Philips 65OLED+959

Having re-established itself as a serious player on the UK and European TV scene in recent years, predominantly on the back of a series of excellent but affordable OLED TVs, it appears that Philips is now ready to have some fun. 

The new Philips flagship OLED TV, this £3999 65OLED+959, rocks a fearsome and uncompromising feature-count that includes second-gen micro lens array technology, unprecedented brightness, a built-in 102-watt 5.1.2-channel speaker system, and a startling new expansion of Philips’ unique Ambilight technology. But is it really as much of a beast in the flesh as it sounds on paper?

Picture quality

This is a seriously high-performing screen. For starters, the 65OLED+959 proves capable of achieving a measurable 3000 nits of peak brightness with high dynamic range content - a performance I honestly thought I would never see from an OLED TV. 

Be aware, this brightness is only possible on very small parts of the picture (I recorded it on an HDR test window occupying 2% of the screen), and can only be sustained by the 65OLED+959 for a short time. However, the brightest parts of real-world HDR content, though - such as stars, lamps, fires, the sun, the moon, reflections of sun on glass or metal and so on - also only tend to occupy small parts of the image for a short duration.

Clearly the 65OLED+959’s MLA (micro lens array) panel, which uses tiny lenses behind the screen to better focus the light generated by the TV’s organic pixels, is playing a big part in the screen’s remarkable brightness peaks. But credit must also go to Philips’ P5 AI processor. 

Designed to improve what Philips sees as the five most important attributes of picture quality (contrast; colour; sharpness; motion; and source recognition), the new eighth generation of the P5 AI processor is so powerful that it’s actually split across two processing chips, and includes a META Multi Booster system specifically devoted to unlocking the outer reaches of the panel’s brightness capabilities.  

While its small brightness peaks are what really help Philips’ new OLED TV stand out from 2024’s illustrious OLED crowd, its MLA panel does also deliver a generally much brighter image HDR experience than you get with ‘regular’, non-MLA OLED TVs.

The 65OLED+959’s grandstanding brightness feeds into a phenomenally intense colour performance, too. In the default ‘Crystal Clear’ picture mode (that Philips clearly really wants you to use) colours look extraordinarily vibrant across the board. This holds true, too, in the brightest parts of the picture, as the set manages to avoid the situation where WRGB OLED TVs can desaturate in extremely bright areas.

The 65OLED+959’s extreme brightness and colour adds up to the most full-blooded, intense HDR picture experience I’ve seen from any WRGB type of OLED TV, including LG’s G4 series. What’s more, this spectacular HDR experience is available across all four of the HDR10, HLG, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision formats.

The extreme vibrancy of its ‘Crystal Clear’ mode, though, doesn’t stop the 65OLED+959’s pictures from still looking balanced enough to be immersive and compelling rather than gaudy and uneven. The P5 AI engine is powerful and clever enough, too, to unlock outstanding amounts of tonal subtlety and nuance. This contributes to a truly intense sense of sharpness and detail in the 65OLED+959’s pictures. So crisp and textured can 4K sources look, in fact, that you can almost start to believe you’re watching an 8K TV.

Underpinning all of the 65OLED+959’s colour, brightness and sharpness splendour are the sort of impeccably natural, deep and neutral black colours that have long been OLED’s biggest draw for serious home cinema fans. Even when there’s a 3000-nit highlight on the screen, any darkness around it maintains a flawlessly deep black tone.

While arguably no TV does out-of-the-box razzle dazzle like the 65OLED+959, though, it can sometimes go too far. Stick with the TV’s default picture settings, for instance, and those bold-as-brass colours sometimes hit extremes that don’t look quite real. At times the sharpness can also go too far, to the point where it looks a little forced and ‘hard’. Philips’ drive to get as much brightness as possible out of the picture can cause a brief flash to accompany abrupt cuts between dark and bright shots. Faces can look a little waxy at times, and camera pans and fast-moving objects can be accompanied by excessive smoothness and some unwanted processing side effects.

Fortunately, the massive range of picture tweaks the 65OLED+959 provides include the tools to fix most, if not all, of these issues. If you’re into picture accuracy, simply switching to the ‘Filmmaker Mode’ picture setting gives you a beautifully even-handed and insightful picture. Albeit one that doesn’t look as dynamic as the other preset modes.

Alternatively, you can set about tweaking the colour, sharpness, motion and contrast settings of the ‘Crystal Clear’ or ‘HDR Home Cinema’ presets to try and tone down elements (such as Philips’ aggressive ‘Dynamic Tone Mapping’ system) that draw too much attention to themselves. The only issue with these solutions is that getting the most immersive picture means losing some of the drama and intensity that sets the 65OLED+959 apart from its peers.

In the end I’d say there’s still easily enough quality to be had from the ‘Filmmaker Mode’ and well-tweaked other presets to make the 65OLED+959 a special TV. You just have to put in some work to get the best out of it. 

Sound quality

Designed in conjunction with esteemed UK hi-fi brand Bowers & Wilkins, the Philips 65OLED+959’s 102W-watt, 5.1.2-channel sound system includes a dedicated bass speaker and two up-firing drivers. The latter are included to help the TV take better advantage of the ‘overhead’ channels of the Dolby Atmos sound format. A Kvadrat-covered bar running along the TV’s bottom edge houses front-firing speakers, while the set’s startlingly deep and, again, fabric-covered sides are all about giving the integrated speakers the space they need to deliver a more powerful, rounded and detailed sound.

The sound that emerges from all these unusual audio features is cast far and wide in all directions - sideways, upwards and, unlike the vast majority of TVs, directly forwards - creating one of the most effective Dolby Atmos soundstages I’ve heard from a TV. Especially as the audio processing is clever enough to position specific spatial effects with excellent accuracy and clarity. No element of the sound becomes thin, brittle or overwhelmed, even at volumes way louder than most ears will be comfortable with. 

In a perfect world vocal placement would be a little more nuanced, and the soundstage can start to become a little too dense with the most-layered and loud movie moments. Neither of these issues, though, prevents the 65OLED+959 from sounding so good that it becomes one of those rare breeds of TV that doesn’t have you immediately saving up for a soundbar.

Living with 

Nothing about the Philips 65OLED+959 is shy and retiring - including its design. The soundbar along the bottom edge and the exceptionally deep felt-covered side panels immediately stand out from the crowd. The TV also attaches to a metal pole-mount floor stand and, most spectacularly of all, sports the most advanced version yet of Philips’ unique Ambilight technology.

Ambilight has long been able to use LEDs on a TV’s rear to spill light that’s capable of tracking the tone and position of colours in the picture you’re watching onto the walls behind the screen. The version of Ambilight on the 65OLED+959, though, steps things up by using four LED ‘lenses’ per Ambilight segment, to effectively create separate layers of colour around the TV that give the technology a more three-dimensional feel.

While undoubtedly spectacular, this new Ambilight system felt a bit distracting in its default settings. Reduce its brightness, response speed and ‘sharpness’, though, and you’ll soon bring it to a point where it starts to enhance your immersion in what you’re watching rather than drawing your attention away from it.

Smart features on the Philips 65OLED+959 are provided by Google TV. This provides quick access to loads of content and is more visually appealing than its Android predecessor, but can also be a bit overwhelming and isn’t as good as some rival platforms at analysing your viewing habits to recommend other content you might like. Plus, at the time of writing, I couldn’t see any BBC iPlayer, ITVX or ALL4 catch-up TV apps, which is a significant miss.

Gamers, happily, are better served - the TV supports frame rates up to 144Hz, variable refresh rates (including AMD FreeSync Premium and Nvidia G-Sync), and has a game mode capable of getting the time the screen takes to render 60Hz pictures down to just 14.5ms. This game mode works with Dolby Vision HDR game sources, too.

Finally, I should reiterate in this section that getting the best results from the 65OLED+959 requires spending a fair bit of time - including trial and error - in the TV’s menus. The results are worth it - but a total ‘lean back’ experience this TV is not.

Conclusion

Philips has managed to get the 65OLED+959 to do things - very good things - with its picture quality that I didn’t think OLED TVs could be capable of. Add to this a built-in sound system that gives some soundbars a run for their money, and the immersive spectacle of its new grade of Ambilight technology, and you’ve got one of if not the most spectacular TVs ever made. 

A few UK streaming apps are missing and the set can get a bit carried away with its own abilities in some presets - but there’s nothing a streaming stick and a little legwork can’t fix.

Test samples

Inside Out 2 4K Blu-ray

The new 4K Blu-ray release of Inside Out 2 features some of the brightest, most vibrantly coloured and sharpest pictures today’s premium video format has ever delivered. Which makes it pretty much a match made in heaven both for the 65OLED+959’s incredibly potent pictures and the capabilities of its new Ambilight technology. 

Dune 2 4K Blu-ray

Denis Villeneuve’s second Dune film features some highly stylised colours in its depiction of Arrakis and its warring factions that can sometimes look a touch over-wrought in some of the 65OLED+959’s presets. The film looks great if you use the TV’s ‘Filmmaker Mode’, though, and the film proves to be a good one to use to help you tweak the bolder presets too.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III Xbox Series X/PS5 

The crisp, high-contrast and rich HDR images of the latest Call of Duty title on Xbox Series X or PlayStation 5 look truly spectacular on the 65OLED+959. Especially as the screen’s rapid reaction time and support for both 120Hz frame rates and VRR ensure that gaming always feels ultra- responsive and immersive. 

The 65OLED+959 is the all-round most spectacular TV available right now. Seriously, with its beautiful metal floor stand, unique Ambilight technology, speaker-packed body, powerful room-filling sound and downright dazzling pictures there’s just no other TV out there that grabs - and holds - your attention more effectively. 

A screen capable of the sort of brightness, sharpness and colour vibrancy of the 65OLED+959 needs to be fed as much HDR content as possible. I would strongly recommend a 4K Blu-ray player such as the Panasonic UB820, premium subscriptions for your video streaming services, and a PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and/or PC capable of outputting 4K and HDR graphics. 

The built-in Bowers & Wilkins sound system makes adding a soundbar less necessary than it is with most TVs - so much so that it’s only worth even considering if you go for a premium model such as the Samsung HW-Q900D that includes rear speakers and a dedicated subwoofer.