Sony Bravia 9 Mini LED

Design & Build The Bravia 9 exhibits Sony's characteristically premium build quality with slim bezels and a sophisticated minimalist aesthetic. The central stand provides stable support while maintaining a relatively small footprint, though the TV's substantial weight requires careful handling during setup. High-quality materials are evident throughout, from the brushed metal finish to the well-designed remote with backlit keys and intuitive button layout.

Performance The XR Backlight Master Drive technology truly shines, delivering peak brightness levels that exceed 2,000 nits while maintaining impressive black levels. Local dimming performance is exceptional, with minimal blooming even in challenging scenes. Motion handling is class-leading, with Sony's processing eliminating judder and blur without introducing artificial smoothing artifacts. Color accuracy is outstanding out of the box, with rich, natural tones that remain true to source material.

The cognitive processor XR demonstrates its capabilities in upscaling lower resolution content and managing complex HDR scenes. Gaming features include 4K/120Hz support, VRR, and ALLM, though the input lag could be slightly lower. The acoustic multi-audio system produces surprisingly good sound for a flat panel TV, with clear dialogue and decent bass response.

User Experience Google TV serves as the smart platform, offering a clean, responsive interface with extensive streaming app support. The platform's content aggregation works well, though occasional sluggishness occurs when switching between apps. Voice control through Google Assistant is reliable, and the integration with other smart home devices is seamless. The setup process is straightforward, with helpful on-screen guidance for picture calibration.

Value While positioned at the premium end of the market, the Bravia 9 justifies its price through superior picture quality and processing capabilities. The build quality, feature set, and performance improvements over previous models make it a worthy flagship, though competing models from Samsung and LG offer similar features at slightly lower price points. The warranty coverage and Sony's track record for software support add value to the overall package.