- Matching (Score) |
- Our verdict |
- Competing TVs |
- TV appearance |
- Where to buy |
- Contrast and black detail |
- HDR effect quality |
- Factory color reproduction |
- Color reproduction after calibration |
- Smoothness of tonal transitions |
- Image scaling and smoothness of tonal transitions |
- Blur and motion smoothness |
- Console compatibility and gaming features |
- Input lag |
- Compatibility with PC |
- Viewing angles |
- Daytime performance |
- TV features |
- Apps |
- Playing files from USB |
- Sound |
- Panel details
SONY BRAVIA 3 II (XR35M2) Review
BRAVIA 3 II / XR35M2
Available screen sizes:
Complete the survey to find out the result
Panel type: LCD VA Refresh rate: 120Hz Brand: SONY Resolution: 3840x2160 System: Google TV Model year: 2026
Sony Bravia 3 II is a refreshed version of the 2025 Bravia 3. The biggest change is a 120 Hz panel, so it’s immediately clear Sony wanted to make a stronger play for gamers, especially PlayStation 5 owners. We checked what else Sony managed to improve and whether the Bravia 3 II is actually a more compelling choice than its predecessor.
SONY BRAVIA 3 II - Our verdict
7.0
Overall rating
The Sony Bravia 3 II is a TV that quickly reveals what the manufacturer had in mind for this model. It's meant above all to be a sensible Bravia for gaming, and in that respect the changes are substantial. After all, Sony fixed one of the biggest complaints about its TVs: having only two full HDMI 2.1 ports. Here there are four, and that alone makes the Bravia 3 II a much more convenient choice for anyone who wants to hook up a lot of gaming gear. Fortunately it doesn't stop at gaming. The 120 Hz panel performs very well in terms of motion, motion blur is minimal, and the motion-enhancing systems work surprisingly effectively, sometimes even better than on Sony's top TVs. That's why sports are another use where the Bravia 3 II feels right at home. Add Google TV with its full suite of apps and features, and in terms of everyday use it's the Sony we've known for years.
The biggest problem with this model, however, isn't the TV itself but its current price. The Bravia 3 II is today priced dangerously close to the Bravia 5, and when the premium for the higher model is only a few percent, choosing the lower series starts to lose its point. The Bravia 5 already offers full Mini-LED backlighting with local dimming, exactly what the Bravia 3 II most lacks for evening viewing and in HDR. That's why we look at this model through the lens of price. The Bravia 3 II is a genuinely successful lower midrange TV and, at the right price, could easily be one of the more interesting choices for a gamer or sports fan. However, if the gap to the Bravia 5 remains small, it will be hard to recommend it with full conviction.
Advantages
Very good motion clarity and exceptionally low motion blur for a 120Hz LCD TV
4 × HDMI 2.1 48 Gbps, finally!
Lots of gaming features: VRR, ALLM, low input lag
Wide color gamut, QLED (PFS)
Supports Dolby Vision
Google TV with a wide range of apps and features
Broad audio format support: Dolby Atmos and DTS
Record programs to USB
Two remotes included
Disadvantages
High price relative to its capabilities; for only a little more you can buy the much better BRAVIA 5
No local dimming
Lacks proper HGiG support
Average processing of lower-quality content
Movies and series in UHD quality6.5
Classic TV, YouTube6.3
Sports broadcasts (TV and apps)6.7
Gaming on console8.1
TV as a computer monitor7.2
Watching in bright light5.8
Utility functions7.9
Apps9.6
Sound quality6.8
Complete the survey to find out what fits your preferences
SONY BRAVIA 3 II - Competing TVs in this price range
SONY BRAVIA 3 II - TV appearance
HDMI inputs: 0 x HDMI 2.0, 4 x HDMI 2.1 (48Gbps) Outputs: Toslink (Optical audio), eARC (HDMI), ARC (HDMI) Network Interfaces: Wi-Fi 2.4GHz, Wi-Fi 5GHz, Ethernet (LAN) 100Mbps
Build quality: Good
Stand type: Legs
Bezel color: Graphite
Stand: Base adjustment
Flat design: No
Accessories: Two remote controls, Stand
Bravia 3 II doesn't try to pass for a top-of-the-line model, but it's hard to fault its build quality. The housing combines plastic and metal elements, everything is well fitted, and from the front the TV looks neat and fairly modern. The bezels around the screen are relatively narrow, so at first glance its budget nature isn't really obvious. More is revealed at the back. The casing is fairly thick, especially where the electronics are located, so when wall-mounted the screen will stick out a bit more from the wall. The set includes plastic feet with adjustable spacing, which can be useful with a narrower TV stand. Of course Bravia 3 II also supports the VESA standard, so regardless of size it can be mounted on the wall.
Buy at the best price
Select size:
SONY BRAVIA 3 II - Contrast and black detail
5.6/10
Local dimming function: No
Result
3,050:1
Result
4,650:1
Result
5,850:1
Result
6,400:1
Result
4,350:1
The Bravia 3 II uses a VA panel, a solution that by design provides much better contrast than IPS or ADS panels. In our unit the native contrast was about 5000:1, which is a pretty good result for a TV without local dimming. In practice this means that in a mildly lit room blacks can look really decent. Dark parts of the image don't immediately turn gray, and night scenes have noticeably more depth than on many IPS-panel TVs. However, the poorer black performance becomes apparent when you turn off the lights. The Bravia 3 II doesn't have local dimming, so the entire backlight behaves similarly regardless of what's happening in any particular area of the image. In a dark room it's easy to see that black is no longer truly black but starts to shift toward a dark navy. It's not at a level that seriously ruins the movie experience, but during an evening viewing the difference versus a Mini-LED, and even more so versus an OLED TV, becomes very clear.
SONY BRAVIA 3 II - HDR effect quality
5.3/10
Supported formats: HDR10, Dolby Vision, HLG
Luminance measurements in HDR:
Result
408 nit
Result
430 nit
Result
449 nit
Result
457 nit
Result
455 nit
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.
BT.2020 color gamut coverage and primary color luminance
| Data set | BT.2020 | P3 | R | G | B |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Synthetic patterns | 74.4% | 94.2% | 57% | 62% | 66% |
| Film measurements | 74.4% | 94.2% | 57% | 62% | 66% |
BT.2020
BT.2020 and P3 – average color gamut coverage (percent of the target gamut).
R, G, B – average primary color luminance relative to target (percent).
Scene from the movie “Pan” (about 2800 nits)
Scene from the movie “Billy Lynn” (about 1100 nits)
Although the Bravia 3 II is not a particularly bright TV, HDR content can look surprisingly good on it. The best results come from content mastered for lower brightness, i.e., typical HDR releases on streaming platforms, usually mastered to around 1000 nits. In such material the TV remains fairly faithful to the reference image, with the brightest parts of scenes rendered in a controlled way and without significant loss of detail (for example, fireworks). Of course, some limitations can't be completely hidden. In certain shots the image can be a bit too dark, and the lack of local dimming means contrast isn't as impressive as on more expensive models. Even so, the overall presentation still looks attractive. Content mastered to 4000 nits, which clearly exceeds the Bravia 3 II's capabilities, is also handled in an interesting way. Here the TV has to compress the brightest parts of the image more heavily, and sometimes you can see it can't reproduce all the fine details in the highlights. For a model with this level of brightness and without local dimming, the tone mapping actually works quite well. We expected bigger compromises, but Sony does a pretty good job of keeping the picture looking natural and not completely losing its dynamism.
HDR luminance chart:
Much of what we saw earlier with tone mapping is largely due to the quite effective algorithms in the Bravia 3 II. Even with standard HDR10, that is without dynamic metadata, the TV can recover a substantial amount of detail in the brightest parts of the image and prevents highlights from blowing out quickly. Only a direct comparison with Dolby Vision shows that you can get a bit more out of this screen. Dynamic metadata help better tailor HDR rendering to each scene, so the brightest areas reveal a little more detail and the overall presentation is more coherent. The difference isn’t huge, which actually speaks well to how the Bravia 3 II handles standard HDR10. Dolby Vision gives an advantage, but it’s not as large a gap as we often see in comparable TVs.
Static HDR10
Dynamic: Dolby Vision
Factory color reproduction
6.3/10
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.
Color reproduction after calibration
8/10
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.
SONY BRAVIA 3 II - Smoothness of tonal transitions
9.5/10
In terms of tonal transition smoothness, the Bravia 3 II performs very well. In most of the scenes we watched, it was hard to spot any issues with blending individual shades. Gradients remain smooth both in bright parts of the image, like skies or sunsets, and in much more challenging dark shots. The only thing that may be noticeable in our photos, especially in the darkest scenes, is uneven backlighting. This is not related to color banding, but rather a consequence of using a backlight without local dimming.
Image scaling and smoothness of tonal transitions
6/10
Smooth transition function
Image without overscan on the SD signal
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.
SONY BRAVIA 3 II - Blur and motion smoothness
8.2/10
Maximum refresh rate of the panel: 120Hz
Film motion smoothing option: Yes
Blur reduction option: Yes
BFI function 60Hz: Yes, 120Hz (double contours)
BFI function 120Hz: Yes, 240Hz (double contours)
Brightness drop with BFI: 25%
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.
Blur (native resolution, maximum refresh rate):
Blur (BFI function enabled):
The "Purity" feature, which is essentially BFI (black frame insertion), also works very well. When set to its maximum level, motion becomes noticeably sharper, but importantly this does not come with as large a drop in brightness as in many other TVs. There is also no pronounced contour doubling or any image flicker. Sony deserves a big plus for that. The panel itself doesn't look exceptional on paper, but the way the TV handles motion does. If you watch a lot of sports or simply care about the sharpness of moving objects, the Bravia 3 II performs exceptionally well in that regard.
SONY BRAVIA 3 II - Console compatibility and gaming features
8.1/10
- ALLM:
Yes
- VRR:
Yes
- VRR range:
48 - 120Hz
- Dolby Vision Game Mode:
Yes
Correct implementation of HGIG:
No - 1080p@120Hz:
Yes
- 1440p@120Hz:
No
- 4K@120Hz:
Yes
- Game bar:
Yes
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.
SONY BRAVIA 3 II - Input lag
9.9/10
In terms of input lag, the Bravia 3 II performs very well. With a 120 Hz signal the input lag is around 8 ms, while at 60 Hz it increases to about 14 ms, so in both cases the response to controls is very fast and during normal gaming you'd be hard-pressed to notice any delay. It's also a plus that the TV behaves well in Dolby Vision Gaming mode on Xbox. The input lag then remains practically just as low, and until recently Sony often had a noticeable problem with this.
| SDR | HDR | Dolby Vision |
|---|---|---|
| 1080p60: 14 ms | 2160p60: 14 ms | 2160p60 DV: 14 ms |
| 1080p120: 8 ms | 2160p120: 8 ms | 2160p120 DV: 8 ms |
| 2160p60: 14 ms | ||
| 2160p120: 8 ms |
SONY BRAVIA 3 II - Compatibility with PC
7.2/10
Chroma 444 (max. resolution and refresh rate): Yes
Font clarity: Good
Readability of dark text and shapes: Average
Input lag in PC mode (4K, max. refresh rate): 8ms
Matrix subpixel arrangement: BGR
Max refresh rate: 120Hz
G-Sync: Yes
Using it with a computer is generally good, although again not without a few reservations. The Bravia 3 II correctly supports 4:4:4 chroma, so in typical use text and the system UI look sharp and readable. However, gray fonts can draw attention, as their vertical edges are often noticeably brighter than the horizontal ones. On a larger screen that isn't particularly bothersome, but if you're considering the smaller Bravia 3 II as a monitor for working with text, it's worth keeping in mind. What bothers us more is the lack of additional higher-refresh-rate modes. It's not even about 144 or 165 Hz at 4K, but at least the option to get smoother motion at Full HD. This solution is appearing increasingly in competing TVs (DLG 240Hz), while Sony still doesn't offer it, even in its pricier models. For most users, 4K at 120 Hz will of course be perfectly adequate, especially for consoles, but people who also use the TV as a PC gaming monitor may be left wanting.
SONY BRAVIA 3 II - Viewing angles
3.3/10
Brightness drop at an angle of 45 degrees: 72%
The viewing angles are pretty typical for a VA panel — in other words, just average and for some probably even poor. The Bravia 3 II looks best when you’re sitting directly in front of the screen. As you move to the side, colors start to lose saturation and blacks become increasingly gray. Unfortunately, that’s the price you pay for this panel’s high native contrast. Watching with two or three people shouldn’t be much of an issue, but if the couch is wide, people sitting at its far edges will see a noticeably worse picture.
SONY BRAVIA 3 II - Daytime performance
5.8/10
Panel finish: Satin
Reflection suppression: Decent
Black levels during daytime: Good
During the day the Bravia 3 II performs quite decently, although a lot depends on where you place the TV. The satin coating handles reflections reasonably well; it doesn't act like a mirror, but strong light sources, especially a window opposite the screen, can interfere with viewing. The VA panel is an advantage here, helping blacks retain fairly good depth in daylight so the image doesn't immediately turn gray or become washed out. The set can also reach about 450 nits of brightness and can maintain that level regardless of how many bright elements are on screen. That will be more than enough for a typical living room, and during the day the picture remains easy to see. If, however, the TV is to be placed in a very bright room with large windows and a lot of direct light, you can find models with a noticeably more effective coating and greater brightness headroom.
Panel brightness
SONY BRAVIA 3 II (XR35M2): 447 cd/m2
SONY BRAVIA 3 II - TV features
7.9/10
System: Google TV
System performance: Good
- HDMI inputs: 0 x HDMI 2.0, 4 x HDMI 2.1 48Gbps
- Outputs: Toslink (Optical audio), eARC (HDMI), ARC (HDMI)
- Network Interfaces: Wi-Fi 2.4GHz, Wi-Fi 5GHz, Ethernet (LAN) 100Mbps
- TV reception: DVB-T, DVB-T2, DVB-S, DVB-S2, DVB-C
Classic features:
- Recording to USB (terrestrial TV): Yes
- Recording programming: Yes
- Picture in Picture (PiP): No
- RF remote control (no need to aim): RF
- Backlit remote control: No
- Teletext: Yes
- Audio only mode: Yes
- Bluetooth headphones support: Yes
- Simultaneous Bluetooth headphones & TV audio: No
Smart features:
- AirPlay: Yes
- Screen mirroring (Windows Miracast): No
- Voice search: Yes
- Voice search in native language: Yes
- Ability to connect a keyboard and mouse: Yes
Smart TV Features: Google TV
The Bravia 3 II runs on Google TV and, in terms of capabilities, it’s one of the more feature-rich systems currently found in TVs. First and foremost, it offers access to a very large number of apps, so in addition to the most popular streaming platforms you’ll also find many less obvious services without much trouble. Sony also supports AirPlay and Chromecast, making it very convenient to cast content from a smartphone. Voice search also performs well, backed by Gemini, which handles commands in multiple languages and can genuinely make using the TV easier. However, during our tests we ran into one problem: the Bravia 3 II would not correctly receive a picture from a Windows 11 PC via Miracast. So if you want to use the TV as a secondary display for a computer, the safest solution is still a connection via HDMI.
Classic TV features
Sony also hasn’t forgotten users who still primarily use regular broadcast TV. The Bravia 3 II supports recording programs to USB, including the ability to schedule recordings via PVR, which is rare these days, especially in cheaper models. There is also teletext and a clear channel guide, so in terms of basic TV functions we really lacked nothing here, perhaps except for picture-in-picture (PiP). It’s notable that the set includes two remote controls. The first is modern and simplified (the non-backlit version), while the second is a classic design with a full numeric keypad. And although it may look a bit old-fashioned, viewers who watch a lot of traditional TV may actually find it more convenient, for example when entering channel numbers.
Sound connection options
HDMI audio:
Other audio outputs:
- Toslink: Yes
Wireless audio:
- Bluetooth: Yes
Supported audio formats (external HDMI eARC audio):
- Dolby Digital Plus 7.1: Yes
- Dolby True HD 7.1: Yes
- Dolby Atmos in Dolby Digital Plus (JOC): Yes
- Dolby Atmos in Dolby True HD: Yes
- DTS:X in DTS-HD MA: Yes
- DTS-HD Master Audio: Yes
Senior accessibility
- Numeric keyboard on TV: Yes
- Font size adjustment: Yes
- Audio description: Yes
SONY BRAVIA 3 II - Apps
9.6/10
SONY BRAVIA 3 II - Playing files from USB
9.3/10
| Maximum photo resolution: | Supported photo formats: |
|---|---|
| 4 Mpix | JPEG |
| 6 Mpix | HEIC |
| 8 Mpix | PNG |
| 10 Mpix | GIF |
| 12 Mpix | WebP |
| 16 Mpix | TIFF |
| 20 Mpix | BMP |
| 24 Mpix | SVG |
| 28 Mpix | |
| 32 Mpix |
The Bravia 3 II's built-in player works really well, and during our tests it handled most popular video and audio formats without any problems. There’s really nothing that would force us to install an extra player or use an external device. The only exception might be videos with subtitles saved in .txt format, which the TV does not support, but let’s be honest, at that point that would be nitpicking.
SONY BRAVIA 3 II - Sound
6.8/10
87dB
Maximum volume
Supported codecs (TV speakers)
Dolby Digital Plus 7.1
Dolby True HD 7.1
Dolby Atmos in Dolby Digital Plus (JOC)
Dolby Atmos in Dolby True HD
DTS:X in DTS-HD MA
DTS-HD Master Audio
In terms of sound, the Bravia 3 II performs adequately, but there’s not much more to say. The speakers handle dialogue and regular TV well, but they clearly lack lower frequencies. Bass drops off quickly, so with music, action movies, or games the sound is fairly light and lacks punch. That’s not unusual for TVs in this class, but if you want a more impactful sound a soundbar is highly recommended. Supported audio formats are much better. The Bravia 3 II handles practically everything you might need, including Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio, and DTS:X, formats increasingly skipped by other manufacturers. The TV can also pass them through to an external audio setup. The exception is Dolby Atmos encoded in Dolby TrueHD, which the built-in speakers cannot reproduce directly, but when using a suitable soundbar or AV receiver this shouldn’t be a significant problem.
Acoustic Measurements
87dBC (Max)
75dBC
SONY BRAVIA 3 II - Panel details
Software version during testing: 6140200730
Image processor: PENTONIC 800 4GB RAM
Panel uniformity and thermal imaging:
Backlight Type: PFS LED
Founder and originator of the "ChooseTV" portal
Journalist, reviewer, and columnist for the "ChooseTV" portal
michal-woloszyn-title
Reader comments
Comments are provided by the external service Disqus (Zeta Global). Once loaded, Disqus may set cookies and process data about your activity.
We will remember your choice on this device. Provider's privacy policy
See articles related to SONY BRAVIA 3 II (XR35M2):
Our YouTube channel
Picture comparison: Sony Bravia 9 II vs TCL X11L vs Hisense ...
7/15/2026
