PHILIPS 55OLED856/12 55inch 4K UHD OLED SMART TV WiFi Dolby Atmos Ambilight

Product Information

A soundbar might not be totally necessary, mind you. The sound quality of the TV itself is actually rather good, and certainly better than what we’ve heard from any other entry-level OLED this year. Bass is more than sufficient and there’s impressive clarity too. Of course, for the complete cinematic experience, a soundbar or surround-sound setup is recommended, but it’s not a necessity if you can’t afford to buy both at once. Philips’ video processing tech has also improved and looks cleaner and crisper than on any previous Philips OLED. Upscaling quality for 720p and 1080p content is decent so long as the sharpness controls aren’t dialled up too high – doing so can result in unwanted ringing and visual noise. Note that pixel shifting, an automatic function that reduces the risk of OLED burn-in, still can’t be disabled on the Philips 805. However, the horizontal leeway (the distance that the video frame moves) has been halved so it likely won’t be an issue for most users.

Auditioned here in 55in guise (there are also 48in, 65in and – new for this year – 77in options) this is a TV that boasts a lengthy feature list, familiar smarts, a tidy design and, naturally, Philips proprietary Ambilight illumination system (now four-sided, the iteration previously reserved for the company's range-topping tellies). It has serious kerb appeal. The OLED805 is also the first Philips to support Filmmaker Mode, although it doesn’t appear as a named preset in the TV’s menus. To activate it, you simply select the Movie mode. Though why you’d want to is beyond us: the UHD Alliance might claim that it delivers the picture exactly as intended, but it’s hard to believe that the bland, lifeless image produced by the preset (and the Filmmaker Mode on LG’s 2020 models, for that matter) is what any director had in mind when sitting in the editing suite. On the plus side, Philips’s mixed OS approach means almost total coverage when it comes to apps and services. All the UK catch-ups are there, Netflix, Prime Video and Disney+ are all available in top quality for sound and vision, and the only significant next-tier app absences are Now and Sky Store. Approximate width of the display. If the manufacturer does not provide such information, the width is calculated from the diagonal and the aspect ratio. USB recording for digital channels only, recordings may be limited by broadcast copy protection (CI+). Country and channel restrictions may apply.

Conclusion

That said, Dolby Vision Bright, which is the preset best used for Dolby Vision content when viewing in ambient light, isn’t simply a brighter version of the most accurate Dolby Vision Dark preset, but one with a number of other settings also altered. If you do view Dolby Vision content in a lit room, or you simply enjoy a punchier Dolby Vision delivery (as we do), you’ll need to reduce or turn off these settings to avoid an image that’s overly sharpened – reduce sharpness so it’s at 3 at most, turn off Ultra Resolution and noise reduction, and switch Motion Styles to Movie or Pure Cinema. Philips TVs have long had a reputation for delivering exceptionally sharp pictures - and the OLED806 continues that trend. Especially since you can now leave Philips' Ultra Resolution feature on with good quality HD and 4K sources without it causing the picture to look gritty, harsh or unnatural.

Philips uses the Android smart TV platformacross its TV range, with 2021 models getting the latest Android 10 iteration. It’s the most common TV platform and the most unremarkable – though Android’s stability issues have generally improved over the past couple of years, thanks to updates from Google. As your 856 is new don‘t overly worry if it’s doing this in shorter times than mine above, as I seem to remember the times were quite shorter when mine was new, or perhaps I was just watching it more… But make the right adjustments and the endpoint is a lovely picture. Sharpness and detail remain two of the set's greatest strengths, but its colour balance is also delightfully well-judged. We suspect that the tone is just a little richer than is truly neutral, but the resulting picture is so pleasant that we could hardly call that a flaw.The 55OLED806 also adds HDR10+ Adaptive support to the HDR10+, Dolby Vision and Dolby Vision IQ premium HDR systems the OLED805 TVs carried last year, enabling automatic adjustment of HDR10+ content to better suite ambient light levels. Philips TV Remote app and related functionalities vary per TV model, operator and country, as well as smart device model and OS. For more details please visit: www.philips.com/TVRemoteapp. The resulting picture is stunningly sharp, detailed and three-dimensional, and brilliantly balanced in terms of colours and contrast. It skews a little darker than the LG CX, but its picture is beautifully deep and dramatic and there’s no loss in terms of dark detail. There’s greater dynamics and punch to the Philips’s sound, and a crispness and clarity that ensures you miss little. The Sony A8’s actuator arrangement ensures that audio and video are better spatially linked, but the OLED805 sounds better than most. Verdict

The storage temperature shows the range from a minimum to a maximum temperature, within which storing of the display is considered to be safe. Unlike some mid-range competitors, the central stand here is made from metal with a brushed matte finish. It swivels 15 degrees on either side to allow you to adjust your viewing angles with ease, which helps with placement. The fact that the stand is located in the centre also makes it easy to accommodate on smaller TV units (though it’s worth noting that the 70-inch and 75-inch models are pictured with a two-feet stand, which will require something larger).The most widely used panels are those with 6, 8, and 10 bits for each of the RGB components of the pixel. They provide 18-, 24-, and 30-bit color, respectively. The Philips OLED854 is a solid OLED TV which competes with the very best on the market. It has a very nice design, with excellent features like Ambilight for creating a bias light while watching the TV in a dark room. Disney+ subscription required. Subject to terms at https://www.disneyplus.com (c) 2020 Disney and its related entities. Disney+ is available in selected languages and countries. That’s all the information we have about the Philips TV line-up for 2021. Read on for details of their 2020 TVs that are still on sale.