The best TVs, from mini-LED to OLED models, will be significantly brighter in 2024 than in previous years. Part of this is the spec race, where brands try to gain attention for the performance of their TVs. Another part is the real need for TVs to adapt to the expanding needs of high dynamic range formats and adapt to viewing in bright environments where screen glare caused by open windows or ceiling lights can reduce picture quality.
The Sony Bravia 9 is the brightest model in its 2024 lineup, and the company’s story about the new TV is that it was designed in response to its new BVM-HX3110 professional monitor, which allows creators to handle movies and TV shows in 4K/. HDR with a highlight of up to 4000 nits. That’s a big increase in brightness over Sony’s previous professional monitor, which maxed out at 1,000 nits. It will be years before programs mastered at such high peak brightness levels become standard in Hollywood, but Sony says it wants to offer viewers now a premium TV option that is ready for the future.
In our review, the Sony Bravia 9 measured a peak brightness of nearly 2,300 nits in standard picture mode, which is higher than any TV TechRadar has tested so far. Well, almost – in a hands-on test of the TCL QM851G mini-LED TV that we carried out in May, the company’s new flagship model had a measured peak brightness twice that of the Bravia 9. However, the result was achieved in Live Picture Mode, which at the time was the only completed mode.
I am currently working on a full review of the TCL QM851G and was able to compare it to the Sony Bravia 9. As part of this process, I watched similar reference movie clips and TV shows on each TV. Both were set to their respective movie picture mode – and Dolby Vision Bright mode for content with Dolby Vision HDR – to better level the playing field during evaluation. Switching to Movie mode dramatically reduced the maximum brightness for each TV: the Bravia 9 now measured 1,871 nits and the QM851G measured 3,035 nits.
One caveat I have to mention is that the TCL measurements were taken after I adjusted the brightness and black level settings, as both were too low in the default film mode, which uses the “Eco” adjustment. Before making these improvements, the TCL measured a maximum brightness of 2,859 nits, which is still above average for a mini-LED TV.
The benefits – and limits – of brightness
I started watching with the overhead lights on and both TVs still looked incredibly bright. This was especially noticeable with sports like the New York Yankees vs. Baltimore Orioles game I was streaming on Amazon Prime Video. The Yankee players’ white uniforms seemed to pop off the screen, and the green field and orange and red colors on the scoreboard also looked vivid and bright — and that was in movie mode with a fairly muted picture,
The main reason both TVs looked so good is that they both have excellent brightness across the screen: in Movie mode I measured around 500 nits on the Sony and 801 nits on the TCL. For programs like sports, where the image is evenly lit by stadium lighting, a high brightness level across the screen makes a big difference. And while the TCL had a higher measured brightness here, I didn’t want either TV – both looked eye-catching enough, even with the ceiling lights on.
What was probably a more important factor during my evaluation was the lack of screen glare on both TVs. Both Sony and TCL are equipped with an anti-glare screen that effectively reduces glare from light sources in the room. Screen glare will always be less of an issue with bright content like sports, but it can seriously degrade picture quality with darker programs with deep blacks and shadows – House of the Dragon for example on Max.
With the overhead lights on in my room, I watched the scene unfold House of the Dragon season two, episode one, where Alicent Hightower talks to her father, the Hand of the King, and another where Mysaria is interrogated by Daemon Targaryen in a dungeon. Shadow backgrounds in both scenes looked deep and detailed, with no screen glare to reduce contrast or image clarity on either TV.
When I turned off the lights and watched in the dim light, the candles in Alicenta’s room looked mighty bright on both TVs, their respective local dimming options ensuring that no light penetrated the near-black background.
I’ll have a lot more to say about the TCL QM851G mini-LED TV when the full review is published, but as you probably know, my initial opinion is favorable. It beats the Sony Bravia 9 as the brightest TV we’ve ever tested, even when the QM851G was in Movie picture mode, not the Vivid mode we were limited to when measuring during our hands-on test in May.
But one thing that became clear during my Sony vs TCL comparison is that extremely high brightness isn’t everything when it comes to picture quality. The Sony Bravia 9, with its comparatively lower measured brightness, had a similarly impressive picture for sports and darker 4K/HDR content such as movies and House of the Dragon.
What to take away for TV shoppers? Other aspects such as anti-glare screen and local dimming performance are of equal importance to brightness and should be carefully considered when choosing a TV.