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Sony Bravia 5 TV: https://geni.us/GC-SonyBravia5TV
So this is the Sony Bravia 5, its a 4K mini LED tv and its the replacement for the Sony X90L, which is the TV that I used to use in my home theater set up before I upgraded to the Bravia 8 which is an OLED tv. Now both the Bravia 5 and Sony X90L are great tv’s that give you really good color gradients, but more importantly, both the Bravia 5 and X90L are great tv’s to consider if you have a very bright living room. So today we’re going to checkout the Sony Bravia 5 and we’re going to compare it to the Sony X90L, show you why its worth upgrading.
Now when it comes to pricing, the Sony Bravia 5 has a retail price of $1,500 for the 65 inch model which is the one that we have here. However this tv also comes in a 55 inch version and it also goes all the way up to 98 inches. But more importantly, Sony has actually been putting out some very big deals and bundles when it comes to their home theater stuff, so if you want to pick this tv up it’ll be linked down below or you can always press on the YouTube shopping button, and if you want to further support the channel, then you can also watch some of the related videos in the description down below.
Now for starters, the reason why both the Sony Bravia 5 and Sony X90L are great for bright living rooms is cause these tv’s are very bright. So you’re still going to be able to easily see your shows even if you’ve got a lot of sunlight coming in through your windows. But another big reason why these tv’s are really good for bright living rooms is cause they have a mate panel. So this is going to help reduce reflections, which can get super annoying. Because for comparison sake, if we were to look at the Sony Bravia 8 Mark 1, this is a glossy panel. So if you try to watch something during the day time and you’ve got a lot of sunlight coming in, then your image is going to get blocked by reflections. So for that reason, the Bravia 8 is going to be better for night time watching or you’re going to need some blackout shades. But reflections aren’t as big of a problem on the Bravia 5 and X90L.
Now the Sony Bravia 5 gets just as bright as the Sony X90L… but the main performance difference between these two tv’s is that the Bravia 5 is able to give you darker blacks, which means you’re going to get better contrast, bright colors and objects are going to pop more, instead of seeing gray your actually going to get black… and overall the Bravia 5 is going to give you a closer OLED experience. Now don’t get me wrong, the Bravia 5 is going to be able to give you as dark blacks as an OLED tv, but you’re going to get better pop and object separation with the Bravia 5 than you would with the X90L.
But also, the viewing angles on the Bravia 5 is similar to the viewing angles to the X90L, obviously if you’re sitting front and center, you’re going to get a clear picture, but also people that are sitting off to the sides are going to get a good view as well. Where as if we were to look at the Bravia 3, which is the TV that I use in my bedroom… although this is also a very good tv for bright rooms, the problem with the Bravia 3 is that the viewing angles aren’t as good as with the Bravia 5. So with the Bravia 3, people that are sitting off to the sides, they are going to get a bit of a glare. So if you’re trying to choose between the Bravia 3 and the Bravia 5, you want the Bravia 5 if you plan on watching content with friends on a regular basis.
But another thing to keep in mind with the Bravia 5 is that this tv is a little heavier than the X90L weighing in at 58 pounds, 55 pounds. Now I point out the weight of these tv’s for anyone that might want to wall mount their TV’s… but given these new construction homes, and luxury apartments, personally I wouldn’t risk wall mounting these TV’s. I prefer putting my TV’s on a TV stand or just standing them on their included legs, and another upgrade that they did with the Bravia 5 is that they made it much easier to remove and adjust their legs.
But overall, the main reason why you want to look at the Sony Bravia 5 or Sony X90L is cause both of these tv’s are great for brighter living rooms cause both of these tv’s are very bright and they both have a mate panel which is going to do a really good job of reducing reflections. But with the Bravia 5, you’re going to get better contrast cause you get darker blacks, so as a result your content is going to pop more cause you’re going to have better separation in your images. And the main reason why you want to look at a Sony tv in general is cause Sony does a really good job of both giving you a life like picture and they also do a better job of giving you gradients in your images.
Cause if we were to look at other tv’s out there, either their color panels are too cool, as in they always have a hint of blue to them, or some other brands out there give you too much saturation, so your colors are just a little over the top. Where as with Sony’s TV’s they have a more neutral and life like color to them, and since they offer you better gradients in your image, that adds to the more life like picture.
Now when it comes to ports, the Bravia 5 is the same as the Bravia X90L. The Bravia 5 has a total of 4 HDMI ports, 2 of which have support for 4K at 120 hertz, but they all have support for 1080P at 120 hertz and 4K at 60 hertz. Basically if you’re going to plug in your playstation, you want to plug it into HDMI port 4. Cause HDMI 3, this is your E ARC port, so this is where you want to plug in your sound bar. And if you are going to use a soundbar with this tv, then you do want to use a Sony soundbar like either the Bravia Bar 8, Bravia Bar 9 or the Bravia quad, so that you can take advantage of acoustic center sync.
Now what acoustic center sync is, you’re going to be able to use your TV’s built in speakers in conjunction with your sony sound bar, so your tv is going to act as a center channel. Now you can use this tv with an soundbar out there, but if you use a third party soundbar like something from bose or sonos, then you wont be able to use your TV’s built in speakers as well, which I preonsally really feel is a shame. Cause having that additional center channel is really helpful especially when it comes to hearing dialog.
And also keep in mind, acoustic center sync is a feature that you will only find on Bravia 5 TV’s and up. If you have a Bravia 3 or below, this tv’s dont have acoustic center sync. But also, another really cool thing about the Bravia 5 is that you can actually have your audio playing from two systems at the same time. So you can have your TV’s audio coming out of your sound system, but you can also have your TV audio playing through a pair of headphones or neck band at the same time, and I feel that this is super useful cause if you have someone that is hard of hearing, they’ll still be able to watch whatever youre watching. Or if you want you can just have your audio playing through your headphones which is great for late night viewing without disturbing your house hold.
But when it comes to the built in speakers on the TV, this speaker has a pair of downward firing speakers like with most tv’s out there, but it also has a pair of tweeters that shoot out the sides. And overall, the built in speakers on this TV get decently loud and distortion is not a problem, but obviously you are going to be better off getting a sound bar cause these built in speakers are better suited for listening to dialog with. And speaking of dialog, this tv also has Sony’s new Voice zoom 3. Now what makes voice zoom 3 special here is that Sony isn’t just amplifying the mids and calling it a day like with some other tv’s out there . Thus amplifying everything in the mids and leaving you with a tinny sound signature. Voice Zoom 3 is actually focusing on individual voices and bring those voices out, which as a result is actually super important for dialog that coming from a person with a deeper voice. But overall, the TV speakers get the job done, but you still want to look at a soundbar.
Now besides picture quality, ones of the reasons why I like Sony tv’s so much is cause they are just using google tv as their operating system. Now I know that theres a whole lot of privacy concerns when it comes to TV’s, but at least with google tv, I have found that ad placements are much less intrusive than the ad placements found on other TV brands out there… especially Samsung and LG, but more importantly, I have found that google tv stays snappy and fluid for much longer than other tv’s.
With both my Samsung tv’s and LG TV’s, which I also regularly use, their operating systems are constantly having issues, specifically apps crash or they refuse to open which means I have to regularly restart those tv’s, where as with all of my Sony tv’s that are using Google TV, they just work, the only thing that I wish sony did on the Bravia 5 was increase the on board storage. Cause both Bravia 5 and X90L have 32 gigs of on board storage. So I would really like to see them increase it to at least 64 gigs, so even if your streaming apps get updates, your tv still operate smoothly.
And finally when it comes to gaming on this tv, like I mentioned earlier, you do want to plug in your playstation into HDMI port 4 so that you can get 4K at 120 hertz… but the thing that I really like with Sony’s tv’s is that you can also adjust the size of you screen for gaming. And this is super useful if you’re playing at shooter game cause there is such a thing as a too big screen.
And also, since this is a Sony TV, as long as your playstation is on the same wifi network as this tv, you’ll actually be able to stream games to this tv, while your playstation is in another room. However, this is something that you should only use if you’re playing a casual open world game. When you’re steaming your playstation 5 games, I have found that the picture quality just isn’t going to be as good, and also there is a slight delay… So this is not a set up that you want to use if you plan on playing a ranked games online.
But with all of that being said, the Sony Bravia 5 is a great tv to consider if you’re looking for something for a bright living room. Just like the Sony Bravia X90L, the Bravia 5 is very bright and it has a mate panel… so this tv is going to do a great job of fighting reflections. But the main performance upgrade on the Bravia 5 over the X90L is that this TV gives you darker blacks which is going to mean a more life like picture cause you’re going to have better contrast, and you’re colors are going to be able to pop more.