The Sony Bravia 8 Mark II won HDTVTest's annual shootout by outscoring every other TV in a blind comparison against a $30,000 Sony BVM reference monitor. That test measured color accuracy across scenes from Knives Out, La La Land, and 1917, and the Bravia 8 II aligned closest to the reference display in every category: white color gamut, HDR10 color fidelity, and 1,000-nit tone mapping.
Sony's Cognitive XR processor is the real differentiator. RTINGS found it cleans up 720p cable news and removes macro-blocking from low-bitrate Netflix streams without smearing fine detail. B The Installer independently verified this, calling the processing "reference-level" and noting that upscaled content looked "almost indistinguishable from native 4K." No other TV came close on this metric.
The near-black handling sealed it. HDTVTest's panel used dark scenes from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and found the Sony resolved shadow detail and dark color transitions that every other TV crushed or posterized. If you watch movies in a dark room, this is the TV that shows you what the director actually shot.
It also has a genuine party trick: Acoustic Surface audio vibrates the screen itself to project sound, eliminating the disconnect between on-screen action and speaker placement. B The Installer said it's good enough to skip a soundbar entirely for casual viewing.
What It Won't Do
The Sony is the dimmest flagship OLED RTINGS tested. Full-screen SDR drops to 224 nits, and HDTVTest noted the logo detection dimming algorithm is overly aggressive in its brightest day mode. In a sunny living room, this TV loses the contrast battle to the Samsung S95F and even to budget Mini-LEDs like the TCL QM6K. Gaming is also a sore spot: 120Hz cap, only 2 HDMI 2.1 ports (one doubles as eARC), and RTINGS measured a staggering 316ms input lag outside Game Mode. The screen also visibly dims when Game Mode is engaged. If you game on a PS5 and a PC simultaneously with a soundbar, you physically cannot connect all three at full bandwidth.
The TCL QM6K forced The Viewing Angle to reframe their expectations for budget displays. They called it their "most pleasant surprise of the year" and ran a blind test: their spouse preferred the QM6K's skin tones over a $1,400 Sony. For around $500 at 65 inches, you get genuine Mini-LED backlighting with quantum dots, 144Hz native refresh, and support for both Dolby Vision and HDR10+. Three years ago, these specs lived in the $1,500 tier.
Jon Rettinger highlighted the gaming angle: 144Hz at 4K with VRR, plus a "Game Accelerator" mode pushing 288Hz at 1080p. FreeSync Premium Pro and G-Sync compatibility mean it plays nice with both AMD and NVIDIA cards. For a $500 TV, that spec sheet reads like a typo.
RTINGS confirmed the brightness holds together in daytime viewing. The Mini-LED backlighting fights glare better than you'd expect, and Stop the FOMO called it the "value leader in performance, image quality, and size." The 75-inch model runs about $699, which means you can go significantly bigger than a 65-inch OLED for less money.
What It Won't Do
The VA panel has narrow viewing angles. Audioviser warned that colors fade quickly if you're not sitting dead center, which kills it for wide living room setups. Blooming around bright objects in dark scenes is visible in HDR movie watching, and Stop the FOMO noted you'll need to tweak the gamma settings to avoid black crush in shadows. The processing simply cannot match premium sets: upscaled old content and low-bitrate streams look noticeably rougher than on Sony or LG. And TCL's Google TV implementation, while functional, doesn't get the same polish or update cadence as Sony's version.
Who Should Buy Which
Sony Bravia 8 Mark II
The reference display disguised as a consumer TV
- You watch movies in a dark or light-controlled home theater and care about accurate shadow detail and color
- You stream a lot of lower-quality content (cable, older shows) and want it cleaned up to near-4K quality
- You value Sony's Google TV interface and Acoustic Surface speakers enough to skip buying a soundbar
- You prioritize cinematic accuracy over raw brightness and don't need a screen larger than 65 inches
- You don't game seriously or are fine using a separate gaming monitor for competitive play
TCL QM6K
The $500 TV that embarrasses sets four times its price
- Your budget is under $700 and you want the most TV possible for the money at 65 or 75 inches
- You watch in a daylight-heavy living room where Mini-LED brightness fights glare effectively
- You game on console or PC and want 144Hz, VRR, and both FreeSync and G-Sync at this price
- You want full HDR format coverage. Dolby Vision and HDR10+, without compromise
- You're upgrading from a 4-5 year old TV and will be blown away by the leap in picture quality