Philips 55OLED809

Philips’ new OLED809 range includes 42, 48, 65 and 77in screen sizes too, but it’s the 55in model that I’m looking at here. And as you might expect, the company has included everything you might reasonably expect - and has also added its customary unique selling point for good measure.

So, the 55OLED809 uses a high-output ‘EX’ OLED panel that offers a peak light output (downhill, with a following wind) of 1300 nits - which is a figure that domestic OLED panels could only dream about a few years ago. The panel, and the overall system too, is governed by the latest, eighth generation of the P5 processor that Philips has been refining and finessing for quite some time. The 8th Gen P5 AI includes the new ‘Ambient Intelligence V3’ feature that tries to optimise HDR settings in response to ambient lighting levels and ensure ideal HDR performance even in brightly lit rooms.

And on the subject of HDR, Philips continues to behave like one of the few grown-ups in the room by offering both HDR10+ Adaptive and Dolby Vision dynamic metadata standards rather than just one or the other. The OLED809 is CalMAN Ready too, while provision for IMAX Enhanced and Filmmaker Mode picture modes ought to ensure content of all types looks as it should in every circumstance.

It uses Google TV for its smart interface, and as far it goes it’s entirely fit for purpose. Its recommendation game is strong, it’s logically laid out and easy to follow. But the ongoing absence of every UK TV catch-up service (with exception of My5) continues to be a bit of an embarrassment. Philips can bang on all it likes about how everyone has access to a source player that includes iPlayer, ITVX and the rest - but I don’t want to have to turn my Playstation 5 on just to catch up on Question Time. 

Navigating the smart TV interface, as well as the predictably labyrinthine set-up, happens using a nicely redesigned and cleverly laid-out remote control handset. It’s quite positive in its actions, easy to navigate and about as sensible and logical as these things ever get. There’s also the option of Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant if you prefer to just ask. 

There are plenty of options where connectivity is concerned. Dual-band wi-fi is available, of course, along with an ethernet socket for optimum network stability. Bluetooth 5.2 is available too, and other physical connections run to four HDMI sockets, a couple of USB slots, a digital optical output, Common Interface Plus, a couple of TV aerial binding posts and an analogue headphone output. Two of the HDMI sockets support the full HDMI 2.1 suite of functions, including Dolby Vision Game, 144Hz VRR, ALLM, HGiG, FreeSync Premium and G-Sync. One of these two also takes care of eARC duties. Gamers are catered for via a new pop-up ‘Game Bar’.

So far, this is all just about par for the ‘midrange 4K OLED TV’ course. But thanks to Ambilight (here in three-sided guise) Philips has an unarguable, and quite compelling, Point of Difference. If you’re familiar with Ambilight then you don’t need me to tell you how effective it is, and if you’re not then I’d urge you to believe me when I say that it’s a remarkable system that gets no less impressive with familiarity. If you want to make the images on your screen seem easier on the eye, and larger and more immersive at the same time, Ambilight continues to be the best game in town.  

Picture quality

There are many positives to the quality of the images the 55OLED809 is capable of generating, but what’s most immediately impressive is how bright they are. The OLED ‘EX’ panel makes its influence felt straight away - this Philips is not one of those OLED screens that can’t operate efficiently in a brighter environment. Even in the middle of the day, with the shutters open and the sun streaming in, it’s a bright, high-contrast performer.

It’s especially apparent with HDR content. The black tones the Philips generates are deep and lustrous - but they’re also packed with fine detail and really pleasing variation, rather than being crushed to uniformity in the manner of less accomplished alternatives being driven by a less capable picture processing engine. White tones are clean and equally detailed, too - and they’re so bright (relatively speaking) that there’s a big gap in between bright and dark in which the OLED809 can display a remarkably vibrant, extraordinarily wide-ranging colour palette.

The same 4K HDR content allows the Philips to showcase grip, control and complete certainty where motion-control is concerned, assured edge-definition and appreciable depth of field in those scenes that demand it. It’s a confident across-the-board performer, able to control tight and/or complex patterns and capable of extracting detail and variation in the most unpromising situations - the uniformity of colour of a sports field, for instance.

Stepping down from 4K, even if only as far as some 1080p content, lets you know the OLED809 is not without its shortcomings, though. It’s a decent enough up-scaler of this kind of resolution, keeping picture noise to a minimum, detail levels high and colours convincing - but there’s a hint of hesitancy to more complicated on-screen motion and less positivity where edges and tighter patterns are concerned that wasn’t apparent before.

Content of lower resolution than this suffers, no two ways about it. Picture noise is undeniable, motion-control becomes a bit of a lottery and the Philips looks a little bit soft where previously it was pin-sharp. 

Obviously a 4K screen does its best work with 4K content, but no one at Philips can possibly be labouring under the misapprehension that people don’t watch poverty-spec broadcast television or even dip into their legacy collection of DVDs every now and then. The long and short of it is: there are more accomplished up-scalers of the content that’s buried in the depths of the available channels on your cable TV box. But this is hardly a fatal shortcoming unless you’re the sort of person who likes to watch returns of vintage 80s TV shows the entire time. 

And let’s not forget the effect that three-sided Ambilight can have on content of all types and all resolutions. Switch it on and the apparent size of the image you’re watching increases, the immersive nature of it is improved, and the entire viewing experience is somehow more compelling and more restful at the same time. I can only assume the Philips patent where this technology is concerned is absolutely watertight - because otherwise every rival brand would have a similar system in a heartbeat. That’s how effective it continues to be.       

Sound quality

Philips has fitted the 55OLED809 with a 2.1-channel audio system. It consists of two-way left- and right-channel speakers supported by a rear-facing triple ring bass driver reinforced by four passive radiators. The total power deployed to amplify this array is 70 watts. 

A rapid room-calibration feature sets up the system to suit its specific environment, and from there the 809 is compatible with everything up to and including DTS:X and Dolby Atmos content. Of course, there’s no hint of a spatial audio from a layout such as this, but the ability to deal with upcoming audio content of all types is not to be sniffed at. 

The 55OLED809 is compatible with the Philips Wireless Home System with DTS Play-Fi. This means that not only can you connect appropriate wireless speakers and/or soundbars throughout the home, but a wireless home cinema surround-sound system can use the OLED809 as a centre channel. Which, we can all agree, is a neat touch.

As far as actual sound quality is concerned, the 55OLED809 plays it sensibly safe. There’s a respectable amount of low-frequency presence, good projection to the midrange and a polite amount of attack at the top of the frequency range, and as long as you don’t get carried away with the volume the balance is pretty good. Tonality is on the austere side of neutral, but not fatally so, and the Philips is able to spread sound quite a long way beyond the left/right confines of its cabinet.

You don’t need to ratchet volume levels up all that far for a bit of the OLED809’s composure to desert it, though. Low frequencies seem to bottom out quite suddenly, the midrange gets quite a bit shoutier, and the slightly rolled-off nature of the top end becomes ever more apparent. In fact, the Philips sounds quite stressed and unhappy at higher volumes. 

Living with

In broad terms, it’s no more taxing to live with the Philips 55OLED809 than it is any other medium-sized television. If you’re wall-mounting it, it’s VESA-compliant; if you’re not, it’s on a pedestal that leaves room for a soundbar beneath the TV and allows sufficient swivel to make positioning easy.  

There is some mild operational weirdness that makes life slightly more taxing than it should be. The remote handset is nicely designed and logically laid out, sure - but its on the sluggish side and it can take just a little longer than is usual for the TV to respond to commands. And the TV itself can be a little muddle-headed on occasion: more than once I am offered ‘HDMI 1’ as a source four times in a row when I want to change the input, but with no mention of HDMIs 2, 3 or 4. Only for a moment, you understand, and then the list corrects itself. It’s an odd trait nevertheless, and not automatically one that a user will find endearing.

Conclusion

It may not have an ‘all court game’, but when it’s good the Philips 55OLED809 is very, very good indeed. Stick to a diet of 4K content, try to forget a thing called ‘iPlayer’ exists and switch on that Ambilight - you won’t be able to tear yourself away. 

Sample content

EA Sports FC24 Playstation 5

Motion control, most of all, is the test that FC24 sets for televisions - and the OLED809 passes with distinction. Even when on-screen motion is at odds with camera movement, i.e. when multiple elements of an image are moving in different directions on a pretty much static background, the Philips stays on top of things. 

The Long Good Friday 4K Blu-ray

There’s something unsettling about just how pristine the transfer of this 1980 classic of the British gangster genre to 4K HDR Blu-ray disc is - the lack of grain and noise is almost off-putting. But it does allow the OLED809 to demonstrate its colour range and fidelity, as well as its insight into all of those plaids and synthetic textures.

Oppenheimer 4K Blu-ray

Changes of film stock, of aspect ratio, of colour balance and intensity are all present throughout Oppenheimer, and they all pose a challenge to the screen that’s displaying them. ‘Unflustered’ is as good a word as any to describe the OLED809’s response… 

You want a super-good 4K image at a great price and can live without certain built in catch-up apps.

You’re going to need a source machine with a lot of UK TV catch-up apps available - so why not pair your 55OLED809 with a Sony Playstation 5? Not only does it give access to all those apps Philips hasn’t included, but it’s a very accomplished Blu-ray player and a barnstorming games console too. Not exactly what you’d call a silent runner, mind you…