Tag Archives: LED TV

Philips 55-Inch 8100 Series (55PUT8115/94) Ultra-HD 4K LED Smart Android TV Review: Worth the Price?

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Although you don’t have to spend more than Rs. 40,000 to get a 55-inch Ultra-HD TV these days, increasing your budget does usually get you better features and performance. This also means being able to choose from more brands, including well-known and established options that offer somewhat more assurance of quality and performance. One such brand is Philips, which has positioned itself a step above the entry-level segment.

Officially priced at Rs. 89,990 (but usually available at Rs. 69,990), the Philips 55PUT8115/94 TV is in roughly the same segment as the now-discontinued Philips 8200-series TV range. On paper, its support for Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision, smart connectivity through Android TV, and 20W sound output seem impressive. Is this the best television you can buy for around Rs. 70,000 right now? Find out in this review.

Philips positions itself a bit higher than competing brands such as Xiaomi and Hisense, and aims to take on the likes of Samsung and Sony

 

Philips 55PUT8115/94 Ultra-HD LED Android TV design and specifications

The Philips 55PUT8115/94 Ultra-HD TV is positioned against more premium players such as Samsung, LG, and Sony. However, Philips will also have to take on the technically superior quantum dot LED TVs that value-focused brands have launched, such as the Hisense 55U6G which retails for under Rs. 60,000.

The Philips 55PUT8115/94 television is fairly straightforward and efficient in its design. The point of a television is to put the screen at the centre of the viewer’s attention, and this Philips TV does that well with discreet, slim black borders all around the LCD panel and a simple Philips logo in the bottom left corner.

The television isn’t slim but it isn’t very thick either, and maintains a reasonable aesthetic profile regardless of whether it’s wall-mounted or table-mounted. To the left of the screen, facing outward are one HDMI port (with ARC support), a USB Type-A port, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and the antenna socket. The rest of the ports are bottom-facing, and these include three HDMI ports, one USB Type-A port, an RJ45 Ethernet port, and the Optical Audio Out (Toslink) port.

Disappointingly, the power socket faces backward, which can cause a plug to bend a bit when the TV is wall-mounted with a low-profile mounting kit, and that doesn’t feel very reassuring. The bottom-facing ports were very difficult to access once the TV was wall-mounted, and even the side-facing ones were a bit tricky to reach. A wall-mount kit isn’t included in the box, so you’ll need to confirm with your retailer whether wall mounting will be provided for free or as a chargeable extra as part of the installation of the TV.

You’ll want to ensure you have all of your connections attached before putting the TV up on a wall, but this won’t be much of a problem if you’re table-mounting the TV, since it weighs a reasonable 11.5kg (11.8kg with the stands attached) and can be moved around a bit if necessary. The TV stands for the Philips 55PUT8115/94 TV are included in the box and attach to the TV near the corners, so you’ll need a wide enough table to place the TV on.

The television sent to me for review is the 55-inch model, and it has an Ultra-HD (3840×2160-pixel) LED panel. The TV supports HDR up to the Dolby Vision and HDR10+ formats, and has a refresh rate of up to 60Hz. Connectivity options include Bluetooth 5, dual-band Wi-Fi, and Ethernet. Audio return channel (ARC) for HDMI is supported. For sound, the television has a bottom-firing box speaker system with a total rated output of 20W, and support for Dolby Atmos. There is 4GB of storage for apps and app data.

Philips 55PUT8115/94 Ultra-HD LED Android TV remote and features

Although minimalist remotes with fewer buttons and smaller dimensions are trendy for televisions these days, I always appreciate a traditional remote for the flexibility and control it offers. The remote of the Philips 55PUT8115/94 is large, with a number pad, playback controls, hotkeys for some streaming services, and a large and tactile D-pad which makes navigation easy even in the dark. It also has useful options for invoking Google Assistant, source selection, and more.

The full-sized remote of the Philips 55PUT8115/94 TV has hotkeys for Netflix, Google Play, and YouTube

 

The remote is powered by two AAA batteries (included in the sales package), and is light and easy to handle. It uses both infrared and Bluetooth for connectivity, although the latter only works for Google Assistant voice commands. Although infrared requires a line of sight to work, the remote was able to work well for me even if not pointed directly at the TV. This will also ensure more conservative battery use, since Bluetooth drains batteries a lot quicker.

Like other televisions running the Android TV platform, the Philips 55PUT8115/94 has full-fledged Google Assistant capabilities and built-in Chromecast. Apart from this, there is also support for HDMI ARC and HDMI CEC.

Philips 55PUT8115/94 Ultra-HD LED Android TV software and interface

Android TV is the operating system of choice for many TV manufacturers because of its quality and ease of use, and the Philips 55PUT8115/94 runs Android TV 10 with the refreshed Google-TV-like user interface. This is a well-established and very reliable software experience, and it’s likely that many buyers will have seen or used it in some form or the other already. Over 5,000 apps are available for Android TV through the Google Play store.

For the most part, my experience with the TV’s software was good. Apps and content were usually quick to load, and there were no buffering issues with content on a fast Internet connection. Navigating the interface was smooth, and basic functions such as switching source devices or invoking Google Assistant yielded the desired results with no trouble at all.

However, I did begin experiencing a recurring issue around two days after a reboot of the TV. Subtitles were slow to load, the sound would cut out at odd times, and eventually, whatever app was running (usually Netflix, but occasionally also Disney+ Hotstar) would crash and take me back to the Android TV home screen.

The Philips 55PUT8115/94 TV runs on Android TV 10, with the stock Android TV user interface and access to the Google Play Store for apps and games

 

A full reboot of the TV – that is, powering it down and turning it back on – would fix this issue, until it resurfaced again after a couple of days. I faced this with the Philips TV throughout the entire review period, and while the fix was easy, it was still time-consuming and bothersome to have to go through the drill every couple of days. No software updates were pushed during my time with the TV, but I’m hoping Philips releases a software patch for this soon.

Philips 55PUT8115/94 Ultra-HD LED Android TV performance

Philips occupies a niche in the big-screen TV segment when it comes to pricing; it’s more expensive than competing products from brands such as Xiaomi and Hisense, but a bit more affordable than similarly-specced TVs from brands such as Sony and Samsung, such as the Samsung 55AU8000 TV.

On paper and in the real world, the Philips 55PUT8115/94 does offer a lot for its street price of around Rs. 70,000. However, it’s not quite as impressive as the now-discontinued Philips 55PUT8215/94, and falls short when compared to decent QLED TVs on some parameters such as brightness. While this TV is undeniably good when it comes to picture and sound quality, the feeling I got was that performance didn’t quite match up to its price.

I watched varied content across resolutions and HDR formats, including The Bubble, No Time To Die, Community, Kim’s Convenience, and Severance. Apart from this, I also streamed live sports content (Formula One) and played some standard definition videos from YouTube, to cover a wide range of genres and viewing habits.

Although the picture is sharp, brightness on the Philips 55PUT8115/94 isn’t very good

 

Ultra-HD Dolby Vision content looked visibly better than anything else on the Philips 55PUT8115/94 television, but certain types of content seemed to suit the TV’s picture signature and muted approach a bit better. This TV doesn’t get as bright as some of its competitors, but it does manage to deliver plenty of detail despite this, particularly in content with a muted colour tone and palette such as Severance and The Bubble.

I did need to darken my room as much as possible to get the best results with such shows, as bright indoor lighting or sunlight hampered the viewing experience. Even with the enhanced brightness on offer with Dolby Vision and HDR10+ content, the Philips TV didn’t quite match up to what a decent quantum-dot LED TV in this price range can offer.

On the other hand, I liked how sharp and detailed the picture was, as well as the smooth, clean motion handling of the Philips 55PUT8115/94 TV with Ultra-HD content. The snow-filled outdoor landscape and the windowless office spaces in Severance looked sharp and on-point, achieving the mood that the show aims to set. Fine details in the facial expressions and moods of the characters were brought out capably and reliably by the television. Motion was definitely easy on the eyes, and made it possible to watch content for long stretches with little discomfort.

Sitcoms, including Community and Kim’s Convenience, felt lively because of the brightness of the content and gentler camera work, but still seemed a bit dull in comparison to what the competition can reproduce. That said, I seldom encountered any motion artefacts or picture flaws; the television pretty much did its job in a straightforward and simple manner. It eliminated distractions and let me focus on what I was watching.

I watched a full-HD stream of No Time To Die on Amazon Prime Video, and only detected minor differences in sharpness between that and other Ultra-HD content I had recently streamed across platforms. Although Dolby Vision and HDR10+ content was visibly a bit brighter, SDR content didn’t feel like too much of a step down, given the toned-down brightness of the Philips 55PUT8115/94 TV.

SDR and lower-resolution content didn’t feel like too much of step down, given the muted brightness levels of the TV with HDR content

 

Formula One live-streamed with Disney+ Hotstar, as well as standard definition content showcased some issues with sharpness and ability to upscale and process lower-resolution content. In some cases, particularly with the Australian Grand Prix, this wasn’t bad at all, and about as good as can be expected when watching this kind of content on a 55-inch television.

Sound quality on the Philips 55PUT8115/94 was acceptable, but it did not get quite as loud and wasn’t as refined as I’ve heard on similarly priced competition such as the Mi QLED TV 4K. While the sound was clean, I often felt a need to bump the volume up in dialogue-heavy scenes when watching The Bubble, only to have to quickly decrease it when the soundtrack took over or when action scenes played out.

Although these volume spikes and drops were never too drastic, this did affect the sound experience a bit, and you might want to invest in a basic soundbar to overcome the weaknesses of the TV’s speakers. Dolby Atmos did seem to provide a bit more width and depth to the sound with supported content, but this could only really be heard at high volume levels.

Verdict

Competition in the mid-range television segment is fierce, and the price of the Philips 55PUT8115/94 ends up holding it back, compared to its peers. Although the picture is sharp, detailed, and often gets the mood of content right, its inability to get bright enough and its below-average sound quality hold this TV back. I also experienced some software issues that could simply be a bug or a result of poor implementation.

This TV costs perhaps Rs. 10,000 too much, in my opinion, and better value-for-money options can be found from competing brands. Both Xiaomi and Hisense sell quantum-dot LED TVs at around the same price or less. That said, if you want picture quality that delivers on most counts, this Philips TV could work well for you. It might also be worth looking at the Philips 55PUT8215/94 TV, which although officially discontinued, might still be available at some retailers, as it offers better overall performance.

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Sony KD-43X75K Ultra-HD Android TV Review: High Performer

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Although good large-screen televisions are considerably more affordable now than they were a few years ago, many might still want a more compact size such as a 43-inch television for a smaller room in their home. There are plenty of options available in this screen size ranging from full-HD to Ultra-HD resolution, but a lot of these are from smaller television brands such as Xiaomi, OnePlus, and Realme. The performance of such TVs are also usually in line with the budget pricing, so those with a higher budget might be inclined to look at more established brands, such as Sony.

Among the company’s first major releases in 2022 in the TV segment is the Sony X75K series, with sizes ranging from 43 inches to 65 inches. Today, I’m reviewing the 43-inch variant in this series, the Sony KD-43X75K Ultra-HD LED Smart TV, which is priced at Rs. 53,190 on Sony’s own online store. This puts it at a considerably higher cost compared to most other 43-inch 4K TVs from brands such as Xiaomi and Realme that are usually priced under Rs. 30,000.

However, Sony’s new TV comes with the promise of better performance to match its price, and is positioned as a premium option for buyers who want to look beyond the budget variety. Is the Sony KD-43X75K worth the premium? Find out in this review.

The Google TV UI on the Sony KD-43X75K adopts a more content and recommendation-focused approach

 

Sony KD-43X75K Ultra-HD Android TV design and specifications

The Sony X75K series is the most affordable in the company’s range of Ultra-HD TVs, and is also one of the handful of series that has a 43-inch screen size available. That said, the 43X75K isn’t really ‘affordable’, so to speak. At Rs. 53,190, it’s considerably more expensive than options from many competing brands, and prices go up steeply to over Rs. 1,00,000 for the 65-inch option. All televisions in the X75K range, including the 43-inch one on review here, have an Ultra-HD (3840×2160 pixel) LED-LCD display with high dynamic range support of up to HLG and HDR10 formats.

When it comes to design, the Sony KD-43X75K television is just a hint nicer to look at than the typical 43-inch television. This is mainly thanks to a pleasing finish around the fairly narrow borders of the screen, and the simple and discreet Sony logo on the front. The TV is about as thick as you would expect from an LED TV of this size. The bottom of the TV is interestingly slanted a bit, giving the bottom-firing speaker system a bit of visibility and directionality.

It’s possible to table mount or wall mount the television, although the sales package includes only the stands for table mounting. You can use any VESA-compatible wall-mount of your own, and Sony also offers free professional installation where the technician will provide a suitable wall-mounting kit, if you choose to have it put on a wall.

One set of ports and sockets on the Sony KD-43X75K television faces the back of the TV, while the second faces the left of the screen. The back-facing ports include one HDMI-in port (with ARC), Video-in sockets, Ethernet port for wired Internet connectivity, Digital Audio-out (Toslink) port, and the power socket.

All of these are quite hard to access if you have the TV wall-mounted with a low-profile bracket, and this might even cause some of the cables and plugs to bend and twist dangerously to the point of getting damaged. You’ll also want to ensure all of these connections are in place before you hook the TV onto the wall bracket.

There is high dynamic range support for the HLG and HDR10 formats on the Sony KD-43X75K TV

 

The side-facing connectivity options include two HDMI ports (version unspecified), two USB Type-A ports, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and an antenna socket. These are considerably easier to access, but I was disappointed that neither of the side-facing HDMI ports support Audio Return Channel (ARC). However, all the HDMI ports do support the latest HDCP 2.3 standard.

Other key specifications of the Sony KD-43X75K TV include a native refresh rate of 50Hz, Sony’s Motionflow XR 200 interpolation algorithm, and 16GB of in-built storage for apps and app data. The television has a 20W bottom-firing, open baffle speaker system with support for Dolby Audio. Wireless connectivity includes Bluetooth 5 and dual-band Wi-Fi connectivity, apart from wired Ethernet connectivity.

Sony KD-43X75K Ultra-HD Android TV remote and features

Sony still ships a big, full-function remote with the KD-43X75K TV. The remote has an infrared emitter and Bluetooth connectivity, and once paired with the TV using Bluetooth, the infrared emitter is only used to turn the TV on or off. The rest of the functionality, including issuing voice commands via the microphone on the remote, uses Bluetooth connectivity, and therefore doesn’t need you to point the remote at the TV in order to work.

The remote has a number pad, direction pad, back, and home buttons for navigation, playback controls, and hotkeys for Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, and YouTube Music. There is also a dedicated button to invoke Google Assistant, buttons to change the source or pull up the TV settings from anywhere within the interface, and a useful information button which displays the resolution of streaming content, connection speed, and more. It looks good, works well, and gets the job done properly.

The Sony KD-43X75K TV has a large, fully-equipped remote with buttons to control practically every function on the TV

 

The Sony KD-43X75K also has Google Chromecast built in, the Sony X1 4K processor, support for Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa, AirPlay 2, and HDMI CEC for controlling connected devices using a single remote. You can also use the TV’s Bluetooth connectivity with wireless headphones and speakers.

All of these features worked as expected, but it’s important to note that you’ll need a separate app to mirror your Apple devices wirelessly onto the TV; I used AirScreen ,which is available on the Google Play store for Android TV and it did the job well.

Sony KD-43X75K Ultra-HD Android TV software and interface

The Google TV user interface launched with the Chromecast with Google TV in 2020, but uptake for the platform has been slow with many TV manufacturers choosing to stick with the tried-and-tested stock Android TV interface. Sony is an early adopter of the new user interface, and the KD-43X75K runs Android TV 11 with the Google TV UI on top.

Google TV is, of course, just a different interface or skin on top of Android TV, which still runs the core operation of the smart functionality on the Sony KD-43X75K TV. This includes the Google Play store for Android TV with its 5,000+ apps designed and optimised for use on televisions, easy access to Google Assistant and Chromecast, and more.

However, the Google TV UI is considerably nicer to look at than stock Android TV, and has some useful features as well. For one, Google Play Movies is no longer an app, but is integrated into the user interface. This means that you can search for movies and TV shows to rent or buy, and perform purchases directly from the UI itself. Usefully, the search tab provides you with various ways to watch the title you searched for, prioritising any streaming services which you’re already subscribed and signed-in to for ease of access.

The Google Play store for Android TV provides access to over 5,000 apps that are optimised for use on TVs

 

The search and recommendations tabs also have Rotten Tomatoes approval ratings baked in for many titles, and the system is able to recommend movies and TV shows from various streaming services, including Disney+ Hotstar, Apple TV+, Amazon Prime Video, and Voot, among others. While the search tab can scan through all apps on the TV, including Netflix, the recommendations engine oddly does not support Netflix yet.

On the whole, the Google TV UI is a refreshing and much needed change to Android TV, and Sony’s quick adoption of it gives the TV a decent advantage over the competition, particularly if you’re heavily invested in the content streaming ecosystem. Everything worked well for me, and I had no software issues during my time with the Sony KD-43X75K TV.

Sony KD-43X75K Ultra-HD Android TV performance

Given that there are plenty of 43-inch Ultra-HD TVs from reputed brands available for less than Rs. 30,000 in India, the Sony KD-43X75K needs to offer a lot more than just the basics to justify its price of Rs. 53,190. A lot of that comes by way of good design, useful and premium features, and an excellent software experience that is a step above what most brands are currently offering. However, the most important parameter is always performance, and the Sony does deliver a better experience than every other 43-inch 4K TV I’ve reviewed thus far.

Dolby Vision and HDR10+ support on affordable televisions isn’t uncommon, so the Sony KD-43X75K’s support for just HLG and HDR10 formats does seem a bit disappointing. However, this Sony television does a great job even with the limited HDR format support compared to what many affordable televisions do even with the superior Dolby Vision format. This is largely thanks to better picture calibration and superior HDR implementation by Sony.

The brightness bump with HDR content on the Sony KD-43X75K TV is subtle, but the format benefits colours considerably more, making for stronger, more vibrant colours across content. Shows such as Our Great National Parks and Bullsh*t The Game Show on Netflix looked great in a dark or dimly lit room, and even bright ambient lighting didn’t take too much away from the TV’s ability to perform well.

The colours of nature, as well as the bright lights of the game show set, all looked good on the TV. Skin tones in particular looked very good, as did the varying shades of green and blue visible in forests and water bodies on the nature documentary that came through with a strong sense of accuracy.

Even full-HD content such as Formula 1 races, looked good because of the smaller size of the TV

 

The Sony KD-43X75K also delivered a sharp picture, aided by good colours and clean motion. Although the extra detail in Ultra-HD picture was arguably less visible on the smaller 43-inch size, the Sony KD-43X75K did seem to produce a picture that was visibly sharper and more detailed than similarly-specced, lower-priced options of this size.

This was particularly visible during the dark and busy scenes of Venom: Let There Be Carnage, but also showed in the facial expressions and details of the contestants in Bullsh*t The Game Show. Motion was also excellent thanks to very good motion interpolation on the TV. Action scenes in the Venom sequel played through smoothly, with intuitive motion blur where needed and very few visible artefacts.

Bright daylight didn’t really cause any significant issues with glare on the screen, but the Sony KD-43X75K simply isn’t bright enough on its own to counter the effects of direct sunlight in a room. Black levels were decent for an LED television, and this also led to decent contrast levels that properly set apart bright and dark scenes and allowed good colours and detail to come through, as it should for a TV of this size.

The 43-inch size of the TV is best suited for short viewing distances, but the smaller size also has a unique advantage of making lower-resolution content appear nearly as sharp and detailed as 4K content. The Sony KD-43X75K’s unique combination of sharpness, clean motion, and good colour levels translated well for full-HD content, with Kim’s Convenience and scenes from Pacific Rim looking impressive despite the obviously lower resolution.

Sound quality on the Sony KD-43X75K TV is acceptable in terms of quality, but it doesn’t get very loud

 

Sound quality on the Sony KD-43X75K television was ordinary, but entirely usable even if you don’t intend to add a soundbar or speaker system into the mix. Sound was decent at high volumes, with clear dialogue and reasonable performance with background scores, but even at high volume levels, it didn’t get very loud. That said, volume variation and spikes weren’t really an issue for me, and the sound levels were appropriate for late-night, bedroom TV watching.

I did experience some inadequacies with 5GHz Wi-Fi connectivity on the Sony KD-43X75K television during my review. On a couple of occasions, the TV was unable to connect to the 5GHz band of my home router, despite it being just a few metres away. This made stable streaming of high-resolution content a problem on those…

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Sony Bravia XR-55X90K Ultra-HD Android LED TV Review: Focused on Performance

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With OLED and Mini LED display technologies gaining prominence in the premium segment, quantum-dot LED tech has largely settled into a comfortable mid-range position. Buyers looking to spend a bit more for a promise of better performance often look to options from brands such as Sony and Samsung, both of which are well established when it comes to LED and quantum-dot LED TVs. Among the more popular options in the upper mid-range segment is the X90 series from Sony, which has now been updated for 2022 with the X90K range.

Priced at Rs. 1,23,490 for the 55-inch (XR-55X90K) variant on review here, the Sony Bravia X90K series is the company’s most expensive and advanced LED television range in India right now. With this, Sony hopes to strike a balance between performance and price, with Triluminos quantum-dot technology, full-array local dimming, and support for Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos. There’s a lot of promise here, but is the Sony 55X90K the best big-screen television you can buy under Rs. 1,50,000? Find out in this review.

The Sony 55X90K TV runs on Android TV 10 software, with the Google TV user interface on top

 

Sony Bravia XR-55X90K Ultra-HD LED Android TV design and specifications

The X90 series sits at the top of the pecking order for Sony’s LED TVs, and is available in three sizes: 55 inches priced at Rs. 1,23,490, 65 inches priced at Rs. 1,70,990, and a 75-inch variant which will be launched in the coming weeks from the time of publishing this review. Apart from the size, there are no differences in any of the models, with all having Ultra-HD (3840×2160-pixel) Triluminos (quantum-dot) LED screens, and a refresh rate of 120Hz at up to 4K resolution.

Coming to the design of the TV, the Sony Bravia 55X90K is pretty much what you’d expect from a high-end Sony television. It’s entirely black, with slim bezels around the screen, a discreet Sony logo in the bottom left corner, and little else to take any attention away from the screen itself, which is how televisions should be. The power button and a slider switch for the always-on microphones are at the bottom of the TV, alongside the main speakers.

Unlike many modern high-end televisions, the Sony 55X90K isn’t very slim at any point. However, it isn’t too bulky or thick either as it doesn’t sit too far from the wall even when wall-mounted, and has a similar width as most TVs of its kind. The television weighs about 17.4kg without the stands attached, and supports VESA wall mounting.

The table mount stands are included in the sales package, and are easy to install. The stands attach to the bottom corners of the TV, so a wide table or television unit will be needed if you choose to stand-mount the Sony Bravia 55X90K TV. Interestingly, you can attach the stands to keep the TV at a lower position where the frame is almost resting on the stands. The higher position leaves some space between the bottom of the TV and the table, which should come in handy if you want to place a soundbar there.

Wall mounting can be availed through the free installation which comes with the TV. The installation technician will bring along the wall-mount kit and install it, if you choose. I used a third-party wall-mount kit, which attached easily onto the back of the TV thanks to the VESA standard.

The Sony 55X90K television has support for the Dolby Vision, HDR10, and HLG high dynamic range formats

 

All of the ports and sockets on the Sony XR-55X90K television face outwards to the left of the screen, while the power socket for the detachable power cable is on the right. Usefully, access to the ports and sockets is quite easy even when the TV is wall mounted. There are four HDMI ports (two are HDMI 2.1 with 4K 120Hz and Variable Refresh Rate support, one of which additionally has eARC support), two USB Type-A ports, one Optical Audio-out (Toslink) port, an Ethernet port, an antenna socket, and sockets for 3.5mm audio-out and Video In.

The Sony Bravia 55X90K television has support for the Dolby Vision, HDR10, and HLG formats for high dynamic range content, and Dolby Atmos and DTS Digital Surround audio formats. There is dual-band Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.2 connectivity, along with 16GB of internal storage for apps and app data. The TV is powered by Sony’s Cognitive Processor XR, and has a four-speaker system with 30W of total rated output. As with many of Sony’s high-end televisions, there is full-array local dimming on the 55X90K TV.

Sony Bravia XR-55X90K Ultra-HD LED Android TV remote and features

Sony has typically included large, full-function remotes with its televisions, including the recently launched X75K series. However, the 55X90K television marks a notable departure from this trend. It has a smaller, more minimalistic remote with fewer buttons. This kind of remote is admittedly much easier to handle and store safely and has buttons for most important functions, so I wasn’t too bothered by the change.

There is no number pad, but a ‘123′ button brings up a virtual number pad in case you need it. The remote has hotkeys for YouTube, YouTube Music, Netflix, and Amazon Prime Video, along with a Google Assistant button and a microphone on the remote to listen to voice commands. Other buttons include volume and playback controls, a D-pad for navigation, home and back buttons, and buttons for settings and source selection. The remote is powered by two AAA batteries, which are included in the sales package.

Key features of the Sony Bravia 55X90K TV include auto low-latency mode and variable refresh rate (VRR) for gaming, hands-free Google Assistant support thanks to the always-listening microphones on the TV, Alexa support, and a light sensor to automatically adjust the brightness of the screen according to lighting conditions in the room. Other useful connectivity options include built-in Google Chromecast and Apple AirPlay with HomeKit support.

Sony has gone with a smaller and more minimalistic remote with the X90K series

 

All of this worked as expected, including being able to use AirPlay without the need for a separate app; I could just select AirPlay from the source selection menu and the TV would appear in a list of available displays on my iPhone or MacBook.

Sony Bravia XR-55X90K Ultra-HD LED Android TV software and interface

The Sony Bravia XR-55X90K television runs on Android TV, similar to others in Sony’s smart TV range over the past few years. However, recent models, including the Sony X75K series have had the newer Google TV user interface on top of the Android TV, unlike the older stock Android TV UI that many manufacturers still work with. That said, the X90K TV runs Android TV 10 with the Google TV UI, unlike the more affordable X75K series which has Android TV 11.

Although a bit old and naturally a bit short on updates and security patches, Android TV 10 delivers largely the same experience as Android TV 11, at least at the UI and feature level. Plus, the hardware in the TV ensures good performance for the user interface. The Google TV user interface on the X90K is the same as on the X75K series with key features including Google Play Movies embedded into the UI rather than as a separate app, and a content-centric approach that highlights and recommends movies and TV shows from various apps.

Interestingly, this TV also gets a ‘Netflix Calibrated Mode’, which is said to optimise picture settings for specific content on Netflix. Other key UI functions, including accessing the settings, can be done from any screen on the interface by pressing the settings button on the remote.

Google Assistant can be used to search and access specific content, or even general information, and the Google Play store for Android TV provides access to over 5,000 apps and games built for use on televisions. It’s a largely familiar experience for anyone used to Android TV, and remains my pick as the best television operating system right now.

Sony Bravia XR-55X90K Ultra-HD LED Android TV performance

The Sony Bravia XR-55X90K Ultra-HD LED TV uses its resolution, calibration, and Triluminos quantum-dot technology to deliver the kind of performance you would expect for the price. While not quite on par with good OLED TVs in this price range when it comes to black levels, the Sony 55X90K uses its full-array local dimming to good effect, to ensure decent blacks and rich contrast, while delivering impressive brightness and a level of colour accuracy that not too many televisions offer in this segment. Furthermore, I found performance to be consistently good across various types of content and resolutions.

Expectedly, the best experience was with high dynamic range Ultra-HD content, and the Sony 55X90K TV’s support for the Dolby Vision format helped it deliver quality picture performance.

The Sony XR-55X90K television provided a bright, sharp, and clean picture, especially with Ultra-HD HDR content

 

Umbrella Academy Season 3 showed that the Sony 55X90K TV was not only very bright with Dolby Vision content, but also had colours that felt very accurate and on point. The TV also captured the slightly vintage aesthetic very well, while properly portraying the vibrant colours of the lavish sets of the show. There was a sense of warmth and comfort in the colours that made it possible to comfortably binge-watch the show on the Sony TV.

While the Sony Bravia television was quite bright, it didn’t quite get as bright as the Mini LED-powered Samsung QN95B TV. However, it more than made up for this with its warm, soft tones, and its ability to handle motion well. That said, its brightness capabilities didn’t falter even under bright daylight or when switching on all the lights in the room. Usefully, the Sony 55X90K is able to use a sensor to adjust its display brightness based on the light in the room; this worked well, ensuring brightness levels were always gentle on the eyes.

Black levels and contrast quality wasn’t exceptional on the Sony X90K TV out of the box, but I was able to set it up to my liking quite easily. Once calibrated, the blacks were decent thanks to good local dimming, which also delivered excellent zone-based brightness as bright parts of the screen shone through, while darker zones maintained the quality of the black levels. There was some visible blooming from bright zones, but this wasn’t distracting or bothersome in any way.

High dynamic range content did show a visible difference in brightness levels and colour accuracy when compared to standard dynamic range content, but it wasn’t too far behind in quality. Watching select scenes of Spider-Man: No Way Home on Netflix in Ultra-HD resolution (but with standard dynamic range) was good, thanks to the TV’s capable native brightness levels, sharpness, and clean overall approach to picture quality.

Upscaling of lower-resolution content was decent on the Sony XR-55X90K TV

 

Full-HD and standard definition content is usually iffy on high-end TVs, which are usually optimised for high-resolution content. However, the Sony Bravia XR-55X90K TV offered a clean picture, with good upscaling that made most low-resolution content look decent despite the large screen size.

There was occasional judder visible with the motion processing disabled, but turning on some of the motion interpolation and processing features made a visible difference in reducing the judder while keeping artefacts to a minimum even with low-resolution content. The Sony Bravia 55X90K also seemed to be able to adapt well to different types of content, prioritising sharpness or smooth, clean motion as needed.

Sound quality on the Sony Bravia 55X90K television was acceptable across formats and content types, although Dolby Atmos did make a noticeable difference in improving the spaciousness and detail in the sound. While the TV did sound alright even at soft and moderate volumes, it didn’t get too loud, and was audibly held back a bit by its 30W speaker system which didn’t deliver a very impressive performance as I’d have expected from a TV at this price.

Verdict

Changes in technology and pricing in the premium television space means that it’s now possible to buy an OLED or Mini LED television for less than Rs. 1,50,000, which makes the older quantum-dot LED technology feel a bit dated in comparison. However, it also makes it possible to buy a well-equipped, well-calibrated, and feature-rich quantum-dot LED TV such as the Sony Bravia XR-55X90K at a price which, while definitely on the premium side of things, isn’t quite as high as other flagship options.

This…

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Philips Ambilight 7900 Series 55-inch Ultra-HD LED Android TV (55PUT7906/94) Review: Quite the Show

Posted on by

Televisions tend to be more about the core functionality and less about the design and other aesthetics but every once in a while, we’ll see something flashy and pleasantly over-the-top. One such concept is Philips’ Ambilight technology, which interestingly and rather astoundingly, adds to the viewing experience particularly in dark rooms where the LED lights at the back of the TV can really shine. Philips’ latest television in India brings back the concept in a big way, and at a much more accessible price than before.

Priced at Rs. 99,990 for the 55-inch 55PUT7906/94 variant, the Philips Ambilight 7900 series is a fairly standard Ultra-HD LED TV, but with the added feature of a three-sided Ambilight LED lighting at the back. There is also support for Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, and Android TV OS for smart functionality, among other useful features. Is this the most unique and interesting 55-inch TV you can buy for around Rs. 1,00,000 in India? Find out in this review.

The Philips Ambilight 7900 series TV runs on Android TV 10, with the improved stock Android TV user interface

 

Philips Ambilight 7900 Series 55-inch Ultra-HD LED Android TV (55PUT7906/94) design and specifications

The Philips Ambilight 7900 Series is available in three sizes — 55 inches, 65 inches, and 75 inches — with prices ranging from Rs. 99,990 to Rs. 1,89,990. All three sizes have similar specifications and features including the three-sided Ambilight LED lighting at the back of the televisions.

At the front and back (for the most part), the Philips Ambilight 7900 Series 55-inch television looks like just about any modern budget or mid-range television. There are slim borders around the screen, a small Philips logo at the bottom, a module for the IR receiver, indicator light, and a multi-function physical button to control the power and volume without the remote.

The TV is moderately thick but slightly slimmer at the edges, which leaves enough space to access the left-side ports when the television is wall-mounted. The 55-inch variant weighs around 14.2kg without the stands, and is compatible with VESA wall mounts (not included in the box). The table stands are included in the box and fix onto the TV near the corners, so you’ll need a large table or TV unit to place the Philips Ambilight 7900 series TV on.

While the television seems rather ordinary-looking at first glance, the key feature shows itself only when you turn the Philips Ambilight 7900 series TV on. There are LED lights built into the frame of the TV all along the left, top, and right edges, projecting multi-coloured light onto the wall behind the TV. The lights can get quite bright, and are effective regardless of whether you have the TV wall-mounted or on the table stands slightly away from the wall.

The Philips Ambilight 7900 Series 55-inch television has most of its ports in the square cavity at the back and facing downwards, so you’ll have to ensure that you’ve attached most of these connections before wall-mounting the television (if that’s the case for you). The ports at the back include Digital Audio-out (Toslink), one USB Type-A port, RJ45 Ethernet port, antenna socket, and three HDMI ports.

The LED lights at the back project colour onto the wall behind, depending on the colours on the screen

 

The ports on the left side are much easier to access even with the TV wall-mounted. These include one HDMI port (with ARC support), 3.5mm headphone jack, and one USB Type-A port. I’d have ideally liked at least one more HDMI port on the side, as well as the Toslink port. That said, having the ARC-enabled port on the side is a sensible decision by Philips.

The Philips Ambilight 55PUT7906/94 LED TV has an Ultra-HD (3840×2160 pixel) screen, with support for the HLG, HDR10, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision high dynamic range formats. There are two full-range bottom-firing speakers with a total sound output of 20W, and support for various audio formats up to Dolby Atmos. Bluetooth 5 and dual-band Wi-Fi are supported on the TV, and there is 8GB of internal storage for apps and app data, along with an unspecified quad-core processor to power the software and interface.

Philips Ambilight 7900 Series 55-inch Ultra-HD LED Android TV (55PUT7906/94) remote and features

Philips has typically included a full-size remote with its televisions, and it’s no different with the Ambilight 7900 series LED TV. The remote is arguably a fair bit larger than it needs to be, and has buttons to control navigation on the Android TV UI, playback controls, input selection, and a classic number pad, among others. There are hotkeys for Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Google Play, and YouTube, as well as a Google Assistant button and microphone to listen to voice commands.

A couple of useful additions include an ‘info’ button which shows resolution and Internet speed, and the Ambilight button. The latter provides quick access to the Ambilight menu, which can be used to turn on or off the Ambilight effects, or modify the settings including the modes and lounge lighting presets. It’s useful to quickly adjust this, particularly if you’re finding the glare too much or the lights a bit distracting.

The remote initially worked fine, but after a few weeks I found that I had to point it directly at the IR receiver for it to work; this seemed to happen overnight with it working fine the previous day. Changing the batteries and resetting the TV made no difference, and Bluetooth connectivity only worked for Google Assistant and not the rest of the remote’s functions, which continued to rely on IR. Strangely, the remote began working normally a couple of days later, so it’s hard to pinpoint the issue here.

Apart from Ambilight, the Philips 55PUT7906/94 TV is pretty ordinary when it comes to features. There is built-in Chromecast for content casting, and Google Assistant for voice commands, both of which are standard to all televisions running Android TV software.

Philips Ambilight 7900 Series 55-inch Ultra-HD LED Android TV (55PUT7906/94) software and interface

The Philips Ambilight 7900 series 55-inch LED TV runs on the Android TV 10 operating system, with the updated user interface with the refreshed, Google TV-like appearance. Of course, this isn’t the same as the Google TV user interface, but the core experience is the same as what you get on most Android TV-powered televisions. This includes access to the Google Play store, which now claims to have over 7,000 apps and games specifically designed for use on a TV screen.

The remote of the Philips Ambilight TV is a full-sized one and has hotkeys for Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, and Google Play

 

Some key apps such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Youtube are preinstalled on the Philips Ambilight 7900 series television, and the new user interface is able to curate and push certain content recommendations using these and other major streaming services. While it is a step below the much more polished and capable Google TV UI, the stock Android TV user interface is still a pretty good option given that the app experience is the same reliable one that the platform has worked hard to get right.

My issues with the remote aside, I found the UI performance on the Philips 7900 series TV to be a bit sluggish at times. There was often a noticeable delay in the reaction time when navigating the UI, along with visible lag in the picture. Fortunately, this didn’t extend to when actual content was playing, but I did find it a lot easier to switch to the Chromecast with Google TV which was a lot less frustrating to use.

Philips Ambilight 7900 Series 55-inch Ultra-HD LED Android TV (55PUT7906/94) performance

It’s now possible to get a good quantum-dot or OLED television for less than Rs. 1,00,000, so spending that much on an LED television such as the Philips Ambilight 7900 Series 55-inch TV might seem a bit silly. However, the Philips television’s key feature — and indeed its most impressive party trick — is the Ambilight effect which enhances the viewing experience in its own unique way.

Now, it’s possible to set up aftermarket LED lighting for just about any television, with brands such as Govee and Philips offering such solutions. However the undeniable convenience and ease of use of the Philips Ambilight television, as well as the fact that you can switch it off easily with the television remote, makes it a superior option for anyone looking at rear adaptive LED lighting. That said, I’m left wondering whether that alone justifies the considerable premium of the Philips 7900 series TV.

The Philips 55PUT7906/94 television has an Ultra-HD resolution LED screen with support for HDR up to the Dolby Vision format. Performance was decent with high-quality content, and the picture was definitely as sharp as it could be, but there were a few drawbacks that I wouldn’t typically expect to see on a 55-inch television priced at Rs. 1,00,000.

Colourful content such as Into The Spiderverse looked beautiful on the Philips TV, particularly with the Ambilight effect on

 

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse seemed like the best movie to start with given the bright colours and trippy comic-book style visuals that I expected to play well with the Ambilight functionality on the Philips TV, and I wasn’t disappointed.

The truly impressive bit here was how the Ambilight worked with with the film, with the bright lights reacting intuitively to the continuously changing colours on screen, giving me the feeling of the television and picture being a bit bigger and more vibrant that it actually was. The Ambilight effect was quick to read colours on the edges of the screen and flowed well, making for a particularly good effect with fast-moving, colourful content.

With gentle motion and muted colours, such as the many monochrome scenes in the final season of Better Call Saul, the Ambilight effect on the Philips 7900 series LED TV often had very little to do or add, and was best switched off. I also found that the effect worked best when the lights projected onto a white wall, since this allowed them and the colours to be seen clearly. Against a textured blue wall for instance, the effects were largely lost, save for blue light itself.

Fortunately, controlling the Ambilight settings on the Philips 7900 series TV is an easy process, thanks to a dedicated Ambilight button on the remote which opens the quick access menu on the Android TV user interface. You can control the intensity through Ambilight presets, or set it to lounge lighting which sets a single colour for the rear lighting.

Although the picture was sharp on the Philips Ambilight 7900 series TV, the black levels weren’t very good

 

The picture was sharp and detailed with the animation of Into The Spider-Verse and even bright, colourful shows such as Masaba Masaba. The colours looked good too, although not anywhere near as punchy and defined as on the more affordable Xiaomi OLED Vision TV. With the dark scenes in shows such as Better Call Saul and Obi Wan Kenobi, the poor black levels of the Philips 7900 series LED TV were quite the setback.

The backlighting of the LED display tended to create a ‘whitewash’ effect during dark scenes, making blacks appear dark grey. This was visible even with bright and colourful content, but the whitewash effect looked particularly prominent and distracting with dark visuals. This is typically something I expect to see on a much more affordable LED TVs, so I was disappointed with this on the Philips 7900 series TV.

The Philips Ambilight 7900 series television is fairly bright thanks to its LED display panel, and as a result is easy to watch even in a relatively bright room. That said, making even a small effort to darken the room, such as drawing the curtains, goes a long way in making the picture look better. Quantum-dot LED TVs such as the Hisense 55U6G are considerably brighter and are priced lower.

Although HDR up to the Dolby Vision format is supported, the Philips Ambilight 7900 series television didn’t benefit significantly from this. While there was a slight bump in brightness and somewhat improved colours with HDR content as compared to SDR content, it wasn’t quite as effective as I’ve seen on a lot of televisions, such as the Sony X75K which did a better job despite being only HDR10-capable.

Where the Philips Ambilight 7900 series TV does perform reasonably well is with upscaling lower-resolution content. HD and full-HD movies and TV shows looked decent on the Philips TV…

.

Philips Ambilight 7900 Series 55-inch Ultra-HD LED Android TV (55PUT7906/94) Review: Quite the Show

Posted on by

Televisions tend to be more about the core functionality and less about the design and other aesthetics but every once in a while, we’ll see something flashy and pleasantly over-the-top. One such concept is Philips’ Ambilight technology, which interestingly and rather astoundingly, adds to the viewing experience particularly in dark rooms where the LED lights at the back of the TV can really shine. Philips’ latest television in India brings back the concept in a big way, and at a much more accessible price than before.

Priced at Rs. 99,990 for the 55-inch 55PUT7906/94 variant, the Philips Ambilight 7900 series is a fairly standard Ultra-HD LED TV, but with the added feature of a three-sided Ambilight LED lighting at the back. There is also support for Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, and Android TV OS for smart functionality, among other useful features. Is this the most unique and interesting 55-inch TV you can buy for around Rs. 1,00,000 in India? Find out in this review.

The Philips Ambilight 7900 series TV runs on Android TV 10, with the improved stock Android TV user interface

 

Philips Ambilight 7900 Series 55-inch Ultra-HD LED Android TV (55PUT7906/94) design and specifications

The Philips Ambilight 7900 Series is available in three sizes — 55 inches, 65 inches, and 75 inches — with prices ranging from Rs. 99,990 to Rs. 1,89,990. All three sizes have similar specifications and features including the three-sided Ambilight LED lighting at the back of the televisions.

At the front and back (for the most part), the Philips Ambilight 7900 Series 55-inch television looks like just about any modern budget or mid-range television. There are slim borders around the screen, a small Philips logo at the bottom, a module for the IR receiver, indicator light, and a multi-function physical button to control the power and volume without the remote.

The TV is moderately thick but slightly slimmer at the edges, which leaves enough space to access the left-side ports when the television is wall-mounted. The 55-inch variant weighs around 14.2kg without the stands, and is compatible with VESA wall mounts (not included in the box). The table stands are included in the box and fix onto the TV near the corners, so you’ll need a large table or TV unit to place the Philips Ambilight 7900 series TV on.

While the television seems rather ordinary-looking at first glance, the key feature shows itself only when you turn the Philips Ambilight 7900 series TV on. There are LED lights built into the frame of the TV all along the left, top, and right edges, projecting multi-coloured light onto the wall behind the TV. The lights can get quite bright, and are effective regardless of whether you have the TV wall-mounted or on the table stands slightly away from the wall.

The Philips Ambilight 7900 Series 55-inch television has most of its ports in the square cavity at the back and facing downwards, so you’ll have to ensure that you’ve attached most of these connections before wall-mounting the television (if that’s the case for you). The ports at the back include Digital Audio-out (Toslink), one USB Type-A port, RJ45 Ethernet port, antenna socket, and three HDMI ports.

The LED lights at the back project colour onto the wall behind, depending on the colours on the screen

 

The ports on the left side are much easier to access even with the TV wall-mounted. These include one HDMI port (with ARC support), 3.5mm headphone jack, and one USB Type-A port. I’d have ideally liked at least one more HDMI port on the side, as well as the Toslink port. That said, having the ARC-enabled port on the side is a sensible decision by Philips.

The Philips Ambilight 55PUT7906/94 LED TV has an Ultra-HD (3840×2160 pixel) screen, with support for the HLG, HDR10, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision high dynamic range formats. There are two full-range bottom-firing speakers with a total sound output of 20W, and support for various audio formats up to Dolby Atmos. Bluetooth 5 and dual-band Wi-Fi are supported on the TV, and there is 8GB of internal storage for apps and app data, along with an unspecified quad-core processor to power the software and interface.

Philips Ambilight 7900 Series 55-inch Ultra-HD LED Android TV (55PUT7906/94) remote and features

Philips has typically included a full-size remote with its televisions, and it’s no different with the Ambilight 7900 series LED TV. The remote is arguably a fair bit larger than it needs to be, and has buttons to control navigation on the Android TV UI, playback controls, input selection, and a classic number pad, among others. There are hotkeys for Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Google Play, and YouTube, as well as a Google Assistant button and microphone to listen to voice commands.

A couple of useful additions include an ‘info’ button which shows resolution and Internet speed, and the Ambilight button. The latter provides quick access to the Ambilight menu, which can be used to turn on or off the Ambilight effects, or modify the settings including the modes and lounge lighting presets. It’s useful to quickly adjust this, particularly if you’re finding the glare too much or the lights a bit distracting.

The remote initially worked fine, but after a few weeks I found that I had to point it directly at the IR receiver for it to work; this seemed to happen overnight with it working fine the previous day. Changing the batteries and resetting the TV made no difference, and Bluetooth connectivity only worked for Google Assistant and not the rest of the remote’s functions, which continued to rely on IR. Strangely, the remote began working normally a couple of days later, so it’s hard to pinpoint the issue here.

Apart from Ambilight, the Philips 55PUT7906/94 TV is pretty ordinary when it comes to features. There is built-in Chromecast for content casting, and Google Assistant for voice commands, both of which are standard to all televisions running Android TV software.

Philips Ambilight 7900 Series 55-inch Ultra-HD LED Android TV (55PUT7906/94) software and interface

The Philips Ambilight 7900 series 55-inch LED TV runs on the Android TV 10 operating system, with the updated user interface with the refreshed, Google TV-like appearance. Of course, this isn’t the same as the Google TV user interface, but the core experience is the same as what you get on most Android TV-powered televisions. This includes access to the Google Play store, which now claims to have over 7,000 apps and games specifically designed for use on a TV screen.

The remote of the Philips Ambilight TV is a full-sized one and has hotkeys for Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, and Google Play

 

Some key apps such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Youtube are preinstalled on the Philips Ambilight 7900 series television, and the new user interface is able to curate and push certain content recommendations using these and other major streaming services. While it is a step below the much more polished and capable Google TV UI, the stock Android TV user interface is still a pretty good option given that the app experience is the same reliable one that the platform has worked hard to get right.

My issues with the remote aside, I found the UI performance on the Philips 7900 series TV to be a bit sluggish at times. There was often a noticeable delay in the reaction time when navigating the UI, along with visible lag in the picture. Fortunately, this didn’t extend to when actual content was playing, but I did find it a lot easier to switch to the Chromecast with Google TV which was a lot less frustrating to use.

Philips Ambilight 7900 Series 55-inch Ultra-HD LED Android TV (55PUT7906/94) performance

It’s now possible to get a good quantum-dot or OLED television for less than Rs. 1,00,000, so spending that much on an LED television such as the Philips Ambilight 7900 Series 55-inch TV might seem a bit silly. However, the Philips television’s key feature — and indeed its most impressive party trick — is the Ambilight effect which enhances the viewing experience in its own unique way.

Now, it’s possible to set up aftermarket LED lighting for just about any television, with brands such as Govee and Philips offering such solutions. However the undeniable convenience and ease of use of the Philips Ambilight television, as well as the fact that you can switch it off easily with the television remote, makes it a superior option for anyone looking at rear adaptive LED lighting. That said, I’m left wondering whether that alone justifies the considerable premium of the Philips 7900 series TV.

The Philips 55PUT7906/94 television has an Ultra-HD resolution LED screen with support for HDR up to the Dolby Vision format. Performance was decent with high-quality content, and the picture was definitely as sharp as it could be, but there were a few drawbacks that I wouldn’t typically expect to see on a 55-inch television priced at Rs. 1,00,000.

Colourful content such as Into The Spiderverse looked beautiful on the Philips TV, particularly with the Ambilight effect on

 

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse seemed like the best movie to start with given the bright colours and trippy comic-book style visuals that I expected to play well with the Ambilight functionality on the Philips TV, and I wasn’t disappointed.

The truly impressive bit here was how the Ambilight worked with with the film, with the bright lights reacting intuitively to the continuously changing colours on screen, giving me the feeling of the television and picture being a bit bigger and more vibrant that it actually was. The Ambilight effect was quick to read colours on the edges of the screen and flowed well, making for a particularly good effect with fast-moving, colourful content.

With gentle motion and muted colours, such as the many monochrome scenes in the final season of Better Call Saul, the Ambilight effect on the Philips 7900 series LED TV often had very little to do or add, and was best switched off. I also found that the effect worked best when the lights projected onto a white wall, since this allowed them and the colours to be seen clearly. Against a textured blue wall for instance, the effects were largely lost, save for blue light itself.

Fortunately, controlling the Ambilight settings on the Philips 7900 series TV is an easy process, thanks to a dedicated Ambilight button on the remote which opens the quick access menu on the Android TV user interface. You can control the intensity through Ambilight presets, or set it to lounge lighting which sets a single colour for the rear lighting.

Although the picture was sharp on the Philips Ambilight 7900 series TV, the black levels weren’t very good

 

The picture was sharp and detailed with the animation of Into The Spider-Verse and even bright, colourful shows such as Masaba Masaba. The colours looked good too, although not anywhere near as punchy and defined as on the more affordable Xiaomi OLED Vision TV. With the dark scenes in shows such as Better Call Saul and Obi Wan Kenobi, the poor black levels of the Philips 7900 series LED TV were quite the setback.

The backlighting of the LED display tended to create a ‘whitewash’ effect during dark scenes, making blacks appear dark grey. This was visible even with bright and colourful content, but the whitewash effect looked particularly prominent and distracting with dark visuals. This is typically something I expect to see on a much more affordable LED TVs, so I was disappointed with this on the Philips 7900 series TV.

The Philips Ambilight 7900 series television is fairly bright thanks to its LED display panel, and as a result is easy to watch even in a relatively bright room. That said, making even a small effort to darken the room, such as drawing the curtains, goes a long way in making the picture look better. Quantum-dot LED TVs such as the Hisense 55U6G are considerably brighter and are priced lower.

Although HDR up to the Dolby Vision format is supported, the Philips Ambilight 7900 series television didn’t benefit significantly from this. While there was a slight bump in brightness and somewhat improved colours with HDR content as compared to SDR content, it wasn’t quite as effective as I’ve seen on a lot of televisions, such as the Sony X75K which did a better job despite being only HDR10-capable.

Where the Philips Ambilight 7900 series TV does perform reasonably well is with upscaling lower-resolution content. HD and full-HD movies and TV shows looked decent on the Philips TV…

.