Sony Bravia 72 vs Hisense U8, TCL QM7L and QM8L: Mini LED TV Comparison

Introduction

Sony’s Bravia 72 is one of two RGB mini LED televisions the company brought to market this year, alongside the more expensive Bravia 92. The pitch is straightforward: richer color, wider coverage of P3 and Rec. 2020, greater color accuracy, tighter control over color and brightness, and processing that manages the RGB backlights with more precision than before. The Bravia 72 has been received warmly, which makes the measurements worth a closer look.

On the 85-inch unit tested, the results told a different story. Out of the box it was one of the dimmest displays measured in recent years, and its color accuracy sat well outside the range normally considered accurate. Two lower-priced alternatives, the Hisense U8 and TCL’s SQD mini LED QM7L and QM8L, outperformed it in most meaningful categories under the same conditions.

This comparison covers what each of the four televisions actually delivers, where the Sony’s strengths still hold up, and which buyer each set suits.

How This Comparison Was Evaluated

Each television was measured with professional calibration software and a light meter, and assessed with real content in both light-controlled and moderately lit rooms. Grayscale and color accuracy were recorded as Delta E figures, where roughly three is the commonly accepted threshold at which errors become visible. Peak brightness was measured on windowed patterns, which usually read higher than full-screen measurements, and color coverage was checked against the P3 and Rec. 2020 color spaces. Reflections, off-axis behavior and screen uniformity were evaluated with the room lights on and off.

Sony Bravia 72: RGB Mini LED Performance in Practice

The Bravia 72 uses an RGB mini LED backlight that does not always operate in full RGB mode. Depending on the local dimming setting and the content on screen, Sony can drive the red, green and blue LEDs independently for greater color volume, or combine them to produce white light. The only place the choice is exposed directly is the Professional picture profile.

Out-of-the-Box Accuracy and Brightness

In the Standard profile, the mode selected by default, the 85-inch Bravia 72 measured 580 nits on a windowed pattern. With actual content the image rarely looked anywhere near that bright. Color was also noticeably off, leaning toward the blue-green side of the spectrum. Grayscale accuracy measured a Delta E of 9 and color accuracy a Delta E of 6, roughly two to three times the threshold of visible error.

The Professional profile, normally the most accurate factory starting point on a Sony television, did not resolve the problem. Peak light output measured 74 nits, a figure Sony representatives confirmed was within the expected range. Accuracy improved but stayed short of calibrated, with a grayscale Delta E of 4.8 and a color Delta E of 3.7.

HDR was brighter. Factory HDR10 profiles ranged from 1,500 to 1,650 nits, and Dolby Vision Bright measured a little over 1,800 nits. Neither was accurate. HDR10 grayscale ranged from 6 at best to 26 at worst, while Dolby Vision Bright recorded a grayscale Delta E of 7 and a color Delta E of 8.

None of the factory profiles measured here delivered a genuinely accurate image without further adjustment.

Calibration and the Missing CMS

Sony has removed the television’s CMS, the controls calibrators use to fine-tune color accuracy. Sony’s stated position is that its factory tuning is precise enough that a simple grayscale calibration is all that is needed for everything else to fall into line. The measurements do not support that claim.

A calibration as complete as Sony allows brought grayscale accuracy to near reference levels, with Delta E figures around 1 or lower. Color accuracy barely moved. In the Professional profile, color Delta E improved from 3.7 to 3.6. Dolby Vision Dark was the lone exception, improving from 3.5 to 2.3, the best overall result achieved on the set. Without a CMS, there is nowhere left for the color accuracy to go.

Backlight Modes and Color Coverage

Despite the RGB mini LED hardware, Rec. 2020 coverage was not as good as competing RGB displays deliver. The best measurement was 89%, and depending on the settings it could drop as low as 80%. P3 coverage was more stable at 97% to 99%. By comparison, the Hisense U8 managed about 95% of the much larger Rec. 2020 space and 100% of P3.

The gap is not enough on its own to dismiss the Bravia 72, and an unconventional backlight strategy could in principle reduce the color crosstalk that RGB mini LED designs are already known for. On this set, however, the headline feature is not being used as effectively as the hardware suggests.

Color Shifting, Reflections and Viewing Angles

Color shifting is visible on the Bravia 72 and becomes jarringly obvious as the image gets brighter. With brightness at maximum and peak luminance and local dimming set to medium or high, specular highlights in reflections and on skin shift from reddish pink toward green or yellow during movement and camera pans. It was clearly visible to the naked eye. Once movement stops, colors return to normal and often look excellent, but the shifting is persistent.

Minimizing it required calibrating the set and turning most light output settings and enhancements down or off. The result was an HDR peak output of roughly 1,500 nits and full screen brightness of around 700 nits. On paper those figures should be enough for most SDR and HDR content, and in a post-production suite or a fully light-controlled home theater they usually would be. On this television they did not translate into a legible image during darker scenes. Even with the lights off and shades drawn, large portions of dark scenes were visually useless until peak brightness was raised, at which point color shifting, backlight ramping, or both became a problem again.

Black level rendering is a genuine strength in a completely light-controlled room, where the panel is capable of hitting OLED-level benchmarks of 0.0 nits. In moderate ambient lighting, no combination of picture settings brought detail out of those deep blacks.

Reflections are the other major constraint. The screen is highly reflective both on and off axis, and from the side it behaves almost like a mirror. Even dim light sources near the center of the screen produced reflections that no brightness adjustment, not even switching to Vivid mode, could overcome. Off-axis, color and contrast shift noticeably, giving the set more in common with an older generation LED television than with a display using state-of-the-art backlighting. Edge-to-edge uniformity is excellent, but it is difficult to appreciate while fighting reflections and limited usable light output.

What the Bravia 72 Still Does Well

Sony’s XR processor retains fine detail and upscales legacy content with the best of them, and it controls the backlight well enough to suppress blooming in a way that looks impressive. Brightly lit content, 4K demo material and real estate walkthroughs looked great, and under ideal conditions with strict control over ambient light the image can look mostly accurate, if slightly oversaturated in some colors, particularly red.

Connectivity is limited for the price. Two HDMI inputs support 4K at 120 Hz, one of which doubles as eARC, and gaming performance tops out at 120 Hz.

Hisense U8: Stronger Measurements at a Comparable Price

The 100-inch Hisense U8 was measured under the same test conditions and delivered demonstrably better results than the Bravia 72, along with a superior overall viewing experience. Color coverage reached about 95% of Rec. 2020 and 100% of P3, comfortably ahead of the Sony on the larger color space.

The pricing makes the comparison uncomfortable. The 100-inch Hisense can be found for roughly the same price as the 85-inch Bravia 72 tested here, which means the decision is no longer simply a brand premium.

TCL QM7L: The Lower-Cost Alternative

The TCL QM7L is an SQD mini LED television rather than an RGB mini LED one, yet it outperformed the Bravia 72 in nearly every category. The possible exceptions were viewing angle, edge-to-edge uniformity and, barely, fast motion.

Price is the more decisive difference. At the time of writing, the 85-inch QM7L costs roughly $1,500 less than the 85-inch Sony.

That gap is large enough that the Sony has to justify its price on image quality rather than processing or features alone, and the measured results make that difficult.

TCL QM8L: More Headroom Above the QM7L

The QM8L sits above the QM7L in TCL’s SQD mini LED range and, like its sibling, it outperformed the Bravia 72 in nearly every category. The possible exceptions here are viewing angle and edge-to-edge uniformity.

It still saves around $700 compared with the 85-inch Bravia 72, which leaves the Sony looking expensive for performance that measures worse in several meaningful areas.

Buying Advice: Matching the TV to Your Room

Start with the room, because that is where the Bravia 72’s weaknesses are most exposed. Its screen is highly reflective, and even dim light sources near the center of the panel produced reflections that no picture setting could overcome. If your viewing space has windows, lamps or overhead lighting that you cannot control, reflections will shape the experience more than any picture mode. The same applies to off-axis seating, where color and contrast shift noticeably.

If you watch in a fully light-controlled room and value deep blacks above all else, the Sony remains interesting. It is capable of 0.0-nit black levels, its edge-to-edge uniformity is excellent, and its XR processor handles detail and upscaling very well.

Brightness and color coverage are the areas where the alternatives pull ahead. The Hisense U8 measured about 95% of Rec. 2020 and 100% of P3, and both TCL sets outperformed the Sony in nearly every tested category at a lower price. If your priority is a bright, color-rich image for a typical living room, those sets are the more logical starting point.

Two practical points are worth checking before choosing the Sony. First, there is no CMS, so color accuracy cannot be fully corrected through the television’s own controls. Second, only two HDMI inputs support 4K at 120 Hz, one of which doubles as eARC, which matters if you connect more than one console alongside a soundbar. Viewing angle is the one area where the Sony held an advantage over the TCL models, so a wide seating arrangement may favor it.

Conclusion

The Bravia 72 is a difficult television to recommend on performance alone. Sony’s processing, upscaling and edge-to-edge uniformity are real strengths, and in a dark, controlled room with careful calibration it can look very good. But the factory profiles are dim and inaccurate, the CMS is gone, the screen is highly reflective, and color shifting appears as brightness rises.

Meanwhile the Hisense U8 and the TCL QM7L and QM8L measured better in most categories while costing the same or less. Buyers who want the Sony name and its processing should go in with clear expectations, and buyers who want the most performance for their money have several strong alternatives to weigh first.