As TV tech marches on, 2023’s sets are seriously impressive visual wonders

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Sony A80L from £1600

We found the A80L combines the spectacular with the subtle

Screen images: Getty

The A80L combines the spectacular with cinematic subtlety in very rare fashion. It thrills, but not in a way that’s showy.

Sony’s Cognitive Processor XR is the brain of this TV, and this year it gets a new XR Clear Image feature, which is intended to be a more intelligent form of upscaling that understands content type and quality and applies processing accordingly so that images look closer to native 4K.

As well as the Dolby Atmos sound format, the A80L also supports Dolby Vision HDR alongside HDR10 and HLG.

Disappointingly, the A80L still has just two HDMI 2.1 sockets, and one of those is also eARC for outputting audio to an AVR or soundbar. Those HDMI 2.1s do at least support all the next-gen gaming features that they should.

With HDR10, the Sony A80L takes no time to seriously impress us. The least processed and most cinematically authentic picture preset, Custom, is beautifully balanced. The seemingly effortless way it combines the spectacular with the natural is extraordinary. Its ability to recreate different shades subtly doesn’t come at the expense of dynamism, and contrast extremes emerge brightly.

The image is brilliantly solid and has a lovely three-dimensional feel. Characters and objects stand out beautifully, too, drawing the eye precisely where they should. Sony’s excellence in motion processing allows it to apply more smoothing and sharpening than you can with other TVs without soap-opera effect.

Detail is outstanding, with clothing textures, skin imperfections and complex patterns all rendered crisply but without artificial definition. This impressive ability to resolve fine details is consistent through the light spectrum . The amount of shadow detail is excellent, but perhaps more impressive is the set’s ability to dig up details in the brightest parts of the picture.

Shadow detail is great, too, and while the A80L is clearly capable of delivering perfect blacks, it doesn’t use this ability to increase impact at the expense of detail in the way that some rivals do.

Though less spectacular with SDR content, the A80L’s balance remains a key strength. Colours are warm but authentic, highlights are bright and clean, and contrast overall is excellent.

The A80L has three screen-vibrating actuators that involve the whole panel being vibrated in order to create sound, so it literally comes from the screen; two regular woofers help fill out the sound.