LG OLED G3 vs Sony Bravia 7 II: OLED or Mini-LED?

This is the classic premium-television question in one head-to-head: self-emissive OLED against the latest backlit Mini-LED. LG's OLED G3 was the brightest OLED of its year, using a Micro Lens Array panel to push highlights further than any OLED before it; Sony's Bravia 7 II answers with an RGB-Mini-LED backlight — separate red, green and blue light sources aiming for OLED-like contrast with LCD's brightness advantage. Both are 65-inch flagships. This comparison draws on the complete published tests of both models; Truthful Reviews has not bench-tested either television itself.

Panel Technology and Contrast

The fundamental divide is how each makes its blacks. The LG G3's OLED panel lights every pixel individually, so black is the absence of light — perfect, per-pixel, with no blooming whatever the scene. The Bravia 7 II instead dims zones of an RGB-Mini-LED backlight, and does so with real precision: the published test measured dynamic contrast up to 50,000:1, found its blacks indistinguishable from OLED to the naked eye, and could only provoke faint blooming in deliberately stressful test scenes. Its panel uniformity is excellent. So the G3 keeps the absolute contrast crown for dark-room viewing, while the Bravia 7 II comes remarkably close for a backlit set.

Brightness

Here the technologies trade blows. The G3 is the brightest OLED of its generation, its Micro Lens Array lifting small specular highlights — spotlights, muzzle flashes — to a measured peak near 1490 cd/m² with a brilliance the Mini-LED cannot quite match on tiny bright objects; on larger windows it eases to around 1100 cd/m² and roughly 800 cd/m² full-field. The Bravia 7 II wins the other way: its SDR image is very bright, cresting 500 cd/m² well before maximum, and paired with a strong anti-reflective glossy screen it is the better choice for a sunlit living room. Its HDR peak of about 840 cd/m² on a small window is, tellingly, below its own predecessor's, but Mini-LED sustains brightness on large bright scenes where OLED dims — holding close to 1000 cd/m² on bigger windows — so on big, bright images the Sony often ends up the brighter of the two. In short: OLED for pinpoint highlights and dark rooms, Mini-LED for sustained brightness and bright rooms.

Colour and Picture Processing

Both are faithful out of the box. Measured at a 150 cd/m² reference white, the G3 returned an average delta E of 1.63 in SDR and 2.21 in HDR, with only a slight red lean to its 6092 K white point — against the 6500 K video standard — that adjusts out easily. The Bravia 7 II covers the full sRGB and DCI-P3 gamuts and reaches about 80% of the future-facing BT.2020 space — solid, though behind the best LG and Samsung panels. Where Sony pulls ahead is processing: decades of experience across cameras, mastering monitors and televisions show in exemplary gradient handling, clean upscaling of non-4K content, and Dolby Vision that all but eliminates the slight highlight clipping seen in its neutral mode. LG's webOS processing is strong too, but Sony's remains a reference. Crucially, both sets support Dolby Vision and both omit HDR10+ — an identical format gap.

Gaming

For players the LG pulls clearly ahead on connectivity. The G3 carries four HDMI 2.1 ports all capable of 4K at 120 Hz with VRR, ALLM and QMS, at a measured 12.3 ms input lag that drops to just 9 ms in its Boost mode, with de-judder handling for 24, 25 and 30 Hz content. The Bravia 7 II has only two of its four HDMI sockets running 4K at 120 Hz — the published test called that a little stingy for the year — while the other two are limited to 60 Hz, though its input lag is marginally lower at 10.4 ms. If you plan to connect a PS5, an Xbox Series X and a gaming PC at once, the G3's four full-rate inputs are the deciding factor.

Design, Sound and Interface

The G3 is built to hang on a wall: its Gallery design sits flush at just 2.5 cm thick — with a slim 4 mm bezel, down from 6 mm on the previous panel — and around 24.5 cm deep once the optional, separately-charged stand is fitted, shipping wall-mount-ready by default. The Bravia 7 II comes with a two-part metal stand and central foot, and carries a rear-mounted six-driver speaker array set about 25 cm below the top edge so voices align with on-screen faces. Neither replaces a soundbar, but the Sony's clear sound with decent bass edges the G3's 4.2-channel, 60 W system, which the tests found flat and lacking depth (its WoW Orchestra trick can pair it with an LG soundbar). On software, the G3 runs the fast, mature webOS 23 with AirPlay 2 and HomeKit, while the Bravia 7 II runs Google TV with a handy cross-provider watchlist and a remote-microphone sound calibration.

Which Should You Buy?

Choose the LG OLED G3 if picture purity leads: perfect per-pixel blacks with no blooming, the brightest OLED highlights of its day, four HDMI 2.1 ports for gamers and an exquisite flush wall-mount design — accepting a flat built-in sound system, a stand sold separately and no HDR10+. Choose the Sony Bravia 7 II if your room is bright or your priority is processing: very high sustained brightness that shrugs off daylight, precise local dimming that gets astonishingly close to OLED contrast, Sony's reference-grade image handling and a better-sounding, stand-included package — accepting only two 4K 120 Hz HDMI inputs, an HDR peak below its predecessor and, like the LG, no HDR10+. It is the familiar OLED-versus-Mini-LED choice at the premium end: the LG for the darkened home cinema, the Sony for the bright living room.