Last year’s IFA reaffirmed Philips place as a rejuvenated top tier TV brand, with its OLED 903+ one of the definite highlights of the show.
At IFA 2019 in Berlin the Dutch brand formally took the wraps off a pair of successors, as well as a entry-level OLED set.
The new premium TVs both feature speakers developed with British audio specialists Bowers & Wilkins, with the OLED+984 sporting a floating soundbar along with a unique centrally mounted tweeter enclosure nestling above.
Phillips claims the striking top mounted tweeter design on the 65” OLED+984 allows for improved high frequency audio performance, particularly for dialogue, due to its separation from the soundbar’s larger drivers.
Having already snuck into the wild last month when it was awarded the EISA Best Home Theatre TV 2019 award, the OLED+984 is the first Philips set for some time to feature four-sided Ambilight - the illuminating colored lights that create a shimmer behind the screen - thanks to increased space saved by the enhanced audio design.
Lower spec, still impressive
Meanwhile, the OLED+934 is a 2.1.2-specification Dolby Atmos-enabled TV which will come in 55-inch and 65-inch models.
It, too, sports two 5cm upward-firing speakers within its soundbar array, to achieve the enhanced sound quality during playback of Dolby Atmos content.
Both of the new OLED+ sets run on Android 9 Pie operating system and boast Philips' third-generation P5 processing engine, which they claim doubles the processing power of the original P5 CPU, bringing improved noise reduction, sharpness and colour accuracy.
A secret extra
While it wasn’t shown off during the Philips’ main press conference, the company’s new entry-level OLED754 TV was demonstrated to select press.
Coming in 55-inch and 65-inch variants it features built-in Amazon Alexa voice control as well as both Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos support.
Set to go on sale in the UK next week, it runs on the Linux-based Saphi operating system and is powered by an earlier second-generation version of the P5 processor the set.
With the 55-inch set to start at £1,500 (around $1,850 / AU$2700), expect that price to drop when online retailers get their hands on stock.
Alongside the TVs, Philips there were also showing off a new set of wireless headphones from the company’s revitalised audio line, with what it claims is “best-in-class” noise-cancelling.
The new mid-range over-ear PH805’s, boast Bluetooth 5.0 and offer cancellation up to 27dB, blocking out up to 95% of background sounds according to the manufacturer.
