Sony Bravia 8 MK2 vs Samsung S85H

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.

Interestingly, the new WOLED SE panel has brought a slight improvement in brightness to the S85 series. In the same movie scenes the previous year's model stayed closer to about 700 nits, while the S85H can reach around 800 nits. Of course this isn't a change that completely transforms the HDR experience, but that extra headroom is noticeable especially with small highlights, reflections, and stronger special effects. Around 800 nits is already a very good result for an entry-level OLED and in most films it's enough for HDR to have the right impact. Bright elements can clearly stand out from perfect black, and that contrast still does most of the heavy lifting here. You should remember the typical limitation of organic technology, though. When a very bright scene covers a large part of the screen, brightness can drop by almost half. This is the result of the panel's protection mechanisms, which limit its power with large bright areas.

Colors

The S85H can produce very pleasant, saturated colors and in most HDR films it looks really good in that respect. We measured roughly 95% DCI-P3 coverage, so the palette most often used in movies is reproduced to a very large degree. Skin tones, greens, and stronger reds still have appropriate intensity, and during normal viewing it's hard to fault them. Only when you look more broadly at BT.2020 do the limitations of the new WOLED SE panel become apparent. Coverage was around 70%, a bit less than in previous-generation WOLEDs and noticeably less than in QD-OLED panels. In films this isn't a major loss, because most productions rarely use such highly saturated colors. You notice it more often in games, where developers are much more likely to employ more intense colors.

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.

To evaluate color we, of course, selected Filmmaker mode, and in SDR our S85H unit was very well calibrated out of the box. The biggest deviation appears in the white balance, where a bit of blue drops out as brightness increases. In practice this means whites and grays have a slightly warmer tint than they should. It's not a major error and during normal viewing it generally isn't very noticeable. Gamma also stays close to the reference value, so the image is neither overly bright nor unnecessarily dim. The S85H's SDR picture quality is therefore very good straight out of the box. A few more imperfections show up in HDR. Here the white balance shifts more as brightness increases, with blue becoming dominant and the red component noticeably lacking. That also leads to larger errors in some colors. These aren't yet distortions that completely change the character of the image, but compared directly with the reference the difference is easier to spot. Overall, Filmmaker mode is a very good starting point before professional calibration.

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.

Calibration yields very good results on the S85H. First, the white balance can be set almost perfectly, which removes the slightly too-warm image cast that was visible earlier in SDR. Color reproduction itself also improves significantly; most errors drop to a very low level, and in everyday viewing it's hard to notice any visible inaccuracies. You can also improve a lot in HDR, although some issues remain due to the TV's inherent characteristics. The S85H doesn't always perfectly follow the brightness curve. The darkest areas are slightly boosted, and as you approach the panel's limits you can see small deviations in the brightest highlights. On top of that there's limited coverage of the wider BT.2020 gamut, which no calibration can of course overcome. Despite this, the end result is very good, and after calibration the S85H can deliver a well-tuned, natural image.

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.

For the S85H, Samsung used the same proprietary NQ4 Gen2 AI processor as in last year’s S85F, and in terms of digital image processing it performs quite well. Upscaling is one of this model’s strengths. Lower-resolution content is well sharpened, edges look natural, and the image doesn’t feel overly artificial. Just bear in mind a common Samsung quirk: at very low resolutions you can’t completely disable overscan, so the TV may slightly crop the left edge of the image. The "noise reduction" function, which smooths weaker tonal transitions, also works very well. The processor can effectively remove posterization and other imperfections visible in lower-quality material. However, you need to be careful with the strength of this feature, because Samsung can be fairly aggressive here. When it’s enabled, along with unwanted artifacts, fine image details such as the texture of skin or clothing can start to disappear.

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.

The S85H uses an OLED panel, so it performs excellently when it comes to motion blur. Pixels respond virtually instantly, so moving objects don’t leave the characteristic ghosting seen on some LCD TVs. This is especially noticeable with sports or fast-paced games, where the image stays very clean even during rapid motion. The panel runs at 120 Hz. That’s more than enough for movies, TV series, sports, or console gaming. It’s a bit of a shame Samsung didn’t include a higher refresh rate aimed at PC gamers, since more and more TVs now offer 144 or even 165 Hz at 4K. However, that doesn’t affect motion perception in films or sports. There’s also the classic motion smoothing feature with two settings, blur reduction and judder reduction. So you can choose whether films should keep their cinematic 24 frames per second or if you prefer to smooth them a bit. The S85H gives you plenty of flexibility here, and the interpolation works well and, with reasonable settings, doesn’t produce too many artifacts.

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.

The Samsung S85H is very well set up for gaming, whether you connect a console or a PC. The manufacturer didn’t skimp on ports and all four HDMI inputs support full HDMI 2.1. That means you can use 4K at 120 Hz, VRR, and ALLM without worrying which input to plug your console into. With several devices that matters, because you don’t have to choose between a console, a PC, or a soundbar connected via eARC. The feature set itself is very comprehensive. The S85H supports VRR, FreeSync, and automatic switching to game mode, and Samsung offers its comprehensive Game Bar, which lets you quickly view key signal parameters and change settings without leaving the game. The only real omission is Dolby Vision, which will matter mainly to Xbox owners. That’s a typical trait of Samsung TVs. Game Motion Plus performs very well and is one of the features that have set Samsung TVs apart for years. It smooths motion in games running at 30 or 60 fps, but does so without as large an increase in input lag as traditional motion smoothing. In practice, with more relaxed games, racing titles, or action games this can really improve perceived motion, especially if you’re sensitive to low framerates.