Philips now offers quite a few OLED models, and in 2020 the OLED805 must take over from the successful OLED804. The newcomer Philips 55OLED805 OLED TV builds on the excellent platform of the OLED804, and offers some interesting new features.
Philips 55OLED805 – specifications
- What: Ultra HD OLED TV
- Screen size: 55 inch (139 cm), flat
- Connections: 4x HDMI (4x v2.0, ARC, ALLM, 2K HFR), 2x USB, 1x optical digital out, 1x headphones, 2x antenna, Bluetooth
- Extras: HDR10, HLG, Dolby Vision, HDR10 +, Dolby Atmos, WiFi built-in, Android 9.0, DTS Play-Fi, USB / DLNA media player, DVB-T2 / C / S2, CI + slot, 4th Gen P5 Processor with AI
- Dimensions: 1,228 x 722 x 230 mm ( incl. base)
- Weight: 21.8 kg (incl. base)
- Consumption: 146 / 0.3 watt (Energy label B)
- List price: 1,999 euros
Philips 55OLED805 – Design
Philips largely sticks to last year’s design (OLED804). The sleek OLED screen has a fine metal bezel that bends seamlessly and blends into the back. The most noticeable change is in the feet.
The device still stands on two elegant cross feet, but the sharply delineated bars from last year have been replaced by beveled, rounded versions that have a slightly more organic look. not the only difference. Philips has recognized that those little feet make it almost impossible to put a soundbar in front of the TV. That is why the device now comes with an adapter set so that the screen is higher and there is room for a soundbar. Due to the corona problems, that adapter was unfortunately not included in our test set.
Philips 55OLED805 – Connections
Four HDMI connections are the usual number for a high-end TV. However, Philips remains with HDMI 2.0 connections, not HDMI 2.1 versions. All four connections offer ARC and they are Ultra HD HDR ready in the best quality. The only HDMI 2.1 feature that we do find is ALLM.
The 55OLED805 is further equipped with two USB connections, wireless and wired network, and Bluetooth (for wireless keyboards, the remote and wireless headphones). A headphone output and digital optical output complete the list. Three of the four HDMI connections, all USB connections and the headphone output are sideways. The other connections are at the back and point downwards, ideal for wall mounting.
Philips 55OLED805 – Ease of use and smart TV
The Android chipset of the OLED805 series is the same as on last year’s models. It’s the MT5887, with a quad-core ARM Cortex-A53, 2.5 GB of RAM and the Mali G51 GPU. The chipset is powerful enough to provide a fairly smooth experience, but still has to leave the newer Sony models in this area.
The Android 9 (Pie) interface organizes all content into channels that occupy horizontal rows on it. screen. You can adjust or remove these channels yourself. For a complete overview of the options Android TV 9, please refer to our Android TV 9 background article .
Most settings are not integrated in the Android menus, but still have its own menu that also fills the entire screen, or a large part of the left. That is inconvenient if you regularly play in the settings, but that makes little difference for most users. The menus are clear and navigate smoothly.
Remote control
A new year, a new remote control. Philips continues to search for the ideal zapper for its TVs. The new model is long and slim, with keys that are perfectly integrated into the surface of the remote.
The keys are backlit, and the back is made of Muirhead leather, two details that give the remote a touch give luxury. The lighting activates briefly when you press a key, a somewhat clumsy choice since you have to find the first key in the dark. Sony takes a better approach with lighting that activates based on ambient light and a motion sensor.
The remote of the OLED805 series is very light, feels great in the hand, and the keys are very easy pressing. However, we are less satisfied with the ease of use. The layout is decent, but is hampered by those almost seamless keys. Because they are very easy to press, and they are so close to each other, it is easy to press an adjacent key. Your thumb wanders slightly and the time has come. For example, we accidentally pressed the “Home” key several times, while we really just wanted to navigate down (the key just above it). Who wants to see the “entrances” sometimes accidentally starts Netflix. So there is certainly room for improvement.
The keyboard that we found on many Philips remotes has disappeared. The remote uses Bluetooth for voice commands, but also works entirely via infrared.
Functions
The Philips 55OLED805 OLED TV has a single TV tuner and one CI + slot, the OLED804 still had a double tuner. You can record to USB hard disk, but you cannot watch another channel at the same time.
You watch HDR via Netflix (Dolby Vision) and via YouTube (HLG and HDR10). The media player is very complete and played all our video test files including HDR video. The music player only fails with ALAC, Apple’s lossless format. All other popular formats, including tags, play correctly.
Airplay 2 a feature that we find in many other brands is missing, but Philips does offer a unique feature, DTS Play-Fi. You will find it on all 2020 TV models, the new 8000 series soundbar and the W6205 / W6505 WiFi speakers. Later this year, Play-Fi will also be available on the 2019 TV models. Play-Fi is a WiFi-based multiroom system that you can also use to create wireless surround. Connected devices can be from different brands, not just Philips. From the Play-Fi app on your smartphone, you can stream all kinds of music services to the TV and / or connected speakers. Play-Fi also offers you the unique option to stream not only streaming services, but also the sound from your TV to a connected speaker.
Ambilight
The Philips 55OLED805 OLED TV over three-sided Ambilight. The small LEDs spread their glow on the wall behind the television. New features this year include Ambilight Sleep, a fashion in which the TV cradles you to sleep with soft light and sound. Ambilight Air is the new option that allows you to connect the TV to Philips’ new WiFi speakers that also have Ambilight.
Philips 55OLED805 – Image processing
The P5 image processor from Philips is now in its fourth generation. The new generation adds a touch of AI to image processing. Specifically, the processor uses an AI-trained algorithm to do image classification. The processor identifies to what extent the image falls into these categories: Nature, Face, Motion, Dark, and Other. Based on that classification, the algorithms are further adapted in image processing.
This classification is performed in every image mode, but Philips has also added an AI image mode. In its default state, this is equivalent to the Vivid image mode, but you can adjust it via a special menu where you can easily determine to what extent you want Contrast, Color, Sharpness, Source Perfection and Motion to be optimized. It is a remarkable choice that gives Philips plenty of room to tune the algorithm, and is more accessible to less technical users. But on the other hand it also seems very confusing to us. Users may think that they only enjoy the new benefits in AI mode (no, AI is always active), and those in AI mode may want to adjust the color temperature, but cannot.
Implementation should therefore be slightly clearer, but the results are in any case excellent. The Philips 55OLED805 OLED TV inherits all the good things from its predecessor, the OLED804 (read the review here ). He scores excellently in all areas, but his weak spot has also remained. Color bands remain clearly visible, especially in low-quality dark scenes such as our Game of Thrones scene. With “MPEG Noise Reduction” at maximum, this greatly improves, but you also lose a lot of detail. You better use the Minimum or in severe cases the Middle position.
Where other manufacturers with an OLED offer this year also have a new type of Black Frame Insertion (which is BFI ) this is missing at Philips. You miss that little bit of extra sharpness in fast movements as we saw it on the LG CX. But Perfect Natural Motion still delivers excellent results. Philips has juggled with the names of the motion styles. What used to be the Movies mode is now the “Real Cinema” mode. It is ideal for the purists, it only converts 24fps sources contained in a 60Hz image signal to a 5: 5 120Hz signal, without motion interpolation. The new “Movies” image mode is actually the old sports mode, with minimal frame interpolation, but maximum “Perfect Clear Motion” for sharp moving images. Personally, we still prefer “Standard” as the best compromise between shocking pan images and smooth images.
Key Settings
Here’s an explanation of the main picture settings and tips for setting up your TV.
| Picture | Picture Advanced | Picture Advanced |
|
Picture Mode: Movies
Color: 50 |
Color / Color Enhancement: Off Color / Color Gamut: Normal Color / Color Temperature: Warm Contrast / Contrast Mode: Optimized for Images Contrast / Perfect Natural Reality: Off / Minimum Contrast / HDR Perfect: Off Contrast / Perfect Contrast: Off Contrast / Video Contrast: 100 Contrast / Light Sensor: Off Contrast / Gamma: 0 |
Sharpness / Ultra Resolution: Off / On Sharp Image / Noise Reduction: Minimum Sharp Image / MPEG Artifact Reduction: Minimum Motion / Motion Style: Movies / Standard |
Philips 55OLED805 – Image Quality
On our test model of the Philips 55OLED805 OLED TV, we see that the pixel structure is no different from last year’s. That was, for example, the case with the 65-inch LG CX. Meanwhile, we also have a Sony A8 in the house and it also has the same pixel structure. So it seems that 55 inch panels have not changed.
The screen had excellent uniformity, and no vertical stripes. However, that remains possible and therefore depends on device to device, although we do say that it is extremely rare that you experience it in real images.
Philips also offers the Filmmaker Mode , but it coincides with the ‘Films’ image mode. On the one hand we think that is good, the Films image fashion already did everything that Filmmaker fashion should do, on the other hand it is somewhat unclear since you will not find the words Filmmaker fashion anywhere. In the menu, under General Settings, you can activate “HDMI Auto movie mode”. The TV then automatically switches to Filmmaker mode as an HDMI source that signals.
The “Movies” picture mode is almost perfectly calibrated. The gray scale is perfectly neutral, and the color reproduction is almost perfect. It is striking that the OLED805 also perfectly shows all black detail. This image mode uses a gamma value of 2.2 that targets the average living room rather than a darkened room. If you want to go for the real movie experience, set the gamma setting to +2 for a gamma value of 2.4. This makes the image slightly darker and gives it a bit more pop. In any case, it is a feast for the handsome images.
Philips 55OLED805 – HDR
Since last year, Philips has supported Dolby Vision and HDR10 + in addition to HDR10 and HLG, a choice that we still welcome. This way you can be sure that you always have the widest choice for HDR. Dolby Vision IQ is missing, however.
Philips is traditionally at the head of the peloton for peak luminance. In the HDR Film image preset, and with the contrast mode “Optimized for Image”, we achieve a peak luminance of approximately 805 nits on a 10% window, and 944 nits on a 2% window. Both values are reached after some time, in normal use you probably have to take 50-80 nits off. It remains a good result, in line with last year. A completely white screen clocks in at 148 nits.
The color range of the 55OLED805 is at 91% DCI-P3 and 65% Rec2020. That is slightly lower than last year, and also slightly lower than the other OLED competitors that we already tested. Of course it remains more than enough for an impressive HDR image.
The HDR Movie image mode is well calibrated. Philips ignored all metadata in previous models, but that has changed this year. Metadata up to 4,000 nits is now respected, and all white detail is visible up to 4,000 nits, at least if you set the “HDR Perfect” setting to Off or Automatic. The other modes lift brightness slightly, at the expense of white detail, as was the case on previous models.
HDR Perfect in Auto mode can be used as a form of dynamic tone mapping on HDR10 signals . On test images we see that all white detail is still preserved, but that the image does become brighter. We also see that effect on real content. The image is getting a bit brighter, but that can make it seem like you are losing some white detail. In some cases, colors also become slightly paler. Our personal preference is to leave HDR Perfect in the Off position, unless you really want the extra brightness.
Philips 55OLED805 – Gaming, Reflections and Viewing Angles
It OLED screen offers a very wide viewing angle, and it copes well with reflections. For best results, it is still advisable to avoid incident light on the screen. In the Movie image mode we measure a lag of 73.3 ms, a reasonable but still too high result. In game mode, the lag drops to 33.4 ms, enough for many gamers, but Philips lags behind the competition in this regard.
Philips 55OLED805 – Sound quality
The sound system of the OLED804 has been the OLED805 adopted and slightly improved, among other things by a slightly larger midrange speaker and tweeter that create less distortion and more powerful voices. The woofer module in the back got four passive radiators, so that the bass has to sound even richer.
The 50 Watt sound system delivers a nice, full sound. We immediately threw our music at it and were pleasantly surprised by a spacious, breathable bass response. Voices sound very natural, and you can get a lot of volume from the device, before it goes slightly distorted in the highest volumes. Movie soundtracks also gave a spacious and compelling impression. The OLED805, like its predecessor, supports Dolby Atmos. The surround experience is good and audible, but is not really convincing, although we can hardly blame the OLED805 as a downside.
Review equipment
For the lag measurement, we use a Leo Bodnar Display lag meter. For all other measurements, we rely on a Spectracal C6 HDR2000 Colorimeter, Xrite i1 Pro spectrophotometer, a VideoForge Pro pattern generator, and the Spectracal Calman for Business software. To analyze any HDR problems, we use an HDFury Vertex.
Philips 55OLED805 OLED TV – Conclusion
Is the 55OLED805 (OLED805 series) a worthy successor to the OLED804 ? It inherits many things from its predecessor, that much is certain, also a few weaker points. The Android chipset that was a bit more powerful for this model, for example. And he still struggles with color bands in dark, low-quality images. However, we are not showstoppers. Where we are a bit disappointed is the lack of HDMI 2.1 connections and functions. That is a downside especially for gamers, but the lack of eARC can also be a disappointment for film lovers. Philips has also given its remote a makeover and although it now looks a bit smarter, we are less satisfied with the ease of use.
The Philips 55OLED805 OLED TV gets excellent points for its general image processing. With the addition of a touch of AI, it got some extra muscle power. The device also comes with a very accurate color reproduction and impressive black detail for a fantastic image result. In HDR, the TV combines that with high peak luminance and support for Dolby Vision and HDR10 +. SDR images give you a beautiful HDR effect with Perfect Natural Reality. The B&W sound sounds even more powerful on this model, with a strong splash of bass. In its design, Philips has also thought of people who still want to use a soundbar, the TV can be placed higher using an adapter set. Finally, with the addition of DTS Play-Fi, Philips has given its TVs and its audio products a multi-room audio system and wireless surround in one go.
The Philips 55OLED805 comes with a competitive price tag, compared to the LG CX and Sony A8 . As long as gaming is not at the top of your list, it makes him a very attractive candidate.
Add Comment