpose. The only downside is the number of HDMI 2.1 ports. There are only two, which can be somewhat disappointing for a TV in this class. If someone is connecting two consoles and something additional to eARC - like a soundbar (which doesn't make much sense in this model, but we'll discuss that in the sound section), they'll need to figure things out a bit more. Other than that, the OLED910 has everything we expect from a gaming TV.

The Bravia 7 II essentially has everything you'd expect from a good console TV today. It supports 4K at 120 Hz, VRR from 48 to 120 Hz, and ALLM, so when you start a game the TV automatically switches to low-latency mode. There's also a properly working HGiG, which means that after setting up HDR on the console the TV won't try to further brighten the image on its own. Just remember to turn off tone mapping in the TV's menu. Dolby Vision in game mode is another plus, especially for Xbox owners. Sony also includes its own Game Menu. From it you can quickly view key signal information, check VRR, or change gaming settings without digging through the TV's entire menu. The only thing missing from the feature list is support for 1440p at 120 Hz.

Our biggest complaint is not really with the features themselves, but with the connectors. The Bravia 7 II has four HDMI ports, but only two of them support full HDMI 2.1 at 48 Gbps. One of those is also an eARC port. So if you connect a soundbar or AV receiver via HDMI, in practice you have only one full HDMI 2.1 port left for a console or PC. With a single console that's fine, but with a PS5, an Xbox, and an audio setup it starts to get tight. That's hard to justify from Sony. Two HDMI 2.1 ports might be acceptable in cheaper TVs, but in a model of this class, especially in 2026, we'd expect all four ports to be HDMI 2.1.