Nowadays we often see products with, in addition to the name of the manufacturer, another well-known name. You will find the brand names of camera manufacturers on a telephone, for example, or those of audio manufacturers on a laptop. Usually such a collaboration does not amount to much more than the sticker on the packaging and you may wonder why some brands throw away their good name. We saw a good example of a collaboration that did have added value last year at the IFA; we were very pleased with the Philips 903 with loudspeakers from Bowers & Wilkins .
OLED+984
At this year’s IFA we saw the new top model in the 9 series from Philips; the OLED+984. Where last year’s 903 had only limited space for the speaker system, Bowers & Wilkins has been given a say in the design of the housing on the 984, in order to do justice to the speaker system. The result is a 65″ OLED TV that comes complete with a stand on which a soundbar is mounted. The TV can also be hung on the wall.
As you would expect with a Philips TV, it is equipped with Ambilight; the system that illuminates your wall with the same colors as can be seen on the image by means of RGB LEDs on the back of the TV. This should make the image appear larger than it actually is, and thus involve you more in the film or series you are watching. With the models of recent years, we found it strange that there was no four-sided variant, but the 984, as the new top model, is therefore equipped with RGB LEDs all around.
The 65″ image panel has, as usual with OLED televisions, been purchased from LG Display and is controlled by the third generation of the P5 image processor. It has now received even more processing power and should provide a better image than the competition, which uses exactly the same LG picture panels. We are not fans of image enhancers and prefer to see raw images as their creators intended, but when viewing poor quality footage, the new P5 processor can certainly come in handy, thanks to the improved noise reduction.
The 984, like the other Philips models, runs on Google’s Android TV. It concerns version 9 ‘Pie’, the latest Android version, which Google named after sweetness. The operating system runs on a quad-core SoC from MediaTek, which is combined with 16GB of flash storage. Unfortunately, the 984 still uses HDMI 2.0, which means that features such as 120fps-4k display and enhanced audio return channel are missing. The options such as Auto Low Latency Mode, Quick Frame Transport and Variable Refresh Rate, which are especially interesting for gamers, are also absent.
When it comes to supported HDR formats, you’re in the right place with the 984, because all formats that matter can be played. HDR10, HDR10+, hybrid log-gamma and, thanks to the new P5 processor, now also Dolby Vision. Dolby Atmos sound can also be reproduced. That is not possible in real life, but in ‘Virtual Atmos’, because there are no speakers behind or above you. The most important speaker of all; the center channel, has received special attention from Bowers & Wilkins.
The tweeter of the middle channel is not put in the soundbar with the other speakers, but mounted on the stand above it. This ‘tweeter on top’ concept has been adopted from the hi-fi loudspeakers of the English B&W and should provide better radiating behaviour. In addition, there is no interaction with a speaker cabinet, so the sound of the tweeter cannot be compromised. In total, the soundbar has three channels, each of which has a separate rigid cabinet, equipped with its own ports and a 10cm mid-low speaker. The total power is 60 watts. If the bass reproduction does not go deep enough for your taste, a subwoofer can also be connected. This can be any regular active subwoofer with line level input.
OLED+934
In addition to the new top model, another new model was introduced at this IFA: the OLED+934, which has the same specifications, but is equipped with three-sided Ambilight and a different B&W speaker system. This system has taken the form of a soundbar that also serves as a table stand, but this TV can also be mounted on a wall. In addition to forward-facing speakers, the soundbar also has upward-facing drivers, the so-called ‘Dolby Atmos elevation speakers’. This creates a 2.1.2 system with two front channels, a bass channel and two height channels.
There are a total of nine drivers in the soundbar; four 30mm midrange drivers, two 19mm tweeters machined from titanium and suspended decoupled from the enclosure, an 80mm woofer and two up-firing 50mm full-range drivers for the height channels. The soundbar is made of glass fiber reinforced ABS plastic. On the inside, the cabinet is equipped with ribs for extra rigidity. The outside is covered with Danish kvadrat textile.
Finally
We were able to watch and listen to both televisions in a closed room. The image quality is, as we are used to from OLED televisions, magnificent. The sound was also immediately impressive. Due to the larger cabinet volume of the soundbar, the bass reproduction of the +984 was fairly deep and tight. The layer of the +934 clearly didn’t extend as far, but still made a good first impression. The upward-firing speakers did exactly what they were supposed to do; indeed it seemed as if noise came from above and sometimes even behind us.
So our first impressions of the new Philips TV with B&W sound are very positive. Both models will be available this month. The +934 will be available in a 55″ and a 65″ screen diagonal, for 2500 and 3500 euros respectively. The +984 will only be made with a 65″ screen and should fetch no less than five thousand euros. So no low prices. In any case, we look forward to being able to view and listen to these new TVs ourselves in our test lab to determine whether they offer value for money.