Samsung DU7192 (IPS) vs SONY BRAVIA 3 II (XR35M2)

The maximum luminance for HDR content on the Samsung DU7192 is 245 nits, but is often exceeded by even lower results. Such values are insufficient for comfortable viewing of HDR material due to the lack of appropriate image dynamics and the colour distortions caused by the device's low brightness. While the manufacturer has equipped the device with an HDR format featuring dynamic metadata, specifically HDR10+, it is rarely used compared to Dolby Vision, which Samsung has yet to introduce in its televisions. It is also worth noting that the Samsung DU7192 only covers 82% of the wide colour gamut DCI-P3, meaning that sending signals in a wide dynamic range should be avoided, as significant colour loss will be evident.

Overall, the Samsung DU7192 delivers high-quality images that will satisfy most users. The television stands out particularly for its vivid colours and decent contrast. Thanks to UHD technology, the image on the screen is sharp and clear, even during fast-moving scenes. The DU7192 also supports HDR, allowing for better reproduction of details in bright and dark areas of the image.

Bravia 3 II is certainly not a TV that tries to impress with brightness. In our measurements it reached about 450 nits, so it's far from the strongest designs on the market. That said, HDR here is not just a paper feature. Compared with regular SDR material, the brightest parts of the image can already punch through, and reflections, highlights, or stronger exposures have a bit more energy and stand out better from the rest of the scene. You can see this best in simpler shots where many bright elements appear on screen. Then the Bravia 3 II can give a hint of a higher-dynamic-range picture. The problem only starts with more demanding content, where much greater brightness headroom is needed. There the TV quickly shows its limits and instead of strong, striking HDR we get only a correctly rendered picture.

Colors

Bravia 3 II uses a QLED-type panel, although technically it does not use a traditional quantum-dot layer. Instead Sony applied a PFS phosphor-based solution that serves a very similar role: it allows for more saturated reds and greens and thus lets the TV display a much wider color gamut. Measurements showed about 94% coverage of the DCI-P3 gamut and about 74.4% of the very wide BT.2020. Those are good results for this class of hardware, meaning the Bravia 3 II has no problem showing adequately saturated colors in HDR content. Colors don't look washed out, and the more intense shades can look really attractive.

The best factory mode we used throughout the testing process was "Filmmaker." However, like most modes, it had its drawbacks. Starting with the most basic chart, the white balance, we observed a pronounced dominance of red in SDR and HDR modes. Although green also appeared in HDR mode, it did not significantly affect the overall perception. This resulted in an image with a noticeable yellow tint, particularly evident on the whites and the faces of the actors.

Another important chart, arguably more significant, is gamma, which controls contrast in materials with a standard colour palette. In factory mode it performed reasonably well, but with one notable issue regarding the darkest scenes. Here, it was significantly lowered, resulting in excessive brightening, which robbed the film of its contrast and suspense.

As for HDR content, the white balance remained similar. The main change occurred in the EOTF curve chart. Initially, we saw a bulge that, like the gamma curve, brightened the darkest scenes considerably. However, the curve then drastically changed, and the measured result dropped below the reference line, diminishing the dynamism of the film even further.

In Professional mode the Bravia 3 II, straight out of the box, delivers a fairly good level of color reproduction. In SDR the most noticeable issue is a slightly low gamma, which makes the midtone areas a bit brighter. White balance is not perfect either; as brightness increases there is a slight lack of blue and red, so whites can sometimes take on a slightly warmer, mildly greenish tint. However, these are not errors that immediately stand out while watching a movie. Average error values hover around 3, so the factory preset can be considered quite good. The situation is similar in HDR. Here again there is a slight deficiency in the blue component, so the image is a touch warmer than the reference, but the difference is not large enough to be significantly distracting during normal viewing.

Samsung even with its entry-level televisions, provides advanced tools for calibration, and we put these to work. The results of our efforts were more than satisfying. The white balance, which previously had a strong yellowish tint in both scenarios, now looks much improved, although slight deviations from the ideal are still noticeable. Nevertheless, the image is significantly cleaner than before the calibration process. We were able to model the gamma well for SDR materials, achieving as much contrast as the television can provide. The EOTF curve has also been adjusted, preventing the image from becoming excessively lightened or darkened. However, it is worth noting that for HDR materials, the deltaE errors remain quite high, with the primary issue being the unit's insufficient brightness.

After calibration you can get a lot out of SDR content. The white balance was set almost perfectly, gamma practically matches the reference value, and average color errors fell from around 3 to about 1. That's a level at which differences from the reference image are, in practice, very hard to detect. The Bravia 3 II therefore shows that despite its position in Sony's lineup it has quite a lot of potential for precise picture tuning. Improvements are also visible in HDR, although here you can no longer work around all of the TV's limitations. After equalizing the colors it's easier to notice that the EOTF curve in film material runs slightly below the reference value in places, meaning the Bravia 3 II slightly darkens part of the image. That's not ideal from a reference standpoint, but in this particular TV it also has an advantage. With no local dimming and average black levels, this behavior slightly reduces the visibility of the backlight in darker scenes and helps maintain a greater sense of contrast. So you could say Sony partially masks the limits of the panel that way, rather than trying at all costs to stick to the reference luminance.

Let’s revisit the smoothing of tonal transitions function. It can be set to either "off" or "auto." As expected, setting it to "off" results in significant gradation issues. On the other hand, when set to "auto," both movies and TV shows offer smoother colour transitions. However, this function has notable drawbacks: it interferes with the director’s intent by softening the effect of film grain and, more concerning, it often blurs small details, misinterpreting them in the process. For this reason, we consider this feature ineffective and do not recommend using it, as the tests for tonal transition smoothness were conducted with this function turned off.

Next, we assessed the image scaling, which is crucial for watching lower-resolution materials. Unfortunately, as this is one of the manufacturer’s lower-end models, the scaling function does not perform well. The result is heavily blurred details, and a noticeable white halo forms around characters, detracting from the viewing experience.

The Bravia 3 II is Sony’s first TV to use the new MediaTek Pentonic 800 chipset, and you can see a few changes in image processing. Starting with the basics: upscaling is solid. The TV can sensibly upscale lower-resolution material and doesn’t have a strong tendency to overemphasize jagged edges or other source imperfections. With regular broadcast TV or lower-quality streaming the picture remains quite pleasing. We have more reservations about the digital image processing. In this model Sony replaced the well-known "Smooth Gradation" feature with a new setting called "Digital Noise Reduction." Its role is essentially the same: to smooth unpleasant tonal transitions and artifacts caused by heavy compression. Unfortunately, this feature performs noticeably worse than before. At the "Large" setting — the only one that noticeably affected the picture — the TV can smooth away too many image elements at once, causing film grain to disappear and surface textures or even character skin to start looking unnatural. Worse, the effect is not very consistent. When a scene contains more motion the function’s effect weakens significantly and at times it looks as if the TV stops intervening in the image altogether. For everyday viewing we therefore don’t recommend using it at a high level. It can help on a static shot, but the price is often too much loss of detail.

Although the Samsung DU7192 is the entry-level model in the manufacturer’s range, it does come equipped with motion smoothing technology. While this feature is somewhat limited in comparison to higher-end models, its inclusion is a notable advantage in its price category. The maximum refresh rate available on the TV is 60 Hz, which is adequate for movies and TV shows but falls short for fast-moving content like sports.

Within the motion smoothing settings, there are two features aimed at improving fluidity: "Motion Blur Reduction" and "Clear Motion (LED)." We’ll discuss the latter later, but first, let’s focus on the former. Unfortunately, despite being present, we found no noticeable difference when adjusting this setting. Regardless of the chosen option, the picture maintained the same stuttering effect typically associated with 24 fps content.

The Samsung DU7192 uses a panel with an average response time. However, it is worth noting that this type of panel outperforms VA panels in a similar price range, making it a more suitable option for watching sports compared to other budget models.

Motion handling is definitely one of the Bravia 3 II's strongest points. The TV uses a 120 Hz VA panel, a solution that by nature, despite the high refresh rate, doesn't always cope well with motion blur. Here Sony has managed to get that problem very well under control. Fast-moving objects remain sharp, and the characteristic trails and blurring are reduced to a very low level, if not to zero. It's one of the least smearing LCD TVs we've had the chance to test. Interestingly, in this respect the Bravia 3 II can even outperform the much more expensive flagship True RGB series: the Bravia 9 II.

The Samsung DU7192 is equipped only with HDMI 2.0 ports, which is to be expected given the device's price point and its target consumer market. As a result, it does not support the highest resolutions or frame rates available on the latest generation consoles. It does, however, feature the basic gaming functionality of ALLM (Auto Low Latency Mode). Unfortunately, it is disappointing that the manufacturer did not include GameBar, a feature that has become a standard even in lower-end TVs. GameBar would have provided significant convenience by allowing gamers to easily adjust settings quickly during gameplay.

Sony Bravia 3 II is a very good TV for gamers, although not everything has been handled the way we'd like. The biggest change concerns the connections. For the first time in a Sony TV we get four full HDMI 2.1 ports with 48 Gb/s bandwidth, thanks to the new MediaTek Pentonic 800 chipset. That removes one of the long-standing issues that has plagued the manufacturer's TVs. You can connect several devices at once and use each input's full capabilities, including VRR and ALLM. There's also a simple Game Bar that lets you check key signal parameters and change a few useful settings, such as black level, when you want to improve visibility in darker parts of a game.

There are, however, two limitations worth knowing. The first is the lack of support for 1440p at 120 Hz. This won't be a problem for everyone, but people using that resolution on a console or PC, for example to get higher frame rates in certain games, will have to choose 1080p. We have more reservations about HGiG support. Sony does not allow disabling tone mapping on the Bravia 3 II, so the TV continuously processes HDR content even when you would prefer to leave that task to the console. You can most easily notice this during HDR setup. The checkerboard pattern does not disappear at the point corresponding to the TV's actual capabilities. That doesn't mean HDR in games will look bad. You just need to approach the setup a bit differently and, instead of relying on the pattern, manually set the peak brightness to about 450 nits. The issue can be worked around, but you should know about it before you start configuring your console.