In recent weeks, various families with readers of Homecinema Magazine started working with the latest OLED TV from Philips. What do they think of the Philips OLED805? What are the main pros and cons? And would they recommend this OLED TV as a family? We list the main conclusions:
Philips OLED805
The Philips OLED805 is one of the new OLED televisions that Philips will be launching this summer. The new series will be released in a 55-inch and a 65-inch variant and comes with the 4K resolution. One of the most important innovations compared to last year’s OLED804 is the fourth generation P5 processor. This year it uses AI (artificial intelligence) for better upscaling, among other things.
The OLED805 is equipped with three-sided Ambilight and supports all HDR formats (Dolby Vision, HDR10 +, HDR10 and HLD). A 50 Watt audio system from Philips is available for the audio reproduction. This system features a new woofer design with four passive radiators for extra deeper bass. The OLED805 also features Dolby Atmos decoding, the Dolby Atmos Virtualizer function, and Dolby bass and dialogue optimization. The TVs use Android TV 9 (Pie) and support both the Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa.
Homecinema Magazine and FWD, together with Philips, offered three families the opportunity to test the OLED805 OLED TV at home. For a period of three weeks they were allowed to watch all their films and series, and play games on the latest generation of OLED TV. The results have now been received and below you can read the main conclusions.
Video
After the review period, we visited all three families to ask them about their experiences, pluses and minuses. You will find an impression of this in the video below.
Introduction to families
Who are the families that tested the OLED805 oled TV from Philips?
Family 1 (family Edelbloedt): We are a composite family of four, consisting of a teenage daughter and son Mark and Kim, a bonus mom Anne and a father being me, Jorg.
The wishes for a TV are therefore very different as you may understand . My dear son prefers a fast response and a “cool” image while playing games. Kim mainly watches series on Videoland, Anne likes Discovery and Animal Planet and therefore wants realistic images, and I mainly watch sports. Our living room has recently been renovated and we are further away from the TV than before, and since the TV is also several years old, I am orientating myself to what is now offered by the different brands.
Family 2 (Coevert family)
Our family consists of me (Gert-Jan), my girlfriend (Miriam) and my daughter (Lianne). Together with my girlfriend, I am the major user of the TV in our living room. But we also enjoy watching series and films together with my daughter. Our current visual situation in the living room is determined by a Philips LCD TV from somewhere from the year 2012.
Because of my background as an IT specialist and electrical engineer, I have a ‘hobby’ to find the (in my opinion) best hardware. home. OLED is, in our opinion, a lot better than regular LED TVs. After having compared the various OLED TVs, this 55OLED805 has been shortlisted. Partly thanks to the Ambilight, to which we have already become very attached.
Family 3 (family van Proosdij)
My name is Joost, and I am taking the Part-time Study of Applied Gerontology in Eindhoven. In addition, I work 18 hours a week as an activity supervisor in a residential care center. My girlfriend, Anoek, works in Children’s Home Care and works irregularly.
This TV is a very good upgrade from a 4 year old, 32 inch LED TV with 2-sided ambilight. In the evenings we mainly watch TV or stream films or series. We only play games now and then on the ancient Wii, which unfortunately cannot be connected to this TV without an HDMI to SCART adapter. I am mainly the gadget freak of ours, and I wanted to see what the new TVs offer, and whether OLED really is such an addition to the viewing experience. An extra bonus is that we now also see how a larger TV is in the living room.
General impression
The first impression of the TV upon arrival is very important. What do the families think of the installation, the design and the image and audio quality when the TV was first switched on?
Family 1 (family Edelbloedt)
The legs are so covered, and handy: there were extended legs included in case a soundbar is part of your home theater. Now I saw a nice speaker on the back of this TV, so I suspected that a soundbar might not be a must for this flat screen.
The installation went quite smoothly, partly due to the on-screen help. But, sometimes you sigh that a paper manual is no longer included! Before you have set everything to your liking (auto didactic) with the remote, you will be a few hours further. Speaking of this remote, we found out that it also has a speech recognition function, so you can give voice commands. But why Philips does not simply provide the button for this with a print of a microphone, but with a number of colored balls? The function also works amazingly well, which is useful for looking up a title on YouTube, for example. Illuminated keys are nice, and very handy in a dark room, but the keys only light up when touched. I think other solutions are possible, so that the keys are simply illuminated depending on the light intensity.
Family 2 (family Coevert)
I had expected it to be bigger. Or rather, I expected it to be too big, because we are sitting in with the couch not very far from the TV. But it is not too bad, it is actually a very nice size! And what a picture. That OLED screen is super nice. The colors are different from what I’m used to, I still have to get used to that. But super sharp.
The installation is very simple. Whether it’s because I never really have a problem with that, or that Android TV just got it right, I don’t know, but it went super smoothly. The connection via WiFi is smooth. The TV also fits nicely with my phones with Android and my Google Assistant. After navigating back and forth, it is clear that the response from this TV is fine. Apps can be started quickly and easily, everything can be found clearly. A world of difference from my old TV. And those Apps, that’s also the first thing my daughter noticed: “I wanted that so badly!”. The smart TV functionality is a big improvement compared to our old connection with separate Chromecast.
Family 3 (family van Proosdij)
When the TV was delivered, it was quite a big box. A small shift in the house was necessary, because we normally have a large houseplant in the corner, which now no longer fit. Sliding for half an hour, unpacking and connecting the TV, the TV was in place. The installation was quite simple, and clear with included instructions that show the steps in detail. The design is phenomenal, simply because hardly any design is required. The small edges around the TV are not noticeable. The base can be installed in two heights, with the intention that a soundbar can be placed under the TV if necessary. We don’t have those, so we used the low feet so that the TV is less than an inch higher than the cabinet. Switching on immediately gives a WOW effect. Even going through the basic settings looks great with a nice intensity of colors which I am not used to. In 10 minutes, all settings were completed, including linking the two Hue lamps.
Picture Quality
Picture quality is perhaps the most important part of a TV. What do families think of the image quality of the Philips OLED TV? And, which institutions liked or disliked?
Family 1 (family Edelbloedt)
Now we have a UHD TV from a Korean brand, but what sharpness and depth this screen offers. Only then do you see what steps the technology is making within four years (that’s how old our own TV is).
The settings for the display are many, there are a number of pre-programmed (Vivid, Natural, Standard, Film, Game and AI). The latter gives a very hard colors and high contrast for me personally. I myself have mostly set the TV to the setting “Lively”, while Anne often chose “Natural”. The children, on the other hand, often went for the AI mode and while gaming, the TV recognizes that a game console is connected and switches it automatically to Game mode.
The only thing that really bothered me and what I couldn’t get the most was the sharpness of fast movements. On closer inspection, it turned out that this also depended on the source. Now that the football competition has stopped, I watch summaries via YouTube. Missed a match via broadcast from the NPO was much better! During a football match via YouTube the ball does not stay sharp, but it becomes blurred, and in certain camera shots the players are “enveloped” with a blur, something that I found very unfortunate and disturbing. For comparison, I put our own TV next to it during the review period and it seemed much less present, or at least less disturbing. This is a real downside for me, although it must be said that this was via YouTube.
The kids were completely lyrical about the quality while playing the games on this TV. I quote “wow dad, it’s like I’m really IN the game now”! Movies that come in via streaming services such as Videoland and Prime Video are also really a feast for the eyes. With contemporary content, this Oled 805 really comes into its own! It was striking that reflections are quite clearly visible, especially in dark scenes, so much so that we closed the curtains on a somewhat sunnier day so as not to be distracted too much by these reflections from the living room.
Family 2 (family Coevert)
The picture quality of the TV is excellent. The quality of the regular television programs as well as the Blu-ray playback is very good. And the 4k content of the online services and the films from the hard disk are of course just a bit sharper and more beautiful.
The OLED screen has a very nice display of colors and black, and is super sharp. It even took some getting used to when we switched on the TV, because we are used to a more than 10 year old “normal” LED TV from Philips. The display of regular images is certainly very well organized. It is also very nice to watch it. Much nicer than our old TV. 4k sources such as Netflix and Disney + are a real pleasure to watch. The images are razor-sharp and the colors are like we have never seen on a TV. It gives an extra dimension to watching movies and series. Although I am afraid that this will quickly get used to. The colors of the movie “Alice through the looking glass” are phenomenal.
A small drawback, for us then, is the reflection of the TV. The screen naturally consists of a large glass plate. If you look at it from the wrong angle, if it is sunny outside, you will see a reflection. With dark images, this reflection (also from a normal angle) is sometimes clearly visible.
Family 3 (family van Proosdij)
The image quality is great. The TV has a light sensor so that you can turn on (default off) in the settings that the brightness is determined based on the amount of light in the room. This works well and you hardly notice it. Only when the sun rises directly, or by reflection in the window it faces (with a sofa in between), then the image is difficult to see. Now I cannot mention this as a downside, because almost all TVs will suffer from this. We use various streaming services (Netflix, Disney + and Videoland), and we also watch TV via the KPN decoder (not the 4k edition, unfortunately). The TV shows a good image, and you can also see fast movements without ‘lag’. The TV can keep up with this. The first movie we watched on Netflix, The Old Guard, also had support for Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos. The image was great, but a lot of difference with series and films that don’t have this, I can’t just name it, given the image quality is simply very good. To be fair, I am not entirely aware of what Dolby Vision exactly does, except to give a very good picture.
The image quality has certainly improved compared to the old TV, my girlfriend sees that too. The images come in as if you were seeing it live. This is also the case with nature films. For us, a cinema would be superfluous with such a beautiful picture quality in the living room, although we don’t go there very often.
Sound quality
The Philips OLED805 comes with a built-in audio system. How do families find the audio quality?
Family 1 (Edelbloedt family)
The sound from this TV is surprisingly good, something that was already suspected when unpacking when the subwoofer was visible at the back of the screen. With our own TV we use a soundbar, but with this TV (if you are not too demanding perhaps) that is not a must in my opinion.
Family 2 (family Coevert)
The sound of the TV is for us a lot less important. We have an excellent surround set that we prefer to the sound of the TV itself. But for the sake of completeness we have of course also turned on the sound of the TV. And that was certainly not disappointing. Of course it cannot be compared with full-fledged speakers, but certainly doable if you don’t have these. The sound image is a bit dull and probably comes from the back of the television. That therefore creates a kind of reflection against the wall. If I didn’t have a surround set, I would probably opt for the more expensive model, which is equipped with a soundbar.
Family 3 (family of Proosdij)
The sound is much better than with our old TV. At the back is a subwoofer, which plays the sound from behind the screen. Smart, because very often a TV stands or hangs in front of a wall. A soundbar is not necessary for us with this TV, because a deep and full sound is produced. The settings are on standard, except for the bass, which we muted a little because it was very overpowering, which does not appeal to us personally. As described in the general impression, due to the placement of the speakers, the TV must hang a bit from the wall when you hang it (10 cm). Keep this in mind if you want to hang the TV, because this cannot be placed very tightly against the wall.
Smart TV
The Philips OLED805 OLED TV is of course a smart TV, with various smart options. How was the smart TV platform used and how was it used?
Family 1 (family Edelbloedt)
Of course, like many people, we also watch more and more via the smart TV function. Whether it is a missed broadcast from a TV station or streaming or YouTube. The interface that Philips uses is very fast and can be arranged according to your personal preference, so that you have the apps that you use the most at hand. It is also a child’s play to add or remove apps. However, I am surprised that you do not continue in the relevant app where you left off last time, something that is the case on our own TV. Furthermore, the Smart TV function is extremely intuitive and very user-friendly.
Family 2 (Coevert family)
The first thing the daughter of the house became enthusiastic about was the apps that can be played on the TV itself. And she is right. Our old TV was made artificially smart with a Chromecast, and that is still inconvenient at times. So when we experienced the Smart functionality on the TV for ourselves, a world opened up for us. Android TV in itself works very well. The structure on the screen can be adjusted to your own wishes, so that frequently used buttons and apps can be started quickly. The compatibility with the Android phones we have works well. Accounts for services like Netflix are taken over smoothly, making it very easy to set up.
A small disadvantage is the speed of the TV. The apps play fairly smoothly, switching between menu and apps is also good. But it is actually just a bit too slow for a TV of this price. For the high-end price, you would still expect it to be smoother. And then watching regular TV is downright slow. Even slower than our old TV. It is not entirely clear why, sometimes it takes minutes before we get to see a picture.
Family 3 (family van Proosdij)
This TV supports all apps we need. Once logged in everywhere, you can set in the smart environment which apps you want quick access to. After checking and unchecking a bit, we had a clear overview of our streaming apps, which we don’t have to open first to access your Disney watch list, continue watching a series in Videoland, and the recommended offer from Netflix. Unfortunately, with Netflix you only have the “recommended” films / series, and newly added by Netflix. Here it misses looking further and the watch list, which is available for Disney + and Videoland. This is a bit of a shame and would have completed the overview.
The remote control has a Netflix button. This works very quickly when the TV is already on. If you switch it on from standby, this does not always go smoothly. If you just switch on the TV first and then press Netflix, you will come right in. This may be because we have connected the TV with WiFi to the internet, and not wired. The WiFi turns off after a while when the TV is on standby. This is of course more energy efficient. It is therefore not possible to stream something to the TV from out, if you connect it via WiFi. There may be a setting somewhere that you have to turn on / off for this, but we have not found that.
What’s new to us is that you can talk to the TV with one touch of the remote. This works fine for opening a movie or series on Netflix / Disney + / Videoland, but not for functions outside the TV. For example, I cannot ask the TV to dim the lamps. This is not an option that I really miss, but considering it’s all Google Home, it should be possible.
Ambilight
Ambilight is a feature only available on Philips televisions, including this model? How did the families experience Ambilight and when did they mainly use it?
Family 1 (family Edelbloedt)
We probably all “played” with this function the most. Fortunately, you can set this function in a variety of ways in the menu. From very present in color hardness, following the image or sound with its pulsating effect to simply standing still in various colors, whether or not adapted to the color of the wall behind the screen. My son wondered if there shouldn’t be a warning for people with epilepsy !? Certainly if you let the Ambilight function follow the image in the highest position in terms of color hardness, it is very present. We therefore quickly reduced this position to a less prevalent mode.
Family 2 (Coevert family)
Ambilight is one of the features we would choose a Philips TV for. I can understand very well that one person doesn’t like it at all, while the other thinks it really complements it. We belong to the latter. Or that is because our old TV is also equipped with Ambilight, that could well be. We also hung the TV about 11 cm in front of the white wall. This gives a very nice reflection of the Ambilight colors. In films such as “Alice through the looking glass”, which is provided with a lot of color, Ambilight displays a colorful collection of colors. Ambilight is only not very visible during the day.
Family 3 (family van Proosdij)
I have been a fan of Ambilight for years. This leaves me stuck with the choice of Philips TVs, which I don’t think is a punishment, as long as it runs on Android TV. My old TV had Ambilight on the left and right, which I expanded with two Hue-Iris lamps to the bottom left and bottom right. This TV also has Ambilight at the top, which makes the experience complete. Despite the fact that I have a green-blue wall, the color reproduction is very correct. In the settings you can choose a wall color, but this is a limited color palette that does not include our wall color. Through Ambilight we experience a very nice TV experience because a large part of the living room seems to be colored. I notice that with this TV the lamps respond earlier to the signal from the TV, and therefore display the correct color faster than my old TV. I could always be annoyed by this that the lights were running behind, but that is now a thing of the past. Ambilight is a good addition, especially with good films that you are completely focused on, because your entire field of view is in the film.
Conclusion
After three weeks of intensive use, all three families come to a conclusion. What is their opinion about the Philips OLED TV? And would they recommend this television?
Family 1 (family Edelbloedt)
What is the technology making great strides in the field of image quality and what are older recordings / films etc. my experience even a torment for your eyes. In addition, the reflection from the living room in sunlight is not easy, and to close the curtains every time in this situation is not desirable. It is also striking that with the right content, the image is so sharp that you can simply count the hair of the leopard in a nature film, for example! Games on this TV is an ultimate experience for the children, as far as they are concerned we are going to buy one immediately, but dad is not completely convinced of that yet. He will continue to consider what type of TV will be the successor to the current one. It remains for us to thank Philips and Homecinema Magazine for being able / allowed to do such a test before making a serious attack on the piggy bank. We give this Philips OLED805 3.5 stars out of 5.
Family 2 (family Coevert)
You buy a TV for the image and that is very well organized with this TV. I think there are few TVs where the experience of the films and series is so nice. This would be the reason why we would buy the TV. There is only one word for that, it is great. However, the speed is a hindrance to the TV. In combination with the price, the lady of the house requires some persuasion to make a purchase. This is really one point where we want to have some more comparison material. We really like the OS of this Philips TV. In short, it is a very nice TV, which we expect it will hang in our living room. Provided there is another (OLED) copy that is faster and even better. But we don’t expect that.
Family 3 (family van Proosdij)
It’s a great TV. For me personally it would be worth the suggested retail price of 2000 euros, but Anoek thinks otherwise. As long as our “old” TV continues to work, we will not buy a new one. It is a confirmation that 55-inch fits very nicely in the room, despite the minor renovation. The image quality is really an added value compared to what we have now, and this is also something we will both miss a lot. We will also miss the top of Ambilight very much, because this is a great added value when watching TV. A downside is that the TV has to hang 10cm from the wall. If I buy such a TV myself, I would like to have it as tightly as possible on the wall.
In addition, I recommend connecting the TV to your network with a wired connection. I suspect that the problem is that Netflix starts too slowly from standby, and that you can switch on the TV with your phone from off by starting a streaming. I can definitely recommend the TV for people looking for a complete TV with fantastic image and sound quality! I don’t know if everyone is willing to pay 2000 euros for a TV, but if so, then look no further.
Expert review
Of course Homecinema Magazine has also tested the OLED805 OLED TV from Philips itself. Colleague and TV expert Eric Beeckmans has put television on the rack. You can read his our expert’s full review here but we can already reveal his conclusion:
Is the 55OLED805 (OLED805 series) a worthy successor to the OLED804? He inherits a lot of things from his predecessor, that’s for sure, also a few weaker points. The Android chipset that could be a bit more powerful for this model, for example. And he still struggles with color bands in dark, low-quality images. However, we don’t think these are showstoppers. Where we are a bit disappointed is the lack of HDMI 2.1 connections and functions. That is especially a downside for gamers, but the lack of eARC can also be a disappointment for film lovers. Philips has also given its remote a make-over and although it looks a bit better now, we are less satisfied with the ease of use.
Excellent points are awarded to the Philips 55OLED805 for its general image processing. With the addition of a touch of AI, it gained some extra muscle power. The device also boasts 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 +. With Perfect Natural Reality you can give SDR images a nice HDR effect. The sound is more powerful on this model, with a solid dash of bass. Philips has also thought in its design of people who still want to use a soundbar, the TV can be placed higher with the help of an adapter set. Finally, with the addition of DTS Play-Fi, Philips has given its TVs and 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, that makes him a very attractive candidate.
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