There are perhaps not many devices that have achieved so many colors in places where others don’t have anything. That’s the feeling when you turn on the one from Philips pus8508, which is now faster and brighter, thanks to the new dope screen design and it’s packed to the brim with android apps features, 4k hdr, dolby vision and like the rest of the finest philips tv lineup have unique ambilight. In this review I will go through design, apps, picture and sound quality and at the end give you my opinion
if you can really believe the awesome title on the box or if it deserves a better place than top five. little funnier In the special box you will find everything that you need to get started from power cable, stand with screws, remote, batteries to the tv quick guide.
Philips hasn’t strayed far from its minimalist reverse stand design, but the frame around the edge of the Philips pus85 screen is now really redesigned and a lot thinner on three sides and just over 1cm at the bottom. Other than that It looks much like every other modern 3 side bezel-less direct led TV of the last couple of months.
This stand also doesn’t need too much space so you can easily put it on smaller tables. They come in 43 inch and all the way up to 75 inch screen. It’s worth mentioning that the bigger than 65 inch versions have only a two-piece stand. Unlike plastic bezels on most TVs, pus8 series have real metal bezels and I like the straight edges and gentle corners at the bottom. Around the back is a revolution. We finally have support for fastest hdmi 2.1, which is a big step forward from hdmi 2.0 in recent years. So there are 4 hdmi ports with arc,2 usb ,1 optical, ethernet, and there is one usb, hdmi and headphone socket facing straight out the TV’s left edge. It also has support for wifi and bluetooth 5.
In the center of the back are 4 connectors for wall mount. The power button is located on the right below the screen and it allows you to control channels, inputs and volume. As for the remote control, it’s a typical smart remote control with voice control and it is packed with features, so you have shortcuts for video apps and there are a lot of shortcuts for quick settings and multimedia functions. When I held down the remote’s menu button, it responded well and you can easily use the search option via menu or the voice button.
In terms of ergonomic design, it has well made buttons and buttons feels sturdy, maybe the remote could be a little smaller and some buttons slightly bigger. We definitely need more noticeable streaming service buttons so blind people will find them. Aside from this everything is aesthetic. Whether you get your content through the web or antenna, the pus85’s picture amazes with its picture upscaler across a lot of viewing situations. The mva screen panel has excellent natural black levels, shadow details are abundant and convincing. Perhaps our only slight concern is if you like to watch tv often from the side. It may not have the best viewing angles, so colors look a little dimmer from the side.
The pus85 easily upscaled the hd channels and there were no disturbing artifacts or motion issues. Although it doesn’t have native 120hz refresh rate, Motion is in general well handled. Its processor can mimimic 240hz motion processing with no discernible blur and the picture looks smooth and sharp in fast panning scenes. Noise reduction was equally efficient and The picture is sharp and generally free of noise when upscaling full hd sources. It has very good color accuracy, that means almost 90% color coverage and this is a lot better than average tvs with only 75%. In some respects, Philips even rivals the Samsung Qled TVs with this level of picture detail.
While the qled still offers more brightness, the Philips more natural color approach with better color calibration should be hailed. It is just as adept at handling hdr, thanks to the wide color gamut, the picture looked good though most of our test 4k and hdr content, even though it has average peak brightness around 470 nits. There are many picture presets, if you want the best colors you just need to select a natural or vivid profile, but if you like true realism, then I would go with accurately calibrated ISF profiles, which are the best for watching movies.
Some find it troubling that black or grey test screen uniformity is average at the best, but outside the test environment, the picture looks fine and there are no distractible patches around the screen, even in the dark scenes.
For those after a good gaming experience, there is a game picture profile with support for HDMI 2.1 which is ideal for 4k60 gaming on pc or newer consoles like ps5. The input lag in 4k hdr game profile is below our 30 ms average threshold for normal gameplay, though some testers report it can go lower than 20ms, which is okay, unless if you are a professional hard core gamer, than i would recommend 4k tvs with less than 10ms.
This year there is a lot of talk about the new google tv interface. The Android Home page is experienced with well known google design. A navigation bar at the top of the screen sports a Search bar and gives smart links to the trending content collections. It has an improved straightforward interface that’s now slightly faster and easier to use or organize. The best part is google play with its biggest collection of smart tv apps and games on the tv market. Lucky with GOOGLE TV we are still getting built-in Chromecast. Youtube comes with the latest interface and of course you can quickly jump between videos and channels. Same goes for streaming apps like prime and netflix.
They work smoothly and allow you to quickly open and search movies without long waiting times. If you still like to watch movies from usb, android tv has the best usb players with support for 4k hdr and subtitles and unlike samsung or lg, it can play almost every popular movie format. My favorite players are vlc and kodi. The pre-installed Web browser has a SIMPLE minimalistic look with some shortcuts. In terms of features, it offers voice search, bookmarks, access to your browsing history. Clicking the Settings on the top-right of the page lets you control some advanced settings. There’s nothing particularly special and it will get the job done. If you need something more, you can easily install another browser app from google play.
The real enlightenment begins to show up when you press the backlit ambilight button. This really helps in creating perception of better contrast in the dimly lit room and you can easily customize color intensity or turn it off.
There are two 10watts bottom firing speakers on this tv, but they pack a surprising amount of power, thanks to thick direct led design. The dolby atmos sound clarity was fine whether the volume was set to low or highest levels. it’s important to have reasonable expectations for bass, while it performs better than most ultra thin edge led tv, it still cannot compete with external speakers, so if you want the best experience, even the cheapest soundbar with subwoofer will perform better.
The Philips PUS8507’s many progressive features result in a TV that makes it attractive and convenient to use, of course you may be able to find thinner sets with more brightness, but they will not have better motion processing, sound or google play apps. The metal swivel stand, ambilight and support for hdmi 2.1 are also nice bonuses. so In some respects it deserves the name: the one, but there is still a room for improvement. In the future, I would like to see a more compact remote design, but other than that it is a powerful 4k smart tv with reasonable price and surely deserves a spot in your room, especially if you care about the exclusive ambient lights.