Sony’s 2023 TVs Get Brighter and More Gaming Features

Sony was conspicuously absent from the storm of TVs announced at CES 2023; however, the electronics firm has just revealed its lineup of 4K TVs, and the improvements are significant. Across the board, Sony has introduced a brighter QD-OLED A95L, Mini-LED X95L, and Full Array Sony X90L.

Sony A95L

The Sony A95K was a big surprise from last year with its QD-OLED technology, finding its way onto our list of the best 4K TVs for gaming AND the best high-end 4K TV. This year it’s getting even better with the A95L that promises to be up to 200 percent brighter. That’s not a typo, this new Sony QD-OLED is supposedly three times brighter, which also helps to drive better color saturation.

Sony’s big push with the A95L is to make it the ideal TV for any room rather than picking an LCD TV for a bright room or an OLED set for a dark room. Thankfully this year, the Sony A95L also comes in a larger 77-inch screen size so you can finally get one of the best looking displays in a bigger size.

Sony also has thankfully revised the stand on the A95K, giving it a regular pair of feet to replace the large platform stand its predecessor came with. These feet still let the TV sit right on top of your TV stand without a visible gap. Alternatively, there’s a narrow position for those with smaller TV stands or a sound bar position that elevates the TV so you can slip a sound bar underneath the screen.

Like the A95K, the A95L includes a webcam, which now has some AI smarts that see and track where people are. Using that knowledge, the webcam will adjust the picture brightness and audio balance on the left and right sides.

Sony X95L

The Sony X95L is Sony’s newest Mini LED TV that will come only in a new, larger 85-inch screen size. Sony claims the new model has 20 percent more local dimming zones along with the larger panel, meaning a brighter and higher contrast picture.

Sony X90L

Sony midrange X90L is a big upgrade over last year’s impressive Sony X90K TV, with 60 percent more local dimming zones and a 30 percent increase in overall brightness. Of course, more backlighting zones mean greater contrast and better black levels, so you can see more bright hotspots next to sheer darkness.

The Sony X90L has also been upgraded with new metal trim around the sides, and it comes in a massive 98-inch screen size.

Gaming Features

Sony has also imported gaming features it debuted on its Inzone gaming monitors – including the Inzone M9 and Inzone M3 – to its XR lineup of 2023 TVs. First off, a new Game Menu UI pops up from the bottom of the screen, very similar to the Game Bar on Samsung TVs. You can turn on and off Variable Refresh Rate and adjust the Motion Blur Reduction and Black Equalizer on your picture.

You can also turn on a virtual crosshair if you always want a persistent aiming reticle on your screen. A few crosshair options include a dot or a bigger target symbol that lets you know where you’re always aiming.

Sony has also added a screen size-changing feature that pretty much allows you to shrink the size of the picture. While that might seem pointless, it could be handy when playing fighting games or multiplayer shooters on an 85-inch TV is just too much. Instead of having to keep turning your head to see the whole picture, you can shrink the screen size and focus on a smaller area.

Lastly, all of Sony’s new 2023 TVs will feature Auto HDR Tone Mapping, which allows the TV to communicate with the PS5 to apply the best HDR picture settings for the display. Auto Genre Picture Mode, meanwhile, allows the TV to detect what games or streams you’re playing to then further optimize the picture quality for them.

Exclusive to the Sony A95L is a new multiview mode that lets you play games on half of your screen while keeping a YouTube walkthrough on the other half. Sony’s multiview mode is unique in that you can mix audio between the two video feeds.

Unfortunately, Sony has yet to announce release dates and prices for its 2023 TV lineup.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].

Kevin Lee is IGN’s SEO Updates Editor. Follow him on Twitter @baggingspam.