Sony A80L/A80CL OLED Review (XR-55A80L, XR-65A80L, XR-77A80L, XR-83A80L) (2025)

Curved No

The TV looks great; it has a premium design even though it has an all-plastic body. Its feet are made of metal.

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Uniformity Pictures N/A

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Wall Mount VESA 300x300

The back of the TV is made entirely of plastic. There's a cover for cable management, but it doesn't have clips to help route your cables; they just exit straight out of the right side of the TV. While side-facing inputs are easier to reach when the TV is wall-mounted than back inputs are, it's not as easy as if the inputs were closer to the edge. Make sure to remove the cable cover if you wall-mount the TV; otherwise, it makes reaching the inputs from the side much harder.

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Borders 0.31" (0.8 cm)

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Max Thickness 2.05" (5.2 cm)

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The TV is very well-built. Even though it's made of plastic, it's stable on its feet with barely any wobbling. There's some flex on the back panel, but nothing concerning. Overall a solid TV, as it looks and feels premium.

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Contrast

Native Contrast

Due to its OLED panel, the Sony Bravia A80L has a near-infinite contrast ratio. This gives it perfect black levels in dark rooms, so dark content looks amazing in dark environments.

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Due to OLED's self-emissive pixels, each pixel can turn itself completely off while next to pixels that are at their maximum brightness. This leads to perfect blacks around bright highlights, with no blooming whatsoever.

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Local Dimming

Backlight

Dimming Zones Count Of Tested TV

OLED TVs don't have backlights, but their self-emissive pixels give them the equivalent of a perfect local dimming feature with no zone transitions. We still film the zone transition video on the TV so you can compare it with a TV that does have transitions.

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The TV's contrast and dark details in Game Mode are just as fantastic as in other picture modes.

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Hallway Lights (~1950 cd/m²)

Yellow Skyscraper (~700 cd/m²)

Landscape Pool (~300 cd/m²)

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Sustained 2% Window

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Sustained 100% Window

Automatic Brightness Limiting (ABL)

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Hallway Lights (~1950 cd/m²)

Yellow Skyscraper (~700 cd/m²)

Landscape Pool (~300 cd/m²)

Peak 2% Window

Peak 10% Window

Peak 25% Window

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Peak 100% Window

Sustained 2% Window

Sustained 10% Window

Sustained 25% Window

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Sustained 100% Window

Automatic Brightness Limiting (ABL)

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600 Nit Tracking Delta

1000 Nit Tracking Delta

4000 Nit Tracking Delta

The TV has superb PQ EOTF tracking; it follows the target curve almost perfectly until there's a sharp roll-off at its peak brightness, causing a loss of fine details in bright scenes.

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Real Scene Peak Brightness

Peak 2% Window

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Sustained 2% Window

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Sustained 100% Window

Automatic Brightness Limiting (ABL)

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Wide Color Gamut

DCI P3 xy

DCI P3 uv

Rec 2020 xy

Rec 2020 uv

The TV has an excellent HDR color gamut; colors look vibrant and life-like. It has nearly perfect coverage of the commonly used DCI-P3 color space and good coverage of the wider and increasingly used Rec. 2020 color space. However, the TV's tone mapping is off in Rec. 2020, especially with desaturated colors. Saturated greens and blues also have tone mapping issues in Rec. 2020.

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1,000 cd/m² DCI P3 Coverage ITP

10,000 cd/m² Rec 2020 Coverage ITP

White Luminance

Red Luminance

Green Luminance

Blue Luminance

Cyan Luminance

Magenta Luminance

Yellow Luminance

The Sony A80L has great color volume. As with all OLEDs, it displays dark colors well due to its perfect blacks and near-infinite contrast ratio, but the TV's colors don't get very bright in part due to the A80L's low peak brightness but also due to its WOLED panel.

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White Balance dE

Color dE

Gamma

Color Temperature

Picture Mode

Color Temp Setting

Gamma Setting

Even without calibrating it, the Sony A80L OLED has good accuracy in SDR. Its gamma is close to the 2.2 target for moderately-lit rooms, although bright scenes are slightly too bright. Its white balance is decent but could be better; its accuracy worsens as it gets closer to pure white, and blues are overrepresented. The TV's color temperature is slightly on the cold side, giving the TV a slightly blue tint.

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White Balance dE

Color dE

Gamma

Color Temperature

White Balance Calibration

Color Calibration

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50% Std. Dev.

50% DSE

5% Std. Dev.

5% DSE

The Sony A80L has excellent gray uniformity. As is typical with WOLED panels, there are some noticeable vertical lines, but you can't see them from a reasonable viewing distance and in more complex scenes than just a single color background.

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Std. Dev.

Native Std. Dev.

Like all OLEDs, the TV has perfect black uniformity, with no blooming around bright objects.

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Color Washout

Color Shift

Brightness Loss

Black Level Raise

Gamma Shift

The TV has a fantastic viewing angle. The image remains consistent when viewed from the side, so it's a great choice for wide seating areas.

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Screen Finish

Total Reflections

Indirect Reflections

Calculated Direct Reflections

The TV has outstanding reflection handling. There's a very slight purple tint, but it's not distracting at all, and it handles reflections from bright light sources very well.

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100% Black to 50% Gray

50% Gray to 100% White

100% Black to 50% Red

50% Red to 100% Red

100% Black to 50% Green

50% Green to 100% Green

100% Black to 50% Blue

50% Blue to 100% Blue

The TV has great HDR gradient handling; the only really noticeable banding is in dark gray gradients.

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Smoothing

Detail Preservation

As is typical of Sony, the TV's low-quality content smoothing is great. It's almost free of macro-blocking in dark scenes, and fine details are preserved very well.

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Subpixel Layout

Type OLED

Sub-Type

The TV uses an RWBG panel, or WOLED, with four subpixels. While it doesn't affect picture quality, it's still important for users wanting to use the TV as a PC monitor, as Windows ClearType still can't fully compensate for non-RGB subpixel layouts, negatively affecting text clarity. You can read more about it here.

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80% Response Time

100% Response Time

The Sony A80L has a near-instantaneous response time, resulting in almost no motion blur behind fast-moving objects. However, due to the sample-and-hold nature of OLEDs, there's still some persistence blur.

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Flicker-Free

PWM Dimming Frequency

The TV is not quite flicker-free, as there's a very small dip in brightness every 8 ms, corresponding to the TV's refresh rate. You won't notice it, however, and it's not the same as pulse width modulation (PWM) on LED TVs, as it isn't a full-screen on-and-off cycle.

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Optional BFI

Min Flicker For 60 fps

60Hz For 60 fps

120Hz For 120 fps

Min Flicker for 60 fps in Game Mode

The TV has an optional black frame insertion feature to reduce persistence blur. Unfortunately, it only works with 60 fps content, so you can't use it with 120 fps video games.

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Motion Interpolation (30 fps)

Motion Interpolation (60 fps)

The TV has a motion interpolation feature to bring 30 and 60 fps content up to 120 fps. It does a good job with real content, especially in panning shots and slower dialog scenes. However, as is typical of motion interpolation, once the action ramps up, there's a fair amount of artifacting.

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Frame Hold Time @ 24 fps

Frame Hold Time @ 60 fps

Due to the near-instantaneous response time of the Sony A80L, there's a lot of stutter when watching lower-frame-rate content, as each frame is held onto for longer. Enabling motion interpolation can help reduce this, but that comes with its own caveats, like the soap opera effect or motion artifacting, so it isn't a perfect solution.

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Judder-Free 24p

Judder-Free 24p via 60p

Judder-Free 24p via 60i

Judder-Free 24p via Native Apps

The TV removes 24p judder from any source, including 60p sources that don't have a Match Frame Rate feature, which helps with the appearance of motion in movies. If you enable BFI, the TV can't remove judder from 60p sources anymore.

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Native Refresh Rate

Variable Refresh Rate

HDMI Forum VRR

FreeSync

G-SYNC Compatible

4k VRR Maximum

4k VRR Minimum

1080p VRR Maximum

1080p VRR Minimum

1440p VRR Maximum

1440p VRR Minimum

VRR + Local Dimming No Local Dimming

The TV supports variable refresh rate technology to reduce screen tearing. HDMI Forum VRR and G-SYNC compatibility work over the entire refresh rate range. Sadly, the lack of FreeSync support is disappointing if you want to use this TV with a PC equipped with an older AMD Radeon graphics card.

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1080p @ 60Hz

1080p @ 60Hz Outside Game Mode

1080p @ 120Hz

1080p @ 144Hz

1440p @ 60Hz

1440p @ 120Hz

1440p @ 144Hz

4k @ 60Hz

4k @ 60Hz + 10-Bit HDR

4k @ 60Hz @ 4:4:4

4k @ 60Hz Outside Game Mode

4k @ 60Hz With Interpolation

4k @ 120Hz

4k @ 144Hz

8k @ 60Hz

The TV has low input lag as long as you're in Game Mode. Although it's a bit higher than most other OLEDs from competing manufacturers, like the LG B3 OLED, it's still good enough for a responsive gaming feel.

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Resolution 4k

480p @ 59.94Hz (Widescreen)

720p @ 59.94Hz

1080p @ 60Hz @ 4:4:4

1080p @ 120Hz

1080p @ 144Hz

1440p @ 60Hz

1440p @ 120Hz

1440p @ 144Hz

4k @ 60Hz

4k @ 60Hz @ 4:4:4

4k @ 120Hz

4k @ 120Hz @ 4:4:4

4k @ 144Hz

8k @ 30Hz or 24Hz

8k @ 60Hz

The TV supports most common resolutions—except 1440p at any refresh rate—up to 4k @ 120Hz with HDMI ports 3 and 4 or 4k @ 60Hz on HDMI 1 and 2. It displays chroma 4:4:4 with all of its supported resolutions, which is essential for clear text when using the TV with a PC.

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Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM)

4k @ 120Hz

1440p @ 120Hz

1080p @ 120Hz

HDR

VRR

The Sony XR65A80L supports almost everything the PS5 offers through HDMI ports 3 and 4, which are the TV's two HDMI 2.1 bandwidth ports, except for 1440p. It has a few PS5-oriented features like Auto HDR Tone Mapping and Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM), with the latter working automatically on the PS5 without needing to enable it first.

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Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM)

4k @ 120Hz

1440p @ 120Hz

1080p @ 120Hz

HDR

VRR

The TV works well with the Xbox Series X|S as long as it's connected to ports 3 or 4, which are the TV's two full HDMI 2.1 bandwidth ports. It has Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM) support, although you need to set it to 'On' before it can work with the Xbox, and then it only switches into Game Mode when a game launches. The TV only supports Dolby Vision up to 4k @ 60Hz from the Xbox, as this TV doesn't support Dolby Vision with 4k @ 120Hz signals. Unfortunately, this TV doesn't support 1440p.

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HDR10

HDR10+

Dolby Vision

HLG

HDMI 2.0 Full Bandwidth

HDMI 2.1 Class Bandwidth

CEC Yes

HDCP 2.2 Yes (HDMI 1,2,3,4)

ATSC Tuner

USB 3.0

Variable Analog Audio Out No

Wi-Fi Support Yes (2.4 GHz, 5 GHz)

The TV supports full HDMI 2.1 bandwidth on HDMI ports 3 and 4, while HDMI ports 1 and 2 are limited to HDMI 2.0 bandwidth. As HDMI 3 is also the eARC port, you lose an HDMI 2.1 slot if you connect a receiver to it, which means that you can't use multiple HDMI 2.1 devices simultaneously when an audio receiver or soundbar is connected to the eARC port unless the receiver has HDMI 2.1 ports with pass through. The tuner supports ATSC 3.0, allowing you to stream over-the-air 4k channels.

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HDMI 4

USB 2

Digital Optical Audio Out 1

Analog Audio Out 3.5mm 0

Analog Audio Out RCA 0

Component In 0

Composite In 1 (adapter required, not incl.)

Tuner (Cable/Ant) 1

Ethernet 1

DisplayPort 0

IR In 1

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ARC/eARC Port

eARC: Dolby Atmos Over Dolby Digital Plus

eARC: Dolby Digital Plus 7.1

eARC: LPCM 7.1 Over Dolby MAT

eARC: Dolby TrueHD 7.1

eARC: DTS:X Over DTS-HD MA

eARC: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1

eARC: LPCM Channels (Bitstream)

ARC: Dolby Digital 5.1

ARC: DTS 5.1

Optical: Dolby Digital 5.1

Optical: DTS 5.1

As is typical of Sony TVs, the Sony A80L supports a wide range of advanced audio formats through eARC. The TV supports every major audio format, so you don't have to worry about it being compatible with different external sources.

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Low-Frequency Extension

Std. Dev. @ 70

Std. Dev. @ 80

Std. Dev. @ Max

Max

Dynamic Range Compression

The TV has decent frequency response but nothing that won't make you want a soundbar. It sounds best for dialogue in the mid-range, especially at moderate volume. The TV's frequency response worsens as the volume increases, and the treble is underwhelming at max volume. The TV does get quite loud, however.

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Weighted THD @ 80

Weighted THD @ Max

IMD @ 80

IMD @ Max

The TV has adequate distortion handling. While there's distortion through the TV's entire volume range, it gets worse as you raise the volume; there's a lot of it at max volume. So even though the TV can get quite loud, you want to listen to it at moderate volume for the best sound quality.

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Smart OS Google TV

Version 10

Ease of Use

Smoothness

Time Taken to Select YouTube

Time Taken to Change Backlight

Advanced Options

The TV has the same Google TV smart platform as other Sony TVs. It's very user-friendly, has loads of content, and has smooth menu navigation.

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Ads

Opt-out

Suggested Content in Home

Opt-out of Suggested Content

Unfortunately, ads are throughout the interface, like most TVs, and you can't fully opt-out.

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App Selection

App Smoothness

Cast Capable

USB Drive Playback

USB Drive HDR Playback

HDR in Netflix

HDR in YouTube

The Google Play Store has tons of apps available to download, and they run very smoothly. It also has Google Chromecast built-in, so you can cast content easily from your phone.

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Size

Voice Control

CEC Menu Control

Other Smart Features

Remote App Android TV

The included remote is small and has a built-in microphone, and unlike the Sony A75L OLED, there's also one in the TV, so you can use Google Assistant through both. The assistant works well; you can ask it to change the TV's inputs, search for content within apps, and even change the TV's brightness.

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There's a single button underneath the center of the TV that you can use to turn it on or off and change channels, the volume, and the inputs. There's also a switch to turn the internal microphone on or off, which is great if you're concerned about privacy.

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Power Consumption 89 W

Power Consumption (Max) 202 W

Firmware PKG6.7240.0826NAA

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