It seems the Sony A90J gained popularity just because it could hit around 1300 nits on Vivid mode for few seconds but everyone got quite excited and had thought it could reach a 1000 nits on one of the accurate picture modes but now it looks like the similar amount of Nits in accurate picture modes as LG's G1, that is around 750/780 nits.
As hardly anyone watches in Vivid mode, it's no brighter than G1 in those modes that ppl uses. I think Panasonic's JZ2000 would hit higher around 900 nits, in accurate picture modes.