LG C6 OLED vs Sony BRAVIA 8 II OLED: Which is Better?

You want OLED blacks, great HDR, and smooth gaming, but you also want to buy once and stop thinking about it. That’s the real problem behind the LG C6 OLED vs Sony BRAVIA 8 II OLED decision. Both can look stunning, both can run your favorite apps, and both can handle next-gen consoles, yet they’re built with different priorities.

The LG C6 is the value-leaning, gaming-forward option on paper, with a big focus on flexibility (including up to 165Hz support for PC players and four HDMI 2.1 ports in early specs). The Sony BRAVIA 8 II sits higher in Sony’s lineup as a premium QD-OLED designed for cinema-style accuracy, with standout processing and Google TV, which matters more than you’d think when most of what you watch is still 1080p.

If you’re trying to avoid buyer’s remorse, compare them the way you’ll use them: movies, streaming, sports, gaming, bright rooms, and day-to-day ease.

RELATED: LG G6 OLED vs LG G5 OLED: Is it worth Upgrading?

Specifications Comparison

Specs only help when they connect to real habits. The short version: Sony’s BRAVIA 8 II is QD-OLED (extra color punch in bright highlights), and LG’s C6 is an OLED that aims to bring a lot of flagship-style features down to a more “normal” price tier. As of February 2026, detailed third-party testing for the brand-new LG C6 is still limited, so treat some C6 details as early coverage and manufacturer direction rather than settled lab results. Sony’s BRAVIA 8 II, on the other hand, is well measured and widely evaluated.

Here’s what you’re most likely to care about when you’re choosing.

Panel and sizes

QD-OLED and “standard” OLED can both deliver that inky black background that makes movies look three-dimensional. The difference is how bright colors stay when the picture gets intense. With QD-OLED, bright reds, greens, and blues tend to hold their saturation better in highlights, so a neon sign, a sunset, or fireworks can look more vivid instead of drifting toward white.

This is where the Sony BRAVIA 8 II earns its reputation as a movie-first TV. It’s built around a QD-OLED panel, and it’s sold only in 55-inch and 65-inch sizes. That limitation sounds minor until you measure your room and realize a 77-inch is the whole point of upgrading.

LG’s C6 (based on early 2026 model details) spreads across many more sizes, including 42-inch for desks and smaller rooms, and up to 83-inch for big living rooms. There’s also an important practical detail in early coverage: the 77-inch and 83-inch versions are expected to use a brighter panel variant than the smaller sizes. If you want a big screen that still has some punch in daylight viewing, size availability alone can decide this purchase before you even touch a settings menu.

Ports and refresh rate

This is where the “how many boxes do you own?” question becomes real.

If you have a PS5, an Xbox Series X, a gaming PC, and a soundbar, you can burn through high-bandwidth HDMI ports fast. Early specs for the LG C6 point to four HDMI 2.1 inputs and up to 165Hz, which is ideal if your PC can push high frame rates. It also means less cable swapping and fewer compromises when you add a soundbar later.

Sony’s BRAVIA 8 II is more restrictive. It supports 4K/120Hz gaming, VRR (variable refresh rate), and ALLM (auto low latency mode), but it typically gives you two HDMI 2.1 ports total. One is also the eARC port for most soundbar setups, so your “true” count of free HDMI 2.1 ports can feel like one, depending on your gear.

If you’re console-only, this isn’t a deal-breaker. If you’re a multi-device household, it can become the small annoyance you deal with every week.

Picture quality in real life

If you mostly watch pristine 4K HDR movies, both TVs can impress you. The bigger difference shows up in the messy middle of real life: compressed streaming, older HD shows, live sports feeds, and YouTube.

Sony’s BRAVIA 8 II has a clear advantage here because its processing is a core selling point, not an afterthought. Reviewers have consistently praised how Sony’s upscaling makes common 1080p content look cleaner and more detailed, without turning faces into smooth plastic. That matters because a lot of what you’ll actually watch is still 1080p, even in 2026.

Sony’s brightness story is also more mature and better documented. In HDR, the BRAVIA 8 II has been measured around 1,590 nits on a 10 percent window, and it can hit even higher peaks on tiny highlights (up to the high 1,800s in some measurements). Like every OLED, it can’t keep that level across a full white screen, where it drops far lower. The good news is you don’t watch a full-field white test pattern, you watch movies, games, and shows with mixed scenes, and in typical living rooms the Sony holds up better than “OLED is too dim” myths suggest.

The LG C6 is harder to judge today with the same confidence, because it’s new and broad lab data is still catching up. Early positioning suggests classic OLED strengths: excellent contrast, Dolby Vision support, and a strong gaming feature set. If the brighter large-size variants (77-inch and 83-inch) perform as expected, LG could be the safer pick when you want a big screen that has extra pop for daytime sports.

If you want extra context on how reviewers benchmark OLEDs across brands, the comparison tools and test notes at RTINGS TV comparison pages help you understand what measurements tend to matter most.

Upscaling and motion

Most people don’t live on a steady diet of 4K Blu-rays. You stream, you watch cable replacements, you throw on older sitcoms, and you catch live games that still arrive in HD. This is where Sony’s processing reputation becomes visible in minutes.

With the BRAVIA 8 II, lower-quality content tends to look smoother and more stable, with less obvious compression noise and fewer “jaggies” on edges. The key is that Sony usually preserves fine detail while keeping skin tones natural, so the picture looks clean without looking scrubbed. When you’re watching a dark show with heavy compression, that can be the difference between “this looks fine” and “why does this look crunchy?”

Motion matters just as much. Sports are basically a motion torture test, and Sony is known for strong motion handling that keeps fast action clear without turning the whole image into a blur. LG is also good here, but Sony’s default tuning often lands closer to what movie fans and sports watchers want with fewer tweaks.

One practical tip that applies to both: don’t judge either TV in the default vivid mode. Switch to a Movie, Cinema, or Professional-type mode first. On Sony, the Professional mode baseline is strong, and if you’re picky, calibration can correct small color biases (like a slight cool push near bright whites) and tighten grayscale tracking.

If you’re trying to decide whether Sony’s strengths match your taste, it helps to read a focused breakdown like this Sony Bravia 8 II QD-OLED review before you assume all OLEDs look the same.

HDR brightness and reflections

OLED brightness isn’t the problem it used to be, but you still need to respect physics. Mini-LED TVs can get brighter across more of the screen. OLED wins on black level and pixel-level control, and it’s now bright enough for many real living rooms, just not all sun-drenched setups.

Sony’s BRAVIA 8 II can look punchy in HDR because it hits high brightness in small highlights, and it keeps blacks looking inky in mixed scenes. There are a couple of QD-OLED quirks worth knowing about, even if you might never notice them. In harsh ambient light, blacks can look slightly raised with a faint tint in some scenarios (partly tied to panel filtering choices), and the pixel structure can cause minor color fringing on high-contrast edges. In real viewing at normal distance, many people won’t see either unless they’re hunting for it.

LG’s C6 can be the more forgiving choice if you buy the larger, brighter variants and your room is busy during the day. More size options also let you solve the “bright room” problem the simple way, by going bigger so the image has more presence even if peak brightness is similar.

If you want a broader “what’s good this year?” view to sanity-check your shortlist, the regularly updated guides at What Hi-Fi’s best OLED TV picks can help you see where each model tends to land in expert rankings.

Gaming and daily use

A TV isn’t just a panel, it’s a device you live with. The best one is the one that makes your normal routine easier: swapping inputs, pairing a soundbar, launching the right app, and not thinking about settings every night.

LG’s C6 is positioned like a “connect everything” OLED. Sony’s BRAVIA 8 II is positioned like a “make everything look like it should” OLED. You can enjoy either one for games and movies, but you’ll feel the difference in your setup choices.

Console and PC gaming

If you play on PC, 165Hz support is the headline. It can make motion feel more immediate in shooters and competitive games, as long as your GPU can deliver frames to match. For console gamers, it’s simpler: current consoles top out at 120Hz in most cases, so Sony’s 4K/120 support is still very relevant.

Both TVs support VRR and ALLM, which are the features that reduce tearing and help the TV switch into a low-lag game mode automatically. The bigger day-to-day difference is ports. Four HDMI 2.1 inputs (as reported for LG C6) means you can plug in a PS5, Xbox, PC, and still keep eARC open for audio without playing musical chairs.

Sony’s two HDMI 2.1 ports can still work well for a simpler setup. If you’re mostly PS5 plus a soundbar, you can be perfectly happy. If you’re a “two consoles plus PC” person, you’ll feel constrained faster.

For more C6 context as it rolls out, this Tom’s Guide look at LG C6 vs C5 is useful for understanding what LG is changing generation to generation.

Smart TV software and sound

Software shapes the experience more than most people admit. Google TV on the BRAVIA 8 II is familiar, app-rich, and easy to search across services. If you already live in Google accounts and Google Home devices, it tends to fit naturally.

LG’s webOS is also easy to use, and it’s quick once you learn the layout, but the home screen experience can feel busier depending on region and promo settings. If you like a cleaner “just show me my apps” interface, you might spend a few minutes turning off recommendations and rearranging your rows.

Sound is the other daily-use surprise. Sony’s approach often makes dialogue feel more anchored to the screen, which is helpful if you’re not buying a soundbar on day one. LG’s built-in audio is usually fine for casual viewing, but movies and big games almost always improve with an external sound system. If you already plan to add a soundbar, audio becomes less of a deciding factor.

Value, pros and cons

Pricing moves constantly, and deals can flip the obvious choice. Sony is positioned as premium, LG as the better-value path for feature density, but a discounted Sony can become the smarter buy if you care most about cinema-style polish.

You should also keep basic OLED care in mind. Burn-in risk is lower than it used to be, but it isn’t zero. If you leave static HUDs on all day, or you run news tickers for hours, you’ll want to use pixel refresh tools, vary content, and avoid max brightness in SDR for long stretches.

Pros and cons you can decide from in one minute

LG C6 OLED pros

• More size choices (reported), including very large options for big rooms
• Four HDMI 2.1 ports (reported), easier for multi-device setups
• Up to 165Hz support (reported), best fit for PC gamers
• Strong OLED contrast and Dolby Vision support (reported)

LG C6 OLED cons

• As of February 2026, limited independent testing and measurements
• Smaller sizes may not match the larger variants’ brightness (reported panel differences)
• Built-in audio is likely “fine,” but many movie fans will still want a soundbar

Sony BRAVIA 8 II OLED pros

• QD-OLED color punch, strong blacks, and excellent shadow detail
• Best-in-class processing for 1080p upscaling and streaming cleanup
• Very bright HDR highlights in small areas (measured around mid 1,500 nits on 10 percent windows)
• Google TV experience is familiar and app-complete

Sony BRAVIA 8 II OLED cons

• Only 55-inch and 65-inch sizes
• Two HDMI 2.1 ports, with one often tied to eARC
• QD-OLED edge cases: occasional raised blacks in harsh light, faint fringing on high-contrast edges
• Burn-in risk still exists with heavy static content, like any OLED

Which one fits your setup and habits best

You should lean LG C6 if you want the easiest “plug everything in” setup, you game on PC and care about frame rates above 120Hz, or you simply need a 77-inch or 83-inch screen for the room. You’re also a good match if you want strong features without paying top-tier Sony pricing.

You should lean Sony BRAVIA 8 II if your nights look like streaming, movies, and sports, and you want the TV to make average-looking content look cleaner. It’s also the safer pick when you care about a realistic, cinema-style picture and you don’t want to tweak settings much. If you catch a meaningful discount on the 55-inch or 65-inch model, Sony’s premium position can start to look like a value play.

LG C6 OLED vs Sony BRAVIA 8 II OLED FAQ

Conclusion

If you want the simplest takeaway, choose LG when you want maximum gaming flexibility and better port headroom, especially if you need multiple HDMI 2.1 devices connected at once or you want 165Hz support for PC play. Choose Sony when you want the most cinematic, polished image, with top-tier upscaling that makes everyday 1080p streaming look better than it has any right to.

Before you buy today, run a quick checklist: how bright your room gets, what screen size you can actually fit, whether you’ll add a soundbar, and how many HDMI 2.1 devices you’ll connect at the same time. That usually reveals the right answer faster than specs ever will.