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Overall, ease of use is not a strong area for the Philips 42PFL6007T, chiefly because of the way Philips has opted to put so many elements of its picture processing engine at your disposal.
The reasoning behind this level of flexibility is sound, of course. But it does make for some intimidating on-screen menus, packed with features and adjustments that you really do need to familiarise yourself with if you want to constantly get the best out of the TV's picture quality.
It doesn't help that the menus are slightly sluggish to respond to your remote control commands, and follow a rather cumbersome, text-heavy structure.
We also have a problem with the on-screen interface for the smart TV service. Because despite being engagingly graphics-rich, it tends to waste rather a lot of the available screen real estate, and so doesn't present many link points on the screen at once.
This isn't too serious an issue right now, given Philips' limited content levels. But the interface will surely start to feel cumbersome as content levels (hopefully) increase.
The one saving grace in the Philips 42PFL6007T's operating system is its remote control, which does a surprisingly efficient and straightforward job of helping you get to all the features on offer.
Please note, though, that the Philips 42PFL6007T does not feature the full QWERTY keyboard on its rear (to help you input text into the web browser and social media apps) that you get with televisions higher up Philips' range.
Sound
First, the bad news. The Philips 42PFL6007T doesn't have either the power or audio range delivered by sets higher up Philips' current range.
Its bass levels, in particular, fall short of those you can get from the likes of the PFL6907 and, especially, PFL7007T, PFL8007T and PFL9707T models.
However, these other TVs cost more (substantially more, in some cases) and produce some of the very best TV audio we've heard.
Considered more fairly against other sets at its own kind of price level, the Philips 42PFL6007T's audio is actually rather good, sounding well rounded, clean and reasonably detailed.
Value
When you've got the likes of Samsung and LG combining more advanced online services with mostly impressive picture quality for the same sort of money as the Philips 42PFL6007T, you might think the Philips model could struggle to justify its price.
However, the Philips 42PFL6007T's unique Ambilight system together with its quite specific but winning combination of picture strengths mean that it has enough individual attractions to comfortably justify its price.
