The Sony Bravia X95K Mini LED TV offers great HDR performance, good looks and the reliable Google TV interface. While we noticed some blooming and wish it had a full collection of HDMI 2.1 inputs, the X95K is one of the brand’s best 4K TVs of the year.

The Sony X95K is easily in contention for one of the best 4K LCD-based TVs you can buy this year. That race will be very tight this year, but thanks to Sony’s stellar processing and engineering, the X95K is a bright, shining example of what today’s modern LCD TV is capable of delivering.

Sony’s first mini LED display delivers very good performance with the exception of occasional blooming around bright objects set against a black or dark background due to its mini LED’s implementation which may be distracting to some viewers.

Its Mini LED backlight with Local Dimming provides and outstanding contrast with a very high peak brightness and very good color gamut. Its picture processing is also remarkable and it offers a high sharpness with a smooth motion. However, it has two big drawbacks. First, although it has thoushands of Mini LEDs and more than 300 hundred dimming zones, light leakeages are noticeables when you watch it in a dark room. And secondly, its price is in our opinion too high, considering you have for about the same price or even less, new QD-OLED TVs in 65". In big sizes, you also have Sony OLED A80K and LG C2 series which doesn't have any problem with halos in a dark room. Nevertheless if you watch it in a bright room its high peak brightness and its Anti-Reflection Filter makes this model difficult to beat. Its sound is quite good and Google TV provides a very good experience with thousand of apps.

There’s a lot to love about one of Sony’s first attempts at a mini-LED TV. The X95K offers a bright, colorful picture that won’t wither under sunny, daytime conditions, and its ability to push for searing highlights will make HDR10 and Dolby Vision content really sing. I can’t get enough of its sleek design, and I appreciate how easy it is to use Google TV.

It looks great both in dark rooms for watching movies or bright rooms for watching sports or TV shows as it displays deep blacks with a great local dimming feature, and it gets bright enough to fight a ton of glare. However, there's blooming around bright objects, which is noticeable with darker scenes. HDR content also looks impressive as it makes highlights pop and displays a wide range of colors. Lastly, it's excellent for gaming thanks to its HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, variable refresh rate (VRR) support, and great motion handling for a smooth gaming experience.

Sony's first miniLED LCD TV has arrived to take on Samsung and TCL's models, but it doesn't really move the needle. Much like the other TVs, X95K struggles with heavy blooming around bright objects and subtitles in especially HDR mode, coupled with poor black levels due to Sony's 'X-Wide Angle' system that makes the LCD panel perform almost like a hybrid of VA and IPS.