A feast for the eyes and ears, the chic Philips 55OLED+ 935. Particularly pleases with its excellent display of moving images.
Philips 55 OLED+ 935 Review
The detached soundbar provides the room-filling sound, while the four-sided Ambilight bathes the surrounding walls in a more or less harmonious play of colors, even with pure music playback. Because of its relatively long latency, this TV is not the first choice for gamers. In the video we explain the advantages of OLED and its direct competitor, QLED.
Advantage
- Excellent video display
- First class sound
- With wall mounting
Disadvantage
- Remote control buttons sometimes too close together
- Sluggish gaming latency
- No airplay support
Specification for Philips 55OLED935
| Product: | Philips 55OLED935 |
| Maximum brightness: | 901 cd / m² |
| Checkerboard Contrast: | 240: 1 |
| Color space coverage DCI-P3: | 97% |
| acceptable viewing angle range: | > 90 ° (H) /> 90 ° (V) |
| Display type: | OLED |
| Diagonal: | 55 inches |
| Resolution: | 3,840 x 2,160 pixels |
| Latency in gaming mode: | 37 ms |
| Local dimming: | Pixel dimming |
| Speaker: | 6 x 10 watts, subwoofer |
| Digital tuner cable: | 2 tuners |
| Digital tuner satellite: | 2 tuners |
| Digital tuner DVB-T2: | 2 tuners |
| USB recording possible: | Yes |
| HDMI inputs: | 4 sockets |
| HDMI 2.1: | No |
| SCART inputs: | unavailable |
| Component inputs: | 1 socket |
| Headphone output: | Yes |
| Output audio digital: | Yes |
| Bluetooth headphones support: | Yes |
| Number of USB ports: | 3 sockets |
| LAN: | Yes |
| WIRELESS INTERNET ACCESS: | Yes |
| Smart TV: | Android |
| Netflix: | Yes |
| Amazon Prime Video: | Yes |
| Disney +: | Yes |
| Max cathedrals: | Yes |
| Google Cast / Miracast: | Yes |
| Airplay: | No |
| Youtube: | Yes |
| Browser: | Yes |
| HbbTV: | Yes |
| Illuminable remote control: | Yes |
| DLNA support: | Yes |
| HDR10: | Yes |
| HDR10 +: | Yes |
| Dolby Vision: | Yes |
| HLG: | Yes |
| Format support H.264: | Yes |
| Format support HEVC: | Yes |
| Format support DTS: | Yes |
| Format support AC3: | Yes |
| Format support Dolby Atmos: | Yes |
| Power consumption in SDR mode: | 124.3 watts |
| Power consumption in HDR mode: | 172.3 watts |
| Power consumption in standby: | 0.2 watt |
| EU energy label: | B. |
| Light sensor: | Yes |
| Others: | 0 |
| Dimensions: | 123 x 81 x 26 cm |
| Screen thickness: | 50 mm |
| Weight: | 28.1 kg |
| Tested on: | 11/20/2020 |
Philips 55OLED + 935 in the test: top image, elegantly packaged
With a distinctively offset tweeter in the middle of the soundbar, the Philips 55OLED + 935 is an eye-catcher even when switched off. The “+” in the name of this UHD OLED series stands for the special audio equipment contributed by the British audio manufacturer Bowers & Wilkins. We tested the version with a 55-inch screen diagonal.
The TV is also available in 65 inches and compact 48 inches. Apart from the panel brightness and energy efficiency, there shouldn’t be any significant qualitative differences between the different sizes.
With a measured maximum brightness of 901 cd / m², the Philips 55OLED + 935 is currently one of the brightest OLED televisions in our list of the best. Although it cannot compete with the much brighter LCD TVs, it still delivers a high-contrast picture even in dim daylight.
The high chessboard contrast of 240: 1 guarantees a detailed drawing. This is particularly evident when displaying HDR images. The stars sparkle in the dark night sky, and every awn is clearly accentuated in the sun-drenched barley field.
In what is now the fifth generation of its image processing, Philips distributes the work on two processors. The additional computing power should, among other things, improve the pattern recognition of static and dynamic objects.
In our typical test sequences, it does its job very well in practice: Full HD content, for example from a Blu-ray, is scaled to 4K without significant interference.
Details in dark image passages can be clearly seen and homogeneous color surfaces are displayed without any spots. TV signals in 720p or 1080i are also implemented very well.
Flickering artifacts can only be seen on their contours when relatively small objects, such as a soccer ball, move quickly over a restless background. For die-hard gamers, the measured latency of at least 37 milliseconds is likely to be far too long.
This OLED TV should also be better equipped against the dreaded burn-in effect. Its screen area is divided into 32,000 zones, which are permanently checked for static elements. If necessary, the brightness of the pixels is gradually reduced there.
According to Philips, this removes the risk of burn-in for 95 percent of all static images, including station logos and gaming content. Whether this is actually the case remains to be seen. This television set is one of the candidates that the CHIP test center has selected for a long-term OLED burn-in test. We will report on the results.
Clear, powerful and a bit 3D
British audio specialists Bowers & Wilkins contribute the speaker system for the Philips 55OLED + 0935. A total of ten loudspeakers ensure a powerful and clear sound in the soundbar, which is set off from the screen.
The tweeter is clearly separated from the housing, not for aesthetic reasons, but primarily for the acoustics. This tweeter-on-top arrangement decouples the small loudspeaker from the larger membranes.
In this way, high frequencies are reproduced without the annoying blurring that otherwise occurs through diffraction (= bending of the wave) on the housing.
The result is a clear, powerful sound that is almost free of distortion to the fullest. The system automatically detects and decodes Dolby Atmos content. Two side radiating speakers also convey a bit of spatial height, provided the reflective walls play along.
However, this solution cannot compete with a Dolby Atmos system with up-ring loudspeakers or even speakers mounted on the ceiling.
Ready for wall mounting
With its narrow base, the Philips 55OLED + 935 almost seems to float above its soundbar. Together with its loudspeaker unit, it can also be hung directly on the wall. Appropriate mounting material is included.
Only then does the four-sided Ambilight really come into its own. With a circumferential, colorful strip of light, this Philips-own feature records the predominant colors in the image in real time and projects them onto the wall in order to expand the screen beyond its natural edge.
Ambilight now also works with music, so that the television can mutate into a disco ball even without a picture. And for those who like to slumber in front of the cigarette box, the Ambilight menu has explicit settings for falling asleep and waking up.
The solid remote control with metal finish is covered on the sides and back with leather from Scottish Muirhead cattle. However, the developers paid less attention to the ergonomics of the noble piece. The pressure points of the central navigation diamond are too close together. Even narrow tester fingers tend to be misused when they are blindly accessed.
None of the four HDMI interfaces support the 2.1 specifications. In addition to its special gaming features, the TV also lacks the eARC return channel. What is to be tolerated, however, is that it is not needed for TV broadcasts and the sound is tapped from acoustically higher-quality sources anyway.
According to Philips, one of the first manufacturers to integrate DTS-Play-Fi into its premium models. This means that the television sound can be distributed wirelessly throughout the home via multiroom speakers. Thanks to the ninth version of Android TV, this TV also has an operating system with the largest range of apps and streaming services.
Frugal in sleep
The high peak brightness and the powerful sound take their toll on the socket. In HDR mode, we measured an electrical power consumption of 173 watts on the Philips 55OLED + 935. It is therefore within the scope of what other top models also pull here and we give it the energy efficiency rating of “good”.
However, it is exemplary when it comes to standby consumption: At 0.2 watts, there is actually no reason to ever disconnect it from the mains.