Sony’s flagship Bravia TV, the Sony A95L QD-OLED, is finally going on sale in the U.S., the U.K., Germany and other countries, after the company pushed back its original launch date.
Sony had originally planned to launch the A95L QD-OLED TV in September, but the delay was required to give it time to fix a software issue, which has finally been resolved with its latest firmware update.
It is an eagerly anticipated release, because the Sony A95L TV is the first from the company to feature Samsung Display’s second-generation QD-OLED panel and take advantage of the improvements it brings. According to Sony, each of the RGB pixels in the new panel can achieve higher brightness than last year’s model, resulting in an improvement in overall peak brightness compared to the Sony A95K.
In addition, the Sony A95L is said to be more energy efficient than the A95K, which was rated as one of the best TVs money could buy in 2022.
The TV is being sold in three screen sizes. There are 55-inch and 65-inch models, just as we saw with last year’s A95K, and also there is a bigger, 77-inch model that makes use of the largest QD-OLED panel Samsung Display is able to manufacture.
Sony’s A95L will go head-to-head with Samsung Electronics’ S95C and S90C QD-OLED TVs, and it will also rival the best regular White OLED TVs that make use of panels supplied by LG Display. LG’s OLED technology is also said to be improved this year with the adoption of new Micro Lens Array technology that better focuses the light generated by each pixel to ensure higher brightness. Several models are available featuring the MLA OLED panel, including LG Electronics’ G3 OLED TV, the Philips OLED908 and the Panasonic MZ2000.
Other improvements within the A95L include the new Pentonic 1000 system-on-chip from MediaTek, which is said to be more powerful, offering support for Dolby Vision 4K/120Hz gaming for the first time. The Sony A95K did not support this. In addition, the A95L is powered by Sony’s improved Cognitive Processor XR and features the soon-to-be-rebranded Bravia Core streaming app, where users can see Sony Pictures Entertainment films with higher bitrates, enabling “Blu ray-like” picture quality.
Sony said the A95L will start shipping from retailers on October 10.
Earlier this year, HDTVTest was lucky enough to conduct a few hands-on tests with the A95L, arriving at no less than 12 interesting findings regarding its capabilities:
