Review: Philips 55PUS8807 (PUS8807 series ‘The One’) LCD LED TV

Philips 55PUS8807 – Design

A beautiful design may not be at the top of everyone’s wish list, but it remains important. This Philips certainly does not have to be ashamed in that area. It stands on a sturdy silver-colored base that fits perfectly with the fine frame around the screen.

The back of the PUS8807 series is simply finished in matte black. In profile, the TV is a bit wider than we are used to, but that is especially the case at the bottom. The arched back makes for a sleek look, and it’s sure to look great on the wall.

Philips 55PUS8807 – Connections

As far as connections are concerned, this Philips should not be inferior to top models. It has two HDMI 2.0 connections and two HDMI 2.1connections that provide 48Gbps bandwidth and feature ALLM, VRR, eARC (on HDMI 2), 2K and 4K HFR.

The list is completed by two USB connections, an optical digital audio output, a headphone jack, two antenna connections, an Ethernet port, WiFi and Bluetooth. All connections point to the side or down so they do not interfere with wall mounting.

Philips 55PUS8807 – Ease of use and smart TV

Under the hood of the PUS8807 series we find the same chipset as in the OLED806 (the 9970A, based on the mt5895), it is a quad-core ARM Cortex-A73, with 3 GB of RAM and the Mali G52 GPU. The user experience is therefore of a premium level. Android TV runs smoothly, navigating and opening apps is smooth, and all menus are responsive.

Philips sticks to Android TV. That smart TV system is now at version 11. We still prefer it to Google TV because the Home screen is easier to personalize. Philips informed us that they will remain with Android TV for the foreseeable future. For a complete overview of Android TV, read our article about the possibilities Android TV (based on version 9, but still relevant).

Unfortunately, still no new jacket for the Philips settings menu. They are very comprehensive and quite well organized, but if you want to adjust a setting you have to do it while covering all or a large part of the screen. That is not very useful when you tinker with the image settings. However, this will not bother the average user.

Remote control

The silver remote control looks very familiar. It has the same dimensions and layout as the remote that we find with the top models. Only the keys are different and that is, strange but true, an improvement. On the top models, the keys fit together almost seamlessly, so that your finger can easily wander and press a wrong key. This remote has smaller keys, and a clear distance between the keys. A mistake is less likely.

In any case, the remote is light, is pleasant to use and has a smooth, clear keystroke. It offers three hotkeys for Netflix, Rakuten TV and Prime Video, and has a built-in microphone for the Google Assistant.

Functions

The PUS8807 series has a single TV tuner and one CI+ slot. You can record to a USB hard disk, but watching another channel at the same time is not possible. The media player declined Divx and Xvid, but otherwise played all of our files, including HDR video, subtitles, and Dolby or DTS soundtracks.

Philips equips its TVs with DTS Play-Fi Via this WiFi multi-room system you can create a wireless surround setup or, for example, listen to the TV sound on your smartphone or on a wireless speaker in the kitchen.

A new feature this year is Aurora. With this, Philips is following the trend to give your TV a decorative function when it is switched off. You can choose from a built-in library of atmospheric images, moving scenes, art or playful time indications. Together with Ambilight, your TV provides a unique accent in the living room.

The three-sided Ambilight remains an exclusive Philips asset. LED lights in the back of the device shine an atmospheric light on the wall behind it. They follow the image, but you can also make them respond to music. Ambilight has a WakeUp and Sleep function, or you can use it as a Lounge light.

Philips 55PUS8807 – Image processing

The Philips P5 image processor has meanwhile earned its stripes and is already in its sixth generation. It ensures good deinterlacing and quickly recognizes all video and film frame rates so that TV images from your set-top box or TV tuner appear on the screen without jagged edges. The processor does a good job of eliminating random noise, but underperforming with MPEG (blocking) noise. This problem has been dragging on at Philips for several years. The processor also has efficient solution for color bands. Color bands therefore always remain visible in soft color gradients. In the dark Game Of Thrones scene this is relatively easy, but that has more to do with the limited contrast of the TV panel. The TV also hides quite a bit of black detail. You can therefore set ‘Dynamic Contrast’ to minimum, which makes a big difference.

The sharpness of movement is another strong point. The processor intervenes quickly and well with fast-moving images. We felt that ‘Real Cinema’ still left too much judder behind, so if you want that light cinema-style judder, we recommend using the Motion style ‘Films’. If you choose ‘Standard’ or ‘Fluid’, you will notice that the Philips can make very smooth images, without really going off track with fast action.

Main Settings

Philips 55PUS8807 – Picture quality

The Philips 55PUS8807 (PUS8807 series) uses an S-IPS screen with a good viewing angle but moderate contrast. The backlight is of the direct LED type. The uniformity is reasonable, but certainly not perfect. We see a little ‘dirty screen’ effect on bright images and at the top of the screen there are small light spots in dark images (photo is strongly overexposed to show effect).

To improve contrast perception, the PUS8807 uses global dimming. And we notice that it is necessary. With an ANSI contrast of 1,216:1, the Philips still scores relatively well for this type of panel, but you do notice that black strongly tends to dark gray. That in itself is not so bad, but the Philips also hides a lot of black detail. Together with the relatively limited contrast, dark images take away all depth and detail. Fortunately, the TV has some tricks up its sleeve to improve that.

With the dimming activated, the ANSI contrast does not really increase, which is logical since the dimming does not happen locally, but takes place over the entire screen. But in somewhat more relaxed test patterns, the contrast rises to 3,300:1. And to regain black detail, it’s best to activate Dynamic Contrast in the minimum setting. That provides a significant improvement.

The Films image mode is less well calibrated than we are used to. The gray scale shows an excessive amount of red. That also continues in some skin tones, and that can be disturbing. Anyone who thinks that the actors seem to suffer from sunburn switches to the ‘normal’ color temperature. Although it is a bit cool, it avoids that burnt look.

Those who dare to tinker a little more with the image can also leave HDR upscaling activated. That gives images a little bit more pep.

Philips 55PUS8807 – HDR

With a 90% P3 color space (66% Rec.2020) it seems well equipped for HDR reproduction, but its maximum brightness is unfortunately quite limited. The device achieves a peak brightness of 371 nits in the HDR Films image mode, both on a 10% window and on a completely white field. That is not enough to give HDR images the required impact.

The Philips 55PUS8807 (PUS8807 series) does take the metadata into account, but does not tonemap very well. In the brightest shades you lose too much white detail too easily. In addition, he tries to make the image brighter, but in this way he often loses color, or unwanted color bands appear in the picture. Fortunately, we were able to counter that by turning off HDR Perfect. The image then becomes a bit darker, but you get a lot of white detail back, and the annoying color effects disappear.

The limited contrast also proves to be a difficult hurdle. Just like in SDR, the TV in HDR suppresses a relatively large amount of black detail.

In addition to HDR10 and HLG, Philips also supports Dolby Vision and HDR10+. Mid-range TVs are simply a bit more limited than top models, but that’s when the benefits of Dolby Vision are most apparent. Dolby Vision content looks particularly good, even if it obviously lacks the intense clarity of a top model.

Gaming, Reflections and Viewing Angles

The IPS screen of the Philips 55PUS8807 (PUS8807 series) has a fairly wide viewing angle. Reflections are best avoided.

With its 120Hz panel and two HDMI 2.1 connections, with ALLM and VRR, this Philips has quite a bit of potential for gamers. Input lag is good, at 17.9ms in 4K60 and 8.6ms in 2K120. Philips now also offers a Game Dashboard on which you get the necessary information regarding input lag and frame rate, and where you can adjust a number of image settings.

Philips 55PUS8807 – Sound quality

With 2x 10 Watts, you should not expect impressive audio, even with Dolby Atmos support. You can adjust the sound with a short test procedure to take into account the acoustics in the room. But it does not contain more than basic performance. Dialogues, quiet rock music, it all sounds pretty good. But as soon as you set the bar a bit higher, the sound goes down. Our listening session with Metallica was a bit too ambitious. All in all, that is in line with expectations for this device, and a soundbar is recommended for a better result.

Philips 55PUS8807 – Conclusion

The Philips 55PUS8807 (PUS8807 series) is aimed at a wide audience, but does it achieve that goal? It is clear that if you want all possible features at a good price, you will have to make sacrifices here and there. For example, the IPS panel does not provide a contrast that will make you happy as a film lover. In addition, you also have to miss quite a bit of black detail. for real HDR display is also not bright enough. Finally, the calibration is less good than we are used to.

As a family TV, this Philips seems suitable to us. The colorful image is clear enough for news, information, documentaries and children’s programs, and the limited contrast is no obstacle. Sports enthusiasts enjoy sharp images thanks to the 120 Hz panel. Gamers will also find many attractive features: low input lag, 4K120 and VRR. The wide viewing angle is a plus for the family. And modern comfort is not lacking either, Android TV works quickly and smoothly and offers a lot of options. Ambilight is the proverbial icing on the cake. The price for all that is attractive, especially for this year’s models. If we also look at models from last year, it seems to us that it is priced a bit too expensive.