Philips OLED+ 984 review

As its title would counsel, the Philips OLED+ 984 makes use of an OLED panel, which, as we all know by now, means inky blacks, vivid colors and punchy highlights are just about par for the course.

However, we additionally know that there’s extra to a very good TV than simply the panel – the video processing on board has an enormous sway as to how good the image efficiency truly finally ends up being.

Philips has used its third-generation P5 dual-chip processor within the 984, which guarantees a 30% enhance in image efficiency on final 12 months’s already wonderful OLED+ 903.

While we desire to show nearly all of further image processing off, the beefed up P5 nonetheless has an impact on issues like upscaling, improved movement management and higher HDR dealing with, together with help for Dolby Vision this 12 months in addition to HDR10+, HDR10 and HLG – considered one of just a few units to supply common HDR help.

And what an addition it’s. While the SDR image efficiency is a cracking one, watching Stranger Things on Netflix in 4K Dolby Vision is an entire completely different degree of good. Shadow element is improved to such an extent you may make higher sense of the various darkish evening scenes on provide, however maybe much more putting is the added depth you’ll discover in highlights and brighter areas.

For instance, the lights on the boys’ bikes as they journey away from Will’s home in episode 1 pierce via the darkness with extra depth than you’ll have seen earlier than. There’s additionally extra perception right here too, drawing your eyes to subtleties and nuances inside the brightness.

It actually helps to carry scenes which can be a mix of each darkish and shiny parts to make sure there’s no compromise on element throughout the board. The result’s a crisp, ultra-realistic picture, with pinsharp outlines serving to to provide an virtually 3D depth to photos.

Colour accuracy can also be implausible, with loads of punch when it’s wanted and equal quantities of pure nuance – significantly in pores and skin tones, which look simply as they might in actual life.

We flit between the Movie and particular ISF Day/Night presets and discover these to be one of the best beginning factors for a very good out-of-the-box image, providing a very good foundation from which you can begin to tweak the image to your tastes.

Be conscious that your settings will change relying on what supply you’re utilizing although, so that you’ll have to go in and set them one after the other. HDR content material will even mechanically serve up the 984’s pre-programmed HDR settings (and swap off when it’s completed), however we discovered leaving these as they had been to be completely tremendous.

While 4K footage is surely the way in which to carry one of the best out of this TV, commonplace HD footage appears implausible too, with the 984 doing a grand job of upscaling whereas preserving noise to a minimal.

Motion throws up no problems with notice – we go for utilizing the Personal setting and swap it to minimal, which does sufficient to clean over any judder with out introducing any unfavorable image points in alternate. Schools of fish darting in each path in an episode of Our Planet can’t even shake it.

In reality, plainly no matter you throw at this TV, it does its best possible with, providing an excellent image throughout the board. Even SD TV appears fully watchable, although there’s some comprehensible drop intimately and a rise in noise (if solely to remind you to look at in HD, you heathen).

Unlike final 12 months, the place B&W solely received probability to chip in on the 903’s sound as soon as the design was began, this 12 months, they’ve have been concerned within the 984’s audio from the get go.

The result’s the soundbar-esque speaker that sits proudly beneath the display, packing a three-channel design and 60W of energy.

To guarantee a powerful efficiency with minimal cupboard wobble, every channel is given a ported, internally braced enclosure inside the speaker, and is made up of a 10cm mid/bass driver, borrowed from the corporate’s M1 loudspeaker, and a 19mm tweeter.

While the left and proper tweeters are at both finish of the bar and centered on including width to the sound, the centre channel makes use of the separate tweeter-on-top to provide further readability to dialogue, in addition to get it as shut as potential to the center of the display – at all times the principle intention of a centre channel in an AV setup.

The outcomes are excellent. While we spend plenty of time recommending upgrading TV sound, Philips and B&W have created an audio efficiency that’s unlikely to go away nearly all of folks wanting.

There’s loads of authority right here – you possibly can add a sub if you would like further wallop, nevertheless it’s removed from light-weight, giving an honest quantity of low-end rumble that give motion scenes a spine.

That mentioned, AV followers might discover it missing a degree of energy and punch {that a} sub would get behind, so no less than it’s an possibility so as to add one if you would like.

Dialogue is expressive and direct, even throughout busier scenes, whereas sound results have the feel and chunk you’d wish to make them stand out too, with out ever sounding sharp.

It’s a really large sound, bathing the listening place in sound from left to proper. Effect placement is about nearly as good as you’d anticipate from a bar design, however there aren’t any upward-firing Atmos drivers right here – maybe one thing we would have hoped for on the value.

Instead there’s a digital DSP to assist in giving needed scenes some peak when the audio is in Movie Mode (there’s an AI mode that can swap primarily based on the content material you’re watching, to avoid wasting you delving into the menus each 5 minutes). From our expertise, it’s not going to provide you a lot sense of peak above the sting of the display although.

Still, there’s loads of headroom to permit dynamics room for manoeuvre, and the quantity could be cranked up excessive with out fear of distortion too.

Playing music is at all times a surefire technique to present up any downfalls in any TV speaker efficiency, however there’s no such trip-up right here. We play our check playlist via the Tidal app (there’s Spotify too) within the 984’s Android good TV system and it simply fills our testing room with detailed, punchy and spacious sound, fortunately doubling as a really gifted sound system.