Sony Mini LED Bravia 7 II and Bravia 9 II TVs: why the True RGB designation?

The term RGB Mini LED is currently at the heart of a major confusion within the industry. Behind this new marketing buzzword lie very disparate technical realities. Some models actually only contain two blue and green LEDs (as in the early days of White OLED technology) instead of the three independent red, green, and blue chips (for RGB, or Red, Green, and Blue for RGB) required by regulations, while other manufacturers use all sorts of names: Micro RGB, Micro RGB Evo, RGB Mini LED… In the absence of certification and a common industry standard, consumers are faced with a market that is difficult to understand. Building on the success of a first working prototype unveiled last year, the Japanese giant has officially announced the True RGB nomenclature for the end of 2025 (see our CES 26 news > Sony True RGB 2026: the Japanese manufacturer's response is being prepared...). The stated ambition is clear: to establish a label synonymous with absolute fidelity and technological breakthrough, capable of offering drastically higher peak brightness, wider viewing angles, and the announced total elimination of blooming (light haloing). From the legendary Qualia 005 screen to the Bravia 2026 series, this foray into color backlighting is far from an opportunistic fad for the brand. Sony's love affair with this architecture dates back more than twenty years to the 2004 release of the legendary Qualia 005 LCD television, a world pioneer in the integration of RGB light sources. True RGB technology is a direct continuation of this heritage after two decades of research and development. For the manufacturer, the real challenge lies in the presence of three separately controllable physical diodes (red, green, blue), an essential technical key to maximizing color expression and reproducing an unprecedentedly rich color palette. The expertise of the BVM-HX3110 professional mastering monitors is a key asset. Regarding True RGB technology, Sony asserts that software innovation is proving more crucial than ever compared to hardware evolution. The core of this system relies on a high-precision control algorithm inherited from professional monitors. The goal is to adjust luminance and saturation in real time to faithfully reproduce the directors' original creative intent, pixel by pixel. Sony is leveraging its unique integration within the film industry. The company is present at every stage of the production chain, from filming with Venice 2 digital cameras to the consumer screens in our living rooms, including the BVM-HX3110 reference monitors found in the post-production studios of all Hollywood studios. Weybridge Showdown: Sony Bravia 9 II, Bravia 9 and OLED Bravia 8 II. During comparative workshops held in Weybridge, a suburb of London, in mid-May, the True RGB Bravia 9 II (which uses blue LEDs filtered by a Quantum Dot film, on the left in the second photo below) and the Sony Bravia 8 II OLED TV (on the right in the second photo below) demonstrated its superiority. Already, during a workshop organized by the manufacturer at the IFA 2025 trade show in Berlin, thanks to a professional mode allowing switching between white and color backlighting, we were able to observe that the behavior of blooming and colors changes completely, especially off-axis. For example, the True RGB process preserves saturation for a consistently harmonious image. Similarly, blooming management (which has always been a strong point on Sony TVs, with few exceptions) proved excellent. As for dynamic range, the measurements presented in Weybridge speak for themselves. On an HDR10 excerpt from the feature film Alpha, mastered at 4,000 nits, compared to the absolute reference BVM-HX3110 mastering monitor (center in the photo below, under the three TVs already mentioned), the Bravia 9 II True RGB TV manages to maintain almost the entire 4,000 nits required. Finally, color accuracy takes a significant leap forward. On the film Top Gun: Maverick (which we unfortunately cannot illustrate here with our photos due to copyright issues), the True RGB display eliminates the slight purplish bias sometimes visible in the deep blues of the Bravia 9, reproducing the P3 color space with absolute precision. Sony concluded its presentation and workshops by explaining that the core expertise of RGB Mini LED technology lies in the development of these control processors, capable of coordinating the three color streams without any color drift. Image processing is an area in which Sony has been renowned for ages, and its engineers are eager to demonstrate their expertise once again with their latest projectors, the Bravia 7 II and Bravia 9 II. Hence the True RGB designation…