The Sony Bravia 2 series is aimed at consumers looking for an affordable Bravia TV. Sony has been a household name for top-quality TVs and I personally own a 2015 55-inch Bravia FHD TV that is still going strong 9 years later. TVs from Sony that offer all the premium bells and whistles are typically expensive and out of reach for a lot of people. This is where the Bravia 2 series comes in. Announced in May 2024, the Sony Bravia 2 offers some great features, including a 4K UHD display, Google TV platform, 20W Dolby Audio speakers, and more. We reviewed the 55-inch Bravia 2 S25 variant, which includes gaming features and is currently priced at Rs 60,990 on Amazon.
The latest Bravia 2 is a spiritual successor to last year’s Bravia X75L series, so you will notice a lot of similarities in the hardware, including the X1 4K processor, Live Colour technology, ALLM, Apple AirPlay support, and more.
Table of Contents
Design
The Bravia 2 comes in 43-inch, 50-inch, 55-inch, and 65-inch sizes, which range from Rs 45,000 to Rs 82,000 in terms of price. The 55-inch unit we received is good for a spacious room as one should ideally sit at least 7 feet away to get the best viewing experience. A word of advice — it is wise to let a Sony technician unbox and set up the TV as doing it yourself would run the risk of voiding the warranty.
Talking about the design, the Bravia 2 55-inch model looks rather simple with a black, brushed metal body and similarly designed table-top stands. The bezels around the screen are rather thick and noticeable, so you won’t be getting a bezel-less viewing experience. There are a few ports at the back, including one HDMI eARC 2.1 port, two HDMI 2.0 ports, and 2 USB ports.
The Bravia 2 series is not the sleekest or the most premium-looking TV out there in this price segment, but you won’t really be bothered about that because what you’re actually paying for is the display. So let’s dive deep into that.
Picture quality
The Bravia 2 55-inch LCD TV supports 4K HDR combined with a 4K X-Reality Pro processing engine to deliver crisp and vivid picture quality. It’s an IPS panel with Direct LED backlight, 50Hz refresh rate, and a peak HDR brightness of up to 300 nits.
During the review, I watched a lot of HDR content, including Jack Ryan, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, and Rings of Power, and all of these looked terrific with excellent clarity, colours, and brightness. Overall, the dynamic range and viewing angles when watching HDR content were excellent.
You can and should adjust the default picture settings to get the most from any TV’s display. Now, as I mentioned earlier, the default setting in Standard picture mode has the brightness at 35 and Contrast at 90 (max is 100). When watching HDR content, the brightness gets bumped up to the max in all picture modes, but if you find that too bright for your liking, you should reduce it by a few notches. Similarly, the default contrast is set at 90, which is great for darker scenes, but it tends to blow out highlights in brighter scenes. You can drop it down by 10 to 20 points if you want brighter scenes to look less glaring.
In addition to the Standard picture mode, you can choose from Vivid, Cinema, Game, Photo, and Custom modes. Cinema and Game modes are typically on the warmer side and are best used for watching movies and shows, though the Cinema mode drops the brightness all the way down to 5 which might seem dull to many people. Vivid punches up the brightness and contrast to max for those who love a bright and vivid experience, while sharpness is set at 75. Again, you can always tweak the brightness, contrast, sharpness, etc, in the Advanced settings to suit your viewing needs.
Here’s a quick look at the default brightness, contrast, and colour levels these various modes offer:
| Mode | Brightness | Contrast | Colour | Sharpness |
| Standard | 35 | 90 | 60 | 60 |
| Vivid | 50 (Max) | 100 (Max) | 60 | 75 |
| Cinema | 5 | 90 | 50 | 50 |
| Game | 40 | 90 | 60 | 50 |
The TV automatically switches to the Game mode setting when connecting a gaming console like the PlayStation. Game mode includes Auto HDR Tone mapping, a post-processing technique that improves details and exposure levels in real-time while playing games along with ALLM which minimises input lag for a more responsive gameplay experience. You get additional gaming-centric options like motion blur, black equaliser, and crosshair type. All of these features are great for console gamers but it’s worth mentioning that they are also available on the previous generation Bravia X75L.
The Bravia 2 does not support Dolby Vision or Dolby Atmos, so you’ll need to consider the newer Bravia 3 series for these features. This upgrade comes at a higher cost, with the 55-inch Bravia 3 priced at Rs 93,900. Alternatively, brands like Xiaomi offer more affordable options with Dolby Vision, such as the Xiaomi Smart TV X Pro 55-inch, which is a great value-for-money 4K TV at around Rs 50,000, as I mentioned in my review. However, Sony is known for providing a superior quality panel and reliable after-sales support.
If we talk about upscaling, the Bravia 2 does a fantastic job. If you’re someone like me who prefers rewatching old shows like The Office, House, and Seinfeld, then the Bravia 2 will not disappoint. The X-Reality Pro engine and frame interpolation ensure older HD shows and movies look sharper and more detailed. You also have the Motionflow XR i.e. MEMC i.e. motion smoothing for blur-free movement if you love watching sports.
Now, one thing to keep in mind is that for a TV to show its true colours (so to speak) and picture quality, a lot depends on the streaming service as well. Netflix, Prime Video and Apple TV, for example, are great platforms to watch high-definition shows. But a platform like Jio Cinema offers poor bitrate making even “Asli 4K” shows like House of the Dragon look pretty average even on a 4K Bravia TV. Take a look at how this scene from Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning looks sharper on Amazon Prime Video than it does on Jio Cinema.
I ran a quick colour test video on YouTube to see the uniformity of colours on the screen. It revealed some slight dimming in all four corners of the screen, noticeable especially on white and other non-black colours. However, the dark corners or “dirty screen effect” won’t be noticeable while watching regular content.
To sum up, I was quite happy with the picture output on the Sony Bravia 2. The colours looked vibrant and the brightness levels were good. Now, I haven’t reviewed last year’s Bravia X75L series but some say that it had better brightness levels. Sony has also done a good job with blacks on the Bravia 2 thanks to something called Dynamic Contrast Enhancer that artificially boosts contrast levels.
Sound
Sony is using the same 20W down-firing open baffle speakers with support for Dolby Audio as seen on last year’s Bravia X95L. If you’re looking for Dolby Atmos support, you’ll need to go for the Bravia 3 series.
The speakers produce good clarity though it can get sibilant at times. The loudness, however, is nothing to write home about. At 50 percent volume, the speakers don’t sound very loud especially if you’ve got a ceiling fan running at full speed. The speakers not only lack loudness but depth as well, so you don’t really enjoy action movies or music that require range and a wide soundstage.
The Bravia 2’s in-built speakers are above average but you might want to invest in the Bravia 3 series or keep aside around Rs 20,000 for a good soundbar like the Samsung Q-Sympony or the JBL Cinema SB190 if you’re looking for a richer and more cinematic sound quality.
Performance and software
The Bravia 2 series is powered by the Sony X1 4K processor, which has seen some refinement over the years since it debuted back in 2015. The processor delivers a largely smooth and lag-free experience while browsing through the UI. You won’t face severe stutters but it did show slight lag at times when switching between multiple apps. On a couple of occasions, the Jio Cinema would crash on me, but that’s likely an app problem rather than a TV problem.
Coming to the software side of things, you get the standard Android 11 software with Google TV out of the box and built-in Chromecast and Apple AirPlay 2 support. This means you can cast content from both Android smartphones and iPhones. Other connectivity options also include Bluetooth 4.2 and dual-band WiFi. It’s a little disappointing not to see Android 12 out of the box like some other TVs offer such as the Hisense E6 series.
For those unaware, Google TV is a newer iteration of Android TV OS and is designed to improve content discovery on the home screen by understanding your watch history and taste. More often than not, you do get decent recommendations based on the shows and movies you’ve watched over time. It’s not always right though, but I would reckon it’s better than the experience you get on an Android TV. Scrolling through the UI gives you quick access to content you’re watching across various streaming platforms, popular shows and movies, recommendations based on your likes, and major events like the ongoing Paris Olympic Games 2024. You get access to a bunch of popular streaming apps out of the box and you can download plenty more from the Play Store.
Lastly, the remote that ships with the Bravia 2 series is fairly tall and gets a host of buttons for volume control, menu, settings, input, Google Assistant, and playback, among other things. You also get dedicated hotkeys for Sony LIV, Netflix, Disney+ Hotstar, Prime Video, YouTube, and YouTube Music.
Verdict
The Bravia 2 55-inch model was launched in May with a price tag of Rs 74,990. If this price tag was still in effect, I would have called it overpriced. Luckily, this model has seen a quick price drop and is selling on Amazon for as low as Rs 60,990 during major sales. That’s nearly Rs 15,000 down since its launch, making it worth buying for those looking for a budget Sony Bravia TV.
Because this is an entry-level Bravia series, you won’t get a few features like Dolby Vision or Atmos support or a premium design language. You’ll find TVs like the Hisense Q7N QLED series or the Xiaomi TV X Pro series that offer these and more features at a lower price point. With Sony, however, you get the satisfaction of reliable picture quality and good customer support, among other things.
To sum up, the Bravia 2 series offers superb picture quality with excellent colour vibrancy, a wonderful HDR experience, and dependable content upscaling. The speakers deliver good clarity, but investing in a soundbar would be advisable if you’re looking for cinematic sound.
Editor’s rating: 8 / 10
Pros:
- Great HDR content viewing experience
- Vibrant colours, respectable blacks
- Excellent sound clarity
- Good HD to near-4K upscaling
Cons:
- No Dolby Vision support
- Speakers lack loudness and depth
- Average design
