Philips TV 55OLED807 139 cm (55 Inches)

Bright OLED screen and effective Ambilight: the Philips OLED807 is a joy to behold. The awkward operating concept dims it somewhat, but there is more light than shade: gamers are pleased with the robust HDMI inputs and the high motion sharpness, and streamers are happy with Android 11’s enormous app selection. The sound is more than okay for such a flat and chic TV, and the diverse expansion options are unusual. This also applies to the dignified design with a shiny chrome stand and swivelling screen.

Philips TVs are the only ones that also light up on the back. Ambilight is the name of the light spectacle that Philips has been equipping many of its TVs with for around 10 years. Coloured LEDs light up to match the running TV picture and expand it shadowily on the wall behind the TV set. This creates a beautiful light atmosphere in the room, and films, sports broadcasts, or even gaming appear more intense. Of course, the new Philips OLED807 promises more than just a nice glow; with its OLED screen, the picture quality is also supposed to impress. 

New OLED-EX screen

The Philips OLED807 uses an OLED screen of the latest generation. The supplier LG Display and Philips speak of OLED EX. The phosphor used is supposed to work more efficiently, so the picture brightness increases for the same power consumption, or the power consumption decreases for the same brightness. The difference is said to be up to 30 per cent compared to older OLED TVs. The new generation of screens is easy to identify even when the TV is switched off: The black border around the picture is only 4 millimetres narrow instead of 6 millimetres before. The basic advantages of OLED technology remain unchanged. It retains perfect black, and thus, any high contrasts in the picture, it has a clean and clear colour representation with high viewing angle stability and speedy switching times for streak-free movements.

The best picture settings for the OLED807

Philips doesn’t just leave it at the excellent picture with its TVs but wants to emphasise the qualities with elaborate post-processing. For this purpose, a powerful image processor is used, the 6th generation P5. One of its main tasks is scaling so that the content of any resolution fills the screen with its UHD resolution (3840×2160 pixels). In its factory settings, the processor sharpens the image, enhances the contrasts and increases the impression of brilliance with cool colour tuning. The result only looks impressive at first glance, but it appears overdrawn and unnatural on closer inspection. The remedy is simple in principle, even if the setting menu is awkward to use: After pressing the cogwheel button on the remote control, you select Frequent Settings, then All Settings as well as Picture and then find all the options for picture improvement:

AI Picture Adjustment: Pressing the Adjustment button (cogwheel symbol) on the remote control takes you to Frequent Settings, All Settings and finally to Picture and AI Picture Adjustments. You will find Filmmaker Mode as the best initial setting for a more natural picture impression. As usual, this selection is required separately for all programme sources, i.e., TV playback, HDMI inputs, Internet streams and, if applicable, USB playback. If an HDR film is playing, users must repeat the setting and, in this case select HDR Filmmaker Mode. For Dolby Vision films, the Dolby Vision Dark picture mode is the best choice.

Advanced: Here, you will find additional setting options. With light amplification set to minimum, films and TV programmes without HDR get a little more brilliance without colour distortion. At the bottom is the Motion entry. Here you can set whether and how the TV should smooth out jerky picture sequences. Under motion settings, you will find several preset modes. Film de-jerks pleasantly discreetly without annoying excessive artefacts. The setting Smooth leads to absolutely fluid movements. The Personal mode allows individually adjustable de-jerking and sharpening of the movement. The Perfect Natural Motion and Perfect Clear Motion entries serve this purpose one menu level above. However, it is the same with the above-mentioned modes.

Ambient Intelligence: Behind this term, Philips hides the ambient light sensor with which the TV automatically adjusts the picture to the ambient brightness. Of the three menu items that follow, the upper one, called Eye Care, is particularly interesting: it allows you to switch on the brightness adjustment. Everything else can remain in the factory settings. This also applies to the automatic recognition of static image content. This prevents station logos, for example, from leaving permanent traces during continuous operation. This is commonly referred to as burn-in.

Many options for good sound

As usual, a soundbar can be connected for better sound. For this, all four HDMI connections can output the sound to the running picture, because they all carry the audio return channel (ARC) responsible for this. However, only one has the extended eARC variant, which transmits 3D surround sound with Dolby Atmos. A stereo system is connected to a corresponding jack socket, just like headphones, and Bluetooth headphones can also be connected – with individual volume adjustment via remote control. But that’s not all: If desired, the Philips OLED807 can pass the sound on to WLAN speakers. Like the TV, these must be compatible with DTS Play-Fi. Suitable speakers are available from Philips and, for example, from the US manufacturer Klipsch. This way, a surround set for cinema sound can be set up without cable clutter. And if you install the Play-Fi headphone app on your smartphone, you can access the TV sound with it if necessary – even with several devices simultaneously.

The Ambilight expands

The Ambilight mentioned at the beginning also has a game mode with particularly effective light changes. 120 LEDs are responsible for the play of light in the rear panel, in one row each on the right, left, top and bottom. The control is in 64 zones and thus finer than in earlier versions – and much more precise than in all Ambilight replica attempts. As in the other modes for films and music, the intensity can be adjusted; alternatively, discreet continuous light is possible. The other way round, the Ambilight can do much more: with coupled Philips Hue lamps, it literally outgrows itself. If required, it can also be used as an alarm clock, with the TV displaying the weather forecast at the set time. Or it serves as a beautiful decorative light – with the screen switched off or with the “Aurora” or “Dawn” app and decorative screen savers.

Conclusion

Bright OLED screen and effective Ambilight: the Philips OLED807 is a joy to behold. The awkward operating concept dims it somewhat, but all in all there’s clearly more light than shade: gamers will be pleased with the powerful HDMI inputs and the high motion sharpness, and streamers will be pleased with Android 11 with its enormous app selection. The sound is more than okay for such a flat and chic TV, and the diverse expansion options are unusual. This also applies to the dignified design with a shiny chrome stand and swivelling screen. The TV is available in four sizes with otherwise similar technology: in the test, we tested the Philips 65OLED807 with a screen size of 164 centimetres. If that’s too much, the 55OLED807 and the 48OLED807 are two smaller models with 140 and 121 centimetres. Would you like a little more? Then the 77OLED807, with an impressive 195 centimetres, is a perfect choice.