Sony reveals world-first QD-OLED TV, plus smaller OLED and Mini-LED at last

Sony has just announced its TV line-up for 2022, and it includes the first ever TV made with the exciting new QD-OLED screen technology, which Sony says "boosts colour brightness by up to 200% compared to conventional TVs".

That's not the only new technology in Sony's line-up though: it's also debuting Mini-LED TVs for the first time, and is following LG's 2022 TV announcement by introducing a 42-inch OLED TV model.

Given Sony's top-notch processing, these TVs look likely to seriously challenge for the top spot in our list of the best TVs overall and especially the best OLED TVs. But that will partly depend on pricing – and pricing and dates aren't available yet.

All the new tech makes Sony's 2022 line-up look a little convoluted at first, but it does make sense once you wrap your head around it – let's go through the whole range now, from the cutting-edge tech down to the more regular replacement for last year's models.

At the very top of the range is the Sony MASTER Series Z9K, which is an 8K TV that introduces Mini-LED to the line-up for the first time, along with all-new 'XR Backlight Master Drive' tech to controlling local dimming of that backlight for seriously impressive results – I expect this thing to look amazing given how good Sony is at contrast control and upscaling. It'll be available in 75-inch or 85-inch models only.

Then you have the Sony MASTER Series A95K, which is Sony's highest-end 4K TV of this year, and is the first TV with what Sony is calling the "new OLED" panel, but is also known as QD-OLED. (You can expect to hear about a TV from Samsung with this technology in imminently, too.) QD-OLED basically mixes the efficient colour creation of Samsung's Quantum Dot tech with the individual pixel lighting of OLED, and Sony says that the TV "can access the widest palette of colour to reproduce natural shades with every detail" as a result. You've also got Sony's awesome Acoustic Surface Audio+ tech for better sound than most TVs can manage. This TV is available in 55-inch and 65-inch sizes.

Next in the range you have the Sony MASTER Series A90K 4K OLED TV… sort of. You see, this TV is only available in 42-inch and 48-inch sizes, so it's more like this model is the smaller equivalent to the A95K above rather than its own separate model. But it doesn't use the "new OLED" panel, so it has a similar name, but not an identical name. Er, make sense?

Then we have the Sony X95K, which is a 4K TV with a Mini-LED backlight. This has all of Sony's best processing tech, plus the next-gen Mini-LED lighting, and will be ideal for gaming too. It'll be Sony's best 4K TV that isn't OLED, and it'll come in 65-inch, 75-inch and 85-inch sizes only.

Next is the Sony A80K OLED 4K TV, which is the mainstream-friendly OLED TV for 2022, featuring the latest generation of Sony processing and connection tech, but with a more affordable type of OLED panel. You still get the Acoustic Surface Audio+ sound, though. It's available in 55-inch, 65-inch and 77-inch sizes.

Then you have the Sony X90K, which is likely to be the big seller. It's a 4K LED TV (not Mini-LED), featuring a full array backlight and all of Sony's advanced processing, plus great features such as HDMI 2.1, and Acoustic Multi-Audio tech for strong sound quality out of the box. Expect this to offer serious bang for buck. It will come in 55-, 65-, 75- and 85-inch sizes – this is a shame, since the current Sony X90J has a 50-inch size as well.

Next is the Sony X85K, which is super-flexible in terms of screen sizes, and will cost less by switching to Sony's X1 processor instead of its newer XR processor (and will feature a slightly less advanced panel than the X90K). It'll be available in 85-inch, 75-inch, 65-inch, 55-inch, 50-inch and 43-inch sizes.

And finally, the Sony X80K is the entry-level set, and will feature less advanced panel again, but keeps the X1 processing power. That will be available in 75-inch, 65-inch, 55-inch, 50-inch and 43-inch sizes.