Philips Oled+908 Review: Good All-Rounder TV

The very best TV fashions from Philips are known as OLED+, and there’s no query that they’re OLED-based TVs. However what does the plus signal stand for? In keeping with Philips, it stands for top of the range and a premium expertise not solely in image high quality, but additionally in sound and design.

With regards to the latter, I can attest to that proper after screwing collectively and organising the OLED+908, or 65OLED908/12 which is the total mannequin identify for the 65-inch mannequin on my TV bench. It truly is a good-looking unit to behold, from super-thin edges to an all-black display floor with minimal reflections, to a black felt-covered panel that extends nearly all the way in which all the way down to the bench prime, and homes a set of audio system.

Solely a small, equally black metallic loop protrudes from the centre entrance of the TV to help it, whereas the foot is wider and supplies good stability on the again. The distant management has additionally obtained a facelift this yr and is a sublime strong metallic block with brushed black surfaces.

Philips has confirmed that there shall be no OLED+938 this yr, so the 908 is that this yr’s prime mannequin following the 907. With two front-facing 20W audio system and a rear subwoofer with 30W of energy and a sound system by Bower & Wilkins, you’ll be able to nonetheless get plenty of sound from this mannequin, albeit not the identical top-quality and encompass impact.

Mattias Inghe

Costly, however not the costliest

The TV is out there in three sizes, 55-, 65- (examined right here) and a 77-inch mannequin. They’ve the identical image and sound traits, the one distinction is the scale. For a 55-inch, you’ll pay £1,999, and the 65-inch is £2,499, whereas there’s an even bigger value bounce as much as 77-inch to £4,299.

You should buy it from Richer Sounds within the UK.

That is barely decrease than the LG G3, their prime mannequin amongst 4K OLED, and Samsung’s equal S95C. Aside from the 77-inch which is incomprehensibly far more costly. However now I assess the TV in entrance of me, and at 65-inch, the OLED+908 is extra fairly priced for this stage of high quality.

OLED+908 is constructed on the identical OLED panel because the LG G3, and comes from LG. With the identical pixel expertise as in its predecessor and actually the identical brightness of the sunshine sources, however with the brand new MLA layer in entrance, the brightness abruptly will increase considerably. MLA stands for Micro Lens Array, and includes lenses in entrance of every mild level that focus and launch extra of the sunshine to your eyes.

Mattias Inghe

A lot of mild with new good layer

Philips themselves declare that the OLED+908 will attain as much as 2,100 nits in spot brightness in HDR viewing, and definitely small mild spots on one other dimmed floor may be actually intense, however I don’t have measurement instruments adequate to substantiate it. On a bigger however nonetheless small sq. of 10% of the display, I get simply over 1,200 nits. That’s nonetheless quite a bit, and matches the Samsung S95C. LG’s personal G3 mannequin is barely brighter, but it surely nonetheless makes the OLED+908 one of many brightest TVs ever.

And with nearly excellent dynamics. The nuance in intensely shiny surfaces, in addition to in close to pitch black, is so convincing that I discover myself forgetting that I’m truly taking a look at a display and never actuality. With 99% of the DCI-P3 color gamut and excessive color accuracy, the picture is each well-balanced and impartial. Simply avoid the ‘Intense’ image mode, which pushes up the color saturation unnaturally and has a barely chilly tone.

It’s doable to set the brightness and color temperature to auto-adjust to the room, however you’ll miss out on these final additional ranges of brightness. I due to this fact choose to run it off and change between ready-made picture profiles to my very own liking.

You’ve strict Filmmaker mode which provides hotter color temperature, and turns off plenty of picture sign enhancement, in addition to all movement compensation, so that each picture in a 24Hz cinema reel feels arduous and static. For those who prefer it, it’s faithfully reproduced right here.

In any other case, there’s Residence Cinema, which supplies some body smoothing however not with out shedding the cinema really feel, and in addition does extra to boost the image sign if it’s not streamed losslessly, in addition to an Imax-optimised image mode.

Mattias Inghe

Construct on the sound with DTS

This implies customised side ratio and DTS:X sound as an alternative of normal stereo or Dolby Atmos, in case your supply is IMAX. In any other case, the image expertise for IMAX is sort of much like Filmmaker mode. With DTS help in your TV, you additionally get DTS Play-Fi, a characteristic that makes it straightforward to construct a real residence cinema encompass with wi-fi suitable Bluetooth audio system.

For on a regular basis TV watching, you’ve a Private Profile that gives a impartial image with some picture enhancement, and free rein to customize particulars in each doable method. Along with these, there’s an eco mode only for SDR video, a recreation mode, and a mode for Calman-calibrated image. Lastly, you get a pixel-mapped display mode for those who join a pc, however can in fact change to recreation mode even there.

The picture administration was good within the earlier top-of-the-range Philips mannequin, and it’s no worse right here. The P5 AI Excellent Image picture processing engine does a wonderful job with most issues, from scrubbing away MPEG artefacts on compressed video to smoothing out sweeping tones in a blue sky, for instance.

Movement dealing with rivals the most effective rivals, besides maybe Sony, which nonetheless performs magic that the opposite distributors haven’t discovered but.

Mattias Inghe

Keep away from SD decision for those who can

If there’s something I wish to complain about, it’s the upscaling, which at resolutions beneath 720p begins to look ugly and unnatural, with seen, tender “pixel squares” in some conditions. So the image gained’t be flawless for those who’ve acquired previous crappy SD channels to observe in your TV. However it is perhaps time to improve for those who’re spending this a lot cash in your TV. Upscaling to 4K from 1080p or 720p appears to be like good, apart from a little bit of flicker in some conditions.

You get two HDMI 2.1 ports with help for all the important thing game-enhancing applied sciences, together with Freesync and G Sync help, in addition to well-approved low enter lag of round 8ms. It’s a little bit of a disgrace that the TV is proscribed to 2 such ports and that the opposite two HDMI playing cards are of the HDMI 2.0 selection.

Particularly since one of many 2.1 ports has eARC help and also you would possibly wish to join exterior audio to it. Then you’ll be able to select whether or not you desire a PC, Ps, Xbox or Swap in your final 2.1 port so that you would possibly wish to add HDMI ports to your TV.

You will get the TV image both by way of one of many different HDMI ports with out lack of high quality, or stream it with good TV apps. The OLED+908 has a hard and fast community port and help for Wi-Fi 5, which for probably the most half needs to be adequate for it. Occasional purposes, reminiscent of streaming video games with GeForce Now, for instance, could have issues on Wi-Fi 5 for those who’re unfortunate, however in any other case it’s adequate for probably the most half.

Wi-Fi 6 could be higher for higher connectivity if the sign from the router is weak. In any other case, the bandwidth is ok.

Mattias Inghe

Google TV with few additions

The OLED+908 runs Android-based Google TV as its good platform, with the total Google Play vary of good apps accessible, and a small handful of the preferred ones pre-installed. There’s little or no likelihood you’d miss something particular when it comes to content material or performance.

Philips doesn’t provide a plethora of proprietary options. Screensaver with picture gallery, alarm perform, media participant for related storage, and TV information, in fact. That’s just about it. No separate assortment of free content material, like Samsung and LG have, for instance. You need to discover separate third-party companies for that.

I’ve the identical criticism concerning the OLED+908 as I did concerning the Philips mid-range LED TV The One, and it’s about fast entry to image and sound settings. There’s a menu that offers first rate entry to that, but it surely solely works for those who’re watching table-top TV for some cause. Philips claims it’s a restriction within the Google TV platform, however different producers run the identical system and have managed to unravel it anyway, so it looks like a weak excuse.

Image settings may be accessed throughout app use, however otherwise, and with many additional clicks.

Mattias Inghe

Must you purchase the Philips OLED+908?

Since that’s the largest criticism I’ve concerning the OLED+908, it’s apparent that we’re coping with a high quality TV right here. Certainly one of many on this prime section of OLED televisions constructed on the very newest expertise, with a noticeable increase in particularly brightness for HDR.

It’s not the brightest or most vibrant, and I had hoped that Philips had deserted the previous HDMI 2.0 ports altogether ultimately, but it surely’s arduous to complain concerning the film and gaming expertise that’s truly delivered.

The added worth it has to supply is principally its comparatively highly effective sound, and Philips’ distinctive Ambilight impact with a hoop of diodes that lights up the wall behind the TV in the identical color because the picture. This could present additional immersion in sure varieties of media. It’s additionally straightforward to regulate its depth and magnificence, in addition to change it off utterly, with a particular button on the distant management.

The sound is without doubt one of the finest in a TV proper now, though it’s sadly a step again in each weight and element replica from final yr’s prime mannequin OLED+937. Most individuals can do properly with it with out having to complement with a soundbar, however I miss the little additional that 2022’s finest Philips may ship.

This evaluate initially appeared on M3.

Specs

• Product identify: Philips OLED+908
• Producer: Philips
• Examined mannequin : 65OLED908/12
• Panel kind: MLA OLED EX
• Measurement: 55 inches, 65 inches (examined mannequin), 77 inches
• Decision: 4K UHD, 2160p
• Body fee: 120Hz
• Native dimming: OLED-EX with MLA
• Color depth: 10-bit
• Color gamut: 99% DCI-P3
• Hdr: HLG, HDR10, HDR10+, HDR10 Adaptive, Dolby Imaginative and prescient, Dolby Imaginative and prescient IQ
• Working system: Google TV 12
• Audio: 2.1 2pcs 20 Watt, 1pcs 30 Watt subwoofer
• Connections: 2x HDMI 2.1 (one with eARC), 2x HDMI 2.0, LAN, 1pcs USB-A 3.0, 2pcs USB-A 2.0, RF antenna, satellite tv for pc, optical digital audio out, analogue stereo out
• Wi-fi: Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 5.0
• Dimensions incl. base: 144.4 x 89.5 x 28.7 cm (65 inches)
• Weight: 26.8 kg (65 inches)
• Power class: G
• Wall mount: Vesa 300x300mm