00:00A few weeks ago, I was at Sony's Tokyo HQ, and while I've already talked about this in my Bravia
00:048 Mark II hands-on, go check out that video if you haven't already. Today, we're looking at
00:10something a little different, the Bravia 5, a new sort of more mid-range Sony mini-LED TV that takes
00:16over from the X90 series. And unlike the Bravia 8 Mark II, which tops out at 65 inches, the Bravia
00:225 goes all the way up to 98 inches, and that's the version I saw in person.
00:30At its core, the Bravia 5 is powered by Sony's XR processor and the XR backlight master drive,
00:35which together are promising better contrast, depth, and detail compared to the X90. It also
00:42has up to six times more dimming zones than before, which is a massive jump in backlight control
00:47possibilities. If you've been following Sony's mini-LED evolution, this takes what they did with
00:53the X90L and addresses significant improvements when it comes to blooming in areas of high contrast.
00:58In side-by-side comparisons, which I wasn't able to record for you, but I can talk about,
01:03dark scenes looked richer with less of that milky-gray effect, and brighter areas had more
01:08precise light control. Sony has always prioritized creator intent, and it shows here. Even in dynamic
01:15mode, which most TVs oversaturate, the Bravia 5 handled colors naturally, especially greens,
01:21which can sometimes look too neon in this type of picture setting. Sony's color tuning keeps
01:26everything balanced, and while I still wouldn't recommend watching movies in a dynamic or vivid
01:30mode, it was nice to see how well it controlled oversaturation. Speaking of picture settings,
01:36one new feature is an ambient light sensor that adjusts cinema mode or the filmmaker mode based
01:41on your room's brightness. So just to make sure that the HDR settings look as they should
01:45in a bright room, in a dim room, it'll adjust automatically to maintain the most accurate picture
01:50possible. I also got to see a demo highlighting how the backlight moves with objects on screen,
01:56refining luminance in real time. It's sort of similar to the demo that I showed you guys back
02:01in the Bravia 9 last year, but now we're seeing that same level of refined backlight control start
02:07to trickle down to what's going to be a more affordable Sony TV. I know that looking at this 98-inch TV,
02:14it's giving premium, it's giving pricey, but if we're talking about the scope of Sony's TV collection,
02:20the Bravia 5 still sits one step below the Bravia 7, and here's what that means. Whereas the Bravia 5
02:27has contrast booster 10, the Bravia 7 has contrast booster 20, which means even better backlight
02:32control and higher peak brightness when you go that one step up. The Bravia 7 also has a more
02:38advanced audio system than the Bravia 5, with a stronger center channel for clearer dialogue.
02:42So we already had the Sony Bravia 7, now we have the Sony Bravia 5, but what's important to remember
02:49is that the Bravia 9 is remaining the company's mini-LED flagship this year. One area to me that
02:55really reminded me of this is off-angle viewing. If you're sitting directly in front of the screen
03:00on the Bravia 5, it looks fantastic, but if you're watching a little bit from the side, you're going to
03:05start to notice a drop in color and contrast. That said, Sony is working on RGME mini-LED technology
03:11that vastly improves off-angle viewing performance to the point where it's almost at the level of
03:16OLED. I explained how Sony RGB mini-LED works in a previous video here on this channel, so make sure
03:22you go check that out. The Sony Bravia 5 takes Sony's mini-LED technology to the next level in the
03:29brand's mid-range category, delivering way better contrast, smarter backlight control, and a big screen
03:35cinematic experience, especially in that 98-inch version that I've saw and that you've seen here
03:41in this video. How much will that actually cost? Sony hasn't quite said yet, but will soon, and as
03:46soon as we know, I'll put the info in the description of this video, so go check there for more info.
03:52If you liked this video, consider subscribing to the channel and turning on notifications. We've got
03:56plenty of TV content coming down the line that you won't want to miss, trust me. That's it for me,
04:01I'll catch you next time.
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