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Kate has been living with the Sony Bravia 9 Mini-LED TV for more than 3 months, making this video her first true long-term TV review here on the channel! But don't worry, in addition to anecdotal performance, streaming setup and other highlights of her entertainment space, you'll still get the testing benchmarks for brightness and HDR performance as part of this Sony Bravia 9 review.
Similarly, if you're looking for the best Sony TV in 2026, you might be between the Bravia 9 vs. Bravia 8 II OLED. Kate will explain why she went with Mini-LED vs OLED in case you're wondering which Sony TV to buy.
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Hey guys, welcome back to Buy or Skip, and this is a very special TV review today because we're
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not in our studio. We're here in my apartment with a TV that has actually pretty permanently
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established itself here in my own living room. In this Sony Bravia 9 review, I'll go over my
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pros and cons after living with this TV for a couple of months, how this mini LED compares to
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Sony's OLED offerings, and just so you know, I do have a deal on the Bravia 9 linked in the
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description in case you want to check it out at any point during this video. So we're looking at
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the 75 inch Sony Bravia 9. It also comes in 65 and 85 inch sizes, so primarily large screens
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This is Sony's flagship mini LED after all. For context, the next step down in the mini LED area
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is Bravia 5. That actually comes in 98 inches. Did a video about that last year as well as 55
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inches, so a bit bigger selection at lower prices. But back to my Bravia 9, I have it mounted on a
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300x300 VESA mount. Sony does actually sell a special flush mount for the Bravia 9, but it costs
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several hundred dollars on top of this already being a rather expensive TV. So instead, I just
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got a well-rated one on Amazon for like $85. It's worked out great, but more importantly, it's fully
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articulating, and I'll explain why that actually matters for this TV specifically a little later on
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One last thing, I do have this mounted, clearly, but something great about the Bravia 9 is that if
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you do stand it on its feet, there are options for wide or narrow configurations. That means it
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actually could fit on a smaller piece of furniture like my little locker here and I just always appreciate that flexibility Per Sony usual only two of the HDMI ports support the more powerful HDMI 2 standard
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which enables 4K at 120Hz and a bunch of other handy features. Sony has been pretty fiercely
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committed to limiting the number of HDMI 2.1 ports, even though LG and Samsung now typically
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offer 2.1 on every HDMI port, but in my experience, it hasn't really mattered. I use a Philips Hue
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Play HDMI SyncBox, so I've got that on a 2.1. Then my Apple TV, PS5, Switch 2 all feed into the
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SyncBox so I can enjoy immersive lighting around my living room. I mean, hey, if you'd want to see
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a full video about my Philips Hue setup, let me know. Now that I've got some logistics of my
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Bravia 9 setup out of the way, let's talk performance. TV brands have claimed that their
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best LED TVs look as good as OLED. And honestly, the Bravia 9 is the first time I've watched an LED
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set and thought, okay, this actually does get pretty close. Sony's processing and backlight
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control are doing serious work here. Sony actually designed an entirely new backlight drive
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specifically for the Bravia 9. The result is super deep blacks, but then it can still crank
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brightness all the way up when a scene calls for it, so HDR movies just have this huge dynamic
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range between shadows and highlights. Black and white scenes have tons of depth, colorful moments
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pop, animated films look insanely vivid, exactly how you want them to feel. Brightness is a big
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reason why. This thing pushes over 2,700 nits in HDR, which puts it right near the top of the LED
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TV world and at that level I get plenty of punch for watching even during daytime where my Bravia 9 is competing with this big window over here Color performance also very strong It doesn win in every single lab measurement
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but real movies and shows, colors look rich and accurate. Nothing feels dull or muted
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Really, the one compromise here is the viewing angles. If you move too far off to the side
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I did start to lose some contrast compared to sitting dead center, but easy fix. Get a fully
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articulating mount. Then if you're watching from the kitchen or sprawled somewhere else in the
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living room, you can just rotate the screen towards you and you're back in the sweet spot
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Going back to what I said about the gap closing, so to speak, between OLED and LED, I think if you
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happen to be shopping Sony TVs, you'll probably end up deciding between the Bravia 9 and Bravia 8
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Mark II. I do think the Bravia 8 Mark II is a very impressive TV. The design is a little more
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sleek overall, ridiculously good black levels, and it even keeps up Sony's great reputation for
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powerful sounding TVs, even for OLED. But it is still OLED, so the lighting conditions in here
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will still cause a lot of glare. The TV isn't as bright either, so that's why I went with Bravia 9
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I generally think if your living room looks more like this, you should too. Okay, there are a couple
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of other things I should probably mention before we wrap this up. This is a Google TV. Sony doesn't
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have its own platform. I generally do like Google TV though, especially on TCL and high sensets
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but personally, I've actually been using an Apple TV 4K. That's just my preference. Similarly
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this TV does have very powerful native sound. There are upward firing speakers here
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and if you get a compatible Sony soundbar you can really take advantage of syncing the external speakers with the TV internal speakers But again this is my setup I opted for a pair of HomePods
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plays really nice with my Apple TV 4K, plays nice with my Hue lights and Apple Home devices
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I do expect to get new devices in for testing and switch this up over time
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but honestly, it's worked out great for me so far. Because I use the Apple TV 4K
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I use the Apple TV remote like 90% of the time, but I'll show you Sony's remote as well
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because I do happen to think it is just so beautifully laid out
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with a tight collection of well-organized buttons and shortcuts. And that's not even the best part
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It has a touch-activated backlight that makes the remote easier to use in the dark
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A backlight remote is truly the key to my heart for all you TV manufacturers watching this video
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So that is my review of the Sony Bravia 9 after actually living with it in my own space for a couple of months
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For me, this has absolutely been a buy, especially if you want a big, bright TV that holds up in a real living room and still gets impressively close to OLED-level picture quality
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If you want to check out current pricing or the deal I mentioned, I've got that linked down below
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And of course, let me know in the comments what you'd like to see next on the channel
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More at-home reviews like this, a full breakdown of my Hue lighting setup, or really anything else you're curious about
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If you found this helpful, don't forget to like, subscribe, and hit that bell so you don't miss the next episode of Buy or Skip
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Thanks for watching. I will catch you next time
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