Televisions

Size does matter. Both my wife and the Swedish au pair tell me this constantly, particularly when it comes to our home cinema.

While there’s no doubt that we’re hurtling towards a 4K/UHD TV future, we’re not quite there yet. Much as we might love 4K, there are still a huge amount of living rooms, bedrooms, kitchens and studies across the UK where 4K is either not wanted, not needed or not affordable. So it’s good to know there are Full HD sets like this Philips that still care about picture quality.

Philips can usually be depended on to deliver a genuine innovation or two with every new range of TVs. But this year it’s outdone itself by introducing the first commercially-released TV equipped with a Moth Eye filter. The TV in question is the 46PFL9706T. And so unique is it that not even the larger model from the same range, the 52PFL9706T, benefits from the same tech.

You might be forgiven for expecting smallscreen OLED TVs to be a budget punt, stripped of extraneous frippery in order to better bring OLED technology to the mainstream. But there's no sense of any such cost-cutting compromise with this Philips, which uses the new smaller panel for a downsized version of its flagship 935 model, complete with Bowers and Wilkins sound system. Is this move inspired or a marketing misstep?

If there was any doubt that Philips is one of the most innovative TV brands at work today, it’s been emphatically eradicated by the first two TVs we’ve seen from the brand’s belated 2011/202 range. First there was the 46PFL9706T, which used its Moth-Eye filter to deliver class-leading black level response. And now we have the 50PFL7956H, otherwise known as the Cinema 21:9 Gold: the brand’s first TV to combine its super-wide, film-friendly 21:9 aspect ratio with passive 3D technology.