Opinion wanted from Philips TV owners

by redross79

Hi,

I'm looking for opinions from any existing Philips Android TV owners about:

  1. How you find the picture quality
  2. How you find the performance of both Android TV and the TV in general
  3. How you find the general build quality of the TV
  4. Would you recommend a Philips TV to a friend?
  5. How regularly do you receive firmware updates?

I'm thinking of buying the new 50PUS8555/12. There aren't any reviews of this particular TV yet, as it only went on sale a few days ago, but it should be roughly equivalent to the 2019 800 and 900 series (I assume!).

I currently have an nVidia Shield TV (2017) plugged in to a 2014 Sony KDL-50W829B TV. So I want something that will give me a similar Android TV experience, but with upgraded picture quality and less cables!

Ideally I would have liked to get hold of a Philips 50PUS8804, as that could have replaced my current speaker system too (because it has a built-in B+W sound-bar). But alas, that model is discontinued and nowhere seems to have any stock.

So any opinions/advice welcome. Are Philips worth spending my hard earned coin on, or would I be better off saving my money?

I have also considered Sony TVs but am put off by the 49" size and the big ugly stands that they have! The space I have for the TV almost perfectly fits 50" (it couldn't go any larger) and it is quite a high bench, so I'd like to avoid a tall stand where possible.

Thanks in advance

Lloytron
  1. Stunning
  2. OK but a bit buggy and the EPG sucks.
  3. Good
  4. Yes because Ambilight is excellent
  5. A couple of times a year.
sulylunat
  1. I will say for me, the quality is good, but it’s important to know the two Philips TVs I had were the first 4K TVs I’ve had and I haven’t experienced any 4K TVs for a prolonged time from any other brand so maybe take my thoughts with a grain of salt
  2. Performance on my previous 2016 set got quite slow but my new 2019 set is nice and responsive and I don’t have any complaints with it at all. The 2019 one has a way faster processor in it so it’s night and day. Android TV to me is the best TV OS just because they actually get new feature updates and are very well supported being android based
  3. I’ve never had any quality issues with either Philips set I own or any physical problems.
  4. I would and have recommended this to a ton of people for ambilight alone, but with the tv being in my bedroom I don’t tend to have people over to actually properly experience how good it is. I obviously like them enough to have replaced my original one with another Philips set and my only reasoning for it was because I’m a bit of a techy and wanted to make sure I’d get some of the newer android updates. I also gained an extra side of ambilight and a performance boost by upgrading so it was a no brainer. There is a 99% chance of my next tv also being a Philips set
  5. Updates are surprisingly frequent, way more than some of the android phones I’ve even had. My 2016 set was updated quite a lot and was still getting updates in 2019. I’ve just looked at patch notes and the last update was December 2019 so 3 years of updates which is pretty good for a tv I’d say. In that time, I think it went up two major android versions. The other updates were bugfixes or other changes. My plan is to just get a separate android box like a nvidia shield once my tv stops getting updates. Tl;dr - buy it

Edit: I’ve seen the other comment that says the EPG sucks. I can’t comment on this as I only watch things on streaming services and don’t watch live tv. From what I’ve seen though, I do think the EPG is a bit rubbish. It is also an option to use the Channels app which is Google’s app for tv and has its own tv which is what I used when I was messing about with iptv

kylezz

I have a Philips PUS7303 so here's my take:

  1. Picture is great for the price I paid, I'd say better than competitor models from Samsung, Sony and Panasonic. The only comparable in that price range are a few LG models.

  2. Performance got better after updating to Oreo, overall it's not the smoothest experience but you get used to it if you're willing to give it a shot.

  3. Build is pretty good, again for a model in this price range. The bezels are bigger than competitors but that doesn't bother me personally.

  4. Yes, absolutely as long as he's willing to get past the small delay when switching channels which is common on all Android TVs. Even though today's Philips is not the original company, they did an excellent job in maintaining much of the European identity and quality that Philips were known for in the past.

  5. Usually every 3-4 months or so, when TV model is newly released the updates come more frequently. Latest update for my TV model was in June 2020 and later this year it should get the update to Android Pie.

MuhtarCx

I have a 75PUS8303

  1. It’s very good for vivid and bright scenes, but horrible in low light scenes. There’s quite some backlight bleeding, very noticeable at night, during dark scenes. Ambilight is nice

  2. TV menus are slow, however I noticed slight more responsiveness after latest update. Android TV is imo not that great, quite user unfriendly. There is no “recent apps” button. If your tv does not come with a flyremote, expect a lot of pressing buttons. But a big plus is that you can easily sideload apps

  3. Build quality is good

  4. No, go buy Samsung or LG Oled

  5. 1 per year

redross79

Thank you all for your comments. Really appreciated.

So far much more positives than negatives.

I can definitely understand that some folks don't like the Android TV experience. But after having a shield TV for a few years I'm used to its quirks, and for me Android TV is a big reason behind me looking at Philips sets. So long as the performance is good. And it sounds like on the newer models it is.

Thankfully I rarely watch Live TV, and I have a TVHeadend server (which I watch through Kodi) anyway, so the EPG isn't a big worry for me.

Please keep the reviews coming in. I'm going to give it a few more days and then I'll make a decision.

TrampasGraham

Spending all day on Christmas Eve finding the right screw size for back mounting is ridiculous. Third trip to the hardware store. I never want another Chinese tv in my life and can't wait until this one dies.

Semantal

I have a Philips 70" ambilight with android. I can honestly say it was the worst buy. The remote is bad, the interface is terrible, the tv becomes unresponsive and the support is terrible.

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It reboots by itself at least 3 times per week.Navigation to a setting like brightness or similar takes not less than 18 remote key presses to get there.

Cant complain about the panel, image is good.

I am not a fan of the android experience. it is truly awkward and memory heavy. I think that the tv is struggling to keep up, especially with netflix menu videos etc, it just gets slower and slower.

Philips support people are next to useless.

Is there a a way of replacing the software completely?