Sony Bravia 5 hands-on review: this mid-range Mini LED TV is perfect for PS5 gaming
Everything I’ve wanted for a mid-range MIni LED gaming TV
Pros
✅ 💡 Mini LED finally comes to Sony’s mid-range X90L replacement
✅ 📺 XR Backlight Master Drive promises professional-grade backlight control
✅ 🌓 Minimized bloom and haloing
✅ 🎮 PS5 with 2x HDMI 2.1, ALLM, VRR, Auto HDR Tone Mapping & Genre Picture Mode
Cons
❌ 🪩 Very reflective front panel
The Sony Bravia 5 is a direct Sony X90L replacement we’ve been waiting so long for. It finally brings a Mini LED backlight to the best mid-range gaming TV for PS5 Pro gamers. The new Mini LED backlight brings a ton more lighting zone control over the X90L full array backlight, reducing bloom, edge lighting, and overall greatly improving contrast.
The Sony Bravia 5 is of course gaming ready with two HDMI 2.1 ports, ALLM, VRR, and Sony’s signature PS5 Auto HDR Tone Mapping and Genre Picture Mode. It also has AI, but it’s entirely focused on improving picture quality with AI Super Resolution. If you’ve been waiting for a new mid-range gaming TV, the Sony Bravia 5 should fit right in.
💡 Mini LED at last. The Bravia 5 marks Mini LED finally coming to a mid-range Sony TV. While we loved Sony’s other Mini LED TV, the Bravia 7, this model is a more affordable option and a direct sequel to the Sony X90L. Sony claims its new Mini LED panel offers up to six times the backlight control over the X90L.
🎛️ Professional lighting control. The Bravia 5 also has XR Backlight Master Drive, which is a precise backlight control derived from Sony’s professional editing monitors. This Mini LED backlight control tells the TV how to turn off the backlight next to bright highlights for a high contrast picture. Beyond that Sony claims it add detailed gradation for details like subtle facial shading and tiered highlights.
🔆 Bloom no more. The Mini LED backlight already looks like a huge upgrade from our early look at the TV here in NYC and in Tokyo. There’s noticeably less bloom on the entire display all while avoiding the edge lit problem. Contrast as a result looks fantastic even with highlights running right next to areas of pure darkness on the LCD. I watched several clips of foliage playing on the Bravia 5 and could see displayed better high texture details on the leaves.
🤖 AI Super Resolution. The Bravia 5 comes packing AI, however unlike LG and Samsung, Sony is focusing its AI to purely improve picture quality. The new AI Super Resolution feature helps the TV resolve slightly more finer details.
🎮 PS5 Pro ready. The Sony Bravia 5 of course is PS5 Pro gaming ready. It has two HDMI 2.1 ports for 120Hz gaming with the Xbox Series X, PS5 Pro, and gaming PCs as well. The Bravia 5 also supports Auto HDR Tone Mapping and Auto Genre Picture Mode, which dials in the TV for PS5 gaming without having to manually tune any settings. It also supports auto low-latency and variable refresh rate for low latency and smooth frame rate gaming experience.
🪩 Heavy glare. The Sony Bravia 5’s only issue is it easily reflects any lighting. In an extremely bright room the Bravia 5 looked almost like a mirror when I looked at it at an off angle. I haven’t seen the Bravia 5 in a room with sunlit windows, which I worry will exacerbate the glare issues even more. Hopefully, this is just a pre-production issue and Sony can implement a (better) anti-glare finish before fully rolling out the Bravia 5.
📆 Availability and sizes. The Sony Bravia 5 will be available in 55- to 98-inch sizes later this year. Unfortunately, Sony hasn’t announced when and how much the Bravia 5 will be released for, however, it has said it will release pricing in Spring 2025.
Kevin Lee is The Shortcut’s Creative Director. Follow him on Twitter @baggingspam.
