In recent weeks, various families with readers of Homecinema Magazine have started working with the latest LCD LED TV from Philips. What do they think of the Philips PUS7304 LCD TV Performance Series? What are the most important plus and minus points? And would they recommend this LCD LED TV as a family? We list the most important conclusions.
Philips PUS7304 LCD TV – Performance Series
The model Philips is focusing on this year is the Performance Series (with model numbers PUS7304, PUS7334, PUS7354 and PUS7394). This is the TV for consumers who do not want to compare specifications or put model numbers next to each other, says Philips TV. This TV has everything you need for an optimal viewing experience, including a 4K LCD screen with LED backlight, Philips sound, support for the latest standards (including Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos and HDR10 +), Android TV with Google Assistant , Amazon Alexa integration, Ambilight on three sides and a sleek design with which the TV can be turned.
Three different families
Homecinema Magazine have three families together with Philips opportunity to test the Performance Series lcd led tv at home. For a period of three weeks they were allowed to watch all their films and series, and play games on the newest generation of LCD LED TV. The results are now in and below you can read the most important conclusions.
Video
After the review period, we visited all three families to ask them about their experiences, plus points and minus points. An impression of this can be found in the video below:
Introduction of families
Who are the families who have tested the PUS7304 LCD LED TV from Philips?
Family 1 (family Treffers)
We are Dini (56) and Bas (57) Hits and watch daily series and films on our current TV. This is a second-generation Philips LED TV that appeared on the market in 2011. It is a 40-inch screen, which at the time was a fairly large screen.
Dini loves series (preferably from English soil) and I like films with high image quality with nice sound support. In addition, I am regularly puzzling and figuring out what the TV has to offer with nice gadgets. By participating in the test panel I try to form as clear a picture as possible with regard to our personal experiences of this Philips 55PUS7304.
Family 2 (Faustin family)
My name is Imri and I am 27 year. Together with my family we have the Philips Performance Series PUS7304 television, a.k.a. The One to Watch. We consist of a family of 5 in total. My girlfriend Joyce is 34 and have three daughters: Djelena 15, Nadya 8 and Elyza 2 years old. The reason we wanted to test this TV was to see what we think about Ambilight and what we should expect from an upgrade in image quality. When we watch TV on the couch, we watch F1, Films and Netfilx series. The two youngest daughters also like to watch YouTube and mainly do that on the smartphone. The oldest likes to watch Netflix and watch an exciting movie with friends every now and then. Nadya and Elyza watch the most “normal” cable television.
Family 3 (family Ridder)
Martijn Ridder. That’s me. And like several men who are not yet middle-aged (after all, I am only 38), I also grew up with gadgets. I have gladly passed on that love for everything that has anything to do with it to my two children, Tobey (5 years old) and Jonah (8 years old). Of course I do not only share the house with them, but also with their mother, Eva.
After it became known that we could test the TV and the box was delivered a week later, I was obviously very enthusiastic, but Eva was not. “Where should he be?” “We already have a TV,” “two of those big things is too much.” Our own TV briefly taken from its place, temporarily placed behind the couch, and the new Test TV put down.
General impression
The first impression of the TV upon entering is very important. What do the families think of the installation, design and image and audio quality when the TV was first turned on?
Family 1 (Treffers family)
Installing and unpacking was a great moment. When you open the package, the first experience begins. What comes out of that box; a beautiful TV. Dini always said she didn’t want a big TV in the living room. And I always do. The great thing is that Dini was very quickly healed of her statement and that said that precisely this format (55 ”) finds a really nice screen. We can say how beautiful it can go. For me, therefore, a windfall.
Both the assembly and the materials such as screws and standard are of high quality. A TV of around 25 kg must be assured of a stable setup. It is stable and the TV is rotatable for enthusiasts. Our distance from the TV is 3 meters. You are in the image, as it were. A clear improvement on our old model (40 ”).
Family 2 (Faustin family)
I was alone and can still recommend unpacking the TV with two people, purely for safety and for damage to counteract. Mounting on the standard was easy and fast. Although this was handy with turning the television for the right viewing direction and being able to turn it to the dining table, I later hung the TV on the wall so that the little one could not accidentally damage the TV. Before I hung up the TV, I naturally placed the TV temporarily on the TV unit and put the plug in for testing.
The installation itself goes fairly smoothly and you walk through it quickly. It links your Google account, if you have an existing account easily via your phone. The TV itself looks nice and sleek in terms of design. He actually looks the best on the standard. The standard is light, stable and perhaps the tightest in design of the TV, and actually for that reason it is a bit of a shame to hang the TV.
Family 3 (family Ridder)
installing was a “piece of cake.” A simple matter of following the QuickStart guide to assemble the foot, and put it down. It is immediately noticeable that the bezel, the edge around the screen, is smaller than our current TV, but consists of two parts; the edge under the screen is 1 part, and the other part includes the other sides. There is a seam between these two parts that detracts from the appearance and also stands out because the edge under the screen is not as narrow as the rest of the bezels. In addition, there is loose space in one place between the bezel and the screen. I am not used to that from Philips.
Image quality
The image quality is perhaps the most important part of a TV. What do families think of the image quality of the Philips LCD LED TV? And, which institutions did or did not like?
Family 1 (family Treffers)
The picture quality of this TV is super. It is about an LCD screen. But then a high-quality LCD. Colors are characteristic of Philips. You can choose from a number of modes in the selection menu that were designed by Philips itself. You can choose bright colors and the milder views. I see on average that people opt for the bright colors of the factory setting. Personally, I like natural colors the most and come as close to reality as possible. To realize this, it has also been made possible to get started with your own preference. After its own color configuration, the TV meets my own color requirements.
I do have a comment about the options that you can select in a menu for an even sharper image, etc. At some point ghosting comes around. This results in vague movements and faltering of moving images. That is nothing strange under the horizon. Not with other brands either. If an image is short of pixels you can actually do nothing more than just make an adjustment that basically falls short of the ultimate goal. Perfection that is not actually there at that moment. If you do have a perfect delivery of an image, you hardly need to improve on that. Long live the arrival of 4K. More pixels, so a sharper image. When you watch sports broadcasts, you will be almost in the middle of the field. Lifelike and razor sharp. When you see the Grand Prix you can literally see all loose rubber and stones on the asphalt. What an experience.
Family 2 (family Faustin)
Immediately after all the installation I started Youtube to test the 4K quality. The image is impressively sharp. Not much later my girlfriend came home with the eldest daughter. They were both watching with wide eyes and were pleasantly surprised. The next morning the two youngest daughters came down for breakfast. Their regular ritual is to watch TV here.
Something that was on my wish list to be able to watch in 4K is the mini series Our Planet on Netflix. You can view this in various image modes, including HDR Personal, HDR Intense, Dolby Vision Bright and Dolby Vision dark. Together with the youngest daughter we watched the first episode a bit later in the morning. Elyza (2 years old) became enthusiastic and started to list and identify all the animals that passed by. It was so sharp and natural that it was almost real. It only really hit when I set up Baby Shark on YouTube. After that moment, she wanted to watch YouTube instead of the telephone on TV. Ordinary television is not watched at our home much. Occasionally we set it up, the HD channels look fine and sleek. You can set the image as you like. We mainly put it in personal mode. With HD films on Netflix, it is in film mode and with 4k films we have this on Dolby Vision Helder, for the best image quality. What I think is a pity is that you want to be able to quickly set the picture mode and unfortunately there is no button for this on the remote control. Also for the sound as far as I know.
Family 3 (family Ridder)
This TV supports HDR, a fancy name for extra color depth and higher brightness. But it works. The newer series on Netflix in particular support this, together with Dolby Vision. Delicious. Together with the 4K of pixels, this provides wonderful viewing moments. The TV recognizes the HDR signal, and indicates this nicely with a message. Look, you don’t have to do anything for that. It just works. Simply Clever.
In addition to Netflix, we also tested the TV with our Philips blu-ray player, and here too the kids say “wow”. And I. In the evening, when the children are in bed, and dad goes to watch the last season of Stranger Things, he sees a little bit of backlight bleeding in dark scenes, especially in the lower right, but that is not disturbing. During the day, on the other hand, the children recently complained: “Daddy, we don’t see anything.” Hey, that’s new. The screen of this TV reflects more in comparison to our old TV. The difference between high gloss and matte, say. Difficult, certainly because we have a lot of light in the house.
Sound quality
The Philips PUS7304 LCD TV comes with a built-in audio system. How do families find the audio quality?
Family 1 (family Treffers)
The sound of the TV is normal, and I mean that by that. We have recently purchased a high-end quality soundbar. No, then you should not compare this sound with that of the TV itself. To give an opinion about the sound that comes out of the TV I can say that this is more than sufficient. Not a high-end but really acceptable.
One final comment I make is one about lipsync. The synchronous running of sound and speech with the final image. Here are a few more challenges to solve. If you start streaming from your smartphone, you will miss the right combination of sound and image. It remains a strange sensation if both are not perfectly synchronized. With the display of a normal TV display / broadcast you have absolutely no problems with that. I think it remains difficult for all manufacturers to run all current devices flawlessly with new devices.
Family 2 (Faustin family)
The sound of the television is super! We had no expectations in advance. We assumed that a flat TV has a flat sound. But the sound is really good. It is clear, clear and gives a good bass if needed. Watching movies is very pleasant. Because here too you can again select what sound mode it should display. However, the sound is mainly on the Film option, regardless of whether it is a series or a film. This sounds a bit fuller and everyone experiences it as the most pleasant. To listen to Spotify, we sometimes select the music mode and sometimes the film mode.
Family 3 (Ridder family)
Sound on a flat screen is always difficult. There is simply not enough content to be able to generate anything from bass. That also proved to be the case with this TV. The sound is very sufficient to watch the news and it is certainly sufficient for the children and for my wife. But for Game of Thrones, Stranger Things, or any Marvel film… .jaja… then you simply can’t make it with 2 x 10 watts of speakers. Although the TV does its best, though, including Dolby Atmos. Fortunately, the TV is equipped with HDMI-ARC on every HDMI output. That simply means that it doesn’t matter which HDMI connection you connect your own home cinema set to, the TV recognizes that something is connected, and sends the audio signal there if requested. In our case a Philips Fidelio set. Functions perfectly. Well arranged, Philips!
Smart TV
The Philips PUS7304 LCD TV is of course a smart TV, with various smart options. How was the smart TV platform used and how did you like it?
Family 1 (Treffers family)
You also have nothing to complain about with Smart TV. What an offer. Philips has opted for Android TV. Why would you have to reinvent the wheel if all the other big parties are holding onto Android TV? Setting up streaming from your smartphone to the TV was a time-consuming task. Find an app that is flawless and user-friendly. With the Google Cast built into the TV, passing on has now become a fun thing. Photos and videos are shown nice and quickly and get an extra dimension on a large screen.
Sometimes the Google assistant has some difficulty in performing 100% of the assignment correctly. I think this will be a matter of time. The Dutch version has not been around for very long so some improvements with recognizing the assignments are in the offing and will certainly get better. Moreover, the Dutch support has not yet been officially launched, so that may be a reason that it is not yet 100 percent working. Furthermore, it runs nice and smooth and it is a very nice feature that I think you will only appreciate more.
Family 2 (Faustin family)
Switching apps is easy. There is a “home button” on the remote control that allows you to switch back to the Android TV smart TV platform. There are various apps that you can set as favorites and per app a number of suggestions are given to view. Nadya knows exactly how to switch from Netflix to Youtube and back to cable TV. At Elyza we tested whether the microphone on the remote control can understand her. When she says Baby Shark, this is suggested to play. Especially when searching for titles, it is faster to use Google Assistant than having to select the title per letter. The only drawback is that if you really don’t understand the speech system you have to type it and then a Qwerty keyboard would have been handy.
What we also like is the built-in Chromecast. This allows you to switch videos from your phone to the phone. Handy if the little one wants to use the phone, but you also need it. The children can then just look through while you can use your phone undisturbed. Casting works super fast!
Family 3 (family Ridder)
Android on your TV. Never had it before, never thought about it too. But what a good solution for the apps problem. Immediately set up the apps from Amazon Prime Video, and Rakuten VIKI. The first is a Netflix wannabe, with a slightly different offering, and the second, VIKI, is for those who don’t know it, an app with exclusively Korean drama series. Yes, that is for my other half. Really. And she likes to watch it. She can also find the app easily. Press home, and tadaaa …. it is already there. Click, and look. Bingen, baby! The smart TV menu is fast, well-arranged and logically structured. So easy that the children can immediately find the games. That also says something.
The Google assistant, on the other hand, is a different story. This feels like a last-minute addition, and does not do it more often than it does. This could be because the television does not yet officially support Google Assistant in Dutch, but then it does not have to be advertised. However, I expect that this problem can be solved with a simple firmware update.
Ambilight
Ambilight is a feature that is only available on Philips televisions, including this model? How did families experience Ambilight and when did they mainly use it?
Family 1 (family Treffers)
The TV is equipped with Ambilight. We also have Ambilight on our current TV. Once Ambilight always Ambilight. Nothing new under the sun at Philips, but it remains special to see what added value this gives to the overall picture of the TV. We have light walls so the effect is of course maximum. Here too you can choose from a large number of choices regarding speed and light quantity. We have Ambilight on relax mode. You also don’t want to bounce all night long but enjoy a movie or a series. Also nice to experience is that from which angle you watch the TV the image remains optimal to watch.
Family 2 (Faustin family)
To return to why we wanted to test this TV, it was mainly to experience Ambilight. It does not add much during the day and watching cable TV is also not very interesting. But in the evening with films, it takes you completely into the film. It is certainly an added value for us that it is done. Family and friends who came to see it also admitted that it is really cool and you create a cinema effect. You can select how bright Ambilight should be and in which mode you want it. Here is a special button for the remote control that brings you to a menu with options. We do not find it disturbing if the range of the light is at its widest in the vivid mode. In addition, you can select whether the Ambilight should follow the image or sound. At parties it is therefore nice to connect music to it and thus create extra atmosphere in the house.
Family 3 (family Ridder)
Our current TV has two-sided Ambilight. So we are familiar with it. This test sample has Ambilight on three sides, also on the top. A clear added value, certainly with football matches, and with (yes, there he is) Stranger Things. It is quieter for your eyes, because the TV is not against a dark background. The added value is of course only present if you look in the evening or night, when it is dark. During the day you don’t have any lights on at home, so at that moment Ambilight has no use. You can get extra added value by also linking your Hue color lamps to this TV, so that they also participate in the image. Cinema experience guaranteed.
Conclusion of Philips PUS7304 LCD TV
After three weeks of intensive use, all three families come to a conclusion. What is their opinion about the Philips LCD LED TV? And would they recommend this television?
Family 1 (family Treffers)
In recent weeks we have experienced that the Philips PUS7304 LCD TV / 12 is an outright powerhouse. If you consider what this TV can do, including the image that is being displayed, then we are extremely positive about this product. Despite the comments we have made, our final assessment remains very positive. For an affordable price you get a TV that is completely up-to-date. Not for nothing the text that Philips uses, “The One to Watch”. A powerful text that is well worth its name.
Family 2 (Faustin family)
For our family, the Philips Performance Philips PUS7304 LCD TV is definitely The One to Watch! The image, the sound, the Ambilight and the smart functions are top. We now all sit together more often in front of the TV to watch a nice movie. In fact, the only thing we would like to see adjusted is the ease of use of the remote control. Occasionally you want to adjust the sound, change the picture mode or adjust Ambilight. Every time you have to go into a menu for this. It might have been more convenient if you had buttons for this, where you repeatedly press the button to change options without losing half an image or a full image while viewing. But you will soon forget that when you enjoy the TV! The whole family finds this an absolute must!
Family 3 (family Ridder)
We have already concluded at home that the next TV will again be a Philips, but not this one. Reflecting the light in the screen is a bummer for our specific home situation. Maybe a similar type, but with a matt screen? We’ll see. The Netflix button is what we all enjoyed extremely well. Ideal for both kids and for mom and dad. It would be perfectly perfect if you could adjust your shortcut menu yourself, because let’s be honest, who uses the “Sunrise Alarm” function? Another downside for those who often watch TV in the evening or at night: the only button on the remote control with backlight is the button that you don’t use often: Ambilight. Quite difficult in the dark on the couch. The 4K image with HDR is really recommended, especially with Dolby Vision. For that reason alone, the Philips PUS7304 LCD TV scores 4 stars for me.
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