Philips OLED810 vs Sony Bravia 8: how do they compare?

There’s a new range of Philips OLED TVs on the horizon, and the brand’s mid-range OLED810 offering has caught our eye. It’s a direct rival to Sony’s own mid-range TV, the What Hi Fi? Award-winning Bravia 8, with both sets boasting AI smarts and promising bright, contrasty OLED picture quality.

We gave the Sony Bravia 8 five stars for its all-round excellent picture performance, saying in our review that it is “wonderfully sharp” with a good sense of depth. In our review, editor-in-chief Alastair Stevenson also found that it provided key upgrades that “cinephiles care about”, such as skin tones looking more realistic than from its rivals.

While we have not yet tested the Philips and will wait until we have done so before delivering our final verdict, we have seen it in action at the brand’s European launch event.

By taking a deep dive into the specifications and features of both TVs – as well as our experiences with each – we can get an idea of how the two TVs could compare.

Philips OLED810 vs Sony Bravia 8: price

The Sony Bravia 8 is available in three different sizes. It launched at a price of £2199 / $2000 / AU$3495 for the 55-inch model, £2699 / $2800 / AU$4495 for the 65-inch version, and £3999 / $3900 / AU$6995 for the range-topping 77-inch model.

However, having been on sale for around a year, it can now be picked up for much less. Here are the latest and lowest prices:

We don’t yet have pricing for the new Philips OLED810, but its predecessor, the Philips OLED809 launched for less than its contemporary rivals. At this stage, we can only hope that Philips takes the same approach this year.

Philips OLED810 vs Sony Bravia 8: design

The OLED810 has an "ultra-thin, black metal bezel" along with a metal 'pill' swivel stand in a satin chrome finish. We suspect that will make accessing the sockets at the back pretty easy. The 77-inch model has metal 'soap bar' arch feet in satin chrome instead.

Looking at the Sony Bravia 8, it is noticeably flatter than its predecessor, the Sony A80L. This lets it sit flush to the wall more easily when mounted. The feet are thin with a flat top. These can be positioned close together in the middle of the TV’s bottom edge or further away near the screen’s edges. You can also raise them to allow for the placement of a soundbar under the TV if you wish.

Philips OLED810 vs Sony Bravia 8: features

The two rivals both promise high levels of brightness, with the OLED810’s ‘higher output OLED_EX panel’ reportedly offering a peak brightness of 1500 nits for the 55-, 65- and 77-inch models.

Sony has also been pushing for a brighter and brighter picture with each new release. The Bravia 8’s WOLED panel is meant to be 10 per cent brighter than that of the A80L, but it still can’t reach the same levels as its flagship QD-OLED sibling, the Sony A95L.

Both the Philips OLED810 and Sony Bravia 8 use AI to boost performance. In terms of picture, the Bravia XR processor promises to use AI to improve the Bravia 8’s picture processing and let it deliver an even more authentic, natural-looking home cinema experience. There is also some AI wizardry at work when it comes to audio, as the chip uses its processing powers paired with Sony’s unique Acoustic Surface Audio+ hardware in an attempt to offer radically better virtual surround sound.

The OLED810 is utilising AI thanks to the 9th Gen P5 AI processing. Adaptive Intelligence (which classifies content into different categories using AI) can now learn from additional data such as trained in-frame analyses, META data, source info, full frame analysis and environment sensing, to optimise the final picture to match the content more seamlessly.

Another feature is its apparently improved colour reproduction, which is the result of a new AI Adaptive Gamut Enhancer feature. This extends colours to make them more vibrant but without affecting skin tones. It can also be set to different tastes, such as ‘natural’, ‘balanced’ and ‘vibrant’.

As is the norm for Sony, the Bravia 8 supports HDR10, Dolby Vision and HLG, but not HDR10+. There is, however, an IMAX Enhanced picture mode. There’s no mention of IMAX Enhanced support for the OLED810, but it does support HDR10+ as well as the three other HDR formats supported by the Sony.

In terms of gaming, both TVs have just two HDMI 2.1 inputs. They offer Dolby Vision Gaming, a welcome addition for Xbox users, as the latest X/S consoles support the standard. Both TVs also support 4K/120Hz gaming – though not the 4K/144Hz gaming that hardcore PC gamers with similarly hardcore rigs might desire. Outside of this, VRR and ALLM are also on board – two key features that help make games feel more fluid and reactive.

With the Philips OLED810, the game bar has been updated, and now has an auto-detection ability for the most popular titles. You can tweak custom settings under your own dedicated profile so they can be loaded automatically the next time you play.

Both TVs use Google TV and broadly support the same streaming services such as Netflix, Disney Plus, Apple TV+ and Amazon Prime Video. Some TVs with Google TV do not include UK catch-up apps (BBC iPlayer, Channel 4, My5, and ITV X). We know that the Bravia 8 does support them. As for the new Philips OLED810, we don’t know yet but the OLED809 did not include these so bear that in mind.

Philips’ unique offering is its three-sided Ambilight tech, which matches the colours on screen, spilling light onto the wall behind and making the picture more immersive. Depending on your preferences, this may be a big draw or a bit of an ick. The OLED810 also includes the new Moments App, which lets you share photos from your phone to the larger screen.

Philips OLED810 vs Sony Bravia 8: picture

All these AI improvements for the as yet untested OLED810 sound intriguing and, if it’s a step up from the OLED809, it has the promise to produce a top-notch image.

As we said in our review of the OLED809: "during bright scenes the levels of detail, colour accuracy and range the OLED809 offers match if not beat the best OLEDs we’ve tested at this price." We can only wait and see if the new model is even better.

The Sony Bravia 8 is one that we have been able to get in the testing room so we can say with certainty that when it comes to picture quality, it does not disappoint.

We said during a viewing of Oppenheimer: “Black and white scenes reveal exceptional levels of detail, with every stitch and weave on characters’ suits and ties remaining clearly visible. The picture is wonderfully sharp and doesn’t appear flattened, as it does on the flagship Bravia 9, with characters and objects holding a true sense of depth and separation from the scene’s background.”

One negative we did notice was its handling of SDR, where a bit of black crush occurs during particularly dark scenes. However, that was more of a nitpick, and overall the picture quality was deemed “balanced and immersive”.

Ultimately, we are going to have to test the two TVs side-by-side before we can deliver a verdict on their relative picture performance merits. We will update this page once we have done that.

Philips OLED810 vs Sony Bravia 8: sound

The OLED810 features an integrated 70W 2.1 sound system (though this is reduced to 50W for the 42-incher). A digital crossover controls the distribution to the two-way left and right speakers, plus a dedicated triple-ring, rear-facing bass driver – all supported by four passive radiators. It's a similar arrangement to its predecessor, which we described as "a capable performer". Once again, we haven’t had the chance to hear it for ourselves but when we do, you’ll be the first to know.

Sony’s sound set-up is a 50W system consisting of two actuators, two tweeters and a single bass driver, with Dolby Atmos and DTS:X support. In our review, we described the Bravia 8 as “one of the better-sounding OLED TVs we’ve tested, but [...] not a huge step forward for Sony.” Saying that, we found it was controlled and spacious. When watching Bladerunner 2049, Ryan Gosling’s character converses with a hologram and the voices are suitably differentiated from background noise and the scene’s soundtrack.

Again, we will need to test both TVs against each other to pass judgement, but we generally recommend investing in a soundbar to improve your overall experience and we don't expect that advice to alter here.

Philips OLED810 vs Sony Bravia 8: early verdict

As we’ve said, we can’t comment too much on a direct comparison between the two TVs as we have not had the chance to test out the Philips OLED810. However, the What Hi-Fi? Award-winning Sony Bravia 8 will be a hard one to trump with its top-notch picture quality and incredibly sharp image. Plus, its price has had a year to go down, so you’ll be able to get it for much less than the OLED810 when the latter launches.

Philips’ OLED809 is also a high performer, so the Sony could be up against a worthy rival in the OLED810. The specs on paper look promising, and plenty of people will be drawn by its Ambilight feature. Once we have had the chance to get up close with the OLED810, we will update this page.

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