Philips’ latest OLED TV is quite the spectacle. At first glance, it looks like any modern TV but its in-built light show produces a magnificent effect.
We’ve all seen the company’s Hue kits, from light strips to light bulbs — and there are options like the Hue Play available to sync them to the picture on your television, for a few hundred dollars.
But the company’s latest TVs now deliver that same effect without the hassle of clipping light strips on the back of your TV, sorting HDMI sources and plugging into an external Play box.
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The new 4K OLED TVs come with their three-sided Ambilight system built in.
The only hard part is getting it out of the box.
Philips sent me a 65-inch OLED706 on loan ahead of its Australian release, and I must say it was a workout just to get it standing upright.
The legs, while light and thin, need to be screwed into the base of the TV.
The top half of the screen is incredibly thin, with all the connection ports, audio and power build in the lower half.
With the TV’s legs on, it still sits quite low at about one centimetre above the surface it’s placed on.
Like most new televisions, all the latest apps are preinstalled on the device. This Android TV is fully paired with Google.
The Android TV menu screen lacks oomph, but after sending a few 4K films through the screen it’s clear this display means business.
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One thing I wasn’t too keen on was the position of the HDMI ports. On a stand, the TV is quite low, meaning any large HDMI attachments won’t connect without an adapter.
There are ports on the left hand side of the screen too but it will only accept cables — again, no large attachments like a Fire TV.
The solution to this is to mount the TV onto a wall, or just stick with Android TV already installed on the device.
But in the case of this TV, wall mounting may not be the best option. It’s recommended you keep the display at least 15 centimetres away from the wall to optimise the Ambilight feature.
The ambient lighting has various play settings, whether you want the lights to sync with what’s being shown on the screen or just want a cool light show to any music you’re playing.
The lighting can also be adjusted to suit movies and video games.
When it comes to gaming, this TV fits the brief exceptionally well. With HDR enabled and a refresh rate of 120 hertz (or frames per second), any video game played on the current generation of consoles will pop.
I’ve been running the Xbox Series X through the display without a hitch, for both games and high-definition movies.
Quality TV speakers are few and far between and most have standard stereo speakers underneath the panels.
Big companies often sacrifice sound quality for picture with devices getting thinner and thinner each year.
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But Philips has managed to keep the slim display, at least in half the unit, while packing some great sound, including a small 30W subwoofer, into the TV. It also has Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision include.
It’s pricy at $4869, but ultimately it’s a premium display that’s sure to impress.
The Philips 2022 4K UHD OLED TVs aren’t quite retail-ready in Australia, so be sure to look out on Amazon in the coming weeks.
If you’re keen for something like this and can’t wait, Harvey Norman stocks the earlier OLED805 series, which also includes Ambilight.
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9News.com.au was loaned a review unit of the Philips 4K UHD OLED for the purpose of this review.
Source: 9NEWS