Sony Still The One and Only After Launching True RGB BRAVIA Televisions 

Sony, like Apple, takes its time to roll out new technology while others rush it out the door. RGB Mini LED, the hot new technology in television, began to appear last year, and although we knew Sony had it, the company waited to get it right.

And man, did they get it right.

I attended a 2026 launch briefing at Sony HQ in Australia, where a comparison demo, with no tricks, absolutely blew me away. We saw Sony’s BRAVIA 7 II and BRAVIA 9 II up against leading OLEDs and RGB Mini LED TVs. It wasn’t even close. Of course, we’ll need more hands on testing but the new Sony True RGB backlighting technology was brighter, more colourful, more lifelike, just better.

“Sony has been advancing LED control for over 20 years, from our first independent RGB light sources in the Qualia 005 [2004] through to our flagship Backlight Master Drive premiering in 2016,” said Michael Bell, Head of Home Entertainment Business Unit, Sony Australia.

“Our new True RGB represents a breakthrough that combines the precision of individually controlled RGB LEDs with the best aspects of both Mini LED and OLED, giving viewers purer colour, higher brightness, and picture accuracy that holds up in any room.”

Mini LED TVs traditionally use a white backlight to produce colour, whereas RGB Mini LED TVs use red, green, and blue LEDs to create a backlight that is already in the required colour. Sony’s new TVs are powered by the company’s proprietary RGB Backlight Master Drive Pro, which precisely controls independently driven red, green, and blue light sources, enabling the new BRAVIA True RGB TV models to achieve the largest colour volume ever in Sony’s home TV history.

Having said all that about True RGB, Sony, being Sony, also allows you to choose a white backlight from the menu. I mean, that’s just a super flex.

The quality of these TVs is incredible. And the proof was in the viewing. The BRAVIA 7 II was excellent, but the BRAVIA 9 II was on a different level. One of the reasons I would opt for the BRAVIA 9 II over the 7 II is the inclusion of Immersive Black Screen Pro. This anti-glare, low-reflection screen treatment is phenomenal. Samsung was on the right track with its anti-glare technology, but Sony has the edge because its treatment has no impact on black levels in bright rooms.

Below we’ve listed the features you’ll find on both models and the exclusive features for the BRAVIA 9 II.

BRAVIA 9 II & BRAVIA 7 II: Shared Features

Next-Gen Colour & Backlight Technology

• First True RGB LED BRAVIA TVs: The BRAVIA 9 II and BRAVIA 7 II represent a major milestone, using independently driven red, green, and blue LEDs. This ensures incredibly precise colour reproduction, even in bright, sunlit living room environments.
• Unprecedented Colour Volume: By independently controlling the RGB LEDs, these models achieve the largest colour volume in Sony’s home TV history.
• RGB Backlight Master Drive Pro & RGB Triluminos Max: This advanced processing engine drives each individual LED with high precision. The result is significantly improved peak brightness, drastically reduced blooming, and purer, more accurate colour than conventional Mini LED displays.
• X-Wide Angle Pro: Combined with independent RGB driving, this technology ensures consistent colour accuracy and beautiful image quality, even when viewing from sharp side angles.

Cinema-Grade Sound & Screen Scaling

• Immersive Audio Engine: Features Acoustic Multi Audio+, creating a theatre-like soundstage. It includes AI-powered Voice Zoom 3™ to radically enhance dialogue clarity, alongside evolved 3D Surround Upscaling that expands standard stereo signals into a wide, spatial 3D audio experience.
• Massive Screen Options: Built for premium home cinema scaling. The BRAVIA 7 II offers versatile sizing from 50 to 98 inches, while the flagship BRAVIA 9 II introduces a massive 115-inch option for ultimate large-format viewing. Both lines are engineered for easy installation and smart custom integration.

Design & Smart Ecosystem

• Premium Mirage Stand: Eliminates cable clutter by completely concealing wires within the stand. Its unique “floating” design offers a sleek, minimalist aesthetic that stands out from traditional, bulky TV bases.
• Google TV with Gemini Integration: Moves beyond basic smart TV interfaces by introducing AI-powered assistance. Gemini allows users to interact naturally to find content based on mood or complex interests, ask questions, view supporting exploratory videos, and manage daily information directly on the big screen.

BRAVIA 9 II: Exclusive Flagship Features

True RGB Performance

• Sony’s Most Advanced Backlight Control: The flagship BRAVIA 9 II introduces newly developed, ultra-precise LED controllers. This advanced architecture filters and purifies primary light before it even hits the panel, delivering Sony’s most authentic colour accuracy to date.
• Contrast Booster 40 & Luminance Booster Pro: Working in tandem, these engines handle extreme brightness levels while maintaining perfect hue accuracy. This creates striking, high-contrast images that won’t wash out, even in flooded, bright living room environments.
• Immersive Black Screen Pro: A premium, anti-glare, and low-reflection screen treatment engineered to deliver rich, deep blacks in any ambient light. Developed in direct collaboration with Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE), this surface treatment ensures the filmmaker’s intended contrast and shadow detail are preserved, regardless of your room’s lighting.

Premium Audio Hardware

• Acoustic Hardware Upgrade: Elevates the cinema-at-home experience by adding physical, improved up-firing beam tweeters and side sound positioning tweeters. This advanced hardware alignment physically pushes audio to match the on-screen action, creating genuine depth and a taller soundstage.

Shared Cinema-Driven Features (BRAVIA 9 II & 7 II)

To ensure a studio-grade experience at home, both True RGB models come equipped with a dedicated suite of cinematic optimisation tools:

• My Cinema Mode: A specialised calibration profile that instantly optimises both picture and sound processing with a “film-first” priority.
• Ambient Optimisation: Automatically and continuously calibrates the TV’s picture brightness, colour curves, and audio acoustics to match the specific conditions of your room and your exact seating position.
• “Studio Calibrated” Modes: Built-in, platform-specific calibration modes that automatically activate for Netflix, Prime Video, and SONY PICTURES CORE, delivering content exactly as the mastering engineers intended.
• Universal Premium Format Support: Full, native compatibility with industry-standard premium formats, including Dolby Vision®, Dolby Atmos®, DTS:X®, and IMAX® Enhanced.

Pricing and Availability

Normally this is where you get the bad news. The ‘Sony Tax’ as it’s often called. But Sony is pricing its new lineup to closely match the premium competition in RGB backlighting. This is a deliberate move by Sony to convince consumers there’s no reason why they shouldn’t buy a BRAVIA 9 II or 7 II in 2026.

Final Thoughts

Sony’s True RGB TVs are the best in this class of backlighting technology but real testing needs to be done before casting aside the best OLEDs and other RGB Mini LED options. It’s interesting to note that Sony told me that the original BRAVIA 9 remains the consumer TV of choice for professional grading.

RGB Mini LED backlighting has an issue called ‘colour crosstalk’, which is particularly noticeable when white text is ‘on top’ of a solid colour. In our media session I tried to see if this was an issue on the new BRAVIA models but it really wasn’t from what I could perceive. If anyone was going to overcome crosstalk, it’s Sony.

Stay tuned for the real-world reviews. This is the true test of a television, at home, with mixed lighting, and a wild variation of content. But at the moment, BRAVIA II 7 and 9 II are the 2026 pack leaders by a long way.