Wednesday, 8 March 2023

Sony reveals 2023 Bravia XR TV and soundbar range

Sony recently confirmed that its 2023 Bravia XR 4K TV range is coming to Australia soon, alongside a new soundbar to beef up your home cinema experience.

After a notably quiet CES 2023 showing on the TV front, three models comprise the new Bravia XR lineup: the X90L Full Array LED, A95L QD-OLED, and A80L OLED TVs. Each display has various features catered towards watching movies and shows, gaming, and reducing your power bill. Sony’s updated Cognitive Processor XR features throughout the new TVs, helping produce clear imagery and noise reduction via the brand’s Clear Image technology.

A95L is Sony’s premium Bravia XR TV

Of Sony’s newly revealed TVs, the premium moniker goes to the QD-OLED A95L model. According to Sony, this TV’s panel provides up to 200% more colour brightness than a conventional OLED TV. Because OLED TVs light up at an individual pixel level, they provide great contrast between light and dark images, although they’re usually dimmer than other displays, like Mini-LEDs. With the A95L claiming significant brightness increases, it will be interesting to see how this translates to a real-world living room. When it launches in a few months, you’ll be able to grab the A95L in three sizes: 55, 65, and 77-inch.

Meanwhile, the Bravia XR A80L OLED TV sees an improvement over last year’s model, the A80K, with up to a 110% brightness increase. Sony’s clearly pushing the OLED technology as far as it can go, extolling the virtues of the technology’s contrast and colour accuracy, while making it more viable for more households. You get more size choices with the A80L, with 55, 65, 77, and 83-inch models available.

Looking beyond OLED, we have the Bravia XR X90L, an LED TV featuring local dimming. This likely means less contrast than an OLED but a brighter overall image, which may be better suited to living rooms with lots of natural light.

Sony features galore

All three TVs run on Google TV, so you can easily access content using the Google Assistant voice controls. As an added bonus, Bravia Core comes pre-installed on these TVs, which lets you redeem up to 10 recent movies to watch in addition to 24 months of unlimited streaming from a set catalogue of films. When you watch content via Bravia Core, it automatically optimises the picture, so you get the best experience.

Dolby Vision, IMAX Enhanced, and Netflix Adaptive Calibrated Mode come as standard features across the new Bravia XR TVs. Audio-wise, all TVs support Dolby Atmos, while the two OLED models use a technology called Acoustic Surface Audio+ that results in audio perfectly matching the on-screen action. Another feature across the new range is Bravia Cam, letting you video chat with others, while it also detects where you are in the room, adjusting the picture and audio accordingly.

For gamers, each one of the Bravia XR TVs supports many of the modern features you’ve come to expect: HDMI 2.1 ports, 4K resolution at 120Hz, low latency modes, and variable refresh rates. Unique to PlayStation 5 owners, however, are some exclusive benefits. These include Auto HDR Tone Mapping and Auto Genre Picture Mode, rewarding you for staying in the Sony ecosystem. At the higher end, the A95L has multi-view, so you can look up guides as you play.

Plus, an in-built Eco Dashboard makes it easy to access energy-saving settings in one place. It includes a set-wizard to optimise settings based on your environment, which can help save on your energy bills in the long run.

To top things off, there’s even something for anime fans: a dedicated remote button for Crunchyroll, the global anime streaming service.

Go big on sound with the HT-S2000 soundbar

Alongside the Bravia XR announcement, Sony also revealed the HT-S2000 3.1 channel Dolby Atmos soundbar. It uses a newly developed up mixer to produce a three-dimensional sound, even when listening to stereo audio. To do this, Sony’s algorithm reallocates sound objects as it analyses the audio track in real time. Engineered to replicate a cinematic surround sound experience, the soundbar includes a centre speaker for clear dialogue, with a dual subwoofer powering the bass.

Sony HT-S2000 soundbar
Sony HT-S2000 soundbar.

Sony also timed the HT-S2000’s launch with its new Home Entertainment Connect app. According to the company, the app guides you through setting up the soundbar, troubleshoot problems, and control settings from your mobile device.

When paired with any of the 2023 Bravia XR TVs, you can synchronise the TV speakers with the soundbar. This reinforces the centre speaker channel, resulting in better dialogue delivery and an improved overall soundscape. Not just confined to the HT-S2000, this feature also works with other compatible Sony soundbars and speakers.

2023 Sony Bravia XR TV release date and price

You won’t have to wait too long before the new TVs launch, with a May 2023 window locked in. Unfortunately, we don’t know local pricing yet, but online listings are ready for when that info drops. We do, however, know that the HT-S2000 soundbar will cost $699 when it launches in late April.

When Sony didn’t discuss TVs at CES 2023, some speculated that it was getting out of the market to focus on other devices. As many of the 2023 Bravia XR TVs’ big features revolve around committing to Sony’s ecosystem, we’ll soon see how many people buy in.

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