Information about the maximum vertical viewing angle, within which the image on the screen is of acceptable quality.

Philips’ latency of their premium TVs has always lagged behind their competitors, but that should change in 2021. Information about the brightness of the screen. It is measured in candela per square metre (cd/m²). That’s a lot more effort than you have to make to get the best out of most modern OLEDs, but it’s an effort that’s well worth making. As the camera pans across the family farm at the start of Interstellar, individual stalks of corn are distinguishable in the huge field. There’s nuanced variety to the greens in this field, which are different shades to those in the adjacent lawn. Less well sorted TVs would have you believe that they’re practically the same colour.

As we’ve come to expect from the OLED+ range, the OLED+908 includes an integrated 3.1-channel soundbar from Bowers & Wilkins that runs alongside the bottom of the TV. This promises 80W of sound from six front-mounted drivers and a rear-mounted subwoofer, and comes covered in Kvadrat Audiomix woollen fabric. With the maturity of technologies such as OLED and QLED every year the competition for best all round television gets more competitive. Over the last few years Philips has been on a staggering rise to join this conversation so when I had the chance to sit down with their newest OLED model I couldn’t pass up the opportunity. Read on as we examine the new Philips 65OLED856 and see how it fits into a very competitive market. In the mean time, at least Philips has combined Android TV with Freeview Play. Together with a fairly impressive selection of streaming apps (there’s no Apple TV, but at least you do get Disney+), you should never be short of something to watch. Twin TV tuners help on that score, too. The new Fast Motion Clarity feature has only been announced for the OLED 800 series, but it serves to avoid the motion blurring effect for a gradual transition from one image to the next. Anti burn-in solution on more OLEDs The former of those, as the name suggests, measures ambient light levels and adjusts contrast algorithms to deliver a more 'comfortable' viewing experience in darker rooms. Film Detection, meanwhile, can switch automatically either to the UHD Alliance's ultra-accurate Filmmaker Mode when the appropriate content flag is detected (although no such content seemingly exists), or to Philips' own Home Cinema Mode, which has been concocted to deliver an image that's sort of a mid-point between Filmmaker Mode and the heavily saturated, high-contrast Vivid preset.

The Apple TV app is missing from Android TV entirely, which is disappointing but of little surprise. While neither is as good, you can at least get your pay-as-you-go movie streaming fix from Google Play Movies & TV or Rakuten, both of which support HDR10 via the Philips. In other respects, it’s clear why this is at the bottom. There’s no Android TV, replaced by the Saphi interface. That means no built-in Chromecast, Google Assistant, or the Google Play Store, but the set will support major SVOD apps in Netflix and Disney+. There’s no Ambilight, and the number of HDMI inputs drops to three. In 4K HDR (of which, this TV supports both HDR10+ and Dolby Vision, as well as HDR10 and HLG), colours are beautifully handled, detail retrieval is admirable and outlines are crisp and sharp. Contrast is great too, though when watching HDR content there is some loss of shadow and highlight detail as the set looks to get as dark and bright as possible. Content is arranged in customisable carousels, with your list of apps along the top and then “channels” for each app underneath it, such as Netflix or Prime Video. In these carousels you’ll find suggested content for you to dive into straight from the home screen. I’m not convinced the recommendations are as personalised to your viewing habits as you’ll find on something like Samsung’s interface, but that’s really our only niggle. The latest and most complicated version of Philips’ already pretty complicated P5 picture processing takes care of quality. It’s AI-assisted and, quite apart from the fearsome amount of processing it gets through, it brings Philips’ cutting-edge anti burn-in technology down from the flagship models and into the mainstream.is just about the most challenging film out there when it comes to motion processing, and it causes problems for the Philips’s default Standard motion setting. It’s worth pointing out that this setting is capable of some amazing feats, and for much of our time with the OLED805 we’re delighted by the smoothness and sharpness of its motion, particularly where consistent, steady pans are concerned, such as the one across the river towards the town.

The flexibility Philips provides with the motion processor can also be seen with its picture presets. For years Philips has arguably been a bit too confident that its famously processing-heavy approach to picture quality is in tune with what everyone really want to watch. With the OLED806, though, Philips has tried to provide something for everyone. So while the Vivid mode is still there, for instance, to turn all of Philips' processing tools 'up to 11' for the most explosive results, there's now also a Movie mode which sees Philips turning off pretty much all of its beloved processing to deliver a more 'accurate', neutral image. The rest of the colour palette is lifelike and convincing – and, to be absolutely blunt, much better judged and much less aggressive than we’ve become used to from Philips. There’s still intensity of tone when needs be, of course, but when it’s describing skin-tones (in particular) the 55OLED807 is more lifelike and convincing than the model it replaces. And this is true even if you’re using one of the more, um, vivid picture presets.The Philips OLED854 is a solid OLED TV which competes with the very best on the market. It has a very nice design, with excellent features like Ambilight for creating a bias light while watching the TV in a dark room. Information about whether there is a possibility for wall mounting according to the VESA Mounting Interface Standard (MIS). Motion is also good with no obvious issues with 24fps material, with correct pulldown applied when the Motion Style is set to Movie. You can also set it to off to achieve correct motion with most other viewing material. All other motion options add in interpolation and soap opera effect even in the minimum settings and should be handled with care if you decide to use them for fast-moving video and sports footage.