Reviews

Review: Philips 55POS901F Ultra HD OLED TV

Philips 55POS901F
There is more choice for those who want to pick up an OLED TV. The Philips 55POS901F combines beautiful OLED images with Ambilight and Android TV.
4.4/5 - (472 votes)

There is more choice for those who want to pick up an OLED TV. The Philips 55POS901F combines beautiful OLED images with Ambilight and Android TV.

Philips 55POS901F – Specifications

The 55POS901F oled TV from Philips combines oled technology with the Philips Perfect Pixel Ultra HD engine. This results in a 3800 PPI (Picture Performance Index). The engine has a computing power of 4 billion pixels, which enables the system to continuously monitor and adjust each individual pixel in terms of sharpness and clarity. The engine also includes an Ultra Resolution function that converts images from any source to Ultra-HD level, and the Perfect Color system from Philips is available for optimal color reproduction. T he Perfect Natural Motion technology for smoothly displaying fast moving images.

Of course HDR support is also present, with a maximum brightness of 540 nits. Ambilight is placed on all three sides of the TV so you have to imagine yourself as a viewer in the film or series. As a smart TV platform, Android TV has been used again. The 55POS901F features a 30 Watt 6.1 sound system, with six drivers at the front in a sleek, integrated sound bar for medium and high tones. This soundbar is not detachable. For the low tones, the rear is a Triple Ring loudspeaker with integrated bass port.

  • What: Ultra HD OLED TV
  • Screen size: 55 inch (139 cm)
  • Connections: 4x HDMI (1x ARC, 4x v2.0a), 1x optical digital out, 3x USB (1x USB 3.0), 3x antenna, 1x headphone output
  • Extras: WiFi (802.11n) built-in, USB / DLNA media player, Android TV, DVB-T2 / C / S2, 2x CI + lock, double-sided remote, HDR (HDR10)
  • Dimensions: 1,229 x 813 x 223 mm (including foot)
  • Weight: 21.2 kg (including foot)
  • Consumption: 156 / 0.3 watt (Energy label B)
  • Recommended retail price: 3,499 euros.

Design and connections

Anyone who loves chrome and aluminum is being served by Philips. Their first OLED TV is, as befits a top model, in a class design with top finish. From the elegant, chrome V-shaped feet, the silver-colored soundbar, the fine chrome edge around the screen to the brushed aluminum-colored back, the design is taken care of down to the last detail. And as you might expect from an OLED screen, it is of course paper thin.

The connections are hidden behind a cover plate so that you can finish the installation neatly. The device offers four HDMI connections that are all ready Ultra HD and HDR, and one of which is equipped with ARC, and one from MHL. In addition, there are three USB connections, including a USB 3.0. There are no more analog video connections to be detected on this TV, but let’s be honest, that is not a loss. It would be a shame to connect such sources to this TV.

Ease of use

The 55POS901F naturally runs like all Philips smart TVs on Android TV. He arrived with the version Android 6.0.1 (Marshmallow). It hardly differs from the previous version (5.0 Lollipop) and so the positive and negative comments remain the same. The Home screen takes over the picture, and you have to go through the recommendations of Google and those of Philips before you come to your own apps and games. On the other hand, you have a very good voice-based search function, Google Cast, and a reasonable selection of apps and games.

Philips opted for the quad core Mediatek MT5890 chipset, with 1.5 GB of memory and 16 GB of internal storage. That chipset is just enough for a decent experience, although we would have liked a more powerful version on this top model.

The TV comes with two remote controls, a luxurious version and a regular version. The luxurious zapper uses RF, so you do not have to aim, have a built-in microphone and a keyboard at the back. We are not so keen on the d-pad, which doubles as a touchpad which makes the use sometimes very awkward. You can turn the touchpad on or off with the key combination “8687 Mute”, but Philips would better provide it in the menus. The simple version is sometimes just more convenient, and who wants to type text or say a search can also use the ‘Android TV’ remote app on his smartphone.

Image processing

The Perfect Pixel Ultra HD image processing delivers outstanding results. The TV correctly detects all video and film framerates so you can count on razor-sharp images without comb effects, jagged edges or moral effect. The noise reduction works with convenient random noise and compression noise. You recognize the latter in block formation in the image, and it is a plague on older material. In that respect, the screen may have one weakness: it shows mercilessly how bad some DVDs are. If you want to discover his old collection, we strongly recommend that you set the noise reduction and MPEG artefact reduction settings at least to the minimum setting. Combined with the excellent upscaling, these discs deliver a good picture, although we strongly recommend switching to Blu-ray or Ultra HD Blu-ray.

The Philips scores excellent with its movement sharpness. By activating ‘Perfect Clear Motion’ you get to see a lot of extra detail in action scenes. That is a point where the Philips 55POS901F does better than the LG versions. If you also want to make pan images smooth, activate Perfect Natural Motion. The highest level sometimes leads to some image artifacts, personally we prefer the minimum position as a compromise.

Color performance and contrast

The 55POS901F uses an LG panel and so we know what to expect. We choose the Film Image Preset as the starting point. It is striking that Philips still activated the ‘HDR upscaling’ function in this image mode. It gives the images a bit more sense, but purists of course switch it off.

It is, thanks to the perfect black of oled, immediately enjoying the deep contrasts and rich colors when we watch an episode of ‘The Young Pope’. Jude Law shines in his white robes against the beautiful nature of the Vatican gardens, or in the wealth of the Sistine chapel. Just like the LG TVs, the Philips still hides a minimum of black detail, but we did not find it really annoying. The screen reflects reflections reasonably well, and the viewing angle is obviously excellent.

Philips provides a top calibration. The gray scale has a barely noticeable green tone in the darkest half, but it is really on the edge of what you can still see and therefore has no negative impact on the image. The color temperature and the color range are almost perfect. We enjoy the Jungle Book for another hour (the new version, of course) and we quickly imagine ourselves in the jungle.

High Dynamic Range

The Philips supports only HDR10 with regard to high dynamic range . Do not be fooled by the prominent Dolby logo on the front, which refers to the audio. HLG (Hybrid Log Gamma), the standard that will most likely be used for TV broadcasts, will not be shown on this model either.

We measured the maximum luminance as 653 nits, which is less that what we could get on the LG (730), but we do notice that the Philips is very actively dimming and rising the peak luminance. Possibly the real performance is still quite close to that of the LG, it is ultimately the same panel. The color range reached 96% of DCI-P3, and with that the Philips can count on the top devices. On a completely white screen, the maximum is 135 nits, all perfectly within the expectations for an OLED TV. Just like the LG oled TVs, the Philips sparkles thanks to the extreme contrast and the rich colors. Yes, in very bright scenes the best LCD models will perform better thanks to their higher light output. In most content, however, the peak luminance is only required for a number of light accents, and then the OLED TVs are hardly affected.

Sound and extras

The beautiful silver-colored soundbar under the TV provides good musical support. He delivers rich dialogues, and excellent background music. Even if you just want to enjoy music, he turns out to perform well in many cases. Only for the more aggressive soundtracks he shoots too short, just as for the more demanding, more dynamic music.

The bass reproduction then quickly reaches its limit and you hear slight distortion. Lowering the volume is the best option. Since that problem occurs with most televisions, we are quite satisfied with the sound.

The unique Philips touch comes in the form of

The Philips has a full set of TV tuners, and two CI + slots so you can watch and simultaneously record to external hard drive. The built-in media player could handle all our formats, only Apple Lossless for audio is missing. If you want to create a real media center, look at Kodi or Plex in the app store. Gamers can enjoy the Google Play game offer, or stream via Gamefly.

Philips 55POS901F – conclusion

The 55POS901F illustrates that the use of the same OLED panel does not result in a simple copy of an LG OLED TV. It is unfortunate that no HLG support is provided, even though it is difficult to estimate how quickly that standard will come into use for TV broadcasts. The Philips obviously enjoys all the oled advantages: perfect black, top contrast, intense colors, and wide viewing angle. And he combines that with slightly better image processing, especially when it comes to motion sharpness. Furthermore you get Ambilight and of course Android TV. Film buffs are thus given a very attractive alternative to LG. Unfortunately the price (3,699 euro) seems a bit too high for us.

Cons

  • No HLG support
  • price

Pros

  • Perfect black value and contrast
  • Image processing and motion sharpness
  • Color range and high brightness