Sony A80L Review: Is this the best OLED TV of 2023?

Sony’s best 2023 TVs have landed, with the company believing its star attraction will be the A80L. Releasing alongside the X80L and X90L, the Sony A80L is the Sony OLED TV most likely to come across your radar. Especially for those looking at Sony A80L PS5 gaming. Coming in 55”, 65”, 77” and 83” variations, its improved XR Bravia processor, game menu options, Bravia Core Purestream and IMAX experience promises plenty. But does it deliver? Is it the best tv for PS5? Find out in technology writer Chris Stead’s Sony Bravia A80L OLED TV review.
Australian Sony 2023 TV range prices
55” X80L price = AU$1,799
65” X80L price = AU $2,249
75” X80L price = AU $2,999
85” X80L price = AU $4,199
55” X90L price = AU $2,999
65” X90L price = AU $3,599
75” X90L price = AU $4,699
85” X90L price = AU $5,899
98” X90L price = AU $13,999
55” A80L price = AU $4,099
65” A80L price = AU $5,299
77” A80L price = AU $8,299
83” A80L price = AU $12,199
Sony A80L release date = Out now
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#oledtv #gamingtv #technology

[@82bnelly]

What is the Picture in Picture like on this TV? Is it side by side or does it place one picture inside another picture? Are the picture sizes adjustable? I see the remote has become very minimalist. Is there a jump back to the last channel watched button when watching OTA programing? Thanks

[@motivatedtravel]

Unfortunately, Sony dropped PIP in all its Bravia TVs at the end of 2020. I don't remember a last channel watched function (but I didn't specifically look for one). I do believe you can set the TV to start on "last input" as opposed to the home screen. Again, didn't test this specifically. Sorry.

[@thecardoski]

Nice review, recently grabbed a Sony 48in 90k, amazing tv. Sony really does such a good job processing, awesome. OLED is so much nicer than LED imo.

[@motivatedtravel]

Thank you! Yeah they are solid TVs. In particular when paired with a PS5 and Sony soundbar!

[@jayaline]

Superb info and presentation. ... What's your opinion on the shadow detail level? Does the XR Bravia processor improve that any?

[@motivatedtravel]

Thank you! It's been well over a year since I used the A80L and I've seen plenty of TVs since. Can't be sure, other than to say I believe the new processor will be better, because it's all about contrast, and you've got a 10% brightness creep here. I suspect there will be a small improvement.

[@jayaline]

@@motivatedtravel Thanks so much. Cheers 👍🙂

[@hdlowrider1903]

I just bought this and after adjusting the settings to my liking this tv is sick. No one competes with sonys processing. Tv is amazing.

[@motivatedtravel]

Glad to hear it has hit the mark for you!! What was the main adjustment you made that had the best impact?

[@hdlowrider1903]

@@motivatedtravel I put it on custom. Mainly I messed around with the black levels. While non gaming I have black adjust on high. I also like the color saturation adjuster. I have that on high as well. I like a lot of contrast while watch stuff so I put peak brightness on max of course and did those tweaks that I mentioned and what a huge difference out of the box. Still messed around with stuff here and there. But overall it's great. I love Sony TVs

[@motivatedtravel]

@@hdlowrider1903 Awesome, great tips!

[@redpillthinking6043]

​@@hdlowrider1903You don't ever find the picture too dim? A lot of TVs I looked at were much brighter.

[@GodHatesXbox]

IMAX enhanced movies aren’t all the same. Some have the audio enhanced, some have certain parts of movies enhanced. There’s only a handful of movies that are “fully imax enhanced” avengers endgame for example is.

[@motivatedtravel]

That's very interesting, thanks for letting me know. During the briefing, they were highlighting IMAX enhanced as being all about the full screen experience. They probably should not have done that, lol.

[@GodHatesXbox]

@@motivatedtravel no problem! You may do some of your own research to understand it better but yeah, it’s great for some very specific movies & some there won’t be much difference. The biggest thing is it’s a higher bitrate for streaming. Netflix movies, for example will stream around 10-15mbps & an imax enhanced movie will be about 45mbps. 4k ULTRA dvd will hit around 80. iMAX enhanced gets us closer to dvd levels but it’s not all the way there. I’ll add as well, some scenes In movies are shot with imax & some aren’t. You’ll see it a ton in transformers movies where it shifts from full screen to the big black bars. When it goes full screen then you know that’s the imax camera

[@Arroyoishere]

Which do you prefer. C3 or A80L

[@motivatedtravel]

Outside of gaming, I think I'm leaning towards LG. Seeing some new Sony TVs in a few weeks though.

[@evaldasmerkelis4716]

I bought Sony A84Lu for gaming

[@motivatedtravel]

@@evaldasmerkelis4716 New range just got announced, got a video up on the Bravia 7, 8 and 9. Will be interesting to see how it compares.

[@dingdongtingtong]

I am stuck between the C3 and A80L. The only thing pushing me away from the Sony is the brightness. I am in a bright room. You seem to be in a fairly bright room. Was brightness sufficient enough on A80L for this demo?

[@motivatedtravel]

They're both good TVs! It was bright in this room at the time I filmed the video (I had watched it all night in the dark, too), and I don't recall brightness being an issue. I was surprised by how reflective it was when viewed at the wrong angle. But it was a pretty extreme scenario with ceiling to floor glass right next to it and no curtains.

[@mediamadness969]

The color is better with the Sony A80L but the LG C3 is brighter. I guess you need to decide which is more important.

[@gorelowjeff5054]

Thank you. Thst just changed my mind to the Sony. Too bright is annoying anyway 😂​@mediamadness969

[@gorelowjeff5054]

Fantastic video. Your channel will grow. The only thing I hated with the video was seeing a picture of those idiot Kardashians :-)

[@user-ip4hl5sf2l]

​@@gorelowjeff5054 several reviews I've seen and read over this last week have the Sony being slightly brighter (in real world usage) than the c3. The Sony pushes the colour pixels more, lg pushes the white pixel more. I just cancelled my G3 purchase due to luminance overshoot and tinting. Ordered this a80l instead. Dimmer but bright enough.

[@THERIGHTWAY8164]

80 L is for dark room or little light room the rest it sucks the coating on the screen it very little to help with refection

[@motivatedtravel]

Yeah you can really see it in the video with the blinds up.

[@jasjeet30]

what's the major difference between "L" and "J" models?

[@motivatedtravel]

The L and J represents the year. So 2023 is L, 2022 was K, 2021 was J. Other upgrades come with each year of course, but they're not always welcomed and/or justify the price, depending on your use case.

[@jasjeet30]

@@motivatedtravel Thank you for the reply. What do you suggest between the L and J models? I'm interested in buying a 55-inch TV. The L model is priced at $2,400, and the J model is priced at $1,400. I'm looking for good picture quality, and for sound, I'll be using a sound system.

[@abhtv1297]

I wish someone would send me a 77 inch. I defintaly oneday pay it forward. My ps5 would wet itself in excitement

[@motivatedtravel]

Yeah, it's the stuff PS5's dream of for sure, lol!

[@abhtv1297]

Yea just cant afford tv like that. But i can dream. My wall yearns for a 77inch. Ohh well. My ps5 will have to do with my 2015 55 inch lcd sony

[@redpillthinking6043]

​@@abhtv1297Why would you expect someone to give an expensive ass TV for free? Work hard and save up money for it.

[@Mambo1701e]

16gigawatts of ram?

[@motivatedtravel]

Is that what I said, lol? Gigabytes... must have been watching too much Back to the Future.

[@Mambo1701e]

@@motivatedtravel 😂🤣😂🤣 love that movie

[@mediamadness969]

I grabbed this TV over the LG C3. I was extremely disappointed in the brightness. Star Trek Picard season 3 bridge scenes were unwatchable because it was so dark. We returned it and went with the LG G3. Much much brighter but the color isn’t as good as the Sony but we are overall happy.

[@JaredSchumaier]

The A80 was better than the C3, but not the G3 in your opinion?

[@motivatedtravel]

Many thanks for adding your experiences to the mix, I really appreciate it and will surely help other viewers.

[@Memo_323]

I’m gonna guess it’s not the best OLED. Sony doesn’t really push the progress meter when it comes to its 80 series oleds. They’re solid all around performers though. A good buy when the price comes down

[@motivatedtravel]

The briefing focused heavily on the interconnectivity between TV, soundbar and PS5, as well as Bravia Core and Purestream, and what the XR processor can achieve. This seems to be where Sony is looking to evolve. The A95L coming later in the year could be interesting.

[@unknownsource4359]

The 77” A80J was a masterpiece though. Sony really dripped some good sauce on the A80J / A90J from 2021

[@furballbear]

And the price does need to come down considering that both LG and Samsung offer four HDMI 2.1 ports on their respective OLEDs while the A80L only has two.

[@motivatedtravel]

@@furballbear The HDMI thing really bugs me. As someone with a XSX and PS5 and a soundbar, it's so stupid having to pull cords in and out constantly in 2023.

[@techsamurai11]

@@motivatedtravel Yeah, Sony and other companies are being held hostage by Mediatek. The weirdest part is that the chip can process HDMI 2.1 and it's only capable of processing it for 1 source so why can't all 4 inputs support HDMI 2.1? It's kinda like an AVR supporting mono on a few sources and 9 channels on the rest. If the receiver can handle processing for 9 channels on 1 source, then it can as easily support it on all.

[@suraj4020]

Would you prefer S90C over the A80L?

[@motivatedtravel]

Depends on what you're watching/playing. I haven't used the S90C, but I'm told it's not so flash with its upscaling. So if you're watching a lot of older content/streams, may be better to go A80L (or K or J, depending on budget)

[@suraj4020]

@@motivatedtravel Thanks man. Would be great if you could do a video on it.

[@twosawyers]

I’m gonna say the A95L will be.

[@motivatedtravel]

Interesting? Very much so. QD-OLED and all.

[@111SAMMee]

For this price you can get the A90J. A much better TV.

[@danemoreno88]

Not anymore the closest that has them in stock for me anyway is 4 hours away and no shipping no thanks lol

[@miweneia]

In fact, the A90J is 500 euro cheaper than the A80L. Though, it is 2 years old model that’s one class higher. A95K on the other hand is the same price as A80L and is QD-OLED at that too, so much better buy.

[@miweneia]

@@danemoreno88If you can’t drive 4 hours to get a better deal you don’t know how to spend your money wisely.

[@danemoreno88]

@@miweneia thats a huge drive and I’m more than happy with the a80l which I only paid 900 for

[@danemoreno88]

@@miweneia your prices are different than the USA the a95k is 700 dollars more than the a80l here and would of been 1700 out of pocket for me with tax etc

[@WrathofGuldan]

All this and no game testing or 120hz testing

[@motivatedtravel]

I was pretty disapointed that they didn't leave us with a PS5 for when I shot this content, but I did get some time with the TV and a PS5 in early briefings. As mentioned, it looks fast and fantastic. Do wish it had a 2nd HDMI 2.1 port on the back that wasn't doubling as the eARC port.

[@motivatedtravel]

Actually, I can see your point. I did mention PS5 in the title specifically, and given the balance of content isn't on that aspect of the experience, I've changed the title to be more general. I apologise for that!

[@welshcaesar]

Dude 2 is enough

[@motivatedtravel]

2?

[@guy3206]

sorry but...about the facilities to 'work' with de config's and settings, this is a very puzzling TV when you come from a classic one, I mean not a «Smart» one. Why giving Two remotes ? Plus the one of your provider distributer, what a mess ! For example, there is in fact a entry for a classic audio headphone (wired)...but it's easier to use it in Bluetooth !! At any TV you plug in your advice and it works instantly, here you have to go into a lot of searchs and...not finding it ! My Son WH-4000 is not workinng, except with BT !! what is this crap ?

[@motivatedtravel]

I think you can use the one remote to use both if they are both Sony devices. At least for base stuff like volume and turning off/on. Not sure. I haven't heard of many peope using headphones with TVs in wired form. They're definitely moving towards BT in the future in most TVs and amps.

[@guy3206]

of course I can do it ;-) but...in BT you have to recharge regularly the headphone! Mu wx-4000 model take at least 4 hours to be ready !! to my opinion, ti's a chore. at the opposite, BT has a good sound, practically the same than wired ?? difficult to say at this time for a good reason :-))) thanks to you.

[@guy3206]

I can use both remotes :-) and yesss most are fan of BT... thanks pal.

[@Esignn]

The A90J is still better then the A80L

[@motivatedtravel]

Seems to be a common sentiment amongst the comments!

[@livinglegacy8429]

Why? What makes it better?

[@Barrycounter]

Until they stop updating J models due to old tv model 😅 It's a pitty that sony stopped to release A90 series, making it a HUGE price (and probably quality) gap between the A80 and A95... but from my point of view, taking an A80L with a huge discount is 100% worth it (it's funny that all comparatives just put together 2 tv's just to show which one is A BIT brighter, or could move the best, may be funny to see all those "experts" to test it separately and without knowing which brand it is, just to see with which tv's they feel "nice" to watch it... been using a Sony tv from nearly 9 years ago (first model with Android TV) and man... the quality on the panel is freaking! Of course it is a led tv, so upgrading to an OLED would be amazing as well... I did not choose Sony only because of the picture quality (be realistic, today almost ALL brands that sells OLED models over 1500€/$ looks freaking good.... but what happens with the sound quality? (most people don't like to have a separated bar sound...), and what about the "longevity" ? On OLED a good headsink may be decisive if you want to keep it for years 😅

[@Esignn]

@@livinglegacy8429 heat sink for one. Master Series as well.

[@Bklynblaze1]

A80J is better than the A90J. Better processor with XR clear image. Brightness is practically the same.

[@marvin7098]

11/23/2023 , just bought this TV at $1700 best buy purchased. Gargabe. I highly regret it and I'm returning next week..this replacement a TV I had for 5 years it look the same almost. Do u self a favor buy the s90c Samsung..

[@johnm202]

QD-OLEDs are the real deal, but calling the A80L “gargabe” is patently ridiculous

[@motivatedtravel]

Sorry to hear it didn't work out for you. How do you find the s90c?

[@nicholi8208]

Which tv did you replace it with?

[@bustercolin7507]

How's the s90c compared to the a80l?

[@DeacanStJohn]

Yes that's what I love. Blame about a TV and don't answer any question related to it...