Philips Ambilight PUS8108: 55 inches Philips - Review 🏆

Philips has been a leader in innovative television technology for decades. One of their signature innovations is Ambilight, which was first introduced in 2004. Ambilight uses LED lighting around the edges of the TV to project color onto the wall behind, creating an immersive viewing experience. The lighting adapts in real-time to match the colors and brightness on the TV screen.

Ambilight helps reduce eye strain by decreasing contrast between the bright TV and the surrounding room. It also creates a more cinematic and captivating viewing environment. Philips has continued to refine Ambilight over the years, with the PUS8108 model representing their latest generation. This 55-inch 4K LED TV combines stunning picture quality with Ambilight's ambient lighting effects. Keep reading to learn more about the display, smart features, audio, and overall performance of this premium Philips TV.

Design

The Philips 55PUS8108 has an attractive design with thin bezels around the display and a sturdy stand. The bezels are just a few millimeters thick, allowing for an immersive viewing experience and multi-screen setup potential.

Despite the thin bezels, the TV doesn't feel flimsy or poorly made. The stand has a brushed metal finish and feels very sturdy, with wide feet placed at the edges for stability. The TV is easy to set up and has some tilt adjustment options.

Overall, the design is modern and minimalist with a premium feel. The thin bezels and metal stand make this 55-inch TV look great in any living room or home theater setup.

If you are looking for a smaller TV with equally striking design elements, consider the Philips Ambilight PFS6908: 32 inches. This 32-inch model features Philips' innovative Ambilight technology, which projects lighting effects on the wall behind the TV, expanding the viewing experience. It also has a sleek design with thin bezels and a sturdy stand, ensuring it fits stylishly into any space while maintaining stability.

Display Quality

The Philips 55PUS8108 has an excellent display quality that delivers a superb viewing experience. It features a 55-inch 4K UHD screen with 3840 x 2160 pixel resolution, providing four times the detail of Full HD.

The 4K resolution displays content with incredible clarity and sharpness. Fine details in images and videos really stand out. Textures look more true to life. You'll be able to see every blade of grass, leaf, hair strand, and more. Even up close, the image remains pin sharp.

In addition, this TV supports High Dynamic Range or HDR10+. With a much wider color gamut and higher contrast range, HDR10+ content appears strikingly vivid and lifelike. Bright highlights are brighter, shadows are deeper. Colors are more nuanced and accurate. HDR10+ brings out details you can't see on standard screens.

To deliver smooth, fluid motion, the 55PUS8108 has a native refresh rate of 60Hz. Fast action scenes in movies, sports, and games play out seamlessly without motion blur or judder. Overall, the display quality enables an immersive viewing experience whether you're watching movies, playing games, or streaming content.

The Philips Ambilight PUS8108 also comes in a 65-inch variant that retains the same excellent quality and features. This larger model expands your viewing area and further enhances your visual experience. If you're interested in exploring this option, check out the Philips Ambilight PUS8108: 65 inches.

Smart Features

The Philips PUS8108 comes with some great smart features that make controlling and using the TV a breeze. One of the highlights is the built-in Alexa and Google Assistant support. With either voice assistant, you can use voice commands to control basic TV functions like turning it on or off, changing the volume, switching inputs, launching apps, and more.

Having both Alexa and Google Assistant built-in gives you flexibility to choose your preferred voice assistant. And it allows you to take advantage of Alexa skills and Google Assistant actions to extend the voice control capabilities. For example, you can ask Alexa or Google to provide a weather report, control your smart home devices, set reminders, play music, and much more.

The TV also has support for both Alexa and Google Assistant devices. So you can use an Amazon Echo or Google Nest speaker to control the Philips TV with your voice even when you aren't directly in front of the TV. This hands-free voice control can be extremely convenient for basic commands.

Overall, the addition of Alexa and Google Assistant makes controlling and interacting with the Philips PUS8108 much more intuitive and seamless. It's a great smart feature that adds a lot of value on top of the 4K and HDR performance.

Audio Quality

The Philips PUS8108 Ambilight TV delivers an immersive audio experience thanks to its two 10W speakers with Dolby Atmos support. Dolby Atmos enables the TV to produce multi-dimensional sound with height effects, creating a cinematic listening experience. The total 20W speaker output provides plenty of power and volume for both TV shows and movies.

Dialogue comes through clearly and crisply, while action sequences and sound effects have punch and impact. The speakers can fill a medium to large room without distortion at higher volumes. Effects like rain, wind and explosions have directionality and travel around the room. Overall the speakers provide a balanced sound profile that complements what's happening on screen.

For more demanding audio, the TV has an audio output so you can connect it to a soundbar or speaker system. But the integrated 20W Dolby Atmos speakers will be sufficient for most living room setups. The sound matches the impressive 4K HDR picture quality.

Picture Processing

The Philips 55PUS8108 features Philips' P5 Perfect Picture engine, designed to deliver a high-quality viewing experience. The P5 chip works in several key ways:

• Precision detail - Advanced algorithms help boost sharpness and enhance details in both dark and bright areas of the picture. This allows you to see subtle details that would otherwise be lost.

• Vibrant colors - The TV analyzes color, saturation, and contrast to make colors appear more vivid and natural. Skin tones also look more lifelike.

• Depth enhancement - Creates a greater sense of depth by separating foreground from background. This gives the picture added layers and dimensionality.

• Motion processing - Reduces blur and judder for smoother motion, especially beneficial for fast-action content like sports. The P5 engine inserts additional frames for fluid, artifact-free movement.

• Contrast enhancement - Optimizes contrast by individually adjusting it across different areas of the screen. Dark sections are deepened while bright areas remain detailed.

Overall, the P5 Perfect Picture engine utilizes advanced processing to deliver a dynamic and immersive viewing experience. The picture quality is sharp, detailed, smooth, and full of depth. It's a key factor that sets this Philips TV apart from competitors.

Ambilight

One of the most unique features of Philips TVs is Ambilight, which provides immersive ambient lighting effects that extend the action on the screen onto the surrounding wall. It uses LEDs around the edges of the TV to project color onto the wall behind, creating an extra wide glow that matches the content being viewed.

For the Philips Ambilight PUS8108, the technology is taken even further with Ambilight 3 sides, which extends the lighting to the top and sides of the TV for a more enveloping effect. The colors are vibrant and really help make whatever you're watching feel more immersive and cinematic. It's especially effective when watching movies or playing games where the colors dynamically change to match explosions, landscapes, and other on-screen action.

Some people may find Ambilight distracting at first, but most get used to it quickly and end up loving the almost theatrical experience it provides. It can reduce eye strain as well by giving your eyes and brain more surrounding visual information instead of just the bright TV screen. Overall Ambilight is a fun, futuristic feature that really sets Philips TVs apart.

Connectivity

The Philips PUS8108 has good connectivity options. It includes 3 HDMI ports, enabling you to connect multiple devices like a Blu-ray player, gaming console, or set-top box. The HDMI ports support HDMI 2.0 with HDCP 2.2, allowing you to enjoy 4K video at up to 60Hz.

For USB connectivity, the TV has 2 USB ports. You can use the USB ports to play media files stored on USB drives, or connect devices like a webcam. The USB ports are USB 2.0, which is adequate for most uses.

Overall, the connectivity options on the Philips PUS8108 are sufficient for most home entertainment needs. With multiple HDMI inputs and USB ports, you'll be able to hook up your devices and access their content on the TV without any issues. The HDMI 2.0 and HDCP 2.2 support ensures you can view 4K HDR content, which is great for future-proofing.

Pros

The Philips Ambilight PUS8108 has several standout features that make it a compelling 4K TV option.

First and foremost is the excellent picture quality, thanks to Philips' P5 Perfect Picture processing engine. It delivers vibrant, natural looking colors and crisp detail. The 4K resolution and HDR10+ support ensure you get the most out of 4K and HDR content. Viewing angles are also very good, so the picture retains accuracy even when viewing from the side.

Of course, one of the most unique aspects is Ambilight. This technology projects colored light onto the wall behind the TV that matches what's on screen. It creates an immersive viewing experience and reduces eye strain. While it may seem gimmicky, Ambilight really enhances movies, games, and other content.

Overall, the PUS8108 provides a stellar viewing experience, especially for the price. Between the great picture, Ambilight immersion, and smart features, it hits all the right notes for a mid-range 4K TV.

Cons

While the Philips Ambilight PUS8108 has many great features, there are a couple of drawbacks to consider.

• Only 60Hz refresh rate - This TV has a native refresh rate of 60Hz, which is typical for most 4K TVs in this price range. However, a higher 120Hz refresh rate can provide smoother motion and better performance for gaming and sports. The 60Hz refresh rate may result in some motion blur during fast action scenes.

• Lacks local dimming - Local dimming allows the TV to dim just parts of the backlight behind dark areas of the screen image. This improves the contrast ratio and black level performance. Unfortunately, the PUS8108 does not include local dimming, so the contrast is not as strong compared to higher-end 4K TVs with this feature. The lack of local dimming means blacks may look more gray in some dark scene content.