Sony Bravia 7 TV review

The Sony Bravia 7 hits delivers a great value in the center of Sony’s 2024 TV lineup. A kid brother to the Sony Bravia 9, it delivers a lot of the same impressive quality and picture processing without the over-the-top excesses that make Sony’s pricey flagship so alluring.

Here, you don’t get as bright or as nice of a picture — a difficult prospect considering the Bravia 9 approaches OLED levels of quality — but with Sony’s elaborate software, design flourishes, and the excellent Google TV operating system, the Sony Bravia 7 is an extremely satisfying TV.

Depending on how you shop, it may cost you hundreds of dollars less, too, which helps make up for the few areas where the Bravia 7 doesn’t quite excel. Our tests show that it’s not the brightest TV in its range, and if you’re really into gaming, you might find its input lag a shade high. But, particularly at its sale price of $1,199, it has a lot to offer anyone in the market for an LED TV.

Sony Bravia 7 review: Pricing and availability

The Bravia 7 is Sony’s lower-end QLED Mini-LED TV, equipped with much of the processing functionality of the more expensive Bravia 9 and representing a significant step up (in both performance and price) from the direct LED Sony Bravia 3. (Also released this year was the Sony Bravia 8, but that’s an OLED set that doesn’t directly compare.)

The lineup of Bravia 7 models includes:

• Sony K-55XR70 (55-inch): $1,899.99 | Sale: $1,199.99
• Sony K-65XR70 (65-inch): $2,299.99 | Sale: $1,399.99
• Sony K-75XR70 (75-inch): $2,799.99 | Sale: $1,799.99
• Sony K-85XR70 (85-inch): $3,499.99 | Sale: $2,499.99

We evaluated the 65-inch Bravia 7, and we expect performance to be similar among the other sizes. You should, however, expect a different number of dimming zones in the larger sizes, and those may have some impact on the other sets’ brightness and contrast.

Sony Bravia 7 review: Design and ports

Sony rarely disappoints as far as design, and the Bravia 7 is low-key attractive, both in the front and back (with its series of geometrically arranged squares). Unlike some of the company’s other TVs, there are no snap-on panels to obscure the ports or aid with cable management, but you at least have plenty of options for supporting the TV. You can wall-mount it using the 300x300mm VESA holes on the back panel, or you can install the included stand in any of four positions: corners or center, low or high (the latter can be used to fully accommodate a soundbar).

Ports face out the Bravia 7’s left edge and here you’ll find two USB, optical audio out and S-Center speaker in, Ethernet, RS-232C remote, IR in, coaxial cable and four HDMI ports. Of those, only two support the more advanced HDMI 2.1 standard, with 120Hz refresh rates; the other two ports are limited to HDMI 2.0. (Sony does this on all its TVs, though the move makes a bit more sense on sets that cost less than $1,000.)

The Bravia 7’s remote is a variation on the style we’ve seen from Sony in recent years: smaller (about 7 inches) and constructed from recycled plastic with blue specks visible in the otherwise dark gray surface. It’s not a look that will appeal to everyone (and you get a more elegant version with the Bravia 9 or the class-leading Sony A95L). It’s nothing to write home about, but the remote is otherwise comfortable to hold and easy to use.

The most distinguishing features on the clicker are the shortcut buttons (for Sony Pictures Core, Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, Crunchyroll and YouTube), though I still think there is a bit of a learning curve with the three buttons (Wrench, Menu and Gear) that open different kinds of menus. Some additional clarity from Sony (or perhaps renaming) would be helpful there.

You can also use a hardware button under the bottom-center bezel to power the TV on or off, change the channel, adjust the volume, access inputs or restart.

Sony Bravia 7 TV review: How we test

We follow a standard testing protocol for every TV we review at Tom’s Guide. Our benchmarks include a series of technical and subject tests designed to rate the set’s performance. For our technical tests, we use a Jeti spectraval 1501-HiRes spectroradiometer, a Klein K10-A colorimeter, a Murideo 8K-SIX-G Metal pattern generator and Portrait Displays’ Calman TV-calibration software to take measurements. We also use a Leo Bodnar 4K Input Lag Tester for determining the TV’s gaming prowess.

Subjective tests vary based on the reviewer, but usually feature anecdotes from a diverse selection of movies, TV shows and other content reflecting the types of things you may actually want to watch on the TV. For a more detailed look at what we do and how we do it, check out our “How we test TVs” page.

Sony Bravia 7 review: Test results and performance

As the mid-range entry in Sony’s 2024 TV range, the Bravia 7 falls more or less where you’d expect between the Bravia 3 and the flagship Bravia 9, though the powerful XR Processor and full-array local dimming definitely help it lean toward the latter in terms of performance.

Our anecdotal testing supported this, with all of the movies in our current test catalog looking and playing beautifully. Sony is also near the front of the pack in terms of processing, so fast-action scenes (as in Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning), complex water effects (like those that suffuse Avatar: The Way of Water) and dizzying animation (Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse) never let you down.

It handles upscaling well, too, with only a bit of flatness detectable in scenes in Mission: Impossible—Fallout. Color does degrade noticeably toward the edges of the screen, though, so keep that in mind when determining where to sit. Three of the four major HDR formats are supported; only HDR10+ is not.

Something else you’ll want to keep in mind is which picture mode you use. The “best” one on the Bravia 7 is Professional, which is designed to align with Sony’s high-end (and ultra-high-price) professional master monitors, which means you get especially accurate colors but an incredibly dim SDR picture. We measured the TV at 101 nits in Professional mode — vastly below every other comparable TV. For that reason, we don’t advise using this in a room with any sort of bright lighting — it’s really just frustrating more than remarkable that way. Sony’s higher-end and brighter TVs (like the Bravia 8 and the A95L) can compensate somewhat. But if you aren’t in the film industry, you will probably find, as we did, that the similarly faithful but brighter Cinema mode is the overall superior choice for most “serious” viewing.

With HDR brightness, however, the Bravia 7 rang in at 1,355 nits, the second highest in this category (behind the 1,732 nits of the TCL QM7). It also handled color very well: Its Delta-E value (which represents how accurate colors are by comparing the source and the screen, with lower numbers being better) of 1.58 was the lowest among comparable sets, and its coverage of the various color gamuts (Rec. 709: 99.62; UHDA-P3: 78.61; Rec. 2020: 97.09), is solid, if not always top-tier.

Sony TVs seldom excel at our input lag test, and the Bravia 7 was no exception. Its lag of 17.1ms, as measured with our Leo Bodnar 4K Input Lag Tester, is fairly high by the standards of major manufacturers, and may be something you want to consider if you plan to use this TV for gaming. Otherwise, it’s no surprise that Sony (the makers of the PS5) have gone to extravagant lengths to provide a worthwhile gaming experience. I found that Starfield played well on the Bravia 7, and the TV’s feature slate is thorough. Different picture modes for different game genres and Variable Refresh Rate are nice-but-expected touches, while the unique ability to shrink the screen’s picture to mimic what you’d see on a computer monitor is a genuinely unique feature we haven’t ever seen before.

Sony Bravia 7 review: Smart features

Like the last few generations of Sony TVs, the Bravia 7 uses the Google TV operating system, and it remains a fine choice. It seamlessly integrates your Google Account activity on other devices into the TV and gives you access to the full range of Google Search capabilities. It’s also well designed, so you can watch live TV, open apps or explore your content library easily.

You can stream via Chromecast or Apple AirPlay, and the ATSC 3.0 tuner (something you see on fewer current-generation TVs) lets you watch over-the-air 4K broadcasts, too. An added benefit is that purchase of the Bravia 7 also nets you five credits to use over 12 months buying movies on Sony Pictures Core, Sony’s proprietary, high-bitrate streaming service. This is a nice extra, though you are (predictably) limited to titles from Sony’s own catalog, which may or may not be to your taste. That said, all the most recent Spider-Man movies are there, so that’s something.

Sony Bravia 7 review: Verdict

The Sony Bravia 7 offers great performance for a mid-range Mini-LED TV at a surprising sticker price, and it competes admirably with similar models in its price range. You won’t find it for as low a price as the TCL QM7 (which can be found for less than $700 on sale), but the additional fit and finish and notch-above internal hardware still make a compelling case for the Sony. And if the main thing you want from a TV is one that will make your movies look as good as they possibly can, it’s going to be tough to do better than the Bravia 7 for the price.