Ambilitating proves to be very effective in increasing the viewing experience.
Written by Ali Pardiwala, Updated: 11 September 2022 09:59 IST
Special things
This is the standard Ultra HD LED TV of the company's Ambilite 7900 series
The TV looks similar to a modern budget TV or mid range TV
The TV is provided with an Ultra HD (3840x2160 pixels) screen
Televisions are mostly made for their main work. These have less to do with design and beauty. But from time to time we are seeing very attractive and shiny things in it. One of these is Philips' Ambilite technology, which interestingly and surprisingly enhances the viewing experience, especially in dark rooms, where LEDs can shine correctly behind the TV. Philips' latest television brings this concept to a bigger level in India, that too with more affordable prices than ever before.
55 inches of Philips 55PUT7906The/94 variant comes for Rs 99,990 which is a standard Ultra HD LED TV from the company's Ambilite 7900 series. It has amblyte LED lighting on three sides. There is also Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos support. It runs on Android TV operating system. Is this the most interesting TV in India for Rs 1 lakh, which you can buy? Let us find out in this review.
Design and Snapsifications of Phnyliptus Ambilite 7900 Series 55 Inch Alntra HD LED Android TV (55PUT7906/94)
TVs from Philips Ambilight 7900 Series come in three sizes which include 55 inch, 65 inch and 75 inch TVs. Their price goes from Rs 99,990 to Rs 1,89,990. All three TVs have similar specifications and features, including three side ambilite LED lighting on the back side of the TV.
From the front and rear, this TV looks similar to a modern budget TV or mid range TV. The borders around the screen are slim, the bottom also has a logo, module for IR receiver, indicator light and a multi-function physical button to control power and volume.
The TV is a little thick but slim at the edges, which provides easy access to left-sided ports even after hanging on the wall. The 55 inch variant weighs 14.2 kg without a stand. It is compatible with VESA wall mount which is not found in the box. The box has a table stand which can be fixed near the corners of the TV. This means you will need a large table to hold the TV.
Philips Ambilight 7900 Series TV looks like a simple TV at first glance from outside, but when you turn on the TV, its main features come out. LED lights are provided in the TV frame which are installed on the left, top and right sides. They spread colorful lights on the wall behind the TV. These lights are quite bright, due to which even if the TV is placed on the table, they spread a lot of light on the back of the wall.
Most of the ports of Philips Ambilight 7900 Series 55 inch TVs are provided at the back in a rectangular niche with the mouth facing downwards. This means that before installing the TV on the wall, you will have to make most of the connections in advance. Ports on the back include Digital Audio-Out (TossLink), a USB Type-A port, RJ45 Ethernet port, antennal sockets, and three HDMI ports.
Left side ports are quite easy to access, even if the TV is wall hung. These include an HDMI port (with ARC support), a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a USB Type-A port. The company has acted wisely by providing ARC enabled port on the side.
Philips Ambilight 55PUT7906/94 LED TV is provided with an Ultra HD (3840x2160 pixels) screen. It has support for HLG, HDR10, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision in the high dynamic range. The TV for Sound features two full-range bottom-firing speakers, with a total sound output of 20W, and support for various audio formats up to Dolby Atmos. The TV is provided with Bluetooth 5 and dual-band Wi-Fi connectivity. There is 8GB of internal storage for apps and app data, as well as a quad-core processor to power software and interfaces that have not been spacified.
Phylips Ambilite 7900 Series 55 Inch Alntra HD LED Android TV (55PUT7906/94) Remote & Features
The company has given a full size remote along with the TV which is a little bigger as per the need. To control navigation on the remote, buttons, playback control, input selection and a classic number pad are provided. Hot keys are given for Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Google Play, and YouTube, as well as Google Assistant. Microphone for voice commands is also available in the remote.
An info button is provided on the remote which tells the resolution and internet speed. Apart from this, Ambilite button is also available through which Ambilite menu can be reached quickly and Ambilite effects can be turned off or on, as well as settings can be modified.
Initially the remote worked correctly. But after a few weeks I found that only doing it in front of the IR receiver was it working. It only happened within one night while it was working properly on its first day. Replacing the battery and resetting the TV also did not improve. Bluetooth connectivity was working only for Google Assistant. Surprisingly, after a few days the remote started working properly again, so it was very important to mention this problem here.
Other than Ambilite Philips 55PUT7906/94 TV is quite simple in terms of features. The TV has built in cromcast for content casting and Google Assistant for voice commands.
Phylips Ambilite 7900 Series 55 Inch Alntra HD LED Android TV (55PUT7906/94) Software & Interface
Philips Ambilight 7900 Series 55 inch LED TV runs on Android TV, 10 OS. It sounds a bit like Google TV. It has the same main encryption as other Android TVs. The TV has access to the Google Play store which has more than 7000 apps and games.
Apps like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Youtube are found already installed in TV. On the basis of these, TV also makes content recommendations. It may be a step behind Google TV UI but the stock Android TV user interface is also a good option.
Apart from the problem with the remote, I found its user interface performance lacking at some places. There was a slight delay in reaction while navigating in the UI, which was also visible in the picture as lag. It was a good thing that I did not face such problems while playing real content, but I found it much easier and more convenient to switch to Cromcast with Google TV.
Performance of the Phylips Ambilite 7900 Series 55 inch Alnatra HD LED Android TV (55PUT7906/94)
Nowadays Quantum Dot or OLED TVs are available for less than Rs 1 lakh. It seems crazy to spend so much money for Philips Ambilight 7900 Series 55-inch LED TV. However, the amblyte effect is quite unique in itself. Brands like Covey and Philips now provide solutions to setup LED lighting in TVs even after purchasing. Nevertheless, the company's Ambilite feature is easy to use, and controlling it through a TV remote also makes it special. But, I wonder if embellishing alone is enough to make it premium?
The TV has an Ultra HD resolution LED screen with HDR support up to Dolby Vision. Performance is quite good with high quality content. The picture looks as sharp as it can be. But it has some flaws that I can't expect in a Rs 1 lakh TV.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse would be right to start telling about it. Bright colors were visible while watching the movie and trippy comic book style visuals were looking good. It was fun watching this movie on TV with Ambilite function and I was not disappointed.
The work that Ambilight did with the film was quite impressive. Due to the bright lights running behind the TV with the bright colors seen on the screen, I was feeling the picture bigger and more vibrant than the original. Ambilite Effect was able to read colors rapidly on the edges of the screen and flow with the screen, which was enjoying the colorful content running fast.
Ambilight couldn't do much with Better Call Saul's monochrom scenes and muted colors. Here it felt better to switch it off. I found that the effect looked better when the amblytes were falling on the white wall. The effect on the textured blue wall was decreasing.
It is easy to control Ambilite settings on TV which is a good thing. Presets have also been given for this so that you can control its intensity. When set in longe luting, it has lighting in a single color. The picture was quite sharp in Into The Spider-Verse. The picture in Masaba Masaba was also quite colorful and bright. The colors looked good but were no punchy at all compared to the cheaper Xiaomi OLED Vision TV.
The backlighting of the display was giving whitewash effect in the dark scene due to which the blacks looked dark grey. Such performance can be expected from an affordable LED TV, so I was disappointed with this TV here. The Philips Ambilight 7900 Series TV is quite bright, thanks to its LED display. Because of this, it can be easily seen even in rooms with very high light. In such a situation, if the light in the room is reduced even by dropping the curtains, then the picture starts looking very good. TVs like Hisense 55U6 G over here are brighter than this as well as cheaper.
HDR support is provided in TV till Dolby Vision, but TV does not get much benefit from it. When switching to HDR, there is only a slight improvement in brightness and colors compared to SDR content. It wasn't the same as seen in other televisions including the Sony X75K, which performs well even with only HDR10 capability.
TV upscales low resolution content correctly. HD and FullHD movies and TV shows look good in terms of sharpness on it. There is no problem with motion, color and contrast. The sound quality of TV cannot be called amazing, but it is also not bad. The 20 W speakers perform slightly lower than expected. TV sound is enough for small rooms. In a big room the volume has to be increased. Dolby Atmos doesn't improve the sound very much. Overall the sound experience can be said to be fine.
Our decision
Philips Ambilight 7900 series LED TV is quite unique. You can buy it because of its Amblite system. It may seem unnecessary in the beginning but it proves to be very effective in increasing the viewing experience. However, just the lighting effect doesn't do full justice for the Rs 99,990 price.
Talking about performance, TV performs like Price's TV of 60 thousand or so. Including the company's own 8100 series 55-inch TV. Black level seems to decrease. Even overall brightness does not accomplish this. At the same time, some strange problems also came to light with the remote.
If Ambilite System is the most exciting for you then you can think of buying this TV. It works really well and definitely adds to the entertainment the customer wants on TV. If you don't have much to do with Ambilite, you can watch Xiaomi OLED Vision TV, which is available as a much better option than Philips TV for the same price.
