Sony Bravia 7 (XR70) vs LG OLED G5

Since we know that the television performs well with contrast, let's check how it fares in terms of HDR effects. The luminance graph shows the very high capabilities of this model – 1500 nits is truly an impressive result. HDR effects are particularly striking in scenes where most of the screen is covered in light, as seen in the 1st, 3rd, and 5th test scenes. Minor shortcomings, typical of this technology, are still noticeable with very small light effects, such as in the scene from the movie "Sicario 2," where brightness drops to 500 nits. Although these are not stunning results, they can be considered decent. Additionally, it is worth praising the television for its high coverage of a wide color gamut – DCI-P3 at 96%, which allows for vibrant, saturated colors.

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.

The IMAX Enhanced mode on the Sony BRAVIA 7 television is definitely the best mode available on this model, although it is not without its flaws, as its name might suggest. The biggest issue is white balance – both in HD and 4K HDR content, there is a noticeable dominance of red color, which makes the image take on pinkish shades. This is particularly evident on the tested snow screen, where the pinkish hue becomes very noticeable. Errors in the Colour Checker test also confirm these deviations – although they are not catastrophic, there is a tendency to lean towards warmer tones. As for brightness characteristics, gamma remains at a decent level with a slight bump but without major issues. However, the biggest challenge is 4K materials. It is clear that the EOTF curve is significantly above the reference chart, which causes the image to become too bright.

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.

Sony BRAVIA XR70 offers a wide range of tools that allow for customizing the picture to personal preferences, which has enabled us to make significant adjustments to the settings. The white balance has been free of the issue of red hue dominance – snow no longer ends up with pink shades, which was previously noticeable. Although one can detect minor deviations at the end of the white balance chart concerning a drop in blue color, they are acceptable and hard to notice in everyday use. The Colour Checker test confirms that color reproduction errors are no longer as pronounced and rarely exceed a value of 2, which is a very good result. As for brightness, gamma, while not requiring significant improvement, has been slightly adjusted. However, the most notable change has been observed in the EOTF curve – the television no longer has issues with overly brightening the entire image in 4K content. However, upon closer analysis and enabling EOTF characteristics in films, certain limitations of the television arise due to the previously discussed dimming algorithm. Some small elements may be slightly more illuminated, but these errors are so minor that most users will not notice them. Overall, the calibration results are very, very positive.

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.

Since we know that the television performs very well with high-quality materials, it is worth checking how it fares with lower-quality content. Here the television shows its potential, and the applied graphics processor works really well. On the test board with the light bulb, there are no visible issues with color transitions, and the smooth gradation function works very well – we recommend setting it to "Medium".

When it comes to digital processing, or so-called upscaling, the television sharpens the image quite a bit, which leads to slight aliasing, for example on branches in the background, but it does not remove desired details. Nonetheless, the overall appearance is truly attractive and may appeal to most users. However, if we prefer a softer, more plastic image, this effect can be reduced in the settings by adjusting the sharpening level to our personal preferences.

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.

The Sony BRAVIA 7 television with a 120 Hz panel will satisfy most users in terms of motion smoothness. Additionally, Sony offers the Motion Flow feature, which allows for the selection of three different picture settings, adjusting them to personal preferences: Smoothness – Film: This setting improves motion smoothness, giving the image a more cinematic or theatrical character. Smoothness – Camera: This setting provides even greater smoothness, useful when watching dynamic scenes such as sports broadcasts. Clarity: This setting focuses on minimizing noise and motion artifacts, resulting in a more stable and clear image.

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.

Sony Bravia 7 has significantly improved its capabilities for cooperation with consoles compared to previous models. The TV supports variable refresh rate (VRR), which eliminates screen tearing, and it is compatible with graphics cards, ensuring smooth display. The auto low latency mode (ALLM) effectively reduces input lag, which is crucial in fast-paced games. Dolby Vision with low latency additionally provides impressive HDR effects that look great during gameplay.

Sony Bravia 7 also offers a Game Bar feature that provides quick access to settings and allows monitoring of parameters during gameplay. An interesting option is the ability to enable a virtual crosshair on the screen, which can give a slight advantage in shooting games. However, compared to the Bravia 9 model, the HGIG feature in the Bravia 7 does not perform as well, which may be noticeable for more demanding gamers – especially since the HGIG mode is becoming more popular in the gaming world as the preferred method for reproducing HDR effects.

A downside is the lack of support for 1440p@120 Hz resolution, which could make gaming easier for users with less powerful graphics cards. Additionally, the Sony Bravia 7 is equipped with two HDMI 2.1 ports, one of which is often used to connect an audio system via eARC, limiting the number of available ports for connecting next-generation consoles.

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.