Zeke Jones / Digital Trends
Anyone who has followedour telecasting reviewsover the years has hear me repeatedly say what Sony has always secern anyone who asks for specs and detail on its backlight systems : It ’s not the turn of zones or the number of light-emitting diode you have in the backlight setup — it ’s how you utilise them .
Upon hearing this , I ’ve always told Sony , “ OK , I ’ll accept that . But will you please serve up onhowyou utilize them that ’s different ? ” And , of course , Sony would n’t say . That is until Sony host me at a small press stumble in Tokyo in November 2023 , which lay the understructure for what you ’re interpret here .
Zeke Jones / Digital Trends
As frustrating as it has been to hear that skirt sort of non - answer answer , Sony , for the most part , has done a reasonably majuscule job of attain in high spirits - performance results with seemingly less dense backlight systems with few dim zones . There have been a duet of exceptions — I was n’t a Brobdingnagian fan of the X90 K TV , for illustration . But for the most part , Sony has done alotmore with alotless than its competitors .
Sony has done a pretty great problem of accomplish eminent - performance outcome with apparently less dense backlight systems .
I do n’t think Sony will start playing the eyeglasses shootout game that TCL and Hisense like to play . And carry on to flirt — see Hisense ’s teaserof a 110 - column inch , 10,000 - nit tv set before ofCES 2024 . Sony is n’t likely to begin disclosing how many mini - light-emitting diode and how many dimming zones are at work in its tv . And definitely do n’t look for it to do so at CES 2024 in Las Vegas because , for the second twelvemonth in a course , there wo n’t be any new Sony TVs announced at the show .
Zeke Jones / Digital Trends
But Sony is showing us how its backlight tech oeuvre for the first meter . No more “ well , it ’s a trivial eye of newt and a little toe of frog , and BAM , that ’s our privy sauce . ”
For the demonstration you see represent in the pictorial matter below ( and the one above ) , Sony literally peeled back layers so we could see for ourselves . This is not a simulation . What you see on the right side of this prototype screen is arepresentationof what the backlight is doing . What you ’re seeing is the actual backlight in action . Sony dissected and peeled back screen layers so we could watch what it does , while also see how public presentation has been improved overthe already great X95L television set .
What you see show is a consequence of Sony taking the whole idea of a backlight system back to the drawing dining table . Sony told me it has developed a Modern integrated circuit number one wood so tiny that it can be domiciliate within smaller clusters of mini - lead backlights .
Zeke Jones / Digital Trends
Think of it this way : Sony ’s Cognitive XR processor — the one TV experts spout about — is task with take a video recording signal , break in it up into a clump of different parts , and then transmit instructions on what to do to the LED section of the venire and the LCD section of the panel .
For the backlight system , those instructions are just a lot of data . For the educational activity to be carry out , that data has to be move around into an analog electric signal that gets rout to the appropriate LED or mini - LEDs . The execution of the processor ’s educational activity is carry out by a Driver Intelligence Community ( integrate electric circuit ) . Well , actually many , many , manydriver IC .
Sony says it has made a driver IC so small that it can instantly increase the number of zone in its TVs without giving up on all right command . And it ’s in that fine mastery that we discover the next grown difference that ’s always been at manoeuvre in Sony ’s idiot box .
Zeke Jones / Digital Trends
What makes Sony ’s fresh backlight system of rules work so just is the routine of dim grade it can assign its backlights . Some TVs turn over the backlights on or off — that ’s it . Technically , that ’s still local dimming , but it does n’t fit the usually understood sense of the Good Book dimming , right ? At home , if your Light are dimmable , that intend they are n’t just on or off . Instead , you may typeset them at different brightness levels between off and on . Say , 10 % , or 20 % , or 60 % , and so on .
Sony exert more levels of brightness grade in its LED backlights than most of its competitors , and the fresh driver technical school it has developed allows it to go forward doing so , but on a much larger scale . That is what make it possible for you to see what ’s go on in the pictures , even though what we ’re see here is black - and - white or grayscale and not at pixel - level details . Not quite pixel - spirit level , but Isle of Man , it looks unaired .
As a bonus , Sony ’s new backlight technical school consumes less power , which means it shouldskate by EU power regulationswhile still achieving awesome brightness .
Zeke Jones / Digital Trends
Mini - LED is survive to tread well into OLED functioning territory .
And blooming ? I do n’t think it is going to be part of the conversation much longer — at least not in Sony ’s most premium TV tier . That does n’t intend that Sony ’s mini - head television set will steamroller OLED TVs – there are still integral topic with LCD screen that ca n’t be surmount . But mini - lead is run to tread well into OLED public presentation territory . And it should still be cheaper to grow than OLED and will likely make a more sensible leverage for consumers like you and me .
Regarding top brightness and nits — Sony is n’t talking about what we can expect its new flagship mini - lead television set to put out . But I will manoeuvre to the fact that Sony just developed a 4,000 - nit professional mastering monitor — a instrument Hollywood just has n’t had before — and Sony is all about being able to duplicate as closely as it can in its consumer telly what its professional mastering monitors can do . So that should tell us something .
Now , to be unmortgaged , I ’m kind of taking Sony at its word when it comes to the how and the why behind its backlight tech . Sometimes , technical explanation are cleverly veiled marketing words to make things voice ripe on paper . What really matters is how things reckon in the real world . And ground on what I saw from this prototype and how much good it was than Sony ’s X95L flagship from 2023 , I call back this is legit .
I sense pretty confident that at least some of Sony ’s 2024 mini - LED telly will be extremely impressive . They ’re everything we have loved about Sony idiot box performance , just better than before .
And not a moment too soon because I sleep together what Samsung , TCL , and Hisense are coming out with this year . I do think Sony is going to be able to hang with real - world content . But as far as the eyeglasses war are concerned ? Hisense and TCL will post up some spectacles numbers that will blow your thinker . And for those who gauge telecasting base on the specs printed on theme ? Well , it seems like Sony will have to lean on its reputation reasonably hard . as luck would have it , that rep is pretty strong right now . So it could puzzle out out .
We ’ll see how it dally out . But I , for one , am pretty thrilled that Sony has start pull back the veil , and I was honored to be part of the small work party of folks who got to see it .
So that ’s mini - LED , and we can expect that the standard LED - backlit TVs will improve in lockstep with the mini - go TVs – they always have .
So , then , what about OLED ?
Sony 2024 OLED TVs
Sony did n’t say much about its OLED TV plan during our visit — at least , nothing connect to the OLED instrument panel engineering science . But I will educate you now for the estimate that Sony may not have a successor to the A95L — which isthe well TV I ’ve ever reviewed — in 2024 . I do n’t think that Sony would be able to do anything meaningfully different in a young 2024 mannikin , so the A95L may stupefy around into 2025 .
Idothink there will be novel OLED television receiver . And I think the mid - tier OLED are going to get some pretty fancy new feature . Actually , all of Sony ’s telly will . But you ’re probably going to have to hold back until May of this year to find out more .
