Sony BRAVIA 7 Mini LED QLED 4K HDR Google TV (2024)

I purchased a 75″ Sony BRAVIA 7 to replace a 75″ Sony X93CL —the Costco version of the X93L. Following are some comments on the BRAVIA 7 from the perspective of having owned the X93CL.

Picture. Even if I no longer have the X93CL, I can say that the image of the BRAVIA 7 is appreciably better. It has higher brightness, contrast and color saturation and XR Clear Image which the X93CL lacks and Sony claims to provide better upscaling. However, the BRAVIA 7 does not have X-Anti Reflection, for less reflection and glare, and X-Wide Angle for better off-center viewing –both of which the X93CL has. The BRAVIA 7 reflects every light source in my bedroom. To help remedy this I purchased a Philips Hue Large Smart Light Tube for placement behind the TV. It fits perfectly between the stand brackets in standard raised position.

Sound. The sound of the BRAVIA 7 is also superior to that of the X93CL and provides a better Acoustic Center Sync experience when paired with the HT-A7000 sound bar.

Stand. The stand brackets of the Sony 75” BRAVIA 7 are an improvement over those of the Sony 75” X93CL. Since the TV stand in standand position is 56.88” wide rather than 65.75” wide, it allows the TV to be placed on top of smaller furniture.

Sound Bar with Stand. The HT-A7000 sound bar, which has a height of 3.25”, fits well in front of the TV with the stand brackets in standard raised position. However, the sound bar partially blocks the TV IR sensor, and the IR-repeater function of the HT-A7000 sound bar did not work as intended. Therefore, one has to raise the remote control above the height of the TV IR sensor so that the remote’s signal can reach it. It is likely that I will replace the HT-A7000 sound bar with the BRAVIA Theatre Bar 9 which, having a height of only 2.63”, should not obstruct the TV IR sensor.

Remote. The use of recycled materials for the remote control is a minus. I prefer the remote control of the X93CL, which has an aluminum finish, rather than the speckled plastic of the BRAVIA 7, and it is backlit. Therefore, I purchased a replacement Sony RMF-TX910U remote. It works perfectly.

Delivery. Amazon’s Deluxe Delivery and Unpack service, provided by Amazon employees, was excellent. It should be available for every TV purchase.

I would have given the BRAVIA 7 five stars if it was not for the reflection and glare issue. I am surprised that, so far, only one reviewer has mentioned that “the screen is reflective.”

I was riding with the 900e till the wheels fell off. Sadly that happen last month when I accidentally broke the tv. With this being my first intro to mini Qled I’m almost at a lost for words at how great this tv. I can’t imagine how much better the Bravia 9 must be if the 7 is just suppose to be a mid tier tv. For a comparison it’s like an upgraded 95l (more dimming zones and new features) based on having seen both in person. Just don’t put it in a room with a lot of light (multiple window, bright lights etc.) the screen is reflective. Not a glossy screen nor is it matte; somewhere in the middle. I will say that the 93 and the 95 are good enough to compete in different ways with this tv. With that said outside of the screen being a bit reflective; it’s clearly an upgrade if you need/want a new tv.

Recently purchased a Samsung OLED s90c and although the colors, blacks and gaming features were all incredible, the motion handling on 24fps content was so poor that I had to return it. Just awful issues with stutter and turning on any sort of motion soothing features just gave you soap opera effect. the vast majority of tv shows and movies I watch are at 24fps so this was a deal breaker for me.

This Sony Bravia 7 gives you 95% or those colors and blacks and all the same gaming features with a PS5 but handles pans and motion 1000x better than the Samsung or probably just about any OLED (this is a problem with OLEDs because the displays are too fast for 24fps content).

The menus are laid out well, google tv is easy to use. Pretty much everything about this TV is incredible.

My only qualms so far are:

1) Heavy. These are much heavier than OLEDs. Not planning on moving it around much so not that big of a deal.
2) The Bravia Connect app does not seem to work with it. Hoping this gets corrected with a software update.
3) I have notices some very minor shifts in brightness while watching a show, this may be a setting I have turned on.

Everything else about this TV is so nice. Very happy with my purchase.

I Always buy Sony. My last Sony had excellent image tone & color. My new Bravia 7 is simply extraordinary. I’m speaking only as a consumer, but the Quantum mini Led gives contrast depth, deep blacks excellent image tone & color. Maybe those little quantum dots warmed up & spread out, the picture kept reaching new freshness. I bought 8k cables & an optical cable for a soundbar ( tv audio sounds ‘tinny.’ My other complaint, beside Only 2 4k HDR HDMI ports, and the lack a of better anti reflective screen, is the foolish remote. Smallest hand remote ever . With No Backlight !!! Impossible to use in the dark. An expensive TV and now I need to buy a $55 remote replacement . Minor details, But
I’m So in Love with my Sony Bravia 7 .
If I had the money instead of the 55”, because I’m disabled
I wish I had the 65.” I’m not able to be out in Nature any longer.
The 65” I could have taken many walks every day into the Beautiful scenes of the Redwoods, Zion & America’s National Parks !

Positives

– Picture quality is excellent.  Beautiful clarity, color and brightness.

– Upscaling performance on 1080p content seems excellent.  

– CPU performance seems great.  The TV’s OS feels snappy and responsive.  All the built in apps I tested for streaming services work great.  I prefer them to the apps on my Roku which surprised me. We now use the built in OS nearly exclusively.

– TV works great for gaming.  No ghosting or weird issues that I saw.

Neutral

– The built-in TV legs are adjustable to different heights to accommodate a soundbar.  This is a great feature, but the directions were very confusing. The instructions for all configurations are in a single diagram. You must determine which configuration you are using, and then which letters are for that configuration. You then need to discard the information that isn’t related to your configuration. Trying to follow those instructions for your specific configuration and not the others is difficult.  In other words, if I’m installing the legs on the television for configuration C, I’m looking at a diagram that explains the installation process for A, B, C & D simultaneously.   I found myself reviewing this diagram repeatedly during installation.  

– I have a Roku all in one soundbar that’s connected via HDMI-CEC.  When telling the TV to use the built-in speakers instead of our soundbar, no sound comes from the TV.   I believe this is a quirk related to the soundbar and Roku being a single device.  Other HDMI-CEC devices such as our Nintendo Switch don’t have this issue.

– Some common settings seem buried through many nested levels of menus. These would be settings like motion smoothing, HDMI audio delay, etc.

Negative 

– The TV has a feature to automatically adjust picture brightness.  The picture was consistently too dark with this feature enabled.  I tried various room lighting configurations to no avail.  I ended up turning this feature off completely and setting the picture brightness by hand.

– Despite this TV boasting pretty powerful hardware, there is no option for Picture-in-Picture. This looks to be related to the Google TV OS. Rumors state that Google might release PIP ability in late 2024 with Android 14, but it will be limited to non-entertainment apps. For a TV this robust and expensive this feels like a major limitation to be reliant on Google to build in advanced features.

– The design of the remote control could be much better:

– The buttons on the remote are smaller than a standard remote.  This makes some of them difficult to push.  This remote control is not well suited for those with visual impairments.

– On the remote there is a button with a gear icon, a wrench icon, and a menu icon.  It is never clear which button I should be pushing.  Each of these buttons brings up a different settings menu. I end up mashing through different settings buttons trying to hunt for the setting I wish to adjust.

– The TV is a privacy nightmare.  

– A large part of this is probably related to Google powering the TV’s OS.   Prepare to sign your life away during setup.

If you’re a TV geek seeking to set up a home theater with 3D sound, blinking lights, 100W speakers, and all sorts of other high-tech stuff, this is the TV for you! It’s got more settings and options than you can ever use. I suspect that, buried somewhere in that rat’s maze of menus and options, there’s a command that will turn your TV into a gateway to another universe.

However, if you’re just a normal person who wants only to watch TV, maybe record a few shows to watch later, or use headphones, you are in for a world of pain. This turbo-charged, megaflopping mighty video machine is not designed for everyday people. Peasants like me will never figure out the power of this machine. For all my efforts, I couldn’t get the speakers to work along with the headphones, a feat that my ancient Samsung TV had no problem accomplishing. We’ve gotten it working for most of our needs but we don’t dare attempt anything more, for fear that we’ll get forever stuck on a Hungarian children’s channel.

Watching Top Gun: Maverick in 4K on Amazon Prime, you’ll be absolutely blown away by the picture quality. From the deep blacks to the bright whites, this latest 2024 Bravia Series 7 from Sony shines with its mini-LED backlight technology. The level of detail in the picture and the high contrast make watching movies on this panel a theatrical experience and brings you right into the scene with its rich depth.

However, it’s not without its shortcomings including the high price tag for the size, as typical of Sony. Let’s break it down:

SETUP (4/5)

While straightforward, the setup process is quite drawn out and can easily take 10-15 minutes to work through. It requires a Google account if you don’t already have one and there are at least 4 end-user license agreements to work through (and for at least one, you’ll need to scroll all the ways to the bottom using the remote).

Once you’ve gone through all of the setup, the TV still needs to download and update software so don’t expect a plug-and-play experience. It’s not a confusing or frustrating process, but it is definitely drawn out.

PICTURE QUALITY (5/5)

Whether you’re watching K-dramas or the latest action movies, the picture quality is absolutely stunning! Sony’s latest mini-LED backlight technology enables deep blacks and bright whites in the same scene with minimal bleed. The opening scenes of Top Gun: Maverick looked spectacular and the 120hz native refresh made the fast-paced action scenes pop!

One thing to note is that the default auto-settings can be lacking. You’ll definitely want to tune the settings for the type of media you’re watching. Fortunately, the software is quite good and menus are easy to access. You can also make settings scoped to specific apps (e.g. Netflix, Amazon, Disney+, YouTube) so that if you’re watching specific types of media on one app, the settings can be saved just for the app.

Be sure to play around the with different picture modes and brightness to get it right. The default auto setting felt a bit washed out and not quite bright enough, but a bit of tuning brought out the amazing picture quality of this panel. To be clear, the panel is easily bright enough to use in sunny rooms, but the auto settings can leave you disappointed without some tuning.

AUDIO (–)

I’m using it with a sound bar so I can’t comment on the quality too much, but the small bit that I used it for it sounded completely adequate for a small room.

SOFTWARE (5/5)

Paired with Google’s software, the menus are snappy, easy to navigate, and easy to use. Once you connect your Google account, signing in to the apps is easy as well. Netflix and Amazon both signed in automatically using saved credentials.

I love the design of the menus as they are intuitive and easy to access using the remote. This makes adjustment of the picture settings easy to do while you’re watching without interrupting your show or movie. All of the key settings are easy to toggle with very few presses required while some of the more involved and less accessed configuration (like the audio output channel) is just 3 layers deep in the menu.

The Google TV software is a big upgrade if you’re coming from say a Roku. It’s much more personalized and lets you easily hop back in and pick up where you left off. That said, if you’re concerned about your privacy, this may not be a good choice for you!

Overall, the software is really good and quite responsive. Everything feels snappy and easy to use.

BUILD AND DESIGN (4/5)

The front of the set is quite minimal. 3 of the 4 sides have an ultra thin bezel while the bottom has a 1/2″ bezel. The Sony logo understated and tucked into a corner and the designers did a great job of restraining themselves from using a material that would otherwise be distracting; you’ll hardly notice the bezels.

However, this isn’t a thin panel at all. It is in fact quite thick and quite heavy. If you’re looking for an ultra-thin design, look elsewhere. There’s also a weird design with the mounting holes that mean you’ll need to install standoffs to wall the set as your mounting kit won’t work right with the deeply recessed mounting holes.

Ports are plentiful and easy to access, but one small quirk is the included optical out adapter which feels like it is going to be easy to misplace or damage in a move.

VALUE (3/5)

As typical of Sony sets, this Bravia set is on the higher end for a 55″ panel. For the price, you can easily get larger panels or higher quality outgoing model years. There’s lots of options in this price range and you may be hard pressed to say that this panel definitely delivers the value over some of the competitors.

If you’re considering this set, definitely go find a set to look at and see if you can spot the difference. If not, then you may want to look for a better value, a larger panel, or even outgoing OLED models from competitors. At this price point, especially for a 55″ panel, you have a LOT of options to consider.

OVERALL 4-4.5/5

There is no doubt that if you can get over the price for a 55″ set, you’ll be happy with your choice. This 2024 model year 7 series monitor delivers excellent picture quality along with responsive and easy to use software. The few minor nits aren’t enough to distract from the overall package — as long as value isn’t one of your primary criteria.

My first TV arrived with a cracked screen where something had impacted the corner. Amazon shipped me a replacement that arrived the next day so that was awesome! Second TV was carefully unboxed and hooked up with no issues.

The Google TV setup experience was good once I switched from the app to the TV when it came to getting the Wifi connected. This is a full on Smart Google TV so it integrates with the Google Home app. Picture quality is great. I set this up in the master bedroom so it’s not an overly bright room to begin with. The screen is not melt your face off bright but the colors produced are very realistic. This seems to specialize more for a cinema type experience. It also had an audio calibration feature that was similar to what you would find on a home audio system. You go and sit down wherever you watch TV from and it uses the remote to help it calibrate the audio volume. Audio was very strong for a TV.

Since this is a brand new model I’ll need to wait for the proper picture calibration results to come out. I’m excited to continue putting the TV through it’s paces.

The TV turns itself on and off randomly, between 10-30 seconds, constantly. It’s like a beautiful picture, that wants you to know you paid thousands to watch it turn on and off over and over, multiple times a minute. How daft am I to think this review will help? This started in the first few months, so burn your electronics in hard. Hopefully I will get ahold of someone for a replacement. If not, you’ll be like me, and posting on Amazon about the fact there is no email ticket support at Sony to initiate a basic service call. No phone, no email, no nothing.

The picture quality, sharpness, and color all begin to degrade as you move. Even one or two degrees off center. Unacceptable for a TV in 2024.

Also no optical audio out even though there is a label on the TV. There’s no port.

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