Philips or Sony? Which TV runs Android TV better in general?

by kokosowy

Hi guys!

I'm about to buy a new TV (4K + HDR) for general purposes. Now I'm using a quite old TV with Shield TV and I love it. So another TV I'd like to have with Android TV built-in.

Can you tell me basing on your experience whether Sony or Philips better handle Android TV? I mean here stability, performance, update frequency etc.

Thank you so much!

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EDIT: It might need a little clarification. I don't want to throw my current tv and Shield gear away, I will move it to the next room. But I want to buy two more TVs for living and 'gaming' rooms. ;-) I find Android TV very comfortable, I use it mostly for streaming services (4K+HDR) + sometimes Kodi playback from local NAS. I hope built-in Android TV will manage this without any issues.

alaninsitges

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO don't buy a Philips! Absolute garbage, no support. They will take your will to live. Seriously. Just ask their customers who have been trying to get a stable TV and it just keeps getting worse. http://www.supportforum.philips.com/en/forumdisplay.php?223-TV-Software-2016-models

This is not a question of having something on par with your Shield. All TV implementations are garbage in comparison: much lower performance, much slower CPUs, loaded with crapware. The Sonys at least seem to be functional and supported by the manufacturer but still, they pale in comparison to a Shield. The Philips don't even work as a TV, much less something comparable to the Shield.

Buy a TV for the picture it has and then buy another Shield to use ATV.

ninepointsix

Any integrated android TV will be a notable downgrade from your shield.

Get the best screen you can afford, ignore any built in smart features and use your shield.

akhild

Every Android tv manufacturer gives some problem after solving one problem..

Some users even face strange issues which others don't..

Depends on your budget, Sony is costlier Philips is cheaper than Sony..

But some models of Philips and Sony Android tv use hardware like processor.

But Sony I heard it listens to customer problems and solve them, it might take more time but as far I have seen they do solve

raptor75mlt

Philips. I stand by mine and have had no issues that were not solved soon after. When I bought it it was with 5.0, got regular updates, and currently running 7.1.2.

Issues I experienced

  • spontaneous tv switch ons - solved with an update

  • tv hangs when switch on - solved with an update

  • OTA dvr crashing - solved with an update

of course, CPU, ram and storage performance are all below a shield, but it's enough performance to directplay 4k HDR 5.1 in Plex.

Just look at these release notes on the updates, over two years

http://www.p4c.philips.com/cgi-bin/cpcontent.pl?ctn=43PUT6401/12&dct=FUS&did=AEN&reldct=FHI&scy=NO&slg=AEN

They even fixed KRACK which AFAIK, very few have done, except of course Nvidia

blondedre3000

Sony is much better overall, from a TV perspective. The fact that it happens to run Android TV is just an added bonus, but I wouldn't go out and sell your shield just yet if you get one.

divadkha

My Sony TV works well enough for me on Android TV, despite being a slower 2015 model. As long as Kodi still runs on it I am happy, which it does work quite well. Playing 4K content from a NAS through Kodi also works pretty good. I do get hiccups here and there throughout the TV though. Netflix 4K+HDR works well. Amazon 4K+HDR stutters heavily while buffering.

The only thing I'm waiting on is for an official version of DirecTV Now for Android TV. My TV doesn't handle the sideloaded version too well. So I'm stuck with an Apple TV for that.

Again, I do have a slower 2015 model, which I believe was Sony's first year at Android TV (not it's first working with Google though). So YMMV depending on what model you get.