Televisions

We don’t often review different screen sizes from the same TV range. Yet here we’re making an exception 
for Philips' 77OLED807, a monster OLED whose 
screen measures – as you can probably guess – 
77in from corner to corner.

This is a whole 22in more than the 55in 55OLED807 we looked at previously – enough to remind us that something magical happens when you get a screen above 70in or thereabouts. This is where you feel like you’ve crossed from merely watching TV to enjoying a genuine 'home cinema' experience, and might have you wondering why anyone bothers with a projector and 
screen combination.

That's not meant to throw shade on the 55OLED807, which remains an outstanding mid-sized OLED option. 
It’s just that if the 77OLED807 can take the smaller model's quality to a display nearly twice as big, it could give your home cinema habit a whole new dimension.

The set's gigantic proportions give Philips’ unique approach to design more room to shine – literally, when it comes to Ambilight. This long-running exclusive technology places LEDs around the TV’s rear edges, casting coloured light out onto the wall around it. Ambilight can track the content of the onscreen picture in terms of both the hue and position of the colour ‘halo’, expanding the viewing experience even further than the 77in picture.

Basically, the 77OLED807 is much more capable than the 55in version of filling your field of view – and then some, thanks to its XL Ambilight array.

Keeping it slim
It's an elegant-looking telly too, the ultra-thin frame around the screen feeling even more impressive at this scale than 
it does on the 55OLED807, as does the remarkable skinniness of the main screen at its outer edges. Something so thin supporting such a huge chunk of glass feels even more contrary to the rules of physics.

As you’d expect, the 77OLED807 sports exactly the same feature count as the 55in version, including four main feature highlights beyond the Ambilight system. First, its panel is one of the latest EX types, capable of delivering 
as much as 30 per more brightness than ‘regular’ OLED screens. This amounts to just under 900 nits of peak light output on a 10 per cent white HDR window, according to my measurements.

Two of its four HDMI ports can handle 4K at 120Hz, variable refresh rates (including the NVidia G-Sync and AMD Freesync systems) and Auto Low Latency Mode switching features. The 77OLED807 also gets input lag down to a good, though not class-leading, 15.1ms.

The TV also supports all four key HDR formats (HDR10, HLG, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision), so will retrieve the absolute best quality possible from any source you feed it.

Finally, its pictures are powered by the sixth-generation version of Philips’ P5 engine. Designed to apply multiple processing enhancements to what Philips sees as the five main pillars of TV picture quality (colour, contrast, sharpness, motion and source detection), P5 Gen 6 introduces new colour optimisation features; a new AI Auto Film mode for better detection and playback of movie sources; and Ambient Intelligence, which takes a more sophisticated approach to optimising pictures to suit your ambient room conditions.

Smart features are provided by the Android TV OS. In conjunction with a provided Freeview Play app, this covers a huge range of apps and streaming services, but can be a bit buggy and inconsistent with its app feature support. The whole-screen home page also lacks customisation options.

Starry-eyed
Stretching the OLED807’s impressive picture talents 
to 77in only exaggerates their quality. The impeccable contrast remains undiminished, as deep, neutral black colours occupy screen space alongside intense HDR highlights. The small stars and large, ultra-bright spaceships found in 2001: A Space Odyssey (4K Blu-ray) stand proud of their black backdrops, creating some wonderfully dynamic images – particularly because the 77OLED807 continues Philips’ trick of seemingly being able to briefly overdrive very small picture areas to give bright highlights a real boost.

The way each pixel of an OLED screen can produce its own light guarantees the TV's HDR highlights are delivered without compromising the black level depth or colour tone of the pixels around them, and there’s no instability in the screen’s baseline brightness.

There’s noticeably more shadow detail in the darkest corners of 2001...'s space environments with the 77OLED807 than there was with its 806 predecessor. 
This comes from the EX panel’s extra brightness capabilities and, I suspect, improved HDR tone-mapping. The new panel also engineers brighter fullscreen HDR images, such as those on show during Bowman’s ‘visions’ 
in the latter stages of Kubrick's film. This makes for a more satisfying HDR experience, and helps bring out nuance and vibrancy from the restored colour palette.

Presets with punch
There's an eye-catching potency to the imagery here, especially using one of the TV's relatively aggressive picture presets. The good news is these are much less likely to generate unwanted noise or colour imbalances than on Philips sets of yesteryear. In fact, even the new Crystal Clear preset (which replaces Vivid) is consistent enough to be very watchable, and gives you the best look at all the 77OLED807’s many picture enhancement features. You can, of course, opt for a third-party setting devoted to accuracy, including the UHD Alliance-inspired Filmmaker Mode, IMAX Enhanced, and Dolby Vision HDR.

Interestingly, Philips’ knack for bringing out the sharpness of 4K material is even more obvious on this 77in OLED807 model than on the 55-incher, despite the smaller screen’s extra pixel density. And with motion processing options including settings that do an outstanding job of gently smoothing motion judder and reducing blur without generating the 'soap opera effect' or flickering glitches, this sharpness can be always on show.

The varied colour range in 2001... goes from expanses 
of pure bright whites to ultra-rich reds, blues and yellows 
at the drop of a hat, something this TV handles with impressive conviction and aggression. In fact, the only complaints about the 77OLED807’s pictures more or less mirror those found with the 55OLED807.

So, for instance, new AI Ambient Modes dim the picture in dark rooms too much to be useful, and should ideally be switched off. The TV only delivers half resolution when gaming in 4K/120 unless you choose the Monitor preset rather than just the Game mode. Furthermore, while out-of-the-box settings are better balanced than on the previous generation, the 77OLED807 is still over-eager with its default noise reduction and motion smoothing features with some of the otherwise most engaging presets, requiring you to delve into its long-winded setup menus.

Sound-wise, Philips has put in some real effort with the 77OLED807. Its 2.1 speaker config gets a claimed 70W of amplification, and this power is used to create a dynamic sound with good detailing and a large soundstage. Bass is reasonably present with chunky, modern action movie mixes. But a screen this size warrants an external system.

Dream come true
Overall, Philips' 77OLED807 does exactly as we’d hoped, giving us all the good things that make the 55OLED807 such a winner, but on a much more cinematic scale. Anyone wanting to go large on their 4K HDR experience should have it on their wishlist!

HCC Verdict: 5/5

Philips 77OLED807
Price: £3,499 
www.philips.co.uk

We say: The 77OLED807 gives you all the picture and sound quality of the award-winning 55OLED807, but at a much more immersive, movie-friendly size.

Specifications

4K: Yes. 3,840 x 2,160 HDR: Yes. HDR10; HLG; HDR10+; Dolby Vision TUNER: Yes. Freeview HD; satellite HD CONNECTIONS: 4 x HDMI; 3 x USB; Ethernet; headphone output; optical digital audio output 4K/120 PLAYBACK: Yes SOUND (CLAIMED): 70W BRIGHTNESS (CLAIMED): N/A Contrast: N/A DIMENSIONS (OFF STAND): 1,723(w) x 987(h) x 78.6(d)mm WEIGHT (OFF STAND): 35.8kg

FEATURES:P5 Gen 6 processing engine; Wi-Fi; Bluetooth; USB multimedia playback; 4K/120Hz gaming support; VRR incl. Nvidia G-Sync and AMD Freesync Premium; Dolby Vision Game mode; four-sided Ambilight system; eARC; ALLM; Dolby Atmos sound decoding; Android smarts; Calman Ready; HDMI 2.1 on two inputs