Great image quality, but competitors look better in general.
Philips 55PFL6007T
Philips thinks it has the right balance of cost, size and
technology with the 55PFL6007T, a big 55-inch passive 3D set that sacrifices some
high-ranking features found in other sets but keeps with it all the ones you
would expect from a modern TV. From the beginning, the 55PFL6007T leaves a good
impression with its thin 1cm bezel and classy looks. The stand that accompanies
it can swing, but there are also standard VESA mounting points in case you want
to use your own stand or instead mount it on a wall.
The 55PFL6007T includes AmbiLight, which uses strips of LED
on the back that emit the same colors as they are displayed on the screen, to
create a more immersive picture. Also on the back is a good selection of I/O ports,
including four HDMI ports, VGA, component and SCART (through adaptor), a
digital optical output, a 3.5mm headphone output, three USB ports, a Common Interface
card slot and an Ethernet port.
lf you prefer to take the wireless way rather than use a cable
across the living room, you will be so pleased to hear that the 55PFL6007T has built-in
Wi-Fi as standard. Once it’s connected, you will be able to stream content from
any networked PC or NAS device by using DLNA, as well as from a USB flash
drive. None of our multimedia files caused us any trouble, so we could watch MKV,
DivX, MP4 and MOV files smoothly.
You can also connect a portable hard disc to turn the TV
into a basic PVR. You will need a disk of 250GB or larger, and it must be formatted
to a Philips-specific file system, which is not recognized by Windows, but
recording programs is a one-button process once it has been set up. You can also
pause and rewind live broadcast, but the screen just goes black for approximately
a second every time you do so.
With Internet access, you will also be able to use Philips'
Smart TV system. The company is trying hard to expand the number of services,
with the on-demand movie streaming service BlinkBox being the latest supplement.
Unfortunately, Philips still runs behind its competitors. You have YouTube, AceTrax
and catch-up TV from BBC iPlayer, but there's still no Netflix and the
downloadable application library is very limited. It is displayed beautifully, and
we highly appreciate the picture-in-picture feature for keeping track of a
currently playing program, but it is not as good as the one found on Sony’s and
LG's TVs. There's also a web browser, but it's difficult to navigate using the
remote control. The remote itself is made from something that feels like cheap
plastic, and you don't get the full QWERTY keyboard on the reverse.
What really matters here is picture quality, and the 55PFL6007T
is surely impressive. A consistent backlight is not a significantly good thing from
an edge-lit 55-inch set, but we only noticed a small amount of light leakage
from one corner of our review sample. On the other hand, it processed dark scenes
beautifully, creating rich blacks that look much better than we expected from
this technology. It doesn’t reach up to the same level as Sony’s HX853, or a
deep black as Panasonic’s plasma panels, but it's still so impressive. Colors looked
rich and attractive, still appearing natural, even in dark scenes.
What really
matters here is picture quality, and the 55PFL6007T is surely impressive.
It does a quite good job of upscaling standard-definition content
without creating too much noise or motion artefacts, but is not better or worse
than any other mid-range TV we've seen recently. High-definition content proves
to be much better, looking sharp and staying smooth during fast motion. The
two-sided AmbiLight setup isn’t quite immersive like the three-side version
found in high-ranking Philips TVs, but it adds an extra layer to Blu-ray films.
Its 3D picture quality is also great, and really surprised
us with sharp images that are usually lost on a passive display. Depth effects appear
to be natural, and there's no crosstalk ghosting. There are, however, visible
horizontal lines and shabby edges - side effects of using passive glasses.
Because it uses the passive 3D technology rather than active shutter glasses, new
pairs will not be expensive. Philips includes four sets with the TV, so the
whole family can start watching something straight away. The TV supports 3D conversion
of 2D content, but this doesn’t add anything significant to the TV or 2D films.
Regrettably, sound quality is disappointing. The two
down-firing speakers built into the TV are too sharp and they produce very
little bass. They're good enough for watching TV, but not for listening to music
or watching movies.
It’s a shame that the onscreen interface is often jerky and not
often responsive to your inputs, as it's well presented and easy to navigate.
The 55PFL6007T allows you to adjust image brightness, contrast, color and
sharpness, with noise and artefact reduction levels, but you can decrease the
Pixel Precise HD motion smoothing system. It reduces swinging significantly in
films, but we noticed a few small artefacts in fast-moving scenes at anything setting
except the Minimum one.
The 55PFL6007T is a wonderful 55-inch TV for watching films,
both in 2D and 3D.But, sadly for Philips, the rivalry is so cruel. Sony’s KDL-55HX853
has a much better speaker system, a comprehensive Smart TV system and amazing image
quality, and it also costs less than this.
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Info
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Price: $2,354 incl. VAT
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Ranking: 4/5
Specifications
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TV type: LCD with Edge LED backlight
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Resolution: 1,920x1,080
·
Contrast ratio: 500.000:1
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Brightness: 400cd/m2
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Connections: 4 HDMI, 1 SCART, 1 VGA, 1 component
·
Tuner: Freeview HD
·
Power consumption: 1W standby, 80W on
·
Warranty: one-year RTB
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