How long do Sony TVs last, according to owners?

As one of the best big smart TV brands, Sony has built quite a reputation over the years. This is no coincidence. There is no shortage of threads online where users share stories of Sony Bravia TVs that have reached the two-decade mark without any issues or repairs. The company is so beloved in the community that no one reacted well to the announcement that Sony would produce new TVs in a joint venture with TCL – a real end-of-the-century vibe.

However, the problem is that judging the manufacturer with tunnel vision on Sony Bravia models from the early 2000s doesn’t say much about the overall lifespan of all TVs. Do the most modern products live up to the Sony banner? How long do Sony TVs last, according to owners?

As for older models, don’t think two decades is rare for them. In fact, a Reddit thread has numerous reports of various models working well after 10+ years. This isn’t limited to the Sony Bravias from the late 2000s, as some reviews confirm that the 2010s were also a strong decade for the brand. Yet the commonality is that they are not smart TVs. Once you quickly upgrade to modern models, the expected lifespan falls within a similar time frame as other manufacturers. Make no mistake, many TVs end up at least five to six years old, according to users online, but that’s a far cry from the tank reputation Sony built for itself years ago.

Although some users claim the average is two years, this is an exaggeration. The same thread was started by someone whose 2016 Sony Bravia died after four years. In fact, there aren’t many horror stories surrounding the brand. Sure, one user reports that their Bravia OLED 2022 sometimes displays a red error that mysteriously disappears on its own, but in most cases, users can get more than five years back on their investment.

It’s really not uncommon. A user in a thread explaining why Sony isn’t as robust as it used to dispel accusations of planned obsolescence, saying it’s simply a case of companies prioritizing their bottom line and cutting corners. According to them, planned obsolescence may not be planned, but rather the shortcuts simply shorten the lifespan of products.

Another clear reason why Sony has a shorter lifespan these days becomes clear if you look up where Sony TVs are made. Technically, the company does not manufacture its Bravia brand panels. Instead, it sources components from other manufacturers like Samsung and LG. This goes a long way to explaining why Sony didn’t do better than other TVs put to the test in the RTINGS accelerated aging test. Of the 18 Sony products affected, four failed completely and three experienced partial failures. This sounds worrying, but the failure rate is much more forgiving than Samsung or Hisense.

There is some good news, however. In determining how long Sony TVs last according to owners, you may learn that, according to some users online, the TVs themselves are usually repairable. One owner says Sony has a more modular approach, meaning repairers can actually source the parts. Again, this is another exaggeration. While some things are worth repairing, others agree that this doesn’t really apply to broken panels.

Any way you slice it, if you run into problems, it’s possible you can fix them yourself if they’re caused by software. For example, if your screen freezes, a simple restart can clear it immediately. This applies to many lines or bands appearing on the screen and other problems. Your next line of defense is to update the firmware, and if that doesn’t resolve the issue, Sony recommends trying different cables or connecting cables to a different input terminal on the TV.

Either way, if you can’t fix the problem via software, it might be worth taking the TV to a repair shop. A screen replacement is overkill, but if the problem is something like bad input, it’s fixable. If all goes well, you’ll gain a few more years for Sony, which, from the looks of it, won’t be the same after 2027, once the TCL partnership bears its first fruits.