Sony BRAVIA 3 Review (K-43S30, K-50S30, K-55S30, K-65S30, K-75S30, K-85S30) (2024)

Curved No

The TV is very reminiscent of the Sony A80K/A80CK OLED, with a basic design that looks good overall.

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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 and has the familiar checkerboard pattern similar to many other Sony TVs. The inputs are on the far left side of the TV when facing the front, but they're in a recessed cutout, so they're a bit hard to reach if you have the TV mounted flush to the wall. Clips on the feet can be used to help with cable management.

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Borders 0.47" (1.2 cm)

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Max Thickness 2.80" (7.1 cm)

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The TV has decent build quality overall. It's mostly made of plastic, so it's light and feels a bit cheap, but the two metal feet hold the TV well enough that there are no major issues with stability. The build quality is nothing special, but there's no issue with quality control, which is great.

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Contrast

Native Contrast

The Sony BRAVIA 3 has terrible contrast. Blacks are raised and look gray when highlights are also on the screen, and the TV lacks a local dimming feature to improve its contrast.

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The TV doesn't have a local dimming feature, so there's no blooming around bright objects or subtitles during dark scenes.

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Local Dimming

Backlight

Dimming Zones Count Of Tested TV

This TV doesn't have a local dimming feature, so it can't adjust the backlight of individual areas to brighten up highlights without impacting the rest of the image. This means that there are no distracting flickers or brightness changes as bright highlights move across the screen.

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Switching to Game Mode doesn't result in any noticeable difference in dark scene performance.

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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

Peak 50% Window

Peak 100% Window

Sustained 2% Window

Sustained 10% Window

Sustained 25% Window

Sustained 50% Window

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

Peak 50% Window

Peak 100% Window

Sustained 2% Window

Sustained 10% Window

Sustained 25% Window

Sustained 50% Window

Sustained 100% Window

Automatic Brightness Limiting (ABL)

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600 Nit Tracking Delta

1000 Nit Tracking Delta

4000 Nit Tracking Delta

The Sony BRAVIA 3 has excellent PQ EOTF tracking. Blacks and near-blacks are raised, but the TV follows the curve very closely until it approaches its peak brightness. The TV has the same gradual roll-off near its peak brightness for content mastered at all three nit levels to preserve some details in highlights.

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Real Scene Peak Brightness

Peak 2% Window

Peak 10% Window

Peak 25% Window

Peak 50% Window

Peak 100% Window

Sustained 2% Window

Sustained 10% Window

Sustained 25% Window

Sustained 50% Window

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 a very good HDR color gamut. It has outstanding coverage of the commonly used DCI-P3 color space, but all colors are undersaturated and mostly off the mark. The TV has okay coverage of the wider Rec. 2020 color space, but colors are inaccurate and undersaturated.

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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 TV has satisfactory color volume, but it doesn't do a very good job of displaying dark saturated colors due to its terrible contrast. It also can't display most colors very brightly.

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White Balance dE

Color dE

Gamma

Color Temperature

Picture Mode

Color Temp Setting

Gamma Setting

The Sony BRAVIA 3 has fantastic pre-calibration SDR accuracy. The TV's white balance is outstanding, with blues, reds, and greens just a bit underrepresented in shades of gray. The color temperature is exactly at 6500K, and it does an excellent job of displaying colors with accuracy, but there are still some minor inaccuracies with most colors. Gamma is close to our target of 2.2, but all scenes are displayed darker than intended.

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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 BRAVIA 3 has very good gray uniformity, although the corners are darker than the rest of the screen, and there's some dirty screen effect towards the center. On a very dark or near-black screen, its uniformity is fantastic, with only the edges being slightly lighter than the rest of the screen.

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Std. Dev.

Native Std. Dev.

The TV has decent black uniformity, but large areas of the screen are blueish and cloudy.

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Color Washout

Color Shift

Brightness Loss

Black Level Raise

Gamma Shift

The TV has a very good viewing angle. Colors wash out, and there's some brightness loss the further you move off-center. However, the image remains mostly consistent when viewed from the sides of the screen. This makes it a good option for a wide seating arrangement.

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Screen Finish

Total Reflections

Indirect Reflections

Calculated Direct Reflections

The Sony BRAVIA 3 has satisfactory reflection handling. Its semi-gloss screen finish significantly reduces the intensity of indirect reflections, like when glare from a ceiling light isn't directly facing the screen. Unfortunately, the TV's handling of direct reflections is only alright, so reflections caused by something like a lamp positioned in front of the screen are distracting.

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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 good HDR gradient handling. There's noticeable banding in dark grays and bright greens, but all other colors have minimal banding.

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Smoothing

Detail Preservation

The Sony BRAVIA 3 has great low-quality content smoothing. It does an impressive job of smoothing out artifacts in low-bitrate content while still preserving details.

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Subpixel Layout

Type LED

Sub-Type

The TV has an RGB sub-pixel layout, so it doesn't have any issues rendering text when used as a PC monitor.

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80% Response Time

100% Response Time

The Sony BRAVIA 3 has an only decent response time, so there's some noticeable blur behind fast-moving objects.

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Flicker-Free

PWM Dimming Frequency

The TV is flicker-free in all pictures modes and at all brightness levels, which is great.

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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 backlight strobing feature, commonly known as black frame insertion, to reduce persistence blur. It only flickers at 120Hz, which causes image duplications with 60 fps content.

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Motion Interpolation (30 fps)

Motion Interpolation (60 fps)

The TV has an optional motion interpolation feature to improve the clarity of motion, but it doesn't work very well. Even slower-moving scenes have some noticeable artifacts. The TV really struggles in faster-moving scenes, and there are distracting artifacts and haloing, and at times, the TV stops interpolating altogether.

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Frame Hold Time @ 24 fps

Frame Hold Time @ 60 fps

Due to the TV's slower response time, there's only some minor stutter when watching movies or TV shows, and it's only noticeable during slow panning shots.

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Judder-Free 24p

Judder-Free 24p via 60p

Judder-Free 24p via 60i

Judder-Free 24p via Native Apps

The Sony BRAVIA 3 automatically removes judder from 24Hz sources like a Blu-ray player and the native apps. Unfortunately, it doesn't remove 24p judder from 60Hz sources like most cable TV boxes and older streaming devices that lack a Match Frame Rate feature.

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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

This TV doesn't support VRR to reduce screen tearing.

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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

This TV has incredibly low input lag when set to Game Mode and Graphics Mode, which ensures a very responsive gaming experience with very little delay between your actions on a controller or mouse and the action on-screen.

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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 Sony BRAVIA 3 supports almost all common resolutions up to 4k @ 60Hz, but it doesn't support 1440p. It displays chroma 4:4:4 properly with any signal as long as the TV is in Graphics Mode, which is important for reading clear text from a PC.

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Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM)

4k @ 120Hz

1440p @ 120Hz

1080p @ 120Hz

HDR

VRR

The Sony BRAVIA 3 is a 60Hz TV, so it only supports up to 4k @ 60Hz on the PS5. It has Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM), so it'll automatically switch to Game Mode when the TV detects a game console as its input device, which gives you the lowest possible input lag for games. The TV doesn't support 1440p.

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Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM)

4k @ 120Hz

1440p @ 120Hz

1080p @ 120Hz

HDR

VRR

The Sony BRAVIA 3 is a 60Hz TV, so it only supports up to 4k @ 60Hz on the Xbox Series X|S. It has Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM), so it'll automatically switch to Game Mode when the TV detects a game console as its input device, which gives you the lowest possible input lag for games. It also supports Dolby Vision for gaming, but it 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, 6 GHz)

The TV is limited to HDMI 2.0 bandwidth on all four ports. It supports Dolby Vision, and it has an ATSC 3.0 tuner, so you can watch 4k content over-the-air.

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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 0

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

The TV has eARC support, which allows it to pass uncompressed high-quality audio from a connected source to your home theater system or soundbar. Unfortunately, it doesn't support any DTS formats commonly used on Blu-rays.

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Low-Frequency Extension

Std. Dev. @ 70

Std. Dev. @ 80

Std. Dev. @ Max

Max

Dynamic Range Compression

The TV has an alright frequency response. Like most TVs, there's almost no bass. Dialogue is clear at most listening levels, but the sound becomes quite unbalanced at the TV's maximum volume. Since the speakers don't get very loud, it's best suited for a quiet environment.

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Weighted THD @ 80

Weighted THD @ Max

IMD @ 80

IMD @ Max

The TV's distortion performance is okay. The distortion increases as you raise the TV's volume, and it's very noticeable at the TV's maximum volume. You need to listen at lower volume levels for minimal distortion.

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Smart OS Google TV

Version 12

Ease of Use

Smoothness

Time Taken to Select YouTube

Time Taken to Change Backlight

Advanced Options

The Sony BRAVIA 3 uses version 12 of the popular Google TV operating system, and the interface is smooth and easy to use.

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Ads

Opt-out

Suggested Content in Home

Opt-out of Suggested Content

Unfortunately, like almost all TVs on the market, the smart interface contains ads, and you can't disable them.

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App Selection

App Smoothness

Cast Capable

USB Drive Playback

USB Drive HDR Playback

HDR in Netflix

HDR in YouTube

The TV has a fantastic selection of apps, so finding your favorite content is easy. You can cast content from your phone using the built-in AirPlay 2 or Chromecast, and you can play videos directly from a USB stick.

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Size

Voice Control

CEC Menu Control

Other Smart Features

Remote App Android TV

The remote has a matte finish with blue speckles. Outside of that, it's identical to the remotes included with most of Sony's 2023 models. It has buttons for popular streaming services, and you can use the built-in microphone to switch inputs, change apps, search within apps, and ask for the weather and time.

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There's a single button on the bottom of the TV that can be used to switch inputs, adjust the volume, change channels, and power the TV on/off. There's also a small button that you can use to turn on/off the TV's built-in microphone.

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Power Consumption 77 W

Power Consumption (Max) 243 W

Firmware 6120300202

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