Philips continues to impress John Archer with this affordable yet talented Full HD 50-incher
As apple is keen to stress now that it’s rolled out a new Apple TV box devoid of 4K/UHD capability, Full HD television is far from dead. For many people HD remains adequate for their needs – especially as HD TVs are having their prices squeezed by UHD sets.
Philips seems more aware than most of Full HD’s ongoing sales potential. It has integrated a wide selection of HD models into its current range and has already impressed us with the 40in 40PFT6510. Now it’s out to prove that HD still matters further up the screen-size ladder with the 50in PFT6550.
Everything about this set's design exudes quality, from the metallic frame to the illuminated Philips logo and brushed aluminium pedestal. Plus there’s the small matter of’ Ambilight technology, which here uses arrays of LEDs on three of the TV's rear edges to throw coloured light onto your walls that matches the content of onscreen images.
Setting up the 50PFT6550 introduces you to Philips’ big smart TV feature for 2015: Android TV. I have problems with Android TV’s straitjacketed approach, rather ineffectual recommendations engine and its ‘quantity over quality’ approach to apps, but it's well presented and slick in operation.
Philips Perfect Pixel HD engine combines beautifully with the TV's LCD panel to deliver some outstanding picture quality. The star of the show is my favourite video trait: black level response. As with the majority of Philips’ sets at the moment, the 50PFT6550 uses a direct LED lighting system in conjunction with Micro Dimming Pro tech that analyses the content of multiple image zones to come up with optimum contrast and brightness settings. This twin approach works brilliantly. Black level depths during the night sequences at Bond’s Skyfall home (Skyfall) are superb – and targeting such rich black levels doesn’t cost the 50PFT6550 anything significant in shadow detail terms. The set also proffers a hefty amount of punch, and bright areas of predominantly dark scenes don't lack impact.
This brightness and black depth serves the Philips' colours well. The tropical island sequences in Despicable Me 2 explode off the screen. Precise colour handling and stunning sharpness mean sometimes it feels like you’re watching pictures higher in resolution than 'mere' Full HD. And, unlike some Philips TVs I’ve seen – usually ones that use a lower powered processing suite – this impeccable sense of sharpness doesn’t leave pictures appearing noisy.
You can call upon Philips' Perfect Natural Motion feature to help motion remain crisp and clean without the image falling to pieces. Unwanted digital side effects are generally absent here if you don't ramp PNM too high.
Provided you’re content with the 1,920 x 1,080 resolution and are happy to tinker (some out-of-the-box settings here are too aggressive), this is another strong offering from Philips and decent value.
Specifications
3D: Yes. Active
4K: No. 1,920 x 1,080
TUNER: Yes. Freeview HD
CONNECTIONS: 4 x HDMI; component video input; composite video input; 3 x USB; Ethernet port; RF input; optical digital audio output
SOUND: 20W
BRIGHTNESS (CLAIMED): 350cd/m2
CONTRAST RATIO (CLAIMED): N/A
DIMENSIONS (OFF STAND): 1,124(w) x 647(h) x 77(d)mm
WEIGHT (OFF STAND): 13.3kg
FEATURES: Android TV smart interface; USB multimedia playback and recording; Perfect Pixel HD processing engine; ISF support; built-in Wi-Fi; USB/DLNA media file playback; three-sided Ambilight