Sony X95L Review (XR-65X95L​, XR-75X95L​, XR-85X95L​) (2024)

Curved No

The Sony X95L has a very premium design that looks great in any setting.

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Uniformity Pictures N/A

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Wall Mount VESA 400x400

The back of the TV is entirely plastic and made of a checkerboard pattern similar to other recent Sony TVs like the Sony X95K. There are covers that you can attach to the back to hide the inputs and for basic cable management.

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Borders 0.31" (0.8 cm)

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Max Thickness 2.17" (5.5 cm)

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The Sony X95L has excellent build quality. Although it's mostly made of plastic, the stand is made of metal and there's a metal border around the screen that feels nice. There's some flex in the back panel, but this is common and won't cause any issues. The stand also wobbles easily, especially in the narrow position, but that's not surprising for a TV this size.

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Contrast

Native Contrast

The Sony X95L has exceptional contrast. The 85-inch panel's native contrast is very high despite the X-Wide Angle tech that usually reduces it. The Mini LED local dimming feature is also extremely effective at improving contrast and the dynamic range of the display, so bright highlights stand out well even very close to the deepest blacks. For even better contrast, check out the 2024 Sony BRAVIA 9 QLED.

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The blooming control on this TV is amazing. The high zone count allows for very fine control of lighting zones, so light doesn't bleed across more zones than necessary. Bright highlights aren't sharp, either, and it looks amazing overall.

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Local Dimming

Backlight

Dimming Zones Count Of Tested TV

The zone algorithms do a good job of keeping up with fast objects. Thanks to the relatively small size of each zone, there's very little flicker as bright highlights move across zones. The algorithms can't always keep up, so there's some haloing behind bright objects, and the leading edge is a bit slow to turn on.

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There's no difference in dark scene performance in the 'Game' Picture Mode.

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Hallway Lights (~1950 cd/m²)

Yellow Skyscraper (~700 cd/m²)

Landscape Pool (~300 cd/m²)

Peak 2% Window

Peak 10% Window

Peak 25% Window

Peak 50% Window

Peak 100% Window

Sustained 2% Window

Sustained 10% Window

Sustained 25% Window

Sustained 50% Window

Sustained 100% Window

Automatic Brightness Limiting (ABL)

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Hallway Lights (~1950 cd/m²)

Yellow Skyscraper (~700 cd/m²)

Landscape Pool (~300 cd/m²)

Peak 2% Window

Peak 10% Window

Peak 25% Window

Peak 50% Window

Peak 100% Window

Sustained 2% Window

Sustained 10% Window

Sustained 25% Window

Sustained 50% Window

Sustained 100% Window

Automatic Brightness Limiting (ABL)

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600 Nit Tracking Delta

1000 Nit Tracking Delta

4000 Nit Tracking Delta

Like most Sony TVs, the Sony X95L has excellent PQ EOTF tracking. Most content is slightly too dark, but the difference is minor.

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Real Scene Peak Brightness

Peak 2% Window

Peak 10% Window

Peak 25% Window

Peak 50% Window

Peak 100% Window

Sustained 2% Window

Sustained 10% Window

Sustained 25% Window

Sustained 50% Window

Sustained 100% Window

Automatic Brightness Limiting (ABL)

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Wide Color Gamut

DCI P3 xy

DCI P3 uv

Rec 2020 xy

Rec 2020 uv

The Sony X95L has an excellent HDR color gamut, and it displays nearly the entire DCI-P3 color space used by most current HDR content. The tone mapping is excellent, but in Rec. 2020, especially pure greens and blues are a bit off.

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1,000 cd/m² DCI P3 Coverage ITP

10,000 cd/m² Rec 2020 Coverage ITP

White Luminance

Red Luminance

Green Luminance

Blue Luminance

Cyan Luminance

Magenta Luminance

Yellow Luminance

This TV's color volume is amazing. Colors are bright and vibrant, and dark saturated colors are displayed well thanks to its extremely high contrast ratio.

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White Balance dE

Color dE

Gamma

Color Temperature

Picture Mode

Color Temp Setting

Gamma Setting

With a few quick settings changes out of the box, this TV has impressive accuracy. The white balance is good, with no noticeable issues, and gamma is close to the 2.2 target. Saturated blues are a bit off, but there are no other noticeable issues with colors, although the overall color temperature is a bit warm.

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White Balance dE

Color dE

Gamma

Color Temperature

White Balance Calibration

Color Calibration

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50% Std. Dev.

50% DSE

5% Std. Dev.

5% DSE

The Sony X95L has great gray uniformity. There's very little dirty screen effect in the center and just a touch of vignetting in the corners. Dark scenes look even better, with almost no noticeable issues.

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Std. Dev.

Native Std. Dev.

The black uniformity on this TV is superb. The screen is a bit cloudy and patchy with local dimming disabled, but once you enable it, dark scenes look fantastic. There's no cloudiness to the screen or backlight bleed at all.

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Color Washout

Color Shift

Brightness Loss

Black Level Raise

Gamma Shift

The Sony X95L has an okay viewing angle. The image fades and looks a bit washed out at a moderate angle, and blues fade, giving the screen a slightly yellow tint. It's better than most VA panels, though, thanks to the inclusion of Sony's X-Wide Angle technology. The newer Sony BRAVIA 7 QLED doesn't include this feature, making it a much worse choice if you have a wide seating arrangement.

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Screen Finish

Total Reflections

Indirect Reflections

Calculated Direct Reflections

This TV has superb reflection handling. The glossy coating significantly reduces the intensity of bright lights, with minimal haloing. There's some rainbow smear, but you can always increase the screen's brightness to hide them. Unfortunately, the newer Sony BRAVIA 7 QLED has a worse anti-reflective coating, so glare is far more noticeable in a bright room.

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100% Black to 50% Gray

50% Gray to 100% White

100% Black to 50% Red

50% Red to 100% Red

100% Black to 50% Green

50% Green to 100% Green

100% Black to 50% Blue

50% Blue to 100% Blue

The Sony X95L has good gradient handling in HDR. There's some noticeable banding in dark shades of green, but it's still good overall.

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Smoothing

Detail Preservation

The Sony X95L has great low-quality content processing. It's very effective at smoothing out macro-blocking and pixelization when streaming content, with very little loss of fine details.

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Subpixel Layout

Type LED

Sub-Type

This TV uses a BGR subpixel layout. It doesn't affect picture quality but can cause blurry text in some applications when using it as a PC monitor. You can read more about it here.

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80% Response Time

100% Response Time

The Sony X95L has an excellent response time, and there's very little motion blur behind fast-moving objects. There's significant overshoot when coming out of dark shades, which causes some noticeable inverse ghosting, especially in shadow details, but it's not very noticeable with most content.

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Flicker-Free

PWM Dimming Frequency

This TV uses pulse width modulation (PWM) at all backlight levels. It always flickers at 720Hz, which is high enough that it'll only bother you if you're extremely sensitive to flicker.

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Optional BFI

Min Flicker For 60 fps

60Hz For 60 fps

120Hz For 120 fps

Min Flicker for 60 fps in Game Mode

There's an optional backlight strobing feature, commonly known as black frame insertion, which can be enabled to improve the appearance of motion. Unlike the Sony X93L, it can flicker at both 60 and 120Hz, so the flicker matches the refresh rate the TV is running at, eliminating most image duplication at 60Hz. The flicker timing is a bit off at 120Hz, though, resulting in noticeable image crosstalk.

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Motion Interpolation (30 fps)

Motion Interpolation (60 fps)

This TV can interpolate lower-frame-rate content up to 120 fps, but it's not very good overall. There are significant artifacts in any moving content, and it struggles even in slow panning shots.

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Frame Hold Time @ 24 fps

Frame Hold Time @ 60 fps

Due to this TV's relatively fast response time, there's noticeable stutter in movie and TV content. It's especially noticeable in slow panning shots.

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Judder-Free 24p

Judder-Free 24p via 60p

Judder-Free 24p via 60i

Judder-Free 24p via Native Apps

This TV removes judder automatically from 24p sources, like a Blu-ray player or an external streaming device with a 'Match Frame Rate' feature. For 60Hz sources, like a cable box, or the native apps, Motionflow has to be enabled, with both sliders at 'Min' and CineMotion set to 'High' to remove judder.

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Native Refresh Rate

Variable Refresh Rate

HDMI Forum VRR

FreeSync

G-SYNC Compatible

4k VRR Maximum

4k VRR Minimum

1080p VRR Maximum

1080p VRR Minimum

1440p VRR Maximum

1440p VRR Minimum

VRR + Local Dimming Yes

The Sony X95L supports variable refresh rate technology to reduce screen tearing. HDMI Forum VRR and G-SYNC compatibility work over the entire refresh rate range. The TV doesn't natively support 1440p, as it upscales it to 4k instead, so the VRR range is unknown.

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1080p @ 60Hz

1080p @ 60Hz Outside Game Mode

1080p @ 120Hz

1080p @ 144Hz

1440p @ 60Hz

1440p @ 120Hz

1440p @ 144Hz

4k @ 60Hz

4k @ 60Hz + 10-Bit HDR

4k @ 60Hz @ 4:4:4

4k @ 60Hz Outside Game Mode

4k @ 60Hz With Interpolation

4k @ 120Hz

4k @ 144Hz

8k @ 60Hz

The Sony X95L has superb low input lag in either the 'Game' or 'Graphics' Picture Mode, ensuring a smooth and responsive gaming experience. It's slightly higher than competing models like the LG G3 OLED but still low enough for casual gamers.

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Resolution 4k

480p @ 59.94Hz (Widescreen)

720p @ 59.94Hz

1080p @ 60Hz @ 4:4:4

1080p @ 120Hz

1080p @ 144Hz

1440p @ 60Hz

1440p @ 120Hz

1440p @ 144Hz

4k @ 60Hz

4k @ 60Hz @ 4:4:4

4k @ 120Hz

4k @ 120Hz @ 4:4:4

4k @ 144Hz

8k @ 30Hz or 24Hz

8k @ 60Hz

Most common signals are supported by this TV, up to 4k @ 120Hz with HDMI ports 3 and 4. Chroma 4:4:4 and RGB signals are displayed properly with 1080p and 4k signals, essential for clear text when using it as a PC monitor. HDMI ports 1 and 2 are limited to HDMI 2.0 bandwidth and don't support 4k @120Hz inputs.

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Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM)

4k @ 120Hz

1440p @ 120Hz

1080p @ 120Hz

HDR

VRR

This TV can support almost everything the PS5 has to offer. Since this TV doesn't support 1440p @ 120Hz signals, it doesn't work with that format from the PS5. As part of Sony's 'Perfect for PS5' lineup, it supports a few unique features when paired with a PS5, including Auto HDR Tone Mapping and Auto Genre Picture Mode.

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Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM)

4k @ 120Hz

1440p @ 120Hz

1080p @ 120Hz

HDR

VRR

The Sony X95L can nearly take full advantage of the Xbox Series S|X consoles. It only supports Dolby Vision gaming at 60Hz, not at 120Hz, though, and the TV doesn't support 1440p @ 120Hz.

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HDR10

HDR10+

Dolby Vision

HLG

HDMI 2.0 Full Bandwidth

HDMI 2.1 Class Bandwidth

CEC Yes

HDCP 2.2 Yes (HDMI 1,2,3,4)

ATSC Tuner

USB 3.0

Variable Analog Audio Out No

Wi-Fi Support Yes (2.4 GHz, 5 GHz)

HDMI ports 3 and 4 support the full 48 Gbps bandwidth of HDMI 2.1, while HDMI 1 and 2 are limited to HDMI 2.0 bandwidth. However, because HDMI 3 is also the eARC port, you lose an HDMI 2.1 slot if you connect a receiver, so you can't use HDMI 2.1 bandwidth on multiple devices simultaneously.

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HDMI 4

USB 2

Digital Optical Audio Out 1

Analog Audio Out 3.5mm 0

Analog Audio Out RCA 0

Component In 0

Composite In 1 (adapter required, not incl.)

Tuner (Cable/Ant) 1

Ethernet 1

DisplayPort 0

IR In 1

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ARC/eARC Port

eARC: Dolby Atmos Over Dolby Digital Plus

eARC: Dolby Digital Plus 7.1

eARC: LPCM 7.1 Over Dolby MAT

eARC: Dolby TrueHD 7.1

eARC: DTS:X Over DTS-HD MA

eARC: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1

eARC: LPCM Channels (Bitstream)

ARC: Dolby Digital 5.1

ARC: DTS 5.1

Optical: Dolby Digital 5.1

Optical: DTS 5.1

The Sony X95L supports eARC, allowing you to pass high-quality, uncompressed audio to a compatible receiver through an HDMI cable. It supports all major audio formats, so you don't have to worry about compatibility with external sources.

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Low-Frequency Extension

Std. Dev. @ 70

Std. Dev. @ 80

Std. Dev. @ Max

Max

Dynamic Range Compression

The Sony X95L's frequency response is just okay. Like most TVs, there's very little bass, but the frequency response is okay above the low-frequency extension (LFE), and dialogue is clear. It can't get very loud, though, and there's a lot of compression at max volume.

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Weighted THD @ 80

Weighted THD @ Max

IMD @ 80

IMD @ Max

The distortion performance of this TV is mediocre. There's noticeable distortion at moderate volume levels, but it doesn't increase much at max volume, mainly since it can't get very loud.

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Smart OS Google TV

Version 10

Ease of Use

Smoothness

Time Taken to Select YouTube

Time Taken to Change Backlight

Advanced Options

The Sony X95L has the same Google TV smart platform as past Sony models, like its predecessor, the Sony X95K.

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Ads

Opt-out

Suggested Content in Home

Opt-out of Suggested Content

Unfortunately, like most TVs, there are ads throughout the interface. You can opt out of personalized ads, but this doesn't change the number of ads you'll see; they just won't be personalized to match your search and viewing history.

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App Selection

App Smoothness

Cast Capable

USB Drive Playback

USB Drive HDR Playback

HDR in Netflix

HDR in YouTube

The Google Play Store has tons of apps available to download, and they run very smoothly. It has Google Chromecast built-in, meaning you can cast content from your phone. You can also connect a Bravia webcam for video calls.

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Size

Voice Control

CEC Menu Control

Other Smart Features

Remote App Android TV

The included remote is small and doesn't have a numpad. There are mics in the remote and built into the TV, and they allow you to ask it to search for content, change settings, and open apps.

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There's a single button on the back left side to turn it on/off, change channels, adjust the volume, or switch inputs. There's also a switch to turn off the mic on the TV if you're concerned about privacy. However, these controls are set into the TV and hard to access with it wall-mounted, and the plastic covers block access to the buttons.

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Power Consumption 91 W

Power Consumption (Max) 273 W

Firmware PKG6.7073.0807NAA

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