The Sony A80L OLED TV’s AI-powered upscaling blew me away, and it’s currently under $2,000

When it debuted last year, Sony’s A80K OLED television scored fairly high all across the board. Even though it was squarely in the middle of the pack of the company’s 2022 lineup, it had features and quality that rivaled premium entries from other brands. 

This year’s version, the A80L OLED–>, takes what worked previously and makes it even better, with the end result being a television that surpassed my expectations and enhanced every single piece of content I watched. 

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This isn’t the highest-end TV from Sony, but it’s not trying to be. What the A80L OLED is though, is an upper mid-range TV that will especially appeal to home cinema fans and gamers. Here’s why.

What’s new with this model 

The Sony A80L brings a processing upgrade to lower-resolution content in the form of XR Clear Image and a new hub that lets gamers tinker with display options. Its audio performance is fantastic, too.

1. XR Clear Image is game-changing

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On the video side, every bit of content on the A80L was fantastic. Lower resolution shows on YouTube TV were upscaled to 4K in a realistic quality, 4K or UltraHD content on Netflix was beautiful, and games and Blu-Ray DVDs on the PlayStation 5 popped like I hadn’t seen before.

Sony’s new XR Clear Image technology uses AI to produce immensely improved clarity and sharpness while staying true to the source material. Designed to show subtle textures and details that would be missed without it, this feature truly shines on lower-resolution content that’s upscaled to 4K. 

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I popped in a Blu-ray of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom to test out this feature, and I was blown away by how natural everything looked. With my old TV set, the upscaling created a picture that looked “pretty” but fairly unnatural. The A80L gave Doctor Jones new life while still preserving the 1980s grain and feel. 

2. A new gaming hub to rival competitors

Pressing the menu button while gaming opens up a row of useful settings, like the option to turn on Variable Refresh Rate (VRR), utilize motion blur, change the black equalizer level, and add a crosshair (with six different options to choose from).

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Users can also change the screen display size, an option I actually found myself using for games when I needed to see a lot of information at once like a health bar, maps, inventory, etc. Most gaming monitors have these options, as do other TV manufacturers like LG and Samsung. This is a first for Sony, and it gets all the essentials down.

3. Acoustic Surface Audo+ is better than ever

While a good portion of OLED TVs needs a sound bar to produce an above-average audio experience, the A80L does quite well with its built-in audio. That’s largely due to what Sony calls Acoustic Surface Audio+, a system that uses actuators and woofers to gently vibrate the screen and create sound that comes from the screen itself.

But beyond simply coming from the TV, sound comes from the area the action is happening on screen, making things process more smoothly in your brain.

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I keep captions on for pretty much any content I watch to make sure I don’t miss any dialogue. But this is the first TV in a long time where I’ve felt comfortable enough to turn those off and still feel like I’m catching every word.

The television handles audio perfectly fine on its own, but when I also paired it with the A5000 soundbar and speaker system<!–>, it was a near-theater-like experience. That’s a premium add-on, but one that you’ll feel very satisfied with.

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What I’d like to see in the next model 

1. More brightness from the top end

My usual television-watching environment can be fairly bright. I’ll often keep my living room curtains open just to let in natural light or to keep an eye on my kids playing in the front yard. Unfortunately, that means there’s frequently a lot of light coming directly on my television screen.

My first impression of this TV was that it had a beautiful picture, but it actually seemed a little less bright than my old set, a Black Friday big box store brand purchase. 

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I don’t have the equipment to test, but a little digging online confirmed that the television delivers in the range of 600-750 nits, less than comparable TVs from Samsung and LG that achieve over 1,200 nits. That is an improvement over the A80K<!–>, but I’d like to see Sony match (or surpass) its competition in this area next year.

2. Additional HDMI 2.1 ports