Sony BRAVIA 5: what it ships with and what can come off

The BRAVIA 5 is the Mini LED with which Sony covered, in 2025, the stretch that sits just below its more expensive models. And like every recent Sony, it arrives with Google TV on top: a system that Sony itself leaves a good deal cleaner than the rest of the manufacturers do, but which still devotes half the home screen to recommending you things.

This page is for someone who already has one at home.

What it is, in two lines#

A 2025 4K set with a VA panel and Mini LED backlight, 120 Hz native —the range runs from 48 to 120 Hz, so there is no 144 here— and with Sony's XR processor governing the backlight.

On brightness, what has been measured on the European 65-inch model is around 900 nits on a 25 % window in Professional mode, and a shade under 1,000 in Standard. Sony does not declare nit figures, and it does not publish how many dimming zones the set has either: whoever has counted them on the 65-inch model puts the number at around 240, although a considerably higher figure appears in the American reviews. With that discrepancy on the table, the honest thing is to say that the exact number is not confirmed and that it changes with the size as well.

One detail worth being clear about before you plug anything in: of its four HDMI ports, only two are 2.1. And one of those two is also the eARC. If you have a console and a soundbar, that is a moment's thinking.

And another: it accepts Dolby Vision, but it does not accept HDR10+.

Before you touch anything, if you own a PlayStation#

Like the rest of the range, this model ships with features that only switch on with a PS5 connected, and that depend on the television and the console talking over HDMI and on parts of the set's own system.

They are not an app you can list and remove, but they are a reason not to go disabling system packages blind on this particular machine. If you play on a PS5: take apps off it, which is safe, and leave alone everything you cannot put a name to.

How to tell whether this page is about your set#

Sony reuses the BRAVIA name across many ranges and many years, and the shop reference changes from country to country: the same television can be called one thing in Spain and another in the United States, where this series is also sold under a different number.

Under Settings → System → About you will find the model and the Android version, which on this one is 12. With ADB connected, getprop ro.product.model and getprop ro.build.version.release give you the same thing without going through the menus.

What ships on it#

Google's. The launcher (com.google.android.tvlauncher), the recommendation engine (com.google.android.tvrecommendations), voice search (com.google.android.katniss) and the services (com.google.android.gms). On a Sony this layer weighs proportionally more than on other brands, precisely because the manufacturer adds less.

Sony's. Less than you would expect: the house content apps and some setup helper. The exact names change between firmware versions, so list your own rather than trusting a list copied off the internet.

Everybody else's. Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+ and the rest arrive installed and, on many units, with a dedicated button on the remote. The button stays after you remove the app; it simply stops going anywhere.

What comes off without much thought#

The streaming apps you do not use. They take up room, they update themselves and they appear in the recommendation row. If you subscribe to one of them tomorrow, it reinstalls from the store in two minutes.

The free content channels that fill the home screen are the second obvious case. That is exactly what they are there for.

What to look at first#

The recommendation engine. Disabling it does leave a clean home screen, yes, but it also empties the "continue watching" row, which in a house with several people is missed more than you would think.

And before touching any package, go through the television's own privacy settings. On recent Sony sets there is a fair amount that can be reduced from there, with no ADB and no risk at all. That road first.

What not to touch#

Google Play services. They are the foundation of the store, of the accounts and of a good part of the apps. Without them the set boots and little else.

The launcher, as long as you have no other one installed and working. A television with no launcher comes on to a black screen, and fixing that with the remote alone is a great deal harder than having thought about it beforehand.

Anything starting with com.android. that you cannot identify: com.android.systemui is the system interface and com.android.settings is the settings app itself.

And on this model, with all the more reason: anything to do with HDMI, with the video input or with the control of external devices. The console business, the soundbar's eARC and the 120 Hz all pass through there.

What you actually notice#

Because Sony ships fewer additions than other brands, what you gain is more modest than on a television loaded with manufacturer apps: the home screen stops proposing series from services you do not have, the content notifications disappear, and the set answers the remote slightly sooner in the first seconds after switching on.

What does not change: the brightness, the zones, the image processing, the sound or the input lag. All of that lives below the apps, and it is what you paid for.

Where it sits in the range#

Below it sits the BRAVIA 3, which is no longer Mini LED and stops at 60 Hz. Above, the models with more backlight control and the OLEDs. They all share the same Google TV, so what this page says holds for the entire range with very few changes: what separates one from another is the panel and the processor, not the software.

All of this comes undone#

Nothing explained here is permanent. Packages disabled over ADB come back with one command, and a factory reset returns the television to exactly the state it left the box in.

Nothing here touches the system: you are only telling the set not to load something that was already installed.

If you own one#

The app list from your own BRAVIA 5, exactly as the set reports it, is the one thing missing to close its entry in the directory. If you feel like sending it, the next person searching for this model finds the work already done.