Philips OLED+907 (55OLED+907) 4K OLED Ambilight TV Review

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Philips OLED+907 (55OLED+907) 4K OLED Ambilight TV Review

The Philips OLED+907 is the second-from-the-top OLED+ model for 2022 using the same OLED.EX panel as the flagship OLED+937, but with the single chip P5 AI+ processor and a Bowers & Wilkins soundbar at the bottom of the panel chassis, making it an all-in-one integrated design. Available in 48-, 55- and 65-inch screen sizes, the 48-inch set doesn’t get the deuterium-based OLED.EX ‘Royal’ heat sink equipped panel for higher brightness that the 55- and 65-inch models have, otherwise they are all very similar in specifications.

Because the OLED+907 uses the single-chip 6th Gen P5 AI+ processor it does miss some of the added processing features of the dual-chip approach, such as the Advanced HDR Tone Mapping, however, as it is a single chip, it will support HFR 4K/120 at full resolution, which the dual-chip in the 937 can’t. So the 907 is much better suited to gamers.

As well as HDR10, the OLED+907 also supports Dolby Vision, HLG (Hybrid Log-Gamma), HDR10+ and HDR10+ Adaptive. There is no Dolby Vision IQ as Philips thinks it has its own answer with the new Ambient Intelligence settings which incorporate a light sensor to make fine adjustments under new settings for Eye Care, Dark Detail and Colour Temperature. This allows the P5 chip to adjust brightness, gamma and colour temperature (white balance) depending on the ambient lighting within the viewing environment. Philips likes to do its own thing with picture processing when it can.

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What is Dolby Vision?

by Steve Withers · Dec 20, 2017

Dolby Vision has been getting a lot of attention recently, with many claiming it's the superior HDR format. But what is Dolby Vision, how does it work and is it really better than HDR10?  

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What is Hybrid Log-Gamma (HLG)?

by Steve Withers · Nov 14, 2016

The standards for the use of High Dynamic Range (HDR) in broadcast TV are nearing completion and Hybrid Log-Gamma (HLG) is the most likely method of delivery.  

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What is HDR10+?

by Steve Withers · Jan 2, 2018

HDR10+ is the latest version of 4K HDR dynamic metadata but what is it, how does it work and how does it differ from Dolby Vision. In this article we answer all these questions and more.  

Just like the 937, the OLED+907 has a number of accurate picture presets so you can view content as it was mastered and intended to be seen, with Filmmaker Mode, IMAX Enhanced, two Expert (ISFccc) and a Calman (AutoCal) modes available. Philips has also finally killed off the Vivid picture mode and replaced it with a new Crystal Clear mode. This was something AVForums members fed back to Philips after recent shootout events where they stressed that the Vivid picture mode needed to be renamed. This new setting is an enhanced mode for brightness, gamma and colour that ramps things up compared to the accurate picture modes, but Philips picture guru Danny Tack says this is tastefully done to preserve details and reduce clipping.

What is IMAX Enhanced?

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What is IMAX Enhanced?

by Steve Withers · Oct 30, 2018

A new licensing and certification home entertainment programme has been announced called IMAX Enhanced, but is it just marketing or something entirely new?  

The real USP of Philips TVs has also had an update for this year. The three-sided Ambilight Next Generation on the OLED-907 is an upgrade over previous years and the processing allows for individual control of each Ambilight LED behind the TV, whereas in the past they have always worked in three groups of nine LEDs. This allows better accuracy to follow the action on screen and to mix more accurate-looking colours to best match what’s on the screen within the content. Just this one subtle change makes a big difference to the effectiveness of the immersion within the content on screen. Also new is Ambilight Aurora, which displays moving video screensavers, scenes or images, with Ambilight projecting the same colours seen on the screen onto the wall behind. If you want to have a relaxing evening without watching a TV show or film, you can have 2022’s version of the lava lamp.

The Bowers & Wilkins thin front-firing LCR 3.1 soundbar makes this an integrated OLED TV and a lot of design and development time has been spent to recapture the original OLED+903 design which featured the first-ever Philips partnership soundbar with Bowers. The design is rounded off with a nicely designed central stand that lifts the TV just above the mounting unit or surface.

Original OLED+903 review:

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Philips 903 (55OLED903) OLED TV Review

by Phil Hinton · Dec 21, 2018

The Philips 903 OLED is the same TV as the 803 model, but with the addition of a soundbar from Bowers and Wilkins, so is it worth the upgrade? Let's find out...  

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The Philips OLED+907 is designed to give consumers a high-end picture, mixed with an integrated quality sound solution, three-sided Ambilight and HDMI 2.1 gaming features, offering a choice for many use cases, so does the theory work in practice? Let’s find out…

AVForums Podcast: Philips OLED+907 review:

The design of a TV will always be subjective, but the Philips OLED+907 is a good-looking modern TV set. It takes cues from the OLED+903 which was the first partnership TV between Bowers & Wilkins and Philips with an integrated design and adds some upgrades and slightly higher-end materials. The OLED panel is thin to the top and edges with a slightly raised area on the rear for the connections, subwoofers and electronics.

The stand design is a neat touch that is central and slightly raises the panel above the mounting surface. It is a dark gunmetal colour like the panel edge design and the set can also swivel on the stand, so it can be positioned as you want.

Around the back, we have the three-sided Ambilight LEDs on the top and sides. This works with the OLED+907 due to the lower stand area as you can’t see any light behind the TV at the bottom. Where this design does fall down is when the set is wall mounted as there is no light on the bottom edge of the panel.

The connections are also positioned to the rear of the TV and feature sideways and downwards-facing slots. Sideways we have a CI slot, a service jack, three USB ports, a headphone jack and two HDMI 2.0b ports to the side, and downwards we have a digital audio out, Subwoofer pre-out, two HDMI 2.1 ports, an RF and Satellite antenna and a LAN port.

The remote control is the now familiar Philips full-size silver plastic affair which has sustainably sourced Muirhead leather on the rear. The buttons are logically and intuitively laid out and within easy thumb reach when sat in the hand. The backlight works as soon as you pick up the remote with the main controls all available in the upper half of the unit. It’s a nice weighty design that sits neatly in the hand.

Out of the Box

As we do with all TV reviews, we factory reset the OLED+907 and then measured the picture presets to find which is the most accurate to the industry standards, out of the box. The best preset is Filmmaker Mode (FMM) which switches off all unwanted processing with accurate colour and white balance retained. It is a one-button press solution that has no video processing or motion interpolation applied and it follows the industry standards for SDR and HDR content playback.

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What is Filmmaker Mode?

by AVForums · Mar 7, 2020

The Filmmaker Mode is an initiative involving the Ultra HD Alliance, Hollywood studios and TV manufacturers that lets consumers watch content as the director intended using one simple picture setting.  

We use Portrait Displays’ Calman colour calibration software, a Murideo Seven Generator and a Klein K-10A meter for measurement and calibration.

The accuracy out of the box in Filmmaker Mode is excellent with no visible errors seen with TV or film content thanks to our DeltaE errors being well under the visible threshold of three and the greyscale tracking nicely, with no major issues seen at all. Gamma is also excellent with no visible issues seen.

The Rec.709 HD colour gamut results are also very good with just a few very slight hue errors seen, mainly with green and magenta, but not at any level where we would see these within film or TV show content. Red is also slightly oversaturated but again this is not noticeable in any of the materials we tested the OLED+907 with. Overall, the out-of-the-box accuracy is very good.

Calibrated

The OLED+907 offers up all the calibration controls you need to get the best results out of the TV. There are AutoCal capabilities through Calman, and even with the latest version of the software, we found a few bugs with the results that we will feedback to Philips. These things do see a few teething problems to start with and AutoCal is new for Philips. We performed a manual calibration for this review.

As expected we were able to get the greyscale tracking almost perfect with our DeltaE errors averaging 0.9 which is well below the visible threshold of three and gamma also tracks well with just a slight darkening at the brightest end of the scale, but this is not actually visible with TV and film content.

The Rec.709 HD colour gamut results are also very good with no issues seen at all. We have managed to remove all the hue and saturation errors seen out of the box with DeltaE errors now around 0.9 on average, so no issues are actually visible with content, These are very good results from the Philips OLED+907.

The OLED+907 was measured in the Filmmaker Mode HDR picture preset which is the closest to ST.2084 PQ EOTF, D65 white point and BT.2020 colour gamut for HDR10 playback. As Philips features the ‘Royal’ OLED.EX panel with the heat sink, we expect good things from the panel for peak brightness results.

Obviously, peak brightness is only one part of what makes up an HDR image, but it is an important factor, especially on an OLED panel that usually struggles to provide details within the highest peak highlights within some HDR content as it has to clip. The other important factor with HDR is full-screen brightness with large areas of bright colours, or white, needing to have impact and brightness within scenes. With such content, OLED panels usually suffer as they need to dim down those areas as they don’t have sustained brightness capabilities, unlike a high-end LED LCD panel. So full 100% brightness testing is also relevant to see how well the panel will hold up to brighter scenes and how aggressive the Automatic Brightness Limiter (ABL) circuit is with such images.

As always, we measured using various window sizes and also tested with 1000 and 4000 nits metadata generated by our Murideo Seven G. With a 2% window we measured 850 nits, at 5% it was 792 nits and at the industry-standard 10% window we measured 744 nits and with a full white pattern, we measured 178 nits. These figures are slightly lower than the 65-inch 937, but they are invisible differences to the eye, so nothing to worry about. We have enough brightness from the panel for superb small highlight details and brightness, as well as full-screen brightness to help with the overall APL with a relaxed ABL circuit adding to the HDR performance.

The PQ EOTF tracking is very good in the HGIG off and HDR Perfect Min settings when receiving a 1000 nits Max CLL metadata signal.

Switching to a 4000 nits Max CLL signal and in HDR Perfect Minimum the roll-off is slightly different to retain specular highlight detail in that content. As this is a single-chip P5 engine there is no Advanced HDR Tone Mapping setting.

Wide colour gamut performance is also very good and mirrors the 937 with saturation tracking that follows the standard up to the gamut size limit with just a sight hue error for magenta. This means that HDR playback was accurate for saturation while colour volume (not displayed on the graph) was good but lacking at the brightest points, but it is rare for actual viewing content to push this to a noticeable washout.

We measured BT.2020 at 73% XY and 78% UV with P3 coming in at 97% XY and 99% UV.

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What is Wide Colour Gamut (WCG)?

by Steve Withers · Aug 20, 2016

You've probably heard about wide colour gamuts, DCI-P3 and Rec.2020 but what exactly are they? In this article we explain all these terms and more.  

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What is 4K HDR Tone Mapping?

by Steve Withers · Dec 30, 2017

What is tone mapping, how does it work and how does it relate to 4K HDR? In this article we answer all these questions and more.  

We are reviewing the 55-inch version of the OLED+907 and it is available in 48- and 65-inch screen sizes. The panel is the same in the 55- and 65-inch models so should offer up very similar performance, allowing for slight panel variance. The 48-inch version does not feature the same OLED.EX panel with heat sink due to the size, and therefore picture quality, especially with HDR content, will be slightly different.

Panel uniformity is very good on the Philips OLED+907 with no signs of DSE (Dirty Screen Effect) or banding on test patterns. A 5% greyscale slide displayed some mild banding in very dark surroundings, however, this is not seen within actual viewing content, even in dark scenes in dim viewing surroundings. The OLED+907 panel is also free from any vignetting to the edges of the panel and viewing angles are also very good with no obvious colour tint seen when at extreme angles.

The black levels on the OLED+907 are superb with very good shadow detail retrieval and just-above-black performance. There were a few slight issues seen with some black gradations and blockiness with low bitrate content in dark scenes. We also saw some slight floating blacks and flashing in very tricky, torture scenes, such as Eleven walking through the darkness in Stranger Things. Despite these small issues, we did not feel they were distracting enough, or common enough to worry about during normal everyday viewing on the OLED+907.

Motion performance is excellent with 5:5 pulldown applied to 24fps content in the Pure Cinema motion setting. There is no sign of induced judder and motion blur is reproduced from within the content and not any settings on the TV. I would suggest the use of Filmmaker Mode to make sure all the unnecessary video processing, noise reduction and sharpening are turned off for the most accurate image quality. 50Hz is also very good with no frame skipping or dropping even with fast cuts, it is one of the best OLED panels out there for 50Hz playback.

Upscaling performance is also good but does push the digital overly sharp look at times when not in the accurate modes. HD content looks detailed and sharp, but SD is a little soft with more noticeable edge enhancement and ringing to straight edges, with some moire caused by the pushed sharpness.

SDR content in the most accurate picture modes does look superb with excellent contrast and dynamic range thanks to those impressive black levels, superb just above black detail retrieval with no signs of crush, and terrific motion. Colours look natural, balanced and life-like with excellent skin tones and a nice cinematic feel to 24fps content. Everyday broadcast TV also looks superb with great motion, natural, life-like skin tones and good upscaling.

HDR is also outstanding on the OLED+907, with superb tone mapping, a relaxed ABL circuit and stunning dynamic range from absolute blacks and bright specular highlights taking advantage of the contrast range on offer. Again, the colour looks natural with life-like skin tones and excellent saturation and balance to the wide colour gamut performance. Motion remains good, especially with 24fps content and the OLED+907 is made for dim room viewing for the ultimate movie experience.

The final twist and one that is unique to Philips is the Ambilight system when used as a static bias light for movie viewing in dim surroundings. You never want to watch in the pitch black, as the dynamic range on offer from an OLED means your eye's iris is constantly moving to make adjustments for the light levels on screen. And as there is no constant light output in such a scenario, your iris works overtime and you start to feel tired. Adding in a Bias light behind the screen that is correctly set up for this type of viewing, stops the excessive opening and shutting of the iris in your eyes and thus makes the viewing experience more relaxed with less fatigue setting in. Of course, you could also take it the other way and have Ambilight follow the video and add the same colours as seen on the screen to your wall in a dynamic manner, adding more immersion to the scenes, but defeating the benefits of the bias light; the choice is yours…

Philips OLED+ 937 and 907 launch event:

The integrated Bowers & Wilkins soundbar does what you would expect and adds superbly balanced audio to the TV with an obvious step up in quality compared to normal built-in speaker systems on a normal set. The LCR design provides the OLED+907 with a wide soundstage with good separation and intelligible dialogue at all times. There are no upfiring or side-firing drivers in this sound system, so it is front-heavy with a wide stereo effect. Bass is good thanks to the rear-mounted bass driver and four passive radiators, while the front-firing left, centre and right drivers provide a nicely balanced mid and high-frequency response. While the soundbar is part of the chassis of the TV, the drive units are suspended to provide some decoupling from the chassis to improve the audio quality and stop any unwanted distortion as much as possible.

In use, the sound quality at normal volumes is excellent as you would expect. It certainly has the Bowers & Wilkins sound signature, with crisp high frequencies and a solid mid-range with a decent weight to the bass. Obviously, you’re not going to get room-shaking performance from such a system. But at reasonable volume levels, the sound quality is a definite step up from the usual TV sound systems.

Gaming wise there are two full bandwidth HDMI 2.1 inputs with support for VRR (Variable Refresh Rate), ALLM (Auto Low Latency Mode), eARC/ARC, G-Sync and FreeSync compatibility. As the OLED+907 also uses the single-chip P5 processor it will display HFR 4K/120 at full resolution. We measured the input lag for a 4K/60 signal at 19.4ms which is slightly faster than the OLED+937 and is reasonable for most casual gaming.

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What is HDMI Version 2.1?

by Steve Withers · Jan 1, 2018

All the different versions of HDMI can get quite confusing. In this article we explain what HDMI 2.1 is, why you might need it and what the benefits are.  

The Smart TV OS is Android 11 and is fast, slick and stable on the OLED+907. We didn’t encounter any freezing or crashing of the system and swapping between apps and menus were fast and reliable. There is an excellent line-up of apps including BBC iPlayer, Prime Video, Netflix, Disney+, Apple TV+ and lots more with support for 4K UHD, Dolby Vision, HDR10+ and Dolby Atmos where available.

Philips OLED+907 (55OLED+907) 4K OLED Ambilight TV Review

Philips continues its impressive run of high-end OLED models with the OLED+907 and its integrated soundbar design from Bowers & Wilkins, married to the top-of-the-range OLED panel and single-chip P5 processing.

Image quality is superb with both SDR and HDR in the most accurate picture modes and following calibration. Motion is great with 50Hz and 24fps content along with bright and dynamic HDR images thanks to the use of the latest OLED.EX panel with heat sink technology. You also have the choice of accuracy or personal preference thanks to the powerful single-chip P5 processor adding in more image enhancement features than you can shake a stick at. The choice is up to you.

... offers something for everyone and signals the long-term return of Philips at the top end of the market

Gaming is also catered for with two HDMI 2.1 (48Gbps) inputs with support for VRR (Variable Refresh Rate), ALLM (Auto Low Latency Mode) G-Sync and FreeSync compatibility and HFR support up to 4K/120 at full resolution due to it being a single chip P5 model.

Plus, you get the Bowers & Wilkins soundbar fixed to the bottom of the panel with superb sound quality from the LCR front-firing drivers and the subwoofer and quad passive radiators on the rear adding a nice weight to the wide soundstage.

And finally, there is the Philips USP of three-sided Ambilight with an all-new single LED approach that adds even more immersion when using the Follow settings.

Overall, the Philips OLED+907 offers something for everyone and signals the long-term return of Philips at the top end of the market - highly Recommended!

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