ZDNET’s key takeaways
- What the Sony Bravia X90L lacks in eye-popping specs, it greater than makes up for in real-world image efficiency and Sony upscaling expertise, which delivers nice video for motion pictures, sports activities, cable, and streaming.
- Concerning the options you may love for day by day use, the X90L has a wonderful distant that feels premium, is simply the proper measurement, contains backlighting, and has an excellent steadiness of simply the proper variety of buttons
- The X90L additionally has Google TV built-in.
- The closest rivals to the Bravia X90L are the TCL QM8 and the Hisense U8 Collection, each of which value rather less than the Sony and have spectacular specs.
extra shopping for selections
The Sony Bravia X90L is at present $300 off at Finest Purchase for the 65-inch mannequin ($899), for a restricted time.
The Sony Bravia X90L is one in every of our picks for the finest Sony TVs you should purchase, and for good cause. Its shade accuracy, precision brightness, 120Hz easy movement, and 4K picture processing make it one in every of our most beneficial TVs you should purchase. I additionally think about it one of the vital underrated TVs out there. And with the 2025 TVs hitting the market, it can save you on nearly each measurement of this wonderful 2023 mannequin.
I’ve seen plenty of the most effective and newest TVs from Sony, Samsung LG, TCL, Hisense, and several other others. Once I needed to substitute an 8-year-old 55-inch TCL TV that died, I selected a 65-inch Sony X90L as a result of I feel it has the most effective image for the cash proper now and boasts some further benefits.
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Whereas the Sony Bravia XR X90L does not blow you away on the spec sheet — it is an LED TV with a full-array backlight — the real-world efficiency and value make it among the finest buys in the marketplace, primarily based on ZDNET’s testing. This Sony TV is technically in the identical class as two of its widespread rivals: the TCL QM8 and Hisense U8K.
Nevertheless, whereas these are Mini LED TVs and appear like they need to be higher TVs on paper, the Bravia X90L has higher shade accuracy, loads of brightness, and a nicer distant than both the TCL or Hisense TVs (though current fashions are beginning to emulate the Sony distant). It goes with out saying that the Sony show is the most effective amongst these three fashions.
Since Sony has had a protracted partnership with Google, the X90L additionally has a wonderful implementation of Google TV. This makes the X90L’s software program interface a lot friendlier to make use of than Samsung’s Tizen and LG’s webOS, which will be overly difficult and irritating to navigate.
With the X90L, you additionally get Sony’s wonderful image processing to upscale content material to 4K, which is very useful if you happen to’re watching older content material or YouTube movies, and it is stronger than something supplied by Hisense and TCL. And if you happen to’re on the lookout for a TV to observe motion pictures, the X90L almost rivals costly OLED and high-end QLED TVs that value virtually twice as a lot. In case you improve from a TV that’s a minimum of 4-5 years outdated, you’ll be blown away by the image high quality of X90L — and it’ll require loads much less tuning out-of-the-box than different TVs.
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Sony has probably the most superior image processing of all 5 main TV manufacturers. Which means it does not oversaturate and overbrighten the picture like Samsung, LG, TCL, and Hisense fashions typically do. Once more, meaning Sony TVs typically have a greater image than higher-spec rivals from funds TV makers (Hisense and TCL) and might typically compete with dearer fashions from premium distributors just like the aforementioned Samsung and LG.
For players, this TV has a devoted sport mode, HDMI 2.1, VRR, and Auto HDR Tone Mapping when related to the Sony PS5. It additionally has a sport menu to fine-tune the settings to your preferences.
The Sony X90L is not as vivid as its Mini LED rivals from TCL and Hisense — and even its 2024 successor, the Sony Bravia 7 — nevertheless it nonetheless takes benefit of Sony’s superior backlight system to brighten particular elements of the picture. It additionally does a wonderful job of unveiling the main points within the shadows of darkish motion pictures and exhibits. I am utilizing the X90L in a vivid room and have by no means had an occasion the place I wanted the image was brighter.
Additionally: We noticed Sony’s deluge of 2025 Bravia TVs, and the flagship OLED might provide you with sticker shock
Remember that Sony’s merchandise typically carry a ten% to twenty% worth premium due to the Sony model title, so it is vital to search for gross sales and offers like those we have highlighted from Amazon.
In case you have somewhat extra to spend, I might suggest upgrading to an OLED. The Sony A80L, the Samsung S90C and the LG C3 are all 2023 OLED screens which are additionally on sale. The most affordable amongst these is the 42-inch LG C3, which begins at $890.
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This story was first revealed on Could 31, 2024, and was up to date on July 3, 2025.
