The $30 million toe in the water

Sony has taken a bold step into the emerging world of RGB LED backlighting with its new Bravia 7 II, positioning the set as a challenger to both OLED and conventional LED televisions.

The Bravia 7 II sits alongside the higher-end Bravia 9 II and shares Sony's renowned image-processing engine, but its backlight is built from discrete red, green and blue LEDs rather than the all-white or blue LED arrays typical of most LCD panels.

88% of the BT.2020 colour space: A notable achievement

Colour reproduction is vivid, with the display covering about 88% of the BT.2020 colour space—a notable achievement for a consumer LCD, even if the industry has yet to produce a substantial library of content that exploits the full gamut.

Grayscale performance is solid, although reds tend to be a touch oversaturated and lighter greys in HDR appear slightly brighter than ideal.

The $2,200 nits peak brightness:Enough to overcome most ambient lighting conditions

The panel reaches a peak brightness of roughly 2,200 nits,more than enough to overcome most ambient lighting conditions in a typical living-room and offering generous headroom for the majority of HDR content, which is usually mastered at around 1,000 nits.

Outside of these artificial test patterns, real-world content showed virtually no distracting bleed, and any minor shifts in hue were imperceptible to the casual viewer.

A trade-off between pure accuracy and maximum colour breadth

The TV also includes an experimental menu option that lets users switch the backlight from coloured to white LEDs; this eliminates the minimal colour-bleed observed on certain UI elements but reduces the colour-gamut coverage to roughly 73% of BT.2020 and 91% of P3,highlighting the trade-off between pure accuracy and maximum colour breadth.

Beyond its picture quality, the Bravia 7 II incorporates several distinctive design touches. Its pedestal stand features a lenticular screen that renders cables behind it effectively invisible, delivering a sleek, almost floating appearance while maintaining practical cable management.

The $2,000 price tag: A premium for RGB LED technology

The Bravia 7 II represents a compelling, if niche, option in the current market, but its premium price tag may be a barrier for early adopters and enthusiasts seeking a new level of colour fidelity without the black-level perfection of OLED.

According to the review, Sony's execution demonstrates that it can rival OLED in brightness and surpass traditional LED panels in colour vividness, provided that manufacturers continue to adopt wider-gamut mastering practices.

Who is the unnamed buyer?

The review does not mention the unnamed buyer, but it is clear that Sony is targeting a specific audience with its new Bravia 7 II, one that values cloour fidelity and is willing to pay a premium for it.

The Bravia 7 II is a bold step into the emerging world of RGB LED backlighting, and it will be interesting to see how it performs in the market and whether it can bridge the gap with OLED.