PHILIPS Ambilight 65PUS8545/12 65-Inch LED TV (4K UHD, P5 Engine, Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos, HDR 10+, Freeview Play, Works with Alexa, Android TV) Light Silver/Silver Chrome (2020/2021 Model)

Product Information

Not every Ambilight TV is made the same, though. Low-end models have two-sided Ambilight, meaning colour emanates from the left and right of the TV. Mid-spec models have three-sided Ambilight, with LEDs pointing upwards too. Some very premium models, like the 2020 flagship OLED+935, now come with four-sided Ambilight, meaning the LEDs glow from the bottom edge of the set too. There’s certainly nothing else out there that looks like it. From its super-sleek metallic sculpting to its immersion-boosting Ambilight system, it looks far more expensive than it actually is. Fans though we typically are of Bowers & Wilkins products, be they hi-fi speakers or Philips TV audio systems, we didn’t fully warm to the sound of the OLED937’s predecessor. Despite it also sporting an external multi-channel speaker enclosure, something about its sound left us feeling a little cold. Especially when you’re talking about a TV that commands quite a price premium over OLED TVs that don’t feature such high-falutin’ integrated audio. Precious few TVs at the OLED807’s price point carry a 70W audio system – never mind a 70W audio system with a dedicated bass speaker. It’s hardly surprising, then, to find that this Philips model sounds far better than the vast majority of other TVs in its class, despite the remarkable thinness that characterises much of its bodywork. The size of the soundstage the 65OLED937 can produce, for starters, is both bigger and, more importantly, more accurately defined than that of its predecessor. This is especially noticeable when it comes to height/vertical effects in a Dolby Atmos mix, but the whole soundstage has a more effective, accurate, three-dimensional and immersive presence.

Keep in mind, though: a company called Funai owns the Philips license in the US, meaning you won't get anything like Ambilight. But for those in the UK and Europe, with an eye on an Ambilight TV, this is the guide you need. Should I buy a Philips Ambilight TV? This television contains lead only in certain parts or components where no technology alternatives exist in accordance with existing exemption clauses under the RoHS Directive. Being able to deliver more native brightness means, too, that there’s a wider range of natural looking tones in the brightest parts of HDR images, as well as reducing the potential for clipping (lost shading) in peak light areas. Panel uniformity is very good on the Philips 65OLED807 with no signs of dirty screen effect or banding on brighter patterns. A 5% grey slide held up well with just some mild banding seen in very dark surroundings, however, this is not seen within actual viewing content, even in dark scenes in dim viewing surroundings. We also didn’t encounter any vignetting to the edges of the panel. With the 65OLED937’s motion processing in play, meanwhile, its outstanding sharpness remains completely intact when the 65OLED937 has to cope with lots of movement – even during 24p movies. As ever with Philips TVs, some of the motion processing options can overcook things, causing either too much over-smooth ‘soap opera effect’, or too many distracting processing side effects. Here again, though, Philips has become much more pragmatic than it used to be, now offering Pure Cinema and Movie motion processing options that are gentle and intelligent enough to take the ugly edge off 24p judder without causing any significant unwanted side effectsThe set’s mid-range is wide and dynamic enough to deliver even dense action scenes with authority and conviction, easily avoiding the thin, hemmed in feel you get with big movie moments on so many TVs. The power and dynamic range that delivers this impressive mid-range performance also contributes to excellent detailing; a nicely projected sound stage that seems to exist well beyond the edges of the screen; and convincing, clear vocals. That said, it’s seriously welcome to find the 65OLED937 providing the latter two picture options (along with support for the third-party IMAX Enhanced‘format’) for viewers who really do like a more restrained, ‘authentic’ look to their TV pictures. Philips no longer takes the ‘my way or the highway’ approach to picture quality it could perhaps have been accused of a few generations ago. To put it simply, Ambilight is a proprietary TV technology exclusive to Philips TVs, and in a saturated market full of near-identical goggle boxes, it really does help Philips stand out from the crowd. Ambilight is essentially the inclusion of an LED array around the side of a television, which projects color onto the wall behind a TV. Android App offerings vary per country. For more details please visit your local Google Play Store. It feels, too, as if some of the provided picture tweaks can work against each other. For instance, running the Advanced HDR Tone Mapping feature in conjunction with the Maximum HDR Perfect setting can cause dark scenes to start to look a bit unstable.

Gaming is supported by two HDMI 2.1 ports (in addition to two HDMI 2.0 ports), with support for 4K 120Hz and Variable Refresh Rate, plus Auto Low Latency Mode so it switches to its Game Mode when you fire up a console. Philips also supports the HGiG system that lets you use set up menus built into your console to establish the best gaming HDR experience, rather than the TV trying to figure out on the fly how best to handle incoming HDR game graphics. The OLED807’s smart features are provided by Android TV - the 11th generation of Android TV to be precise. This version of Android TV is far superior to any previous version in its presentation, stability and features, displaying a much greater understanding of how to deliver an interface that’s suited to TVs rather than personal smart devices. It’s still a little dictatorial and low on customisation options, but at least it no longer feels like it was designed to actively put you off using it.The OLED807 retains Philips’ long-running reputation for sharpness, too. Its pictures look emphatically 4K with the set’s Ultra Resolution feature in play – and this feature now seems to cause no significant unwanted side effects, so we see no reason not to use it (we recommended avoiding it in the past). The OLED807’s extra brightness also brings out more shadow detail in dark areas than we got with the OLED806, and HD sources are upscaled with more sharpness and detail than you get from most rivals. The biggest issues for gamers, though, are that input lag is a little higher, at 21.2ms, than we see with most premium TVs these days (though 21.2ms still represents less than a frame), and that while the TV will accept 4K/120Hz feeds, these will actually only appear with half the vertical resolution they ought to. This does result in a softer, less detailed look to 4K/120 images than you get with TVs that can properly support such feeds. Though, as we’ll see, this doesn’t mean the 65OLED937 isn’t capable of looking very good indeed with gaming sources. Philips has got its Game preset input lag time down for the OLED807 to 15.1ms with 1080p/60Hz feeds. That’s still 5ms or so higher than the fastest results we’ve seen this year, but you’d have to be a more competitive gamer than us for 5ms to make a serious difference to your performance. We are reviewing the 65-inch OLED807 in this review, which is almost identical to the 48-inch previously reviewed, just with a slightly different panel, but performance was very similar indeed. As such most of the points made with regards to the 48-inch are the same for the 65-inch model.