Philips TVs showcased its latest high-end OLED TVs at a Berlin event running simultaneously to IFA 2022, and they’re pretty interesting.
The Philips OLED+907 and Philips OLED+937 are siblings vying for a spot on our list of the best OLED TVs.
Both use LG Display’s ‘Royal’ OLED EX panel, which is 30% brighter than previous OLED tech. LG utilises it in the LG G2, and both have built-in Bowers & Wilkins speakers to avoid a separate soundbar.
Both use a modified version of Android TV 11, and they have a new version of Philips’ Ambilight tech, which is a minor enhancement that offers brighter, more accurate light.
The OLED+907 comes in 48, 55, and 65-inch sizes and has 3.1 speakers. The 65- and 77-inch OLED+937 features Philips’ 6th-gen dual-chip P5 chipset and 5.1.2 speakers.
I observed both running side-by-side and heard the OLED+937 compared to the LG G2, Samsung S95B, and Sony A95K in ‘TV nerd heaven’
And the OLED+937 has great contrast. Contrast is OLED’s expertise, but the 937’s brilliant panel and excellent HDR processing offer astonishing dynamic range.
In the most vivid option, the panel can reach 1,300 nits in a 3% window, but I couldn’t measure it. Other OLED TVs struggle to attain 1,000 nits, but Philips’s can hold 1,300-nit peaks for 10 minutes without image retention.
A new Advanced HDR processing feature in the OLED+937 assesses the brightness levels of HDR video for each frame and applies tone mapping as needed. This implies super-bright and dark images are treated differently, not equally. It’s smart and could aid non-Dolby Vision content.
Philips TV images were often clearer than LG, Sony, and Samsung because the dynamic range appeared to be better. With more detail in the shadows and highlights, you could see more.
All TVs were in Vivid mode or comparable (Philips’ is now Crystal Clear), so it wasn’t a fair comparison. Even while some are set to this out of the box, it doesn’t always reflect their dynamic range at its most realistic, so we won’t declare the Philips the winner of picture quality from that comparison. It was striking.
All-powerful speakers
Speakers. The OLED+907’s 3.1 system has 10 drivers and 80W, thus it’s powerful. The sound is bigger and more front than any conventional TV, and the rear-mounted bass speaker is powerful. It’s all buried under a thin fabric strip down the set’s bottom.
The OLED+937 has a soundbar-like speaker enclosure built into the stand. Three forward channels, two angled drivers for left and right sound, and two upfiring Dolby Atmos drivers. This delivers a great spacious sound for movies and music.
The room I heard them in was mostly plywood, so I’m reserve final judgement until we study them in a true living space, but they’re pushing in the right way compared to the LG C2’s paltry drivers. When we test them, we’ll know if they’re good sounding TVs.
If you want an all-in-one home theatre, consider them. Philips’ OLED TVs aren’t available in the US, therefore these won’t be either.