Philips Ambilight PUS8108: 50 inches Philips - Review 🏆

Philips has been a leader in the consumer electronics industry for decades, particularly when it comes to televisions. The company is known for innovation, especially with its Ambilight technology that projects colorful lighting onto the wall behind the TV to match what's on the screen. This creates an immersive viewing experience.

The Philips PUS8108 is a 2022 model that delivers on the quality and innovation the brand is known for. It's a 50-inch 4K LED TV with HDR10+ support and Philips' P5 Perfect Picture Engine. The Ambilight feature is of course included to make movies and shows pop. Overall, the PUS8108 aims to provide an excellent viewing experience with crisp visuals and smart features.

Design and Features

The Philips Ambilight PUS8108 has an elegant and minimalist design with thin bezels around the display. At just 50mm thick, the TV has a very slim profile that will blend nicely into modern decor.

The 3-sided Ambilight feature projects colored lights onto the wall behind the TV that correspond with what's on the screen. This creates an immersive viewing experience and reduces eye strain. There are several Ambilight styles to choose from like Follow Video, Follow Audio, Lounge Light, etc.

The TV has a premium metal frame with brushed finished legs that provide stability while maintaining the slim aesthetics. Cable management is tidy with all connections pointing downwards into a channel.

For those seeking an even larger option, the Philips Ambilight PUS8508: 65 inches offers a grander experience with the same sophisticated features. This model enhances the Ambilight experience with wider coverage and superior resolution, delivering breathtaking visuals. You can find more details here: Philips Ambilight PUS8508: 65 inches.

Display Quality

The Philips Ambilight PUS8108 boasts a 50-inch LED display with 4K Ultra HD resolution and support for High Dynamic Range (HDR). The 4K resolution provides stunning picture clarity with over 8 million pixels on screen. This allows you to see even the finest details in your content with incredible depth and realism.

The TV is compatible with HDR10 and HDR10+ formats, which significantly expands the color gamut and contrast range. HDR content looks incredibly vibrant, with highlights that really pop and an expanded range of shadow details. Dark scenes appear deeper and richer, while bright imagery seems to jump right off the screen. You'll be able to see nuances in shading and lighting that you can't get from standard dynamic range. Overall, the combination of 4K resolution and HDR support results in an immersive viewing experience.

For more detailed information, check out the Philips 50 Inch Smart TV 4K: 50 inches. This model also features Smart TV capabilities, providing you with access to a wide array of streaming services and applications. Its 50-inch screen size makes it perfect for medium to large-sized living rooms, ensuring everyone gets a clear, crisp view. Enjoy seamless connectivity and user-friendly interface for an enhanced viewing experience.

Smart TV Features

The Philips Ambilight PUS8108 comes packed with smart features to enhance your TV viewing experience. It runs on Android TV, giving you access to a wide range of apps and services through the Google Play store. Whether you want to stream movies and shows from Netflix, listen to music on Spotify, or play games, you'll find an app for it.

For convenient hands-free control, the TV has both Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa built-in. You can use your voice to search for content, launch apps, change settings, and more. The far-field microphones allow you to issue voice commands to the TV from across the room. This makes navigating through the smart TV interface quick and seamless.

With Chromecast built-in, you can easily cast photos, videos, and apps from compatible mobile devices onto the big screen. The TV also works with Apple AirPlay 2, allowing you to stream content directly from Apple devices.

Overall, the smart capabilities on the Philips Ambilight PUS8108 open up a whole world of entertainment options that can be accessed just through your voice. It brings the convenience of smart assistants and a wide selection of apps straight to your living room.

Audio Quality

The Philips 50PUS8108/12 offers an immersive audio experience thanks to Dolby Atmos support. The built-in 2.0 channel speakers deliver a total output of 20W, providing decent volume levels to fill a medium to large room.

Dolby Atmos enables surround sound audio that seems to come at you from all directions, including overhead, for a cinematic experience. It takes advantage of the upward-firing speakers to create a taller and immersive soundstage. The audio has good clarity with clear dialogue and reasonable bass.

While the 20W speakers provide ample loudness, the sound quality itself is just average and lacks richness. The bass is present but somewhat hollow and diffuse. The mids and highs also lack detail and nuance compared to higher-end speakers.

For more demanding users, the TV supports various audio out options like optical, HDMI ARC, and Bluetooth that allow connecting it to a dedicated home theater system or soundbar for a major audio upgrade.

Overall, the Dolby Atmos support adds an immersive dimension to the audio for casual TV watching and streaming. But audiophiles will likely want to pair the TV with a more powerful external speaker system.

Gaming Performance

The Philips 50PUS8108 offers decent gaming performance for a mid-range 4K TV. It has a low input lag of around 15ms when gaming in 4K at 60Hz, which is good enough for casual gaming. The input lag increases slightly to 21ms at 4K 120Hz.

While the input lag is not as fast as dedicated gaming TVs, it should be responsive enough for most casual gamers. The Ambilight feature can also add immersion when gaming by projecting colors onto the wall behind.

For features, the TV has HDMI 2.1 ports which allow gaming in 4K 120fps. Auto Low Latency Mode also automatically switches the TV into a low latency setting when detecting a game console. Additionally, it supports major gaming technologies like AMD FreeSync Premium and Nvidia G-Sync for smoother variable refresh rate gaming.

Overall, the Philips 50PUS8108 provides a solid gaming experience for most users. While serious competitive gamers may want an even faster gaming TV, the input lag and gaming features are quite good for the price. Casual gamers should be satisfied with the smooth 4K 60Hz gameplay and immersive Ambilight lighting.

Ease of Use

The Philips Ambilight PUS8108 has an easy to use and intuitive interface. The sleek remote control is comfortable to hold with well laid out buttons that make navigating through menus a breeze.

The settings menu is well organized and allows for quick adjustments to picture, sound, Ambilight settings, wireless & networks, channels, parental controls and more. Key settings like picture mode, aspect ratio, brightness, contrast etc can be accessed directly via dedicated buttons on the remote.

Switching between inputs and apps is quick thanks to the quad-core processor. The built-in voice assistants like Google Assistant and Alexa allow for handsfree control over TV functions through voice commands.

Overall, the Ambilight PUS8108 offers effortless usability for accessing all the features and customizing the settings to your preferences. The streamlined menus and functional remote control make operating this TV a pleasant experience.

Connectivity

The Philips PUS8108 offers ample connectivity options to hook up your devices. It has 3 HDMI ports to connect your Blu-ray player, gaming console, or other HDMI-enabled devices. The HDMI ports support HDMI 2.0, HDCP 2.2, and ARC (Audio Return Channel) on HDMI 1.

For USB connectivity, it has 2 USB ports - 1 USB 2.0 and 1 USB 3.0. The USB ports allow you to play media files directly from your USB drives. You can play videos, music, and view photos. The USB 3.0 port provides faster transfer speeds if you want to play large 4K video files smoothly.

Overall, the connectivity options are quite good for a mid-range 4K TV. The 3 HDMI ports and dual USB ports should be sufficient for most users to hook up their external devices and play multimedia content.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• Immersive Ambilight feature creates an engaging viewing experience by projecting ambient lighting onto the wall behind the TV.

• Excellent 4K Ultra HD resolution and HDR10+ support delivers stunning picture quality with vivid colors and deep blacks.

• P5 Perfect Picture Engine provides intelligent upscaling and processing for sharp, detailed images.

• Built-in Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa allows hands-free voice control.

• Runs on Android TV interface for easy access to apps, games, and streaming services.

• Decent 20W speaker system with Dolby Atmos provides an immersive sound experience.

Cons

• Only 60Hz refresh rate, may not be ideal for fast-paced gaming.

• Limited viewing angles compared to LED/LCD TVs.

• Mediocre black levels and contrast due to IPS panel.

• Lacks advanced gaming features like VRR and ALLM.

• Audio quality is decent but lacks bass. External soundbar recommended for serious home theater setup.

• Some reports of software being buggy or slow at times.

Conclusion

The Philips 50PUS8108 is an impressive mid-range 4K LED TV that offers excellent features and performance for the price. Its Ambilight technology creates an immersive viewing experience by projecting colored light onto the wall behind. The picture quality is very good thanks to Philips' P5 Perfect Picture engine, with excellent 4K clarity, realistic colors, deep blacks and good brightness. Motion handling is also solid.

For smart features, the Android TV interface is intuitive and offers access to a wide variety of apps. Gaming connectivity is also good with low input lag. The 20W speaker system provides decent audio quality. Connectivity options like HDMI ARC, USB, and Bluetooth are readily available.

Considering the price, the Philips 50PUS8108 delivers premium features like Ambilight, Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos support. It's an excellent option for buyers looking for a future-ready 4K TV with good all-round performance without breaking the bank. Unless you need more advanced gaming features, this Philips model is easy to recommend for mixed usage including movies, streaming and gaming.