fantastic television with Ambilight and Android TV

If you are looking for a new television with plenty of options, you can go in many directions. Do you opt for QLED, QNED, OLED or just 4K UHD LCD? If you choose one with Android TV and Ambilight, there is a chance that you will end up with the Philips OLED807, which we test in this Philips 55OLED807 review.

Philips OLED807 review

The Philips OLED807 series was released earlier this year in several formats. These are almost the same in terms of options and specifications, only the size is different. For example, in addition to the 55OLED807, there are also the 48OLED807 with a size of 48 inches, the 65 inch 65OLED807 and if you want larger, there is also the 77OLED807 with a size of 77 inches. In this review we focus on the – probably most popular – 55 inch model; the Philips 55OLED807. For a decent price, you have a lot of options to take the TV experience to a higher level. This thanks to Ambilight and Android TV.

A whole search can precede it to see which new television you want. Each brand stunts with many technical terms and names. Some are very similar, but can still make a world of difference. Think of Samsung QLED, which is similar to OLED, but if you want black to be really black, you will see that it is not as black with QLED as with an OLED screen. QNED, a term used by LG, uses several techniques to present the best colors. Big difference; Backlight is also used here, which means that the background is illuminated on the side, so you have to miss the rich colors such as with an OLED television, which the QLED televisions from Samsung also have.

Back to the television we have here in the review; the Philips 55OLED807. It is fully equipped and offers you the best for a fair price. It thus competes with LG’s OLED series, which are now on the market with the LG C2 series. LG and Philips use the same TP Vision screen panels, although you can still go in many directions with regard to the settings. In addition, the Philips has several advantages over the LG; there is Ambilight, which we will come back to later in the Philips review, and there is also Android TV, where LG uses its own Smart TV platform.

Design and design

The Philips 55OLED807 is a stylish television with a weight of 18.3 kilograms. Including the foot, this amounts to 21.4 kilograms. The whole looks premium with a very thin metal edge and a shiny aluminum base. After some short screw work, it is firmly attached and the television is stable and immediately level on its base, although you can still adjust this with the screws. You can also hang the TV on the wall.

The speaker of the television is located in the middle of the back. The sound of a television is always something that is often disappointing by default. I must say that the 70W speakers of this Philips deliver a decent performance, especially for such a thin television as this one. There is quite a bit of variation in the balance between high and low tones, and the bass can also handle it nicely. If you don’t think sound is the most important thing, the OLED807 will do just fine. If you want to get more out of it, a soundbar is worth considering, but not something you should order right away.

Philips supplies a cover with which you can close the ports from the rest. Unfortunately, the idea was more fun than the execution; with us, the hood no longer fit with the cable use. There are four HDMI connections, two of which have HDMI 2.1. The two other ports are HDMI 2.0. The Philips also features three USB ports. The finish is of high quality. Everything feels solid and sturdy. At the back are the different lights for the Ambilight function.

The remote control also deserves some special attention. This is comfortable to hold due to the use of muirhead leather. It also looks luxurious, not to mention; the keys can light up. Although I think that the key lighting is switched off relatively quickly, this works well if you want to operate the television in the dark. The sides of the remote look and feel a bit cheap, but it does the job. Operating keys blindly by touch will not go smoothly, especially in the beginning. The keys are a bit close together for that. It is also sometimes a bit of a search for the right key, but once you understand it, this works fine.

Techniques

The Philips 55OLED807 is a 120Hz television, which means images run more smoothly. This goes further than the 100Hz of various competing models, although the difference between 100 and 120 will be barely perceptible. We immediately see this when watching football on the screen. The ball that is shot into the air goes much smoother through the image on a 100Hz screen, compared to a 50Hz screen, which you often encounter with televisions. This also provides the necessary quality improvement for films and certainly for gaming; definitely worth the extra cost. For gamers, G-sync, VRR and Freesync have also been considered. Of course, this OLED television also offers support for various HDR formats such as HDR10 + and Dolby Vision.

The OLED panel is of the EX type and this should provide excellent sharpness and vibrant colors. The Philips P5 processor is used, which is also equipped with AI. Images are processed through deep learning just like the human brain should do. There is also Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, the TV is IMAX Enhanced certified and you can connect compatible soundbars and speakers via DTS Play-Fi.

Image quality

The most important thing about a television is of course the image quality. What about this Philips? Whether you watch in the evenings, or rather during the day, the image quality is great under all circumstances. The colors are shown very realistically and lifelike and really come into their own. Of course, white is really white, and black is really black, as you would expect from an OLED television. The OLED807 is little to nothing compared to the (much) more expensive televisions in this area.

In fact, the image quality is fantastic in all areas. Skin colors come into their own very well and realistically on the TV. The same applies to images with many colors, such as from nature. It’s all no problem for the Philips. Thanks to the light sensor, the brightness can also be adjusted to the environment.

You can adjust the various image quality settings to your liking. You have to dig into the menu for that. The menu with the settings is not always user-friendly with this Philips. Once you get the hang of it, however, it’s great to work with. In addition, digging through the settings is certainly worthwhile, because we notice clear differences after some adjustments, in a positive sense. The viewing angle of the 55OLED807 is also good, and thanks to the rotatable base you can also rotate it.

Ambilight

The addition of Ambilight deserves its own chapter. Philips is still the only manufacturer that uses this in the televisions. Not surprising, since it is still the only one that has a patent on this, and this will remain the case for the coming years. The Philips 55OLED807 has Ambilight 4, which means that it lights up on all four sides, including the bottom. I personally find it really enriching when watching television. I’ve heard from sellers that you really miss it when you watch another TV, and there’s some truth to that. It gives an extra dimension to watching television and may also make the image look a bit bigger.

I previously had an LG television, so no experience with Philips. So I went in pretty blank. But Ambilight is really cool. It ‘projects’ the colors you see on the screen onto the wall and actually does this directly. So no delays. In addition, it is also very accurate and you have black bars in the picture, because the aspect ratio is different, no problem. The colors in the picture are used by Ambilight.

By the way, you can not only project the image on your wall. There are even more options in the settings. Totally in the World Cup mood? You can choose different flags as color mode. You can also have Ambilight adjusted to the beat of the music or have a static color shine.

Android TV and Google Assistant

As mentioned, the OLED807 television from Philips is equipped with Android TV. This opens up a world and you can install numerous applications directly on your television. Of course, all well-known apps such as Netflix, Disney +, HBO Max, Videoland, NPO, RTL XL and Kijk are available, just like all other platforms. It is striking that Android TV 11 is present on this model; of the week Android TV 13 was released. There aren’t really big differences between the Android versions, so we won’t stress too much here. It is not clear whether the television will receive version updates from Android TV. Firmware and software updates are of course simply rolled out, but this is separate from Android TV. In addition, there is also Google TV, but the differences with Android TV are minimal. Thanks to the integration of Android TV, you don’t need a Chromecast either; the television already has the Cast functionality built in.

Conveniently, the remote control can also serve directly as a microphone. You can immediately perform certain actions with the Assistant button on the remote control. Think of ‘Open a video about Iceland on YouTube’, after which the search results are displayed in the YouTube at lightning speed. The television performs everything quickly and accurately. You can also use the microphone in the remote control when searching for a title in, for example, Netflix or another application, handy!

Rating

When you are looking for a new television, you will only notice how much choice there is. It can be quite difficult to make the right choice. If you want the best of the best, an OLED television is definitely the best choice. The Philips 55OLED807 is fully equipped, super fast, has a beautiful image quality and Ambilight. All this without a huge price tag. Although a new TV is a big purchase, you will certainly not regret a Philips OLED807 series.

You can buy the Philips 55OLED807 at Coolblue, MediaMarkt.