TechTvsI tried the future of TV – Philips Ambilight Plus is 2024’s all-new unmissable featureThe Philips OLED 959 features a monolithic design, Ambilight Plus' debut, and a mega Bowers & Wilkins soundsystemWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
TechTvsI tried the future of TV – Philips Ambilight Plus is 2024’s all-new unmissable featureThe Philips OLED 959 features a monolithic design, Ambilight Plus' debut, and a mega Bowers & Wilkins soundsystemWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
The Philips OLED 959 features a monolithic design, Ambilight Plus' debut, and a mega Bowers & Wilkins soundsystem
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Future / Mike Lowe)
(Image credit: Future / Mike Lowe)
The TV landscape is really interesting right now: gone are the days of all major brands launching their latest sets at theConsumer Electronics Showin early January. Instead there’s a staggered launch cycle to see what the future of TV is all about: and after LG andSamsungrevealed their hands atCES 2024– withimpressive wireless OLEDand newanti-reflective QD-OLED, respectively – Philips held back a few weeks before revealing its 2024 range.
But it’s not actually the panel or the brightness or the processing that’s most caught my attention about Philips' forthcoming OLED TVs. It’s Philips Ambilight – the rear-positioned LED lighting technology that expands an on-screen image beyond the panel and onto surrounding surfaces – that sees a real step-up in the 2024 range for a couple of reasons.
(Image credit: Future / Mike Lowe)
(Image credit: Future / Mike Lowe)
At a showcase in Europe earlier this month I was able to get a teaser preview of the forthcoming OLED 909 (pictured above, isn’t it lovely?), which is expected to launch in the summer, and it brings four-sided Ambilight back to the fore – ideal for wall-mounting with all-encompassing lighting surround, which had lacked from the majority of Philips' last-generation range (oddly, as it was more widely available on earlier generations).
While that form of Ambilight is great to see, Philips isn’t stopping there this year: its flagship of flagships, the OLED 959 model – which is due to arrive much later in the year; towards the winter, I’d wager, given its “Q3” launch window – is the very first model to feature Philips' all-new Ambilight Plus.
As its name suggests, Ambilight Plus takes things up a notch. To my eyes it’s much brighter, for starters, but it’s also much more intelligent thanks to being “higher resolution” and “can project up to four different halos at different depths” for a new, more dynamic Ambilight effect. It needs to be seen to be really appreciated though – my gallery of images, included below, goes some way to show off the pronounced halo effect, but in-person viewing makes for a very different experience.
Image1of5(Image credit: Future / Mike Lowe)(Image credit: Future / Mike Lowe)(Image credit: Future / Mike Lowe)(Image credit: Future / Mike Lowe)(Image credit: Future / Mike Lowe)
Image1of5(Image credit: Future / Mike Lowe)(Image credit: Future / Mike Lowe)(Image credit: Future / Mike Lowe)(Image credit: Future / Mike Lowe)(Image credit: Future / Mike Lowe)
Image1of5
(Image credit: Future / Mike Lowe)(Image credit: Future / Mike Lowe)(Image credit: Future / Mike Lowe)(Image credit: Future / Mike Lowe)(Image credit: Future / Mike Lowe)
(Image credit: Future / Mike Lowe)(Image credit: Future / Mike Lowe)(Image credit: Future / Mike Lowe)(Image credit: Future / Mike Lowe)(Image credit: Future / Mike Lowe)
(Image credit: Future / Mike Lowe)
(Image credit: Future / Mike Lowe)
(Image credit: Future / Mike Lowe)
(Image credit: Future / Mike Lowe)
(Image credit: Future / Mike Lowe)
(Image credit: Future / Mike Lowe)
(Image credit: Future / Mike Lowe)
(Image credit: Future / Mike Lowe)
(Image credit: Future / Mike Lowe)
(Image credit: Future / Mike Lowe)
(Image credit: Future / Mike Lowe)
(Image credit: Future / Mike Lowe)
(Image credit: Future / Mike Lowe)
(Image credit: Future / Mike Lowe)
(Image credit: Future / Mike Lowe)
(Image credit: Future / Mike Lowe)
(Image credit: Future / Mike Lowe)
(Image credit: Future / Mike Lowe)
(Image credit: Future / Mike Lowe)
(Image credit: Future / Mike Lowe)
(Image credit: Future / Mike Lowe)
(Image credit: Future / Mike Lowe)
(Image credit: Future / Mike Lowe)
(Image credit: Future / Mike Lowe)
(Image credit: Future / Mike Lowe)
Ambilight Plus' most standout feature for me is the way it can effectively isolate subject movement on-screen and project that around the TV’s frame onto surfaces as if it’s echoing a particular subject. But it does this as if moving one Ambilight projection through another layer of illumination, which is so fast-moving that it’s borderline distracting – but I’m always mesmerised seeing new tech on display.
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At this point it’s worth noting that Ambilight Plus, just like the OLED 959 model, is a long way from finished. Philips was presenting early-stage demos and commented that the final product and level of control would likely differ significantly. But as Philips' standout feature offering compared to other manufacturers’best TVs of the year, I’m excited to see how that unfolds.
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