Sony Bravia 7 (K55XR70)

As the unusually straightforward model name makes clear, the Bravia 7 represents the current third tier of Sony’s ongoing TV restructuring strategy - it sits below the flagship Bravia 9 miniLED TVs and Bravia 8 OLEDs.

This third tier position means the miniLED Bravia 7 isn’t as highly specified as the step-up models. It also means, though, that it is significantly cheaper. The 55in Bravia 7 I’m looking at here costs £1299 at the time of writing - the smallest (65in) Bravia 9 costs £2799 and the 55in Bravia 8 costs £1499.

In fact, having spent a couple of weeks living with this 55in Bravia 7 I’d argue it makes a strong case for being the pound-for-pound cream of Sony’s current crop.

‍Picture quality

Despite its midrange status, the Bravia 7 has plenty of on-paper attractions to set home cinema fans’ pulses racing. For starters, its 4K screen is illuminated by miniLED lighting backed up by a local dimming system that operates across more than 300 separately controlled zones. A Quantum Dot colour system should deliver more tonal range and vibrancy with high dynamic range sources than traditional LED filter colour systems do, while the Bravia 7’s HDR support extends to the premium Dolby Vision format as well as the basic HDR10 and HLG systems. Dolby Vision adds extra scene-by-scene information to image streams that compatible TVs can use to deliver a more accurate and dynamic HDR effect.

Promising though this specification is, though, I’ve seen plenty of other TVs fail to capitalise on similar levels of on-paper glory. Which brings us to the key that unlocks the Bravia 7’s potential: the latest version of Sony’s XR processor. This draws on Sony’s decades of picture-quality experience in both the consumer and professional worlds, marshalling the Bravia 7’s hardware advantages into producing endlessly enjoyable pictures.

At the heart of the 55in Bravia 7’s success is its ability to combine extreme brightness (for such an affordable TV) with excellently deep, rich black colours and dark areas - even within the same frame. On the brightness side, the Bravia 7 manages to peak at nearly 2300 nits for small bright highlights of HDR pictures - the sort of intensity I’d normally only hope (but wouldn’t really expect) to see from a flagship TV, never mind a midrange model. Yet Sony’s local dimming and miniLED control systems somehow manage to deliver all that brightness without dark scenes looking greyed over or disrupted by backlight ‘blooming’ around bright HDR highlights, even if these highlights appear against almost-black backdrops.

The black bars above and below films with wider aspect ratios than the TV’s 16:9 remain completely free of clouding or brightness instability, too - a difficult skill that hardly any other current LCD TVs can manage.

I’m not saying there’s no blooming at all on the Bravia 7 (apart from in the black bars around images, which Sony really has managed to isolate perfectly). Shots containing really extreme mixes of bright and dark content can look just a touch cloudy in places, and very occasionally a skin-tone will look a little grey or ‘cool’ thanks to the extraneous light being produced around a nearby very bright object. The sort of shots that cause these issues are so rare, and the impact of the clouding so faint, though, that I almost wish I hadn’t bothered mentioning them. Especially as there’s so much other good stuff to draw your attention.

The K55XR70’s colours, for instance, are consistently outstanding. In the TV’s relatively aggressive  picture settings they look exceptionally rich and vibrant for a midrange TV, holding on to plenty of saturation even in the brightest parts of an HDR image. In fact, colours thrive on the screen’s high brightness - it doesn’t cause them to become thin or faded.

If you prefer your pictures to look more mild and accurate, the Bravia 7s’ ‘Cinema’ and ‘Expert’ presets follow the standards used for mastering movies and TV shows slavishly. The result is some of the most convincing and accurate ‘as the director intended’ pictures around.

That’s not to say, though, the more heavily saturated look of the Bravia 7’s relatively vibrant picture presets looks artificial or cartoonish. As with the Bravia 9, one of the Bravia 7’s biggest strengths relative to its LED competition is its ability to pick out subtle shade changes in even the most heavily saturated and brightest areas - even the most vibrant hues avoid looking forced or imbalanced relative to the rest of the screen’s palette.

Dark scenes also retain good colour saturation and subtlety, providing yet more evidence of just how impressive the Bravia 7’s backlight system is. A few of the very faintest details can get lost in the murkiest recesses of dark HDR scenes in ‘Cinema’ mode, but not so badly that these scenes or picture areas actually start to feel obviously hollow or flattened. In fact, you may only notice detail going astray if you’re already very familiar with how a particular scene should look.

Native 4K pictures look exceptionally crisp and sharp, and Sony’s excellent processing system also does a lovely crisp, natural job of upscaling HD and even SD sources to the screen’s 4K pixel count. Clarity remains intact, too, during camera pans and fast motion thanks to Sony’s class-leading motion processing, which on its lowest power settings can take the edge off judder with 24p movie content without generating any unwanted side-effects. 

‍Sound quality‍

The 55in Bravia 7’s audio isn’t quite as fantastic as its picture quality - but it’s still above par for its price.

Its speakers go loud enough to add a convincingly immersive dimension to the worlds so dazzlingly painted by the screen, and their sound projects far enough away from the TV to create a busy and convincing soundstage. Especially with Dolby Atmos soundtracks.

Details are crisp without becoming too bright, and while bass doesn’t extend especially low, it is nicely controlled, sensibly working within the speakers’ limits rather than succumbing to nasty distortions.

Vocals are convincingly clear while still sounding like a natural part of their surroundings, and while a bit more raw grunt and dynamic range would be appreciated there’s a general sense of refinement to the sound that isn’t common among midrange TVs.

If you want to get the best out of the Bravia 7’s sound, I’d recommend running the auto-calibration system Sony has provided, allowing the TV to use test signals to optimise its sound for your specific room layout.

‍Living with the Bravia 7‍

The K55AR70’s ‘One Slate’ design, where screen and frame appear to be fused together to create a single flat surface, is an attractive and premium-looking addition to your living room. It sticks out a bit further round the back than most of today’s TVs, but not so much that it can’t still be a good wall-hanging option.

The provided feet can helpfully be attached to the TV either close together or out towards each corner of the screen. You can also choose to have the TV sit down low on its feet or be raised a few inches to accommodate a soundbar.

While the Bravia 7 is unusually flexible when it comes to set-up, one limitation worth bearing in mind is that it loses contrast, and suffers with more obvious backlight blooming, if you have to watch it from off-axis.

Smart features on the Bravia 7 are provided by Google TV. This is good news when it comes to content, especially as Sony has managed to add the YouView app to Google’s usual app roster to ensure there’s support for the catch-up services of all of the UK’s main terrestrial broadcasters. A Google Assistant voice recognition system lets you control most of the TV’s features just by talking to it, too (if you don’t find talking to your TV a bit weird, which I have to admit I still kind-of do).

Google TV isn’t the cleverest system when it comes to recommending content you might like based on your viewing habits, and isn’t the easiest interface to learn your way round. Sony has done a better job than most Google TV-toting brands when it comes to integrating the TV’s set-up menus alongside all the streaming services and apps, though, while specially designed Netflix and Prime Video ‘calibrated’ picture settings can deliver streams from these services that look as close to the mastered files as possible.

Buyers of the Bravia 7 also get access to the Sony Pictures ‘Core’ service, which allows you to stream films at up to 80Mbps for a premium video streaming experience.

The Bravia 7 is fairly well connected for a midrange TV. It has four HDMIs, and can support gaming in 4K with 120Hz refresh rates, as well as variable refresh rates and auto game mode switching. It declares itself ‘Perfect for PlayStation 5’, too, meaning the console can recognise which model of TV it is and automatically optimise its output accordingly. The only niggle with its connections is that only two of its HDMIs support the full range of gaming features, rather than all four. But then again, most households are unlikely to have more than two 4K/120Hz-capable consoles. 

‍Conclusion

‍The Sony Bravia 7 delivers premium picture quality for a mid-range price, backed up by a tidy audio system and a healthy feature count that includes plenty of support for gamers as well as home cinema fans. All of which makes its £1,299 price look more than reasonable.

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Watching notes

Severance Apple TV+ 4K Dolby Vision ‍

Apple makes easily the most consistently awesome-looking TV shows, and none look sharper, cleaner, or more dynamic (especially if you’re watching the Dolby Vision stream) than Severance. The Bravia 7 handles all of the show’s extremes of colour and contrast effortlessly, as well as bringing out every last pixel of detail of its native 4K production.  

It (Chapter One) 4K Blu-ray

Few films give LCD TVs as tough a workout as the first of Andy Muschietti’s two It films. Far from catching the Bravia 7 out, though, It actually proves to be a showcase of the TV’s local dimming mastery, fine detailing, colour volume and motion clarity.  

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Playstation 5

Provided you’ve got your PlayStation 5 connected to one of the Bravia 7’s two 120Hz-capable HDMI ports, it automatically optimises itself to deliver the buttery smooth, ultra-sharp and spectacularly vibrant HDR charms of the latest Call of Duty game more immaculately than arguably any other TV in its class.

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You buy a Sony Bravia 7 because it delivers arguably the best picture quality, for gamers as well as film fans, in the midrange TV world. There’s more brightness than an equivalently priced OLED TV can give you, blacks look almost OLED-like for much of the time, and Sony’s stellar picture processing manages to convert the extreme capabilities of the Bravia 7’s hardware into stunning levels of picture subtlety and accuracy.

If you’re a gamer, adding a PlayStation 5 to the Bravia 7 is a no-brainer thanks to the way the console auto-optimises both its graphics and the TV’s settings when the TV detects an incoming game source. If you get the disc-drive version of the PlayStation 5, you’ll also be getting yourself a  pretty good 4K Blu-ray player. The only catch is that the PS5’s 4K BD drive doesn’t support Dolby Vision, so if you want to enjoy absolutely the best quality from 4K Blu-ray discs that carry Dolby Vision masters, you’ll need to add a separate 4K Blu-ray player, such as Panasonic UB820.

While the Bravia 7’s integrated sound system is pretty good for its money, you may well want to add a soundbar at some point. Sony’s own Bravia Theatre 8 or, even better, Theatre 9 soundbars are great options, of course - especially as they carry connections that allow the TV’s speakers to join in with the soundbar to create a fuller centre-channel experience.

Those soundbars don’t include any rear or external subwoofer speakers as standard, though, and adding Sony’s optional rears and subs can prove expensive. So if you want a full surround sound soundbar, these don’t get any better than Samsung’s HW-Q990D.

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