Sony Bravia 9 TV vs. Sony A95L TV Comparison

The Sony Bravia 9 mounted on the wall in a white room displaying a colorful abstract image

By: Bailey

Content Writer

12 min read

If you've purchased a TV before, you likely already know which brands dominate the market. You may even have a go-to brand. One of the biggest brands in the television industry is Sony, and we carry a wide selection of their screens here at Abt. But all of these options can make choosing a TV complicated. How do you determine which Sony model is right for you, your home and your watching habits? Two popular picks among our customers are the Sony Bravia 9 and the Sony A95L, but the catch? They're fairly similar. Of course, they're separate TVs, but just by scanning the features, you may have trouble figuring out the real differences. Here, we'll break down both TVs, comparing and contrasting visuals, screen size, sound quality, smart TV functions, connectivity and more. Keep reading and find the perfect Sony screen for all your future watch parties.

When comparing TVs, the factor we typically explore first is display quality. As these devices are designed for watching, the viewing experience is of the utmost importance. We'll begin with the visual features the Sony Bravia 9 and the Sony A95L share:

Processors: The Sony Bravia 9 is equipped with an XR Processor, while the Sony A95L uses the Cognitive Processor XR™. The names of these processors are slightly different, but the underlying technology is the same. By processing hundreds of thousands of on-screen elements in real-time, these processors promote lifelike picture quality and boost clarity.
Dolby Vision: Dolby Vision is an HDR technology that promotes extraordinary brightness, striking highlights, dynamic contrast, deeper blacks and bold colors onscreen.
IMAX Enhanced: IMAX Enhanced is meant to bring the movie theater experience into your home. It preserves the cinematic aspect ratio used in standard IMAX theaters, reducing noise and grain while adding more clarity, vibrant colors and greater contrast. It also enables a special DTS:X audio format so you can enjoy immersive, true-to-life 3D sound.
XR Clear Image™: The XR Clear Image™ feature helps recover lost detail and texture, while reducing blur and noise for the most optimal onscreen clarity.
4K Upscaling: Even if your favorite content is low resolution, both of these Sony TVs can perform 4K Upscaling, enhancing the resolution of every TV show and film to match the screen's high quality.
Studio Calibrated Picture Modes: These display settings are designed to faithfully reproduce the film creator's vision each time you stream a movie. Netflix Calibrated Mode performs studio-quality remastering, relying on an ambient light sensor to automatically optimize the brightness of your content based on the room conditions. SONY PICTURES CORE/BRAVIA CORE Calibrated Mode automatically adjusts your content to the most optimal picture settings. There's even a Prime Video Calibrated Mode.
Pure Stream™: The Pure Stream™ feature will take standard streaming content and upscale it to reach near lossless 4K UHD Blu-ray quality.

While this is the end of the features shared between the Sony Bravia 9 and the Sony A95L, some other features between the two screens are fairly similar:

Sony Bravia 9's XR Contrast Booster 30 vs. Sony A95L's XR OLED Contrast Pro
- XR Contrast Booster 30 promotes dazzling highlights and deeper black levels so your content truly pops. XR OLED Contrast Pro offers more pronounced colors and black levels with up to 200% color brightness. Both XR Contrast Booster 30 and XR OLED Contrast Pro perform these enhancements across the entire picture, but XR OLED Contrast Pro focuses these optimizations the most in the bright areas onscreen.
Sony Bravia 9's XR Triluminos Pro vs. Sony A95L's XR Triluminos Max™
- XR Triluminos Pro allows the TV to access billions of color shades, hues and saturation, expanding the color range for more precision and accuracy. XR Triluminos Max™ relies on the millions of self-illuminating pixels in the Sony A95L to widen the color palette while delivering more color brightness, detail and saturation. XR Triluminos Pro is found in standard LCD or OLED-paneled TVs, while XR Triluminos Max™ is typically used in QLED TVs and QD-OLED TVs as it has more advanced color technology.
Sony Bravia 9's XR Motion Clarity vs. Sony A95L's XR OLED Motion
- Both XR Motion Clarity and XR OLED Motion analyze onscreen motion and control each frame precisely to combat judder and blur, ultimately making your content smoother. The sole difference is that XR Motion Clarity analyzes movement across existing frames only. XR OLED Motion, on the other hand, helps smooth content by inserting new frames between already existing frames.

The Sony Bravia 9 mounted on the wall of a white room displaying an image of a cowboy riding a horse outside while the sun is setting

We'll be honest though; the Sony Bravia 9 does offer a few more visual enhancements than the Sony A95L. XR Backlight Master Drive controls the thousands of Mini LEDs in the TV to deliver Sony's brightest 4K screen to date. X-Wide Angle ensures your content can be viewed from any angle in the room and still look premium, preserving both brightness and color. Lastly, X-Anti Reflection allows you to watch films and shows in the brightest rooms at peak sunshine hours thanks to its ability to reduce unwanted glare.

If the functionality of a TV can be summed up in two parts, one being the display, then the counterpart is audio. While there was plenty to compare between the displays, the audio quality offered with these TVs is pretty much the same. We'll begin with shared audio features. Both TVs can perform 3D Surround Upscaling, taking standard audio and using intelligent processing to make the sound more three-dimensional. The Sony A95L is equipped with Voice Zoom 2 and the Sony Bravia 9 is equipped with Voice Zoom 3. While these are different "editions" of Voice Zoom, the feature operates the same, precisely controlling dialogue so it's always loud and clear. Both TVs have Dolby Atmos, innovative spatial audio technology that creates an immersive surround sound experience. They also share DTS:X, audio technology that allows sound to move freely around you, the viewer, instead of confining the audio to specific channels. The last similarity between these Sony TVs is Acoustic Center Sync. This feature helps the TV speakers pair with additional Sony soundbars and BRAVIA Theater speakers if you're interested in building out an advanced home theater sound system. While Sony soundbars do come with their own remote, these TVs also have a Quick Settings menu that will automatically appear upon connecting an extra speaker, so you can control your TV and your soundbar with just one remote.

The last audio aspect to cover is not a shared feature between the two screens, but a very similar feature. The Sony Bravia 9 has Acoustic Multi-Audio+ and the Sony A95L has Acoustic Surface Audio+™. Acoustic Multi-Audio+ works with the dual frame tweeters and up-firing beam tweeters in the Sony Bravia 9 to produce an elevated soundstage from the center of the screen, following the action in your content. Acoustic Surface Audio+™, on the other hand, works with actuators behind the Sony A95L and a built-in subwoofer to project audio from the entire screen, following the action and elevating the soundstage. Rather than relying on tweeters to simulate sound like the Sony Bravia 9, the Sony A95L creates the illusion of sound by vibrating the screen itself.

When it comes to extra TV technology and special features, the Sony Bravia 9 and the Sony A95L are one and the same. Both devices have Google TV operating systems. Google TV provides over 700,000 TV episodes and films, live TV channels and more. It also holds over 10,000 apps if you're a fan of streaming. The best part about Google TV is its easy-to-navigate interface, so finding your favorite content and streaming services is simple and quick. One perk of investing in these Sony models, though, is the exclusive SONY PICTURES CORE app, formerly known as BRAVIA CORE which you may spot in the Sony A95L features. This app houses the largest IMAX® Enhanced film collection, as well as the latest Sony Pictures Entertainment titles. All of this content can be redeemed with included movie credits.

The Sony A95L mounted on a wall above a fireplace in a luxury living room

But Sony understands that watchable content extends beyond just TV shows, films, sports and news. That's why both the Sony Bravia 9 and the Sony A95L have built-in Chromecast and are both compatible with Apple AirPlay, so you can display your own personal photos and videos on the big screen. These TVs even offer a way to watch more than one piece of content simultaneously. Just activate Game Mode and you'll be able to use Multi View to split the screen so you can watch YouTube and something else at the same time. Both Sony models also offer Kids Profiles for a protected family-friendly watching experience, and an Eco Dashboard so users can take advantage of energy-saving settings.

Are you planning to use your TV to game? Whether you choose the Sony Bravia 9 or the Sony A95L, you're in good hands, as they offer the same benefits. Both screens come with a handy Game Menu, providing an easier way to manage your gaming picture settings with a variety of features. Black Equalizer helps reveal lost detail in darker, shadowy scenes. Crosshair will put a crosshair overlay, much like a target, in the center of your screen to help you aim at enemies accurately. Screen Size will give you the power to shrink your game as small as 30% of the screen for more focused, precise gameplay. While there are several ways to connect different gaming consoles to the Sony Bravia 9 and the Sony A95L, connecting via an HDMI 2.1 input will gain you even more game optimizations.

4K/120 will enable a compatible game to reach 120 fps in 4K resolution, while Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) will make your TV match the frame rate of your console so you can enjoy smooth gameplay with no screen tearing, stuttering or delays. For more responsive gaming, Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM) will enable your TV to automatically switch to a lower latency whenever your device is connected to a gaming console, efficiently preventing lag. The last HDMI 2.1 feature is Source-based Tone Mapping (SBTM), which communicates the TV's HDR capabilities to your console for even further optimized gameplay. If you're already a PlayStation® 5 owner, there are even more enhancements where this came from. Auto HDR Tone Mapping will automatically adjust the HDR settings of your PS5® for more detailed contrast, and Auto Genre Picture Mode will automatically optimize the picture quality on the TV, enabling a focused Game Mode.

Control and design are the last comparisons to make between these two models. Both the Sony Bravia 9 and the Sony A95L come with a compact, premium remote with backlit keys for better visibility. It also has an easy-to-clean design and built-in buttons for popular streaming services. Should you ever lose your remote, you can rely on the BRAVIA Connect app. Upon downloading this app, you'll be able to control your TV, change picture settings, adjust the volume and more from your smartphone. If you prefer a hands-free entertainment experience, both TVs are compatible with Google Assistant too, so just give your device a verbal command and watch them do the work for you. No matter how many speakers or gaming consoles you connect to these TVs, their intuitive designs will make cord organization easier than ever: the backs of both screens offer integrated cable management so you can hide all of your wires while keeping your entertainment center clutter-free. The only design differences between the Sony Bravia 9 and the Sony A95L are the screen sizes available and the style of each accompanying TV stand, which will not be an important factor for those planning to mount their TV.

The Sony A95L displaying the two different TV stand setups it offers

The Sony Bravia 9 displaying the four different TV stand setups it offers

The range of screen sizes available for either TV are fairly similar, but still worth mentioning. The Sony Bravia 9 comes in 65-inch, 75-inch and 85-inch sizes. The Sony A95L comes in 55-inch, 65-inch and 77-inch sizes. To pick the perfect size for your living room, consider factors like viewing distance and the size of your room. But the Sony screen size you choose will also determine what type of TV stand your device will come with, so let's break this design aspect down. The Sony Bravia 9, no matter which screen size you choose, comes with a versatile four-way stand. This stand offers two low-profile positions, perfect for narrower or wider furniture, and two raised positions optimal for placing a soundbar beneath the screen. The Sony A95L, on the other hand, offers two different TV stands. If you invest in the 55-inch or 65-inch model, you'll get a two-way, multi-position stand. This stand can provide a low-profile setup, but it can also be raised to fit a soundbar. If you invest in the 77-inch model, you'll get a versatile three-way stand that can take on a low-profile position, a narrow setting for compact furniture and a raised setting for a soundbar.

At the end of the day, the Sony Bravia 9 and the Sony A95L have plenty in common. They share the same audio features, special technology and gaming features. But there are notable differences between these TVs:

Display Features: The Sony Bravia 9 comes with a few extra display features not found on the Sony A95L, but some of the shared/similar visual enhancements between these two devices use more advanced technology on the Sony A95L.
Screen Sizes: The Sony Bravia 9 offers a larger screen size option, while the Sony A95L offers a smaller screen size option.
TV Stand Flexibility: The TV stand designs available for the Sony Bravia 9 are more flexible than the Sony A95L TV stand designs.
Price: At the time of publication, the 65" Sony Bravia 9 costs $3498, while the 65" Sony A95L costs $2998 (prices will vary depending on size).

No matter which TV you bring home, you can expect every watch party to be taken to the next level. To learn more about screens like these, peruse Abt's guide to TVs. All other questions about these Sony models can be answered by our entertainment experts at 800-860-3577.