3 reasons to buy a Sony TV instead of a Samsung TV

Main points

• Top smart TV brands Samsung, Sony, and LG are all driving innovation, but Sony in particular is embracing top-tier displays with impressive OLED panels, Dolby Vision, and great backlighting.
• Sony offers better immersive sound and support for PlayStation games.
• Sony’s Google TV interface offers a richer and more intuitive user interface than the Samsung model.

Three top brands, Samsung, Sony and LG, dominate the smart TV market, and competition does seem to breed innovation. These electronics giants are constantly competing for the top spot by improving existing technologies and integrating features from other companies. Therefore, as a consumer, it’s always worth checking out the latest innovations and updates to see if your brand loyalty should change.

Samsung and Sony, in particular, have stepped up their game in recent years, joining LG in what was once the exclusive market for high-end OLED TVs. Both companies now offer a range of smart TVs with bright colors and stunning contrast ratios, and the difference between the two is in the details.

Whether you’re a Samsung or Sony loyalist or you’re just venturing into the world of smart TVs and looking for your special someone, it’s worth taking a step back and analyzing these electronics giants from a wide-angle lens.

Whether you’re a Samsung or Sony loyalist or you’re just venturing into the world of smart TVs and looking for your special someone, it’s worth taking a step back and analyzing these electronics giants from a wide-angle lens. There seems to be little difference between the two, but as someone who has been aligned with Samsung for a long time, buying not just TVs from the brand but also soundbars, speaker sets, and smartphones, I’m starting to think about switching sides.

As an avid PlayStation gamer and content consumer, I wanted to see which brand would give me the most immersive and intuitive experience.

1 Sony has an impressive display

Top-notch color and contrast, plus Dolby Vision

Granted, there’s not much that determines the quality of a top-tier TV. Both companies have jumped into the OLED market over the past few years, and while Samsung seemed to resist at first, the company eventually got on board as it realized LG’s impressive technology was too good to ignore.

Shows have gotten a lot darker lately, which means you’ll need a high-quality smart TV to watch them.

These models combine both companies’ penchant for vibrantly colored screens with the ultra-local dimming qualities of OLED panels, allowing these TVs to achieve the deepest blacks while still maintaining impressive contrast ratios. For someone like me who regularly watches HBO’s premium TV shows (especially those involving dragons), this is certainly a very important feature. Shows have gotten a lot darker lately, which means you’ll need a high-quality smart TV to watch them.

In terms of resolution, both offer mainstream 4K and high-end 8K TVs, but it still seems a bit indulgent at the moment, with very little content shot at this detailed resolution.

Still, Sony does have the upper hand in the LED and OLED categories, largely due to its Cognitive Processor XR’s ability to deliver faithful, colorful images. Its Mini LED TVs have dimming capabilities as close as possible to OLED TVs without actually dimming the pixels individually; both styles still boast brilliant colors, powered by XR Triluminos Pro.

Sony dominates both the LED and OLED categories, mainly because its Cognitive Processor XR delivers faithful, colorful images.

Additionally, Sony supports Dolby Vision, while Samsung does not. Samsung continues to stick with the HDR10 and HDR10+ formats on its TVs, choosing not to pay Dolby royalties for the technology. Most viewers agree that while the difference may be small, Dolby Vision’s higher upper limit on brightness levels allows it to produce a more colorful image with the right content.

Samsung is known as the “quantum” brand that not only ushered in the era of QLED TVs, but also the era of Neo QLED and QD-OLED TVs. That’s a lot of letters. Quantum dot is a marketing term for a pre-existing technology, and while it may seem funny to put “quantum” in front of everything, it has resulted in a lot of complicated and confusing acronyms. Thanks, Samsung.

2 Sony delivers an action-packed experience

Immersive games, sports and action movies

Sony and Samsung also have similarities in terms of power and processing. Both companies offer TVs with their own native 120Hz refresh rate, which they then boost through their proprietary artificial technology. Higher refresh rates are key to enjoying newer, dynamic content, including video games and action movies, as well as live sporting events.

Higher refresh rates are key to enjoying newer, dynamic content, including video games and action movies, as well as live sporting events.

Both Samsung and Sony make new TVs that upgrade older content, improving the quality of many of the old sitcoms I watch back-to-back on Saturday afternoons.

While high-end smart TVs from Sony and Samsung focus on delivering the best possible picture, they’ll also become increasingly good at delivering great sound. A compatible soundbar will better support both; Samsung’s Q-Symphony technology, for example, can harness sound from both the soundbar and TV to enhance the immersive experience.

Sony beats Samsung to the punch with some impressive audio features, including Sony’s Acoustic Surface Audio+ technology. This feature analyzes your environment to optimize how sound is distributed in the room for the most immersive listening experience.

As far as games are concerned, Sony backs PlayStation heavily, while Samsung leans more towards Xbox, Game Pass is available through Samsung Gaming Hub. That’s not to say you can’t enjoy the reverse console on every TV – both companies boast quality-boosting gaming features, including changing the refresh rate and screen – but if you have a PS5 and want to get the most out of Sony’s top-tier TV Includes automatic HDR tone mapping and genre picture modes for the ultimate gaming experience.

Sony’s top-of-the-line TVs include Auto HDR Tone Mapping and Genre Picture Mode for the ultimate gaming experience.

3 Google TV is more intuitive than Samsung’s Tizen

Google TV for content connoisseurs

When it comes to how you interact with your TV, Sony has largely abandoned Android TV (which was still present on older models) and is now fully immersed in Google TV, an intuitive integrated system that seems to be geared toward those who watch a lot of content Designed to span multiple services. It provides suggestions and does a valuable job of putting different content together. Newer models have Google Assistant built-in and can be easily integrated with other Google devices. While Samsung TVs already use Google Assistant, they will no longer use it on upcoming models.

However, Samsung runs the Tizen operating system, which has been their standard operating system for years. It’s easy to navigate and fast, but fairly basic; it seems to be built from the past, with far fewer streaming services, subscriptions, and apps.

The battle for television supremacy is fierce and ever-evolving. Both Samsung or Sony loyalists have a lot to brag about, but it’s still worth checking out what the other is doing to keep the market innovative and exciting.

I can’t help but lean toward Sony, especially as someone who not only enjoys the latest games on the PlayStation 5, but also watches a ton of shows and movies through a range of streaming services. Google TV is better for browsing all available options. Sony’s top-of-the-line Mini-LED and OLED TVs deliver the brightest colors and deepest blacks for a faithful and memorable entertainment experience.